Home services businesses haven’t had to change their marketing strategies too drastically because their buyers have remained the same for the last decade—until now.
Millennials made up only 28% - 37% of home buyers in 2022. According to a recent Redfin survey, the housing shortage and high interest rates are causing 18% of Millennials and 12% of Gen Z-ers to believe they’ll never own a home. Without a decrease in prices or an unexpected gift, they may be right.
But the U.S. is primed to experience one of the greatest wealth transfers it's ever seen, with Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z about to inherit approximately $72.6 trillion dollars. While that includes cold hard cash, one of the most valuable assets is also about to get passed down: property.
As Baby Boomers start to pass on their homes, Millennials and Gen Z-ers will become the prime target for home services businesses. The catch? They need more from their home services providers than their Boomer and Gen X counterparts. Is your business prepared to meet their needs?
How to Prepare for a New Generation of Homeowners
- Understand the unique needs of each generation
- Attract younger homeowners to your home services business
- Build a multi-generational marketing strategy
1. Understand the Unique Needs of Each Generation
Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964), Gen X (1965-1980), and Millennials (1981-1996) all have different needs for home services companies, in part because of the kinds of homes they can purchase.
Repeat buyers are typically Gen X and Baby Boomers. They can leverage the equity they’ve built in their homes to purchase newer, move-in-ready homes. According to the Home Improvement Research Institute (HIRI), they tend to focus more on repairs and maintenance, completing only one or two home improvement projects every year, most commonly roof replacements.
On the other hand, Millennials make up the majority of first-time home buyers, purchasing older homes with more wear and tear just to enter the market. That means they spend more time on home improvement projects, averaging nearly five per year. They also invest more in home improvement projects than older generations, spending approximately 30% more per project than the average.
Gen X falls somewhere in the middle, preferring to DIY their home improvements (Source: HIRI).
Download Scorpion’s Pulse report for the latest home services trends.
2. Attract New Homeowners to Your Home Services Business
While your marketing strategy might work for you now, there’s no guarantee Millennials and Gen Z will respond the same. In reality, many younger generations seek out more convenient features across multiple platforms from home services businesses. Make sure your marketing strategy sets you up for long-term success with these tips:
Update Your Brand Strategy and Narrative
Your brand is more than your logo and business card. It’s the experience your customers have with your business from the first time they hear your name. As your target audience starts to change, your brand should keep up. According to The Scorpion Pulse, 20% of Millennial and Gen Z consumers and 19% of high-earning households ($200K+) want a modern experience from home services businesses.
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Optimize Your Site for Bookings
The rapid rise in technology from the 1980s to the present helped draw generational lines. While Gen X and Millennials watched the rise of technology happen in real time, Gen Z doesn’t know a world without it. And it's now influencing how they interact with businesses.
With the rise of online tools, our data shows that 22% of Millennials and Gen Z-ers visit home services websites with the explicit intention of booking an appointment for home services. They also tend to seek out AI technologies to schedule services without ever needing to speak to a human. The easier you make it for them to book with your business, the more likely they are to reach out.
Optimize Your Site for Search
According to The Scorpion Pulse, while 90% of all home services consumers complete some level of research before booking with a home services business, Millennials and Gen Xers do most of their research online. They leverage search engines, like Google, and directory listings, like Angi, to find home services businesses in their area. If you don’t show up in their initial searches, you aren’t even going to make it on their radar of potential home services businesses to use for their project.
Start a Content Marketing Strategy
Scorpion’s latest data in The Pulse shows younger consumers want immediate access to information and answers. A consistent content marketing strategy lets you be the one to answer them. Between your website, blog, and social media platforms, you have a large platform to answer your younger consumers’ most common questions about your industry. As an added bonus, it also helps you rank higher in search results on Google and Bing.
Build a Robust Social Media Strategy
Millennial and Gen Z consumers put a lot of stock in first impressions. For 56% of them, that first impression happens on social media (Source: The Scorpion Pulse). Building a robust home services social media strategy that educates and informs, especially with video content, is key to capturing the attention of younger generations and keeping it.
Strengthen Your Customer Retention Processes
Once you’ve got the attention of younger generations, keeping it requires extreme levels of communication. They want regular touch points from your home services company–and not just about an upcoming appointment. Millennials and Gen Z want service updates, reminders, announcements, and even casual greetings.
3. Build a Multi-Generational Marketing Strategy
Millennials and Gen Z might be the future consumers for your services, but don’t feel the need to change your entire strategy tomorrow. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Instead, be thoughtful about how and to whom you want to market your services.
The best strategy, as homebuyers start to shift to younger generations, is to build a multi-generational home services marketing strategy. How? Use data-backed insights to target marketing tactics that resonate most with each generation.
Create DIY-Friendly Options for Gen X
Gen X is known as the hands-on generation. They typically prefer to fix issues on their own as much as possible. And when they can’t, they’ll reach out to a pro. Stay ahead of this generation by offering kits, tutorials, or other materials to meet their need to do it themselves.
For example, a plumbing service company can offer online tutorials and DIY repair kits for minor issues. Another option would be small-fee video consultations for locals and non-locals.
Offer Tech-Savvy Solutions for Millennials
Millennials want quick convenience and lots of communication. Cater to those needs by offering online booking, virtual consultations, and mobile communication options.
A roofing company can implement an AI-powered chat on their website to schedule appointments anytime and anywhere. A more advanced form of technology integration might be implementing an augmented reality (AR) tool that lets potential customers see what different roofing materials might look like in their own homes.
Prioritize Personalized and Efficient Service for Baby Boomers
Baby Boomers are still pretty traditional when it comes to communicating with service providers. They like personalized service built on relationships. Offer subscription-based services or proactive maintenance plans that feed Boomers’ need to maintain their homes and build consistent face-to-face touchpoints.
For example, a pest control service business could offer a recurring monthly plan for preventative pest control. This gives Baby Boomers the peace of mind that they’re consistently protected from pests and don’t have to worry about unexpected emergencies.
Is Your Home Services Marketing Strategy Built to Last?
Trends and data insights are a great starting point for understanding your consumers. But that doesn’t mean they’re true for every individual or region. Use these strategies and tactics as a starting point, but don’t be afraid to test early and often to make sure your home services marketing strategy works for your consumers—no matter which generation they belong to.
Check out The Scorpion Pulse for the latest trends in digital marketing for home services.
Not sure how to build your own multi-generational home services marketing strategy? Let Scorpion design a custom brand strategy to help your home services business weather the coming changes.
