Millennials now take up just over a third of the housing market. Love it or hate it, the generation stereotyped as never growing up is finally reaching the milestone of homeownership. And pretty soon, they’re going to need your services. Millennials, as a whole, don’t respond well to traditional marketing tactics – you won’t necessarily win them over with slick advertising materials or pushy promos. In order to capture this growing market segment, you’ll need to rethink your marketing methods.

What Millennials Want

Millennials are looking for conscious, responsive, customer-centric contractors. They want to know you stand for something larger than yourself, but also will deliver service that makes them feel like they’re your primary focus.

To capture the eye of this market, it’s important to make sure your online presence is front and center in your advertising plan. Make sure your listings on Google, Angie’s List and other major market players are up to date. Spend some time getting your website in order and link it to your social media, which needs to be updated regularly. Make it a priority to check your social media inboxes for inquiries daily – if not more often.

Don’t be afraid to brag about your altruistic efforts within your community, whether it’s the time you spent volunteering for storm cleanup, your donation of materials to Habitat for Humanity or the local 4-H club your company sponsors.

Convincing Millennials They Need Your Services

Because millennials are working on a tight budget and because they’ve grown up with constant access to information, the hardest hurdle to overcome is convincing this demographic that they need your services. They’re more likely to pull up a YouTube tutorial to try to solve the problem themselves rather than call you right away.

To that end, it’s important to offer valuable online content that might help a millennial troubleshoot a basic problem themselves – for example, a tip on your business’s Facebook page about remembering to turn off the breaker to an area before attempting a DIY repair. Or taking it a step further and producing a YouTube video on how to perform a basic repair. This gives you an opportunity to remind them that if they can’t solve the problem themselves, you and your crew are ready and waiting to help.

The other big point to remember when marketing to millennials is budget: if you offer financing, take credit cards or have a great special running, let them know. Let them know you’ll be as up-front and transparent in your estimates and pricing as possible. Millennials want to know their money is well-spent, so show them that’s the case when they use your business. Just one great experience with a client in this age range can translate to more clients because word-of-mouth is a huge tool among millennials.

Integrating Millennials into Your Current Marketing Plan

Because millennials aren’t necessarily looking for traditional marketing efforts, it’s relatively easy to shoehorn this demographic into your current marketing plan. You won’t need to free up capital for glossy business cards, radio spots or commercials: by and large, these methods will go overlooked by this market segment.

Instead, you’ll want to focus on your web presence, something you can do for free or low cost.  You don’t need to spend much, for example, to maintain an active social media presence or update your business’s phone number on Google. You don’t need to be a social media management expert to post a photo of a charity event your business helped out with, in order to demonstrate that you’re community and charity-minded. If your website looks dated or information is hard to find, however, you may find it beneficial to add a website overhaul by a professional into your marketing budget.

Marketing to Millennials

Marketing to the millennials that now take up a third of the housing market doesn’t mean spending big bucks or redoing your entire advertising plan – it simply requires you to refocus how you reach clients and how you appeal to them. By getting your business to cater to this growing market segment, you’ll find your business grows exponentially via word of mouth.

What’s your best marketing tip for reaching millennial homeowners?