14 Jun How to Make a Mom Be Your Targeted Audience
Mothers are a great gateway to sales. They are earning, spending and influencing sales all around the world. It is a true fact that mothers are organizing almost 85% of all household purchases. These purchases are not only self-targeted, being that most often they buy for their baby, toddler and teenager. And by “all household purchases” I mean ALL HOUSEHOLD PURCHASES. I do not refer only to grocery shopping or regular cleaning supplies, but also electronic devices, tools and even big purchases such as cars.
Social media – a new gateway for the “mom market”
Being a mother does not specifically mean that you must stay at home and be a regular housewife, but this was the most common case. In the past several decades, they have fought their isolation by watching soap operas and having their friend over, but now, the times have drastically changed. Mothers became more dynamic with all the new technologies that surely made their everyday life far easier. With the rise of social networks (Facebook, Twitter and such), mothers have been given a lot of room for socializing. Social networks have become the place where they can communicate, share and congregate opinions and build friendships.
If mothers are your targeted marketing audience, you should know that one out of five people that you meet on the web is a woman between ages 18 and 54 with at least one child younger than 18 years old. You need to be constantly updated with trends and their changes, as well as their purchases and purchase decisions.
Social networks are becoming a strong advertising platform for your brand promotions and campaigns. Nearly 92% of mothers who have profiles on social networks use them for sharing family milestones and seeking advice for various points of interest. Based on eMarketer research, more than 1.6 billion people use social networks today and almost 29 million of them are mothers. In regards to the Baby’s Center Social Media Report, approximately 89% of mothers that own smartphones have a Facebook account and visit it at least once per week.
Help the mothers find you!
In order to improve and implement a new marketing strategy, you will need to help them find you. Yes they are a majority online and they are covering many points of interest. Therefore, it is best that you optimize your website for various search engines in order to bring it closer to them. Help them find you! Nowadays, around 60% of online shopping is done by women, and almost 25% of them shop at least once a day. A vast number of them are checking the information and reviews about the products online before purchasing them. Being that this is a “smartphone era” they make a majority in purchases via smartphones too. Almost 70% of mothers do their online shopping with smartphones. In order to broaden your market, you will need to optimize your website for search engines and make it responsive for other devices such as smartphones, tablets, laptops etc.
Online shopping
“Few consumer product companies or service providers take full advantage of the buying power of the Mom Market because they fail to recognize a mother as a business owner or an employee” – Maria Bailey in Trillion Dollar Moms.
Many marketers today make the same mistake – stereotyping. Do not box mothers into single roles. Besides, they are facing challenges in their family life, as mothers are also in search of physical fitness, fashion and health, besides their lack of time. The respect of their diversity is important, or else things can go awry in the creative process – said by Kevin Burke, founder of Lucid Marketing.
Soccer moms, Gen Y moms, Helicopter moms – these are just a few terms that marketers use to describe their targeted audience, but have you ever heard a mother describing herself as any of these? I’m sure you haven’t and neither should you. There are too many advertises that describe mothers as a perfect housewife who never exits the house, who follows the kids to school, the husband to work and all day she cleans, cooks or knits, or as a businesswoman who doesn’t spend much time home, hires babysitters and doesn’t have much time for her family. The truth is that real moms are somewhere in the middle of it all and they make market demands on which you should focus on.
Growing an advisory group
Be aware that mothers talk to each other! No matter if your brand is promoted by an expert or a celebrity, you will not get their attention until they talk to another mother which has experience with the product. This is why you need to enlist influential ambassadors for your brand. Creating an advisory group of mothers to review your products is a needed step for the proper marketing of your brand. However, it is also important to receive not only good, but bad criticism also. Keep in touch with them or else this move can easily backfire. You can use your official website to create a panel of mothers to whom you will present your new product introductions, offer free trials for a period of time, send coupons and rewards and discuss the product on your blog. Be ready for any kind of feedback. Mothers appreciate efficiency and honesty, so it is best that you respond to any feedback in a supportive way. By doing this, you will create an efficient group of influential ambassadors of your product, both online and offline.
Being that mothers today are doing most household purchases and keeping all the household finances, they will not rush in that easily to buy a product without asking about it, online or offline. Promoting your brand properly will allow you to grasp several trillion dollars’ worth of products. If mothers make a substantial portion of your targeted audience, make sure to specialize your marketing strategy for them and research their buying habits and thinking patterns in order to reach the full potential of your business. Utilize your marketing strategy online, communicate with mothers and you will greatly improve your business.
