Marketing to Women Online

Customer Behavior- What vs.Why

I talked previously about the debate as to whether it is best to use "gut instinct" or rely on customer data when creating a marketing campaign.

You know I'm not a fan of trusting a creative director's "gut".    But is the answer then to rely solely on customer data?   No.

Every time you turn around, there is a new company or technology or analysis system that can give you ever more data on what your customers are doing on your website.

While retailers can't seem to get enough of this data, there is a problem.   They are having a really tough time turning this data into actionable insight they can use to actually increase conversion.   

While they know what their customers are doing, they don't know why.   

So how do you get to the "why"?    Find out in this Grokdotcom article.   

Persona Insights

One of the biggest problems in marketing to women is overcoming stereotypes.  One of the best ways to get past stereotypes is to create personas.    Personas let you see how your customers approach the buying process in different ways.    Personas let you see into deeper motivations of why people do what they do.

But one of the most powerful insights you can get form personas is what we at Future Now call the Angle of Approach.  How does a person first realize they need your product?    How do they describe this need/problem/ opportunity?   Understanding how they describe their need is absolutely necessary for creating scent.    It also helps you understand what kind of keywords they may be typing into search engines and what that keyword intent is.  In other words, what kind of information do they want to see when they type in that keyword.

But Angle of Approach also lets you know when that need may be most intense.   When you create personas, you get to see the persona's whole life, not just their specific interaction with your product.    This complete understanding helps you identify all sorts of opportunities.   

Proctor & Gamble took advantage of just such insight with their product Crest Whitening plus Scope Extreme Toothpaste.    What was their customer's Angle of Approach?  At what point was the need/problem that this toothpaste solved most acute?   The answer: Nightclubs.   

Waiting for Your Cat to Bark

You have a killer product or service.  You know you’ve got a competitive edge.  You know if people just knew about it, understand how it could help them, they’d buy tons of what you have to offer.  So you hire an ad agency, spend a lot of money, and run a wonderfully creative ad campaign.  And an amazing thing happens……nothing.

You spend thousands, even millions of dollars creating a brand that’s “women friendly.”   You tout your contributions to breast cancer funds.   Your advertising shows women enjoying your products.   You “break the mold” like the advertising for the “right hand ring” touting women’s strength and independence.    Yet the very audience you want to attract ignores you and all your perceived good deeds.

You create a website with stunning graphics, cool gadgets, and do usability testing out the wazooo.   You’re convinced visitors will love your new website.  You watch the conversion rate numbers anxiously awaiting the increases you’re sure will come.   Yet you find after all that time and effort, you’ve barely moved the needle.    

What’s going on?  What the HECK is going on here?   

You’ll find the answers in “Waiting for your Cat to Bark – Persuading Customers When They Ignore Marketing” by Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg and Lisa Davis.

I don’t talk in this blog all that often about Future Now and my family there.   Bryan and Jeffrey pretty much saved my soul when they rescued me from the radio/ad agency world and introduced me to the wonderful world of the Internet.   

Over the last 3 years I’ve shared in the privilege, honor, intellectual discussions, screaming matches and massive headaches of the creation of Persuasion Architecture TM.   I’ve watched the transformation of what was a largely intuitive process done mainly inside Bryan and Jeffrey's heads, into a full fledged persuasive system.    I’ve watched the development of everything from the software to the thought processes.   It’s been an amazing thing to behold, to see the maturation of Persuasion Architecture TM and the results it’s generated for companies all over the world.   

In Waiting for Your Cat to Bark, you’ll learn the incredible power of Persuasion Architecture TM, and how to apply it to your own efforts.

If that doesn’t sound exciting enough – let me put it another way.  You’ll understand why that advertising campaign you thought was so great didn’t increase your sales.  You’ll learn why your efforts to create a certain “brand” didn’t resonate with your customers.   You’ll learn why your wonderful new website didn’t generate the results you wanted.   

This is NOT just a book for web marketers.  These principles can be applied to every area of your marketing efforts.   I guarantee you will learn something about your customers, your business and yourself.

Take advantage now of a special offer on Waiting for Your Cat to Bark.   

Creating Personas and Writing For Personas

I’m sitting on a stark metal folding chair.  There’s a sole bright light bulb glaring overhead.   Out of the shadows walks a man in an Armani suit and $400 sunglasses.  He stares at me.  “Ok – I’ve just about lost my patience.  Talk.  Don’t hold anything back.  I’ll know if you’re lying.” 

I squirm uncomfortably in my chair, but keep my mouth shut. 

“If you don’t start spilling the beans – this could get ugly.   I’m just about out of patience here.  For the last time – tell me – how do you create personas?” 

I stare at the marketer in front of me.  I hear movement in the shadows.  He’s not alone. There are other marketers and business owners in the room.  I can hear their Blackberries going off in the darkness.  They’re all waiting to hear confidential information that will tell them how to create personas.  They know if they can get this information – they’ll be able to create marketing campaigns that will leave their competition in the dust and catapult their careers and reputations.  If they can just get the secret formula.

“Well, um” I start.  “I can’t show you exactly how we create personas.  We use special software and charge clients 10’s of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of dollars for direct access to our tool and our knowledge.”

