• by Anna Russell , November 1, 2010

Who are the masters of adaption, creation, collaboration and personalization? Well, according to Iconoculture, Millennials are! This group is finding opportunity in uncertainty and power in the connected collective. This is the "we" generation, after all! And isn't email, at its heart, about staying connected? I think with buying power in the region of $889.3 billion, the Millenials are offering us a huge opportunity. Now it is up to us to figure out how to reach them.

Well, if only it were that easy. A 2008 eROI study to determine how high schoolers, college students and recent college graduates communicate digitally, cited that 61% read marketing emails on a "rarely to never" basis and only 16% read marketing emails on a frequent basis. Not the greatest news for email marketers.

So how can we lure this sizable audience of 76.6 million 15- to 32-year-olds to their email box? Or do we humbly accept that other media is simply better suited for this audience? In my mind, that would be hasty and an injustice to email. So, let's dissect what Millennials DO want and how email can become more relevant.

The eROI report noted that 60% of high school and college students will take action upon receiving an email if they are interested in the product. But more than any other group, Millennials are only interested in brands that work for their lifestyle and "get" them, according to Iconoculture. This group, by nature, is often skeptical of "marketing." So that means, as email marketers, we need to work harder to "get" them. We need to listen to what they are interested in and present information on their terms. Added to this is the importance of messaging segmentation, tightly tailoring messaging to adapt to the wants of the precise Millennial sub-group. A 15-year-old is very different from a 32-year-old, after all. With 47% taking action if they are attracted to a special offer, getting it right can pay dividends. While Millennials don't really want to interact with a brand and have a dialogue, they will advocate what's "cool." So maybe email just needs to get a bit cooler?

But how? An easy tactic to start with is design. Eleven percent of high school and college students take action because of the design of an email. This is a highly visual generation, after all. Show, don't tell. The infamous Mark Zuckerberg is known for his protection of Facebook's coolness, resisting the lucrative temptation of banner ads and the like. Maybe we need to take heed by circulating cool content, providing utility and entertainment and protecting the hipness of the dialogue at all costs.

One fact that is sometimes overlooked is the strong connection between email and social media. Global Perspectives said 53% of consumers saw email as the primary driver of their social media activity. That's a pretty good stat since, according to eMarketer, 85% of this audience use social media. Maybe we need to work closer in partnership with our social media colleagues. Our audiences see a seamless connection between the two. So should we!

A student at a recent marketing conference was asked why she was the only Millennial in attendance The student made a pertinent observation on how to attract more of her peers: "Instead of a dry brochure with lots of words, post a video! Something with moving pictures. Show us how we can benefit by meeting others like us. Post your event on Facebook! We have short attention spans. Jazz it up!" She eloquently added: "If you had only done this kind of thing, there would be 100 Millennials in this room instead of just one."

While the point above references a conference, the lessons are equally relevant to email. Jazz it up! Maybe show a video. Keep it brief and well-designed. And make the content relevant to the precise Millennial segment. According to the 2010 Video Email Marketing Survey by the Web Marketing Council, 73% of marketers thought video would help email CTR, and the same number thought video would help make recipients more likely to convert. Given Millennials' love of video, should this be higher up the list of email content priorities? I think so.

So, to catch the wave, we need to think about how our brands connect with Millennials and how email can be harnessed to build those relationships. There is a place for email. We just need to work a bit harder to keep it relevant.