In the past, hospitality brands concentrated on marketing to millennials. However, a paradigm shift occurred. Today, hospitality marketers direct a lot of their attention to an entirely different demographic: Generation Z. What’s the best way to market to Gen Z, you ask?

The Generation Z (Gen Z) demographic is composed of people born between the mid-90s until the mid-2000s. There is no current consensus on the exact range of birth years for Generation Z, but the Pew Research Center defines Generation Z as those who were born from 1997 to 2012. This means that, as of 2019, Gen Z customers are those between the ages of 7 and 22.

If you haven’t started to focus your marketing efforts on the Gen Z demographic, it’s not too late. Here are several reasons to target Gen Z, and how to do it.

1. Gen Z-ers love to travel.

Log on to any social media platform, and you’ll notice two things: 1) Gen Z-ers love to travel, and 2) They love to post photos of these travels. Some even go as far as documenting their entire trips by posting vlogs on YouTube. 

This isn’t to say that Gen Z-ers only use social media to post photos of their trips. They also use social media to check out different products. 

According to a recent survey focused on how Gen Z engaged with brands on social media and email, 33% of respondents said they made at least 1 purchase in the last month after seeing the product on social media. Another 29.5% said they made 2 to 5 purchases. In the same survey, 28.5% said they made 2 to 5 purchases in a month after receiving an email offer.

Generation Z’s love for travel coupled with their responsiveness to both social media and email marketing offers represent the perfect opportunity for you to promote your brand. Send personalized offers for travel packages to your Gen Z customers. For higher conversions, complement your emails with announcement posts on social media. 

2. Gez Z-ers have purchasing power.

Research indicates that by 2020, this demographic will account for 40% of the entire US consumer base. Gen Z-ers also have $44 billion in spending power. Considering the fact that they can influence how their parents spend money, the amount can go up to $600 billion.

When trying to market to Gen Z, maximize your ROI by automating various offer emails such as:

• Welcome emails – Automate your welcome series so that new subscribers receive a personalized welcome message immediately after they sign up. Encourage these subscribers to make an immediate purchase by including an exclusive discount offer for their first travel booking with you.
• Holiday emails – People love to travel on holidays—use this to your advantage. Set up all your holiday emails at the beginning of the year and trigger them to send a few weeks before the specific holiday. This way, your subscribers have time to plan their trip.

3. Gen Z-ers spend a lot of time engaging with brands online.

45% of Gen Z-ers said they are almost always online, and 44% said they go online several times a day. In addition, 23% of Gen Z-ers check their email at least once a day, and 58% said they check their emails more than once each day.

Gen Z-ers also prefer email when communicating with brands. 31.8% said they liked receiving emails from brands twice a week, and 19% said they wanted to receive emails once a week.

In terms of what entices them to open these emails, here’s what Generation Z had to say:

• 35.1% said it was because of the graphics, images, and branding.
• 36.1% said it was because of the personalized subject line.
• 60% said it was because of relevant content.
• 68% said it was because of sales and offers.

Now, this isn’t to say that Gen Z-ers only use email. Obviously, they are also influenced by social media. 15% said Instagram was their favorite platform and 32% said YouTube was their favorite platform. All this data makes one thing crystal clear.

If you want to successfully engage with your Gen Z audience, you have to know how to speak their language. This means being visible on every digital channel possible. You can try integrating your email marketing, content marketing, and social media marketing with one another.

For example, you can write a blog post entitled “Top 10 Best Places To Travel This Summer”. This is the sort of topic that your Gen Z audience would definitely be interested in. Promote the blog via your email newsletter and add social media buttons to encourage your subscribers to share your content.

Wrap up

Generation Z is shaping up to be a highly influential demographic. They are also likely to occupy much of your customer base in the next few years, so turning your attention to your Gen Z customers will literally pay off for your brand.

Want more data that can help you tune your marketing efforts to this customer segment? Campaign Monitor’s Ultimate Guide to Marketing to Gen Z provdes an overview of how to market to Gen Z.