Millennials have officially outnumbered Boomers and Gen Xers – here’s how to market to them

According to a Pew report out this year, 2015 was the year when Millennials officially outnumbered both Boomers and Gen Xers in sheer volume — which means that if the vast majority of your clients are over the age of 50 years old, you’re not reaching the majority of the population. But how do you court Millennials with marketing?

How to reach Millennials: Get on their level

As a law firm, social media platforms like Snapchat and Vine are probably not ideal uses of your time — it’s just not a good market fit. But Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn definitely could be. Social media marketing can be a good way to ensure that a younger audience sees your firm, interacts and engages with you, learns something from you — and then, ultimately, employs your legal services.

Keeping a law blog that is relevant, interesting, and engaging, and regularly tweeting and sharing the links is a good way to ensure that your content shows up in the feeds of Millennial users.

Try tailoring some of your content, including advertising on social media, toward a younger audience — how can your services be of use to individuals at the early stages of their education, their career, their marriage, or their homeownership? How can you help them navigate lifetime milestones like starting a business, helping their aging parents, or estate planning for their young children?

Think about referrals, not just direct marketing

Of course, marketing to Millennials can be more difficult for some areas of practice; if, for example, your firm specializes in elder law, a younger generation might never be your target demographic.

However, it’s important to remember that not everyone who comes to you as a client is a person who saw your advertisements. Millennials love to share information with their parents, so even if it seems like your area of practice isn’t quite right for social media marketing, consider secondary audiences, like Millennial children or grandchildren who may discover your firm and then refer their parents or grandparents.

Offer Millennials what they want

Whereas you may prefer to do all of your consulting by phone or in person, Millennials tend to like to engage online — and, as Micah Solomon wrote for Forbes at the end of last year, they expect the technology you offer them to work smartly and smoothly. Whether it’s a mobile app or just a website that emphasizes user experience, make sure your online presence is as functional as can be.

Additionally, about half of Millennials report doing their research on potential products and services on their phones, not on a desktop, so a mobile-friendly website is an absolute essential.

Consider hiring younger, too

Millennials are extremely keen about when they’re being marketed to — they’ve grown up being targeted, and have seen plenty of articles just like this one in their Twitter feeds — which means that if you want to reach them, your firm should seem like it values them both as clients and as workers.

Whether it’s hiring a professional to do the creative work for your advertisement (something you should be doing anyway), or actually making a point of hiring young, bright associates to bring new talent into your firm, if Millennials don’t think the people working for you will understand their unique issues and concerns, they’ll find someone who does.

As Millennials come into their own, both personally and financially, their discretionary spending is only going to increase — which means the law firms that are there to offer them the services and experience they want are going to be the ones that win over this large, savvy generation.

Need help developing your law firm’s marketing plan?

We specialize in branding, public relations and online marketing for law firms throughout the Seattle area Our award-winning marketing team at Firm Evolution welcomes the opportunity to assist you. We provide a wide range of marketing and public relations services throughout Seattle, Redmond and Bellevue, Washington. We focus on the needs, goals and differentiating aspects of each law firm client. Our emphasis is on the big picture — leveraging the strengths of the individual attorneys, practice groups and overall firm on all fronts. We work closely with our clients to ensure that all components of their marketing program – from press releases and marketing plans, to website and Internet campaigns – provide a strong foundation for maintaining existing clients and developing new ones. Contact Firm Evolution at 206.321.3220 or with our online contact form to learn more about how we can help your law firm!