Tags – How to Appeal to Millennial Investors
In order to remain successful, financial firms must appeal to the new generation of investors.
The Millennial demographic is quickly becoming the most influential group of consumers, so it’s important that your firm understands their unique needs and desires.
As Generation Xers reach their peak earning years and millennials enter the workforce, they’re stepping into the limelight as the new generation of investors.
Investors who fit into this category are tech-savvy, self-directed, seek a work-life balance, place a premium on freedom and responsibility in the workplace, and dislike micromanagement.
Many of them are becoming increasingly appealing to banks and other financial services companies as they approach their peak earning years; they have even established a term of their own, “mass affluent,” owing to their broad presence and financial wealth.
So, how can you attract millennial investors?
Leading With Purpose
This social-aware generation desires their financial choices to correspond with their ethical principles, according to research.
In fact, millennials are twice as likely to invest in long-term financial solutions when compared to other generations.
Furthermore, Morgan Stanley discovered that 86% of millennials are interested in socially responsible investing and are twice as likely to make an investment if it includes both financial and social or environmental upside potential.
On the whole, if you’re a business owner or an asset manager, you must convey the social as well as financial advantages of investment opportunities when talking to millennials.
How to Attract Millennial Investors
Let’s take a look at some of the methods that will entice young people to invest in your company:
1. Use Digital Platforms
Yes, this sounds obvious because we’re living in a digital world.
But as much as millennials are socially driven, they’re also digitally connected.
Having said that, it’s important to develop online investment platforms that work effortlessly on mobile, tablet and computer devices.
Take Grow as an example: the brand is producing great results combining socially responsible investing with a digital first platform.
Here, the millennial-focused app provides users with financial products with high Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) ratings and financial metrics. Simply, whether you’re selling financial products through a third-party or direct to consumer, it’s critical to do so in a technologically smooth way.
Finally, millennials tend to view themselves as very busy and therefore want and need financial advisers who can save them time – they like to deal with their relationship manager directly and, outside of the office, have quick access to their goods and services through digital channels.
2. Share Motivating Stories
It’s critical to convey the narrative behind your company’s social ideals.
No matter how much value your company or investment opportunity creates, if you don’t properly tell your story and contribution, no one will know about it and it won’t help you gain a competitive advantage.
Santander Bank is one of the best examples of a firm that effectively told an impactful narrative to appeal to millennial investors: the company created a short film about a young woman who sells her memories for cash, only to realise there’s more to life than money. This received huge publicity, and as a result, Santander experienced the quickest signup rate in 160 years and reached 35% of its annual business goal within 2 weeks. Essentially, it is critical for your brand’s social image to share meaningful tales that have a role in cultural debates.
3. Explain Financial Metrics
It’s critical for your brand to be seen as a force for good in order to attract millennial investors, but it’s equally essential that your financial products make sense from a financial standpoint.
In many ways, the wealthy millennials who control much of the world’s assets are merely continuing a long-standing tradition. As prior generations’ money has been passed down through families, they have not been as motivated by social impact.
In addition, millennials sometimes do not understand financial jargon or know how to analyse asset offerings.
With that in mind, it’s important to present your content in an easy-to-understand way, and ensure that your millennial audience can communicate investment criteria like price earnings ratio, profit/loss statements and how to read earnings reports.
By doing this, they will have more confidence in the financial stability of their assets and greater freedom to defend their investment selections to naysayers and other generations as a result.
4. No “One Size Fits All” Offerings
Millennials want customised attention from their advisers, therefore setting up face-to-face meetings as needed and using technology to provide individualised investment services is a must.
To set themselves apart, financial companies should take advantage of advanced analytics. They can then analyse data on mass affluent commercial transactions and use it to identify the most appropriate consumers, providing them with tailored digital products and services.
This will help financial companies separate themselves from the competition that focuses more on general “one-size-fits-all” mass affluent solutions.
5. Reliability Breeds Loyalty
Millennials often have a negative perception of the financial services industry and consequently, do not 100% trust their advisers.
In particular, if these investors are savers and did not inherit their wealth, and want to invest for the future, they care about their money and want their advisers to understand them and be completely transparent.
Even more than the product itself, a reputable connection between the financial company and customer is crucial; to retain mass affluent loyalty, integrity, transparency, and personal attention are essential.
The Bottom Line
The most important takeaway is that in order to attract millennial investors, you must engage them in a manner they are most comfortable with, tell compelling stories about your investment opportunity, and communicate how it will give them both social and financial benefits.
Consider these five tips when marketing to millennials, and you’ll be on your way to developing a strong customer base among this powerful generation.
Please contact us today to find out more.
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