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Hello, and welcome to another captivating article. Have you ever wondered how to attract more customers?

While lecturing business start-ups as well as working closely with established organisations, I realised that the one very important part of business growth – a digital marketing plan – was missing across the board. Specifically, the micro and small business group is in danger of missing the boat on the changes the 4^th Industrial Revolution is forcing upon us.

Emerging new technology breakthroughs in fields such as artificial intelligence, robotics, quantum computing, and nanotechnology will in fact fundamentally change the way we live, work, and relate to one another.

I consider myself privileged to be able to see in person some amazing new innovations which will become part of even more future developments in the above-mentioned areas. Most of these new developments are created at University Innovation Labs/Hubs or by private tech enterprises. While large organisations already following a digital strategic plan, the micro and small business community is left behind fighting to keep their little empire alive.

As now officially millennials are the largest group of consumers and with that have the highest buying power, businesses must adapt to their way of browsing, purchasing, and communicating. This is a serious concern for the micro and small businesses as customers prefer to utilise new technologies to decide when and what to purchase. The 24/7 digital interaction with customers has taken over the face-to-face conversation.

To provide this new interaction requires the skill of utilising modern technology and excellent time management. Unfortunately, non-tech savvy businesses will not survive in this new digital world.

The question arises of where to start if you are a micro or small business trying to engage with this new group of millennial customers? First, let us analysis these new powerful shoppers. Millennials are in general people born between 1982 and 1996.

Millennials grown up with technology around them and due to that are very tech savvy. The use of smartphones and browsing the web is part of their main communication tool to connect to the world. This means a business must target those consumers via the communication tool of their buyer’s choice.

Richard Kestenbaum, Forbes contributor and co-founder of Triangle Capital LLC states that 80% of Millennials are influenced by price but also by other values from their products like authenticity, local sourcing, ethical production and a great shopping experience, and nothing beats a good discount.

Richard Kestenbaum’s research on Millennials showed that this group of buyers follow brands on at least one social media platform. They are highly driven by price and enjoy browsing the high-end brands to catch a discounted item. Two-thirds of millennials switch brands if they are offered a discount of 30% or more.

How can we translate these findings to the micro and small business world? To attract the strongest consumer purchasing group, businesses need to become tech savvy and utilise communication tools like smartphones, websites, and social media platforms to connect to their new buyers. While a good discount is always an eye catcher for this group of shoppers, product authenticity, local sourcing, ethical production is of equal importance.

I suggest creating a digital marketing plan to establish a strategic pathway on how to target this new and powerful group of shoppers. Don’t know where to start? Just drop us a line or give us a call, it’s that simple.

Synergy Consulting Australia provides a large range of business consulting services which includes 4IR, Legal, Accounting, Marketing, Project Management, Migration services and many more tailored business solutions. This also includes a full market research and feasibility report before investing. www.synergyaustralia.com.au

Synergy Consulting Australia is led by Ilona Solinska. Ilona has over 18 years’ international business consulting experience.  She is a successful business growth strategist, educator, keynote speaker, and writer. She has coached hundreds of businesses in Marketing, Finance, Legal, Compliance, Operation, Change & Project Management and is a highly sought-after presenter on a wide variety of business topics.