Marketing to Women Online

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:

Women - Share Your 10 Most Memorable Business Moments

 

In a previous post about how to use social media to market to women, I discussed the importance of "the cupcake" or the emotional connection between female customers and brands. 

Careerbags.com sells laptop bags and other bags designed specifically for women.  (disclosure:  they are a research partner). Their customers are business women.  But what is the emotional connection between the two?

Every woman in business has experienced certain highs and lows in her career.  Careerbags is asking women to share those stories on their blog by creating a list of your 10 most memorable business moments. 

In return for sharing your list, careerbags.com President -Ellen Hart, who is also a bag designer, will make a personal recommendation to you of a bag she thinks you'll love based on your list.

I have to tell you, I submitted my list and Ellen nailed it - I LOVE the woman's laptop bag she recommended.

As an added bonus, out of all the women who enter their lists, a winner will be drawn to win a free bag.

How To Use Social Media To Market to Women - Part 2

  

One of the most powerful lessons I learned at the Mom 2.0 Summit (other than I need to learn to drink caffeine again to keep up with those crazy ass moms) is how to blend brands and social media so everybody wins.

So here's an important strategy tip for using social media to market to women - Instead of a brand creating an event that she attends, brands can sponsor events/activities she is already doing.  

Instead of asking her to come to you - go to her.

Women lead incredibly full, busy, interesting lives.   They may not have time to go to your event, discussion forum, etc.    Find out what women are already doing and find a way to tie in your product to improve that experience.

Example:

Here's a real life example to demonstrate this strategy. It involves a woman named "Bossy", a cross country blog road trip, and Saturn.

How To Use Social Media to Market to Women - Part `1

I have been to the mountain, and I have seen the future.  And it's pretty frigging amazing.

If you were at the Mom 2.0 Summit, you, too, saw the future of marketing to women, or I should say marketing with women.

Everyone is buzzing about the power of social media.  Advertisers are salivating at its potential.  But I've found few marketers who truly understand how to tap into the full power of social media to sell their products.

Until now.

How to use social media to market to women

In one corner, you have brands, products, services, companies who want women to buy their stuff.

In the other corner you have women having conversations on the Internet - Women writing blogs, on Twitter, on Facebook, in discussion forums, doing research and shopping on the Internet.

What's missing is the emotional connection between the two. 

The biggest mistake brands make is thinking they can talk to women directly about their products.  Now, I know that sounds crazy, but I'm giving you some tough love here. 

Women don't care about your products.   

Women care about what's going on their lives.  Women care about things they have emotional connections with.

Let me give you a real life example.

At the conference, author Katherine Center was promoting her book Everyone is Beautiful.  On one hand, you had myself, a woman at the conference who Katherine wanted to buy her book.  On the other hand, you had her book.  But her book didn't have my attention. 

Being the brilliant marketer Katherine is, she had cupcakes that contained a sign with a quote from the book.   She displayed these on the tables at dinner.   Now, I took the cupcake and sign home to my room. 

Let me tell you, 11 o'clock that night...that cupcake - had my attention.   And I read the quote from the book, and laughed out loud.  So the next day, I went to the conference book store and picked up the book, leafed through it, and bought it. 

People - it's not about the product or the customer, it's about the emotional connection that connects to the two. 

It's about the cupcake.

So now you're craving a cupcake, and saying, Ok Holly, but what does this have to do with social media?

Every minute of every day, women are making emotional connections on the Internet.  They are learning, loving, sharing, connecting and living their lives - online.

If you want to sell your products to them, you need to focus on what women care about, what they're talking about, what they're doing.  Instead of trying to start a conversation, join in the online conversations they're already having. Join in activities they are already doing. 

Find ways to help them achieve their dreams.  Find the emotional connections.

Coming up in my next post - specific examples.

Why Brands Need to Be On Twitter

 

Let me get right to the point.  Love Twitter, hate Twitter, it does not matter. If you are a brand, you need to be on Twitter.

There are many reasons why, but let me give you one big reason -

Your customers are talking about you on Twitter.  You need to join in the conversation.  

Here's a news flash - Twitter is turning into the new Google.  More and more people are using Twitter Search.  Here's what @lewmoorman has to say:

Google used to get 100% of my queries.  Today, I bet Twitter is getting at least 10% of them.  There are some things Twitter is just flat out better at for getting information than Google.     Here are just a few:  researching companies, products and services for real customer feedback, breaking news and live events/conference updates.  It is not a total threat but Twitter is so superior in these areas that people will indeed make the effort to search somewhere new to get the information.  I do.

