New ideas and tips to create your business' content marketing strategy for Generation Z

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Generation Z is the newest generation to enter the marketplace. From 1996 to about 2005, Generation Z has encountered many changes in the marketplace and has created a new way of marketing compared to Baby Boomers and Millennials. The second half of Generation Z entered college in 2019.

Generation Z has been interesting to watch as they lived through a recession and a financial and societal reformation in different parts of the world.

While societies can’t always predict the way economies will work, Generation Z has developed new ways to approach businesses and services they provide or the products they sell. We’ve been able to see a shift in how they approach businesses and brands depending on their function, authenticity, and practicality to their lives.

So how do you market to let alone create your business’ content marketing strategy for Generation Z?

Content is king in many businesses. Content helps readers establish a connection through stories, personal relations, and establishes a visual. Generation Z especially enjoys videos, story-telling, and personal touches in marketing materials aimed towards their generation. You should stay authentic and inclusive on an individualistic level compared to marketing towards a more generic target.

Creating a content calendar, using materials such as CREATE An Intensive Biz Playbook & Planner: Scale Your Online Business, Create Explosive Growth and Build a Brand You Crave, is a great way to remain consistent and establish a relationship with Generation Z customers. By creating ideas for a content marketing strategy, you’ll be able to develop and maintain specific traits Generation Z identifies with and engages with.

Content Marketing Strategy Tip 1: Create a Content Calendar

CREATE is used to streamline and maintain a consistent content marketing strategy for your business. Despite what your niche is for your business or blog, a content calendar like CREATE will help promote your business from relevant and consistent SEO strategies and promotions that are relevant to your market audience.

Even if you only create a partial calendar to start, you should be able to develop important topics and niche keywords that relate you to certain audience members through your content. With holidays and seasonal events, your content marketing strategy is vital when relating and promoting content to Generation Z.

Not only does CREATE help you formulate a business plan to market effectively as a business start-up, but CREATE shows you how your content marketing strategy is only the starting point for your business. Your content is how you can attract an audience member, but CREATE takes you further by how to build a brand. Take CREATE’s methods with your new inferences about Generation Z’s marketing practices and you’ll be able to create effective marketing strategies.

Content Marketing Strategy Tip 2: Choose the right media platform

You might have noticed Facebook has been waning in engagement for the last few years. Generation Z is still on Facebook, but the social media platform is not the powerhouse of engagement it once was.

Generation Z is predominantly on Instagram and Twitter; Facebook is usually used to stay in contact with family members.

Not only are social media platforms impacted, but how Generation Z views their content has also changed. No longer are Generation Z looking for the amazing photograph or the top news story to read. Generation Z prefers videos, especially with captioning to leave videos on mute.

While Generation Z still uses email on a nearly daily basis, it is selective about which emails they might open concerning brands or advertisements. Email marketing is a whole other content marketing strategy that Generation Z has changed how we approach them as a business and brand strategy.

Content Marketing Strategy Tip 3: Market towards specific niches

Generation Z focuses more on individual experiences when looking at brands. They don’t want to be seen as an audience member stereotype; they want to be seen as an individual customer with unique and personal needs.

While CREATE will help you narrow down your audience niche, as a business owner, you will have to focus on make a personal statement towards each customer rather than a general group. Individualization is sought out in brands by Generation Z due to how they choose to identify themselves, whether that includes, race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, and others.

Another impact has to do with societal factors, such as environmental impact, natural ingredients, and financial aspects. Generation Z looks for responsible and impactful businesses that also take care of environmental factors. Marketing towards niches that impact these societal concerns helps individualize businesses to members of Generation Z.

Content Marketing Strategy Tip 4: Create a story, not an ad

Instead of talking to a member of Generation Z, create and involve them in a story. A great example of this would be the TOMS shoewear company. Not only did they sell cute and unique shoes, but TOMS also included its customers in its adventures in giving back to underprivileged communities that needed shoes. The company has since expanded its giving efforts to 4 charitable causes.

Using CREATE to create your business content marketing strategy around stories helps relate Generation Z audience members to your cause rather than talking to them. Talking to them through stats is effective but only as a supporting claim. Creating a story and allowing them to see as someone else experiences your business allows them to have a personal connection to your brand and business model.

Generation Z wants to be a part of the brand or business you are creating. Use CREATE to take Generation Z on an experience rather than telling them what to buy. Generation Z doesn’t want to be told they need something, they want to be told how it will help them and make an impact on their lives and others.

Content Marketing Strategy Tip 5: Authenticity vs. Live

Authenticity plays a big impact on Generation Z. This is why brands like Aerie have flourished, while Victoria Secret might be in trouble. Aerie creates a financially responsible product with non-Photoshopped and inclusive promotional and marketing materials for their products. When you compare it to Victoria Secret’s stick-thin, impossible body standards, it doesn’t take much imagination to figure out why they needed to cancel their fashion show.

Authenticity and Live are not congruent nor dependent on the other when it comes to marketing strategy. It’s interesting, however, how Generation Z reacts to the two when building a brand and business.

While Facebook and Instagram have created Live versions of their content, many people in Generation Z don’t feel a need to view an event in real-time. It’s more helpful for them to see clips or rewatch the content that they might have previously missed in the live version of events. In my opinion, this is why stories have become so popular. They can view current, authentic interactions while still not having to witness things live.

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