Is your dietary supplement brand reaching millennials?

Millennials are an interesting bunch. At the moment, a consumer earns the "millennial" designation if they were born between 1981 and 1997. That's an absolutely massive swath of the population (a swath that currently includes about 75.4 million Americans). Here's the big question: In an increasingly millennial-centric market, does your dietary supplement brand have what it takes?

Is Your Dietary Supplement Brand Reaching Millennials on Social Media?

Before we move on I think it's only fair to note that there are dietary supplement products and brands out there that don't cater to millennials – and that's okay.

One of the distinguishing (and most significant) characteristics of the nutraceutical industry is its ability to offer consumers products that have been tailored to their needs (whoever they may be).

Now, if you know (or think) that your product does have the ability to meet millennial needs, here are a two key factors you'll want to consider.

Consideration #1 - What kind of social media presence does your brand have?

It's 2016, I know that social media's an important tool for reaching millennial consumers. Now why are you showing me a picture of a messy painter?

Great question! And in response to that question (bear with me here) I have another one for you: What happens when a painter mixes together all of their paints?

Short Answer: You end up with a lot of wasted paint and a very brownish-gray painting.

Believe it or not, keeping this idea in mind is a great way to improve your brand's social media presence.

For the sake of keeping this simile going, let's think of the different social media networks as your colors – red, blue, green, etc. If you're looking to paint the best picture possible (or craft the best social media strategy possible) it can be incredibly tempting to rely on all of the colors, but what if the best painting possible doesn't need all the colors?

When it comes to your dietary supplement brand, there probably isn't a reason for your brand to be on every single social media platform. In fact, there's a very good chance that the healthiest social media strategy for your brand will rely on only two or three of the social media platforms. Which brings us to a second consideration...

Considerations #2 - Which social media platforms are your millennial consumers using?

So, your target consumer qualifies as a millennial, but who are they? Are you dealing with twenty-somethings or thirty-somethings? Are you focusing on students or professionals? Athletes or people how "like to go to the gym (sometimes)"?

By taking the time to explore who your target millennial consumer is, what their needs are, and most importantly (for the sake of this article, at least), how they spend their time on social media – you can put your team in a position to create an effective (and lean) social media strategy.

When it comes to figuring out which digital watering holes your customers like to hang out at, you may want to consider:

Taking a look at the social media accounts of other supplements and brands like yours. Which platforms are they using? What are their posting styles? Is there a lot of user engagement?
Checking out a marketing research or consumer insights report (or two). Even if you're not in a position to commission or purchase a full-length report, chances are there's an article or two out there on the web highlighting key takeaways and trends. Industry magazines and publications are great resources here.

Once you have an understanding of which social media platforms may be most valuable for your brand it's time to go forth and test things out!

Finding a Social Media Strategy that Helps Your Brand Reach Millennials

At the end of the day, having a killer social media strategy comes down to two key factors:

Knowing how your target consumers (in this case, millennial consumers) use social media.
Not being afraid of a little trial and error.

The only way to really know whether or not a particular social media strategy is working is to test it out. From there you can gauge your results and make the changes you need to make in order to keep growing your efforts.

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