With growing purchasing power and increasing social influence, Gen Z is an essential demographic for most brands selling on social.

But how do you reach them, engage with them, and sell to them?

Despite what you may think, Gen Z consider their purchases carefully, with Insider Intelligence saying that with in store purchases only 17% will make an immediate purchase, as opposed to 32% of the general population.

As a brand, you need to engage with them in multiple places to increase your likelihood of making a sale.

But what does that look like?

Discovery on social

When it comes to finding products, TikTok (73%) and Instagram (69.7%) are the most popular social channels for Gen Z to discover new products, with video and influencer content key on these platforms.

With TikTok, having a strategy to meet your potential customers’ search intent is non-negotiable. A recent HerCampus study found that 74% of Gen Z internet users use TikTok for search and 51% favour it over Google, mostly due to its short-form video format giving users a more in-depth and personal experience.

This is not a behaviour that is going away. TikTok is embracing its growing importance as a search engine, testing integrations with Google Search and Wikipedia results in its feed.

The diversity of content on TikTok and Instagram, and the trust that users have in content around products on the platforms, combine to make them perfect for younger audiences to discover new products.

Reinforcing social impressions

As we’ve established, Gen Z consumers aren’t going to see your product on social media and then immediately purchase it. You need to build multiple touchpoints for them. Part of this is having a rounded strategy that involves showing up on multiple platforms that your audience uses, which we wrote about in a previous newsletter.

Another aspect is making sure that your product is shown in multiple places on each channel, with different content answering a range of questions and fulfilling different purposes.

The three most popular content types for search users on TikTok are as follows:

1. Video tutorials
2. Product/service reviews
3. Personal stories

Make sure that you produce content that takes each of these in. Publish content showing how people should use the product, or how the product can be used to do something else. Partner with people who can share their stories, and how they incorporate your product into their lives. And encourage buyers to produce UGC, tagging you so that you can engage with and share their reviews and thoughts.

The more of these content types you can produce, the more search queries you will show up for and answer, the more you’ll reinforce a positive perception of your product, and the more you’ll establish touchpoints with potential customers.

Search engine presence

However, selling to Gen Z isn’t always carried out start-to-finish on social channels. So where do they go next?

Search engines are the most common place to go after discovery for the consideration stage. This is followed by looking up the product on a retailer website, and then directly to the brand’s website. While retail sites aren’t popular for Gen Z with discovery, they are well-used here.

Having a good presence in SERP results means when people search for the products they’ve discovered on social, it’s easy for them to find your content. This content should be in-depth, answering any questions, and highlighting reviews to help encourage buyers through your funnel.

In-store experience

This won’t apply to all brands, but if you have a physical presence, you’ll also be able to capitalise on Gen Z’s love of in-person shopping experiences. Forbes says that Gen Z feel more positively about in-person shopping than the overall population, and attributes this in part to the opportunity for community and shared experiences that in-person shopping provides.

Even in categories where social plays a large role in product discovery, in-store is where a lot of sales happen.

As much as Gen Z spends a lot of time online, they still find huge value in in-store experiences. Again, they’re not likely to make an immediate purchase, so you need to make sure that you have calls to action to check out your website and social channels, as well as providing a great in-store experience.

Takeaways

Overall, there are a few key things to remember if Gen Z is a significant demographic for your business:

• Producing search-led TikTok content, reinforced by UGC content and encouraging customers to share their views, can supercharge discovery of your product or service.
• TikTok is increasingly being used as a search engine, optimise your content for this.
• Make sure that your content covers tutorials, reviews and personal stories.
• While social is increasingly important for discovery, search is crucial for consideration
• In-store experiences aren’t going anywhere soon

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