The crowd grows more menacing. 

“But wait!   I can tell you how to segment your audience by personality type and where they are in the buying process.”  This prompts a few interested murmurs.  “We can talk about what questions personas ask.  I’ll tell you about how to make your personas more real using demographics, psychographics and topographics.”  I feel myself sweating.

   

    

Best Buy Personas

Hurray! Another company who gets it. Best Buy is using personas to redesign their stores. And they have more than one persona. Another Hooooyaaaah. They have Buzz (the young tech enthusiast), Barry (the wealthy professional man), Ray (the family man) and, Jill.

In the Washington Post’s article – Retail – Profiling for Profit, Best Buy talks about “Jill” and the changes they made to the store in order to accommodate her.

"Jill,"is a  code name for a soccer-mom type who is the main shopper for the family but usually avoids electronics stores. She is well-educated and usually very confident, but she is intimidated by the products at Best Buy and the store clerks who spout words like gigabytes and megapixels.

 Ok – I’m smelling stereotype here. But let’s see what changes they’ve made to accommodate Jill.

Ann Taylor Persona

I was reading one of my favorite blogs – Brand Autopsy when I was delighted to see a post about a major woman’s clothing retailer who had joined “the enlightened ones” – they were using personas to gain a better understanding into their customers and to develop new marketing and merchandising.   

But just as I was starting to do my happy dance (a spontaneous act of joy which a friend once remarked looks like a butt spasm), I did a double take – they created a persona – singular.   

To arrest the sales decline at Ann Taylor, the company has hunkered down and refined who the Ann Taylor customer is. The company’s marketing and merchandising teams have created an Ann Taylor persona, a richly articulated description of the prototypical Ann Taylor customer. Every marketing and merchandising decision at the company is now made based upon the Ann Taylor persona, appropriately named … Ann.

Ann is a married 36 year-old working mother of two children with a household income of $150K. She leads a busy, sophisticated life and her idea of dressing down at work is wearing a velvet jacket with jeans.

In comparison, the Ann Taylor Loft customer is a married thirtysomething with children, works in a laid-back less corporate environment, and has a household income between $75K and $100K.

Ok – so it looks like maybe they created two personas - one for each Ann Taylor division.   But I just have to ask – how many tens of thousands of women shop at each division?   Can you really condense tens of thousands of women into one persona?   And can you say Stereotype?   Both are “married”.    (of course – there is no such thing as single women out there) Both have children.   (2.4 just didn’t sound right so they made it 2).

News Flash - 27% of all households are headed by a single female.  And unmarried childless women have way more time to shop than their “married with kids” counterparts.   Even if the majority of Ann Taylor customers are married with kids, do you want to ignore everyone else?

I’m sure these personas go way deeper than the quick snapshot presented here – but I do find the information interesting – age and household income.  I’m not sure how much age really tells you – I think life stage is far more important.   I wore Ann Taylor when I was younger and trying harder to impress people.  But now that I’m older I don’t get dressed up as often and prefer Ann Taylor Loft – so I’m the exact opposite of their personas. 

And how do you address merchandising with one persona?   Take Ann Taylor Loft - Part of your audience is a skinny group of flat chested fashionistas who want the latest halter top, and another is more typical heavier women who has breasts and still wants a sexy top, but wants one she can actually wear a bra with.    

One can live on the Internet and barely watch TV, and the other can watch TV every night but hardly ever go online – how do you determine which media channel is the best to reach her when you only have one persona?

I don’t want to sound too negative here. I applaud anyone who will do persona work. And I’m sure Ann Taylor will see some big improvements from their persona. But I’d challenge them to go one step further – create several personas and address each the way she wants to be addressed.   The more you speak to the average, the more average your message becomes.

Answer Her Questions

What questions are your customers asking?  Do you know? Are you answering their questions? 

Take a 38 year old mother of 4. She has a big family.  She does A LOT of laundry – but she genuinely loves her family and takes pride in a job well done.  Her question is, “Is there a towel that can be washed day in and day out, but still remain soft?”

Most towel companies say their towels are soft, but do they remain soft after multiple washings?  Lands End answers her question.

Unlike “Treated Towels” Ours Start Out Soft and Become Softer with Every Wash.

Lots of towels are coated with chemicals to make them feel soft on the store shelf. But wash them a couple times and their softness goes down the drain. Not ours! Because we use better cotton and superior construction, our towels get plumper and softer with every wash, Guaranteed.

If she were on a website and saw a link that said “Choose a towel that remains soft through lots of laundering.” Do you think she’d click on it?

Lands End goes on to describe the towel further, which is great. You always want to back up your claim. But most website product copy would start with this copy – it’s typical features/benefit copy you see everywhere.

We use only the top 3% of cotton grown in the United States.. Farmed for its extra-long, strong fibers, Supima cotton feels softer, lasts longer and pills far less. Start with better cotton and you end up with a better towel.

Most companies are so focused on their selling points, they fail to answer her questions.  You can give her your selling points once you’ve answered her question – but always answer her questions first.  If you’re answering her questions, and your competition’s website isn’t…who is she going to feel better about and ultimately give her money to?