Marketing to Women Online

What Images Increase Sales to Today's Women?

What are the most important elements in advertisements targeting women?  Quite often - the images.

As we've seen, women sometimes don't respond to/relate to the same images that men do.

So what images do women respond to?

I asked Sally Bjornsen that question.   Sally runs Sally Bjornsen Represents where she represents a select group of photographers.  Ad agencies hire these photographers to do photo-shoots for their clients.  I wanted to talk to Sally for two reasons:

1. She has an extensive advertising background working for companies like Nike and Nordstrom as well as running her own women-focused ad agency.
2. With her current business, she sees firsthand what types of images agencies are looking for today.  

Sally has seen some trends as to what types of images are connecting with consumers, especially female consumers.

Marketing to Women Book Review - Why She Buys

 "Gender is the most powerful determinant of how a person views the world and everything in it.  It's more powerful than age, income, race, or geography."

That's the main premise behind Bridget Brennan's new book Why She Buys:  The New Strategy for Reaching The World's Most Powerful Consumers.

I really enjoyed Why She Buys.  It has some theory, some brain research, amusing anecdotes and real-life case studies.  

Here are some of my favorite quotes from Why She Buys:

"If the consumer economy had a sex, it would be female.  If the business world had a sex, it would be male.  And therein lies the pickle."

"It's human nature for people to assume that their own preferences are natural, normal, and "right" without realizing that those preferences may in fact be rooted in gender."

"Women want to achieve success in their life just as much as men do,but their definition of success is different. Achievement is something more internal and not necessarily tied to external factors like beating someone else.  That's why hyper-competitive messages in advertising typically don't resonate with women.  When women compete, they compete against themselves."

How To Create Websites for Women - Dailyworth.com

 

I'm always looking for websites that include elements that engage women.  Dailyworth.com is a personal financial and business advice site for women. Here's what Dailyworth.com is doing to connect with their female visitors.

Daily emails

The main service Dailyworth.com offers is a daily email:

Our emails provide money-related and professional advice in simple, sassy servings.

A short digestible daily email is perfect for today's time-starved woman. 

Women-friendly design

How to Sell to Women - Address Her "Worst-Case" Fears

   

So what's the worst that can happen?

Chances are pretty good that it's a woman who can answer that question. There are two reasons for this:

1. Women tend to think more long-term about their purchases.  They want to know what will happen 3 months, 6 months, a year down the road.
2. Women are often focused on avoiding bad outcomes.  Motherhood especially can cause a woman to determine ahead of time what could be a bad situation and how to protect herself and her children against it.

Are you addressing these worst-case scenarios with her? 

Address her concerns

Some sales people don't want to bring up anything "negative."  By all means, stay focused on the positive. But if she has a concern, wouldn't you rather get it out of her so you can address it directly, rather than letting her go home and discuss it with everyone except you?

Audible.com Gets Marketing to Women Online

Want to see an example of effective marketing to women online?  Here's one from Audible.com. 

I gotta tell you.  I heart Audible.com.   It's a great place to instantly download audio books at a fraction of the price of pre-packaged audio books on CD.   I am a total audiobook-a-holic. These are my people.

This promotion caught my attention:

There are several reasons why I think this is effective:

BlogHer - Blogs Most Trusted Social Media

 

There's no question that people are using social media to share information and opinions about products.  Facebook, Twitter, blogs - they're all full of product stories, complaints and recommendations.

But do people trust what's being said in those social media spaces?  

Apparently, it depends on which medium you're talking about.  Blogs may be more trusted than other social media.

Women turn to blogs for product information and reviews

In BlogHer's 2009 Women and Social Media Study research shows that women turn to blogs for product information and reviews:

 

Can Mom Bloggers Be Bought?

 

I was standing in one of the most packed rooms I'd seen at the BlogHer conference.  No, It wasn't one of the famous parties, it was the session titled "Sponsored or Unsponsored - Blogging for $$ - Where Do You Stand?"

The standing room only crowd that spilled out into the hallway was there to address one of the biggest issues at the conference - how can advertisers/brands and bloggers work together to spread the word about products.

There are really two big issues around bloggers and brands working together: