• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, May 31, 2016

According to data from a new survey by Magisto, marketing trends for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are shifting from traditional channels, (print, radio and television advertising, and classic word-of-mouth marketing) as millennials implement new, more viral digital practices, like social media and particularly online video.

Social is the new mass media, says the report. 92% of millennials at SMBs lead with social media in their marketing strategy (as important as word-of-mouth marketing), while 79% of baby boomers lead with traditional WOM in their marketing strategy. Social media is the new word of mouth for SMB millennial marketers, according to the survey.

The report says that traditional marketing goals have not changed, showing that three out of four SMBs want to generate new customers, and more than half want to build customer loyalty and grow brand awareness. But, says the report, the way SMB marketers reach these goals is shifting from traditional methods, such as print and TV advertising, to strategies using social media and video, driven mostly by the millennial generation.

The survey reports that millennial marketers are 84% more likely to use social media to promote their small businesses than invest in print advertising, according to the data, and millennials are 136% more likely than baby boomers to create videos for social media, while virtually no millennials marketing SMBs would invest in television advertising. By contrast, one out of three SMB baby boomer marketers employ TV ads and other legacy marketing options.

Reid Genauer, Magisto CMO, says “… millennials… besting their counterparts with a more evolved media mix, greater authenticity, more sophisticated targeting, better understanding of social video… (while) baby boomers use social channels… publishing outdated product centric ads… missing their audience… treating Facebook like late night local TV…”

Other key findings in the report include these:

• To make a sale within social media, millennial marketers speak with the authenticity that the channel requires. Over half of millennials at SMBs lead with branded lifestyle video stories versus traditional product overviews
• Millennials inherently understand how to push the right content to the right audience at the right time, says the report, and are 183% more likely than baby boomers to post a video to Instagram

Magisto surveyed over 550 U.S. SMBs, looking at how SMBs leverage today’s marketing trends and tools, and how millennials are driving those trends with a focus on social media and video creation, notes the report.

For more on the findings of the 2016 Magisto study, please visit here.