You need to know the age of your buyers in order to market to them in the best way. But don't forget the video loving millennials will soon be moving into the top buyer hotspot. Make sure you're ready! Learn about content trends by age, which is part of our series: Free Checklist: How to Run an Inbound Marketing Campaign. Join the #SalesSuperleague.
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Make sure you market content in a way that suits your buyers
Which generation do your buyers fall into? The new generation of millenials (born 1977- 1994 roughly) are slowly edging into the top buyer hotspot. But you, as an automotive business, need to know which generation your buyers fall into so you can market your content to them accordingly.
Younger customers mainly use their mobiles
A massive 68% of 18-24 year olds and 65% of 25-34 year olds use their phone as the primary device for browsing the internet. Whereas 67% of the 55 and older generation use a laptop or computer.
https://blog.hubspot.com/news-trends/content-trends-preferences
As a company you need to optimise your content for the platform your potential buyers use the most.
Younger customers are using Facebook nearly as much as Google for a source of information
Google is changing their experience to cater for younger mobile phone users. Its trying to compete with Facebook whose consumers passively discover content through their facebook newsfeed.
https://blog.hubspot.com/news-trends/content-trends-preferences
The type of content that needs to be developed for Google is very different to that which needs to be developed for Facebook. Facebook content needs to be designed to capture the attention of someone scrolling down the newsfeed. Facebook also plans on becoming an all video platform in the future.
And this brings us neatly to video content..
For brands, video content is becoming much more important.
https://blog.hubspot.com/news-trends/content-trends-global-preferences
Buyers report they are much more likely to pay attention to video content, as long as it engages them. They also want to see much more of it in the future.
https://blog.hubspot.com/news-trends/content-trends-preferences
The age of buyers also has a significant impact on how they prefer their content marketing. Millennials much prefer video and social media marketing, whilst Gen X and Boomers still prefer the more traditional approach of emails, news articles and research.
https://blog.hubspot.com/news-trends/content-trends-preferences
What generation do your ideal buyers fall into? It's vital to know this in order to market to them in the best possible way. But don't forget millennials are aging, so be prepared to shift your marketing method to keep up with current trends.
Video isn't easy, however. As it's new it's hard to measure what works and what doesn't. And it can be expensive and often means you are producing less content. But video is now what blogging was 10 years ago and is worth, at least some, investing in.
As you can see below, across all age groups, branded video content is the most memorable.
https://blog.hubspot.com/news-trends/content-trends-preferencesSo should my Automotive business still use email marketing?
The answer is yes. But depending on your ideal customer age you need to be thinking about a time in the near future when you will have to start reducing email marketing in favour of videos and image based social marketing. Just 22% of young consumers want emails from brands, compared to 68% of Boomers. Looking at it from the other side, 60% of young consumers want to see social images from brands, while only 20% of Boomers felt the same way.
https://blog.hubspot.com/news-trends/content-trends-preferencesUltimately you need to invest in a variety of marketing channels
Currently, there's a big range of preferences for marketing across today's consumers. So although email, blogs and written content are decreasing in popularity, they are still valuable tools. In fact, across all ages, the top channel for finding out about a company is their website. Social media and video marketing are great for increasing brand awareness, but ultimately people still rely on websites to give them the information that they need.
https://blog.hubspot.com/news-trends/content-trends-preferences
So how can you survive the future?
Experiment. Start using video now and learn what works best for your brand. Start using Social media and learn how to make it work for you. Because in 5-10 years millennials will be moving into the top buyer spot and your company needs to be ready. You need to start investing in video content, whilst maintaining tried and true methods that are currently working for your business.
https://blog.hubspot.com/news-trends/content-trends-preferencesJami Oetting, HubSpot's Content Strategy Manager, puts HubSpot's approach to video this way: Video is "about different KPIs and ways of measuring [success]. It's also important to think about how video is used throughout the funnel. Video isn't just a TOFU (top of the funnel) tactic. It can be effective for sales, customer onboarding, driving loyalty, etc. So learning how to measure video's influence and how to create effective video is key. It's also a challenge from a skill perspective for teams."
Make sure your company is in the best position to tap into a growing number of video watchers.
To learn more about content trends, start with our Free Checklist: How to Run an Inbound Marketing Campaign.
Thank you HubSpot for providing graphics and research.
You might also be interested in…
Our blog series for Automotive companies on Business Growth, How to use HubSpot, and Website design, our podcasts on iTunes and Soundcloud, and our videos on YouTube.
About The Tree Group
The Tree Group is a business growth agency and HubSpot Certified Partner that combines sales, marketing, and websites to help Automotive companies with at least 10 staff and a desire to grow by 15% in the next 18 months. Does that sound like you?
