Millennial | noun: a person born in the 1980s or 1990s — usually plural

Millennials are one of the largest generations in the United States and one of the most unique. They are also the majority of students’ parents and potential customers at your youth activity center. Tech-savvy and socially-minded, millennials look for what’s new and innovative. It’s no surprise that they might not connect with your business through traditional advertising. 

So what does this mean for your youth activity center? It means that millennial parents can be a challenging audience to connect with when promoting the programs at your swim school, gymnastics or cheer gym, dance studio, or music school. But it doesn’t mean that it’s impossible. 

When marketing your youth activity center to millennial parents, it’s important to do it effectively. We’re here to walk you through some tactics to help you connect with customers through targeted marketing and messaging techniques that will help engage millennial parents and increase enrollment.   

How to market your program to millennial parents?

When targeting millennial parents in a marketing strategy for your youth activity center, keep the following tips in mind.

Mobile

It’s hard to find a millennial parent who isn’t always on the go. It’s also safe to say that nearly every millennial owns a smartphone and uses it to browse the internet, connect with friends and family, manage their kid’s busy schedules, and even tackle some shopping. With how much time millennials spend on their mobile devices, you need to ensure your website and marketing efforts are optimized for mobile. (That’s fancy for making sure your website looks good on a small cell phone screen!)

Social Media

As the vast majority of millennials exist on at least one social media platform, social media marketing has become extremely accurate at this point. A well-developed social media strategy for millennial parents requires a presence on multiple platforms. When marketing to millennial parents through social media, we suggest looking at the three leading platforms; Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, first.

Context-Based

Wherever you choose to focus your marketing efforts, they must be context-based to reach a millennial audience. So what does ‘context-based’ mean? 

It means whatever you’re developing should be authentic and innovative. Millennial parents are all about authenticity and innovation. If your ads and posts connect your program to customers in a personalized, authentic and creative way, you’ll likely convert more millennial parents to paying customers at your youth activity center. 

How to Connect with Millennial Parents on Social Media

Marketing on social media requires a high level of consideration and attention to detail. When marketing the programs at your youth activity center to millennial parents, keep in mind the following essential information: 

Share informative information

Millennials are all about learning new things. They tend to support businesses that genuinely strive to improve their customers’ lives by providing informative content like how-to information, videos, blogs and other tips related to the sport or art you teach. Figure out what type of information your customers engage with most and find a way to provide similar content to them frequently. 

Connect with customers organically

If you can personalize content to customers, do it. Customers at your youth activity center need to feel like whatever content you’re serving them was created with their interests or their child’s best interests in mind. When you connect with millennial parents emotionally or intellectually, they’ll be more inclined to support your program and share the information amongst their friends.   

Share videos with your audience

Video is the number-one way to engage with millennials, and it provides an easy way for businesses to pack a lot of information and emotion into one short clip that can be shared across various platforms. Videos are probably the most effective win-win in any marketing strategy. Videos that showcase the impact swim, gymnastics, cheer, dance or music has on children is a great way to emotionally connect with your millennial parents. 

Don’t hesitate to collaborate

Millennials are known for being jacks-of-all-trades. Many millennials have a wealth of knowledge about various subjects, and they love having a say in the services created for them. Any company that enables millennials to be part of their development process will see a higher success rate in their business. Think of ways to incorporate your millennial parents into decision making within your classes. It could be something simple like a vote or an open forum for suggestions. 

Do’s and Don’ts of Connecting with Millennial Parents

As if millennials weren’t tricky enough to pin down, millennial parents are on a whole other level when it comes to marketing. Modern millennial families are known for turning things upside down, so it’s important to keep that in mind when looking to engage them. 

Do create unique experiences

The best way to market to millennial parents is to help them create unique experiences. Make your posts, website, blogs, and any other content you put out there participatory, authentic, and practical.

Don’t work yourself in circles

Having a difficult time creating engaging content? Look to your analytics to show what ads, posts, push notifications, or emails your customers respond to. Then create more content like that. No need to reinvent the wheel when you know how your customers roll! 

Do use tech to help connect with customers

Whether it’s a social platform’s built-in analytics or the communication functionality of a cloud-based class management software, the right technology can help you connect with millennial parents when and where it’s best for them.  

Don’t stereotype

No two parents, children or families are the same. Embrace and celebrate the fact that your customers and prospective students come from different backgrounds, experiences, and walks of life by using inclusive language in your messaging when targeting millennial parents. 

Looking for more ways to connect with customers and grow your youth activity center? Subscribe to our monthly Ears Up newsletter!