It can be difficult to get younger users, especially those in their teens, interested in your product or service without appealing to them directly. But this is an important group because passionate teenage fans of your brand through newer channels will likely spread the word and increase your ROI in the long run.
To speak the language of teenagers, you have to make an effort to empathize with them. One key part of this is to understand how teenagers are searching the internet and what you can do to direct them to your business online.
An article in CIO recently looked at the different ways that companies accomplish this, including researching the moments when teenagers are most likely to make purchases and even spending time with members of the demographic to learn more about them.
Here's an example of how teen online search behavior differs from adults: Google recently posted the results of its mobile voice survey. It found that 55 percent of users between 13 and 18 years old prefer the speak-to-text search method, which is 14 percent fewer than the number of adults who did.
Scott Huffman, Google's VP of Conversational Search, gives a specific example of the way that teenagers use mobile voice search to their own ends.
"While people of all ages ask practical questions, it's teens who are exploring all angles, with nearly one-third talking to their phones to get help with homework," Huffman says. "I see my kids asking my phone questions like: 'Ok Google, who was the sixth president of the U.S.?" or 'what's the tallest mountain in Europe?'"
That's just one way teenagers differ. Good online marketing solutions work best when your business has a sound idea of who it's trying to reach and how.