Instead of going to your big flashy website, customers may be going to Twitter to get the real scoop.

For example -

What Marketers Can Learn From the Success of "25 Random Things"

If you're on Facebook, you've heard of "25 Random Things About Me."   The idea is, you write down 25 things about yourself people may or may not know, then you tag other friends so they can see what you wrote, and write their own list to share with you and their other friends.

I have to admit, at first, I was skeptical - I resisted joining in.  But after reading lists from several of my friends, I got sucked in with entries like:

My first car was a Pinto station wagon. Brown. I called it “The turd”. It blew up.

I left home right before my 16th birthday. Long story. It’s enough to say I made peace with my parents long before I lost them both.

I almost failed 8th grade because I refused to do a single piece of homework. (This from one of the smartest people I know)

My husband is 31 years older than I.

Sometimes when I laugh really hard and really long, I fart.

24. I've written ads that have run in nine countries and had an article translated into Spanish in a tenth. That's crazy to me.

25. The irony of #24 on the one hand and having a son with autism on the other hand smacks me like a rusty shovel every hour of every day.

You can't believe the emotions and memories people have tapped into.  But if you're still thinking this is a bunch of BS - hang on.

Here's why "25 Random Things About Me" works, and how marketers can apply these techniques to their own viral/social media efforts.

1. Built to go viral- Thanks to the Facebook technology and specific instructions at the top of every "25 Random Things" list, you "tag" 25 friends to send the list to.  Facebook's technology makes it super easy to simply choose the friends you want to tag and click a button - instant viral-ability.  

2. Personalization - Every list is different and designed to be the ultimate way for you to express who you really are.  (You're not just passing along something - you're adding your own personal stamp.)  Some of the lists get a little cheesy, but, for the most part, the lists are incredibly authentic.   Personalized authenticity is the name of the game right now.

Life Takes Visa

How do you take a brand pretty much everyone in the civilized world knows and re-brand it after no one's touched the brand for 20 years?

Visa has recently taken on that challenge.   They replaced "Everywhere you want to be" with "Life takes Visa".   

What I found most interesting was - they have made the web and digital media the focus of the new brand roll out.  In Waiting for Your Cat to Bark, Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg talk about how, for many companies, your website will be the centerpiece of your marketing strategy.  Visa appears to have recognized that as well.

A recent OMMA article discussed Visa's new marketing efforts:

The heart of Visa's new online effort is its microsite, LifeTakesVisa.com. The site hosts about 60 video vignettes (each 60 seconds or less) that feel like well-made home movies. The spots, scattered to look like a collection of Polaroids, illustrate that life takes courage, dads, poets, remedies, spontaneity, trust, and more. Viewers can e-mail the clips to friends. It's a simple concept--post a bunch of videos and invite people to send them to one another--but it's attracted a lot of attention.

So how does this online marketing/branding effort impact women?

Soccer Moms with Tattoos

It was quite a sight – dozens of girls the oldest being maybe 16, the youngest 6 – all lined up chatting, laughing, anxiously awaiting their turn – to get a tattoo. 

Now, granted, it was a theme park and the tattoos were not permanent.   But the reason this image stuck with me was because of a conversation I’d had the day before with an online retailer at the Shop.org conference.   We were discussing soccer mom stereotypes and she threw out a figure of the number of “soccer moms” who have tattoos.   The figure was large enough to truly astound me.

So I did some research. In a recent Harris Poll –

• 36% of 25-29 year olds have a tattoo
• 28% of 30-39 year olds have a tattoo
• The numbers are equally split between men and women

By my calculations, that means there are an awful lot of ‘soccer moms’ out there with tattoos. 

Here’s another interesting figure from the survey – 34% of tattooed adults feel sexier than before getting their tattoos.

Here’s one soccer mom’s story about how she changed her mind from finding tattoos offensive, to getting one herself, and how it affected her life.

Thanksgiving Traditions

One of the things I love best about the holidays is family traditions.   Almost every family I know has some beloved tradition full of fond memories.   For some it may be a favorite recipe passed down through the generations, or an annual gathering at grandma’s house.

My family has a tradition, too.  We gather together in the bathroom and shoot tequila.  I know, it may sound like kind of a strange tradition – but it has sentimental roots.  A whole horde of people and family had come down one year to share Thanksgiving with me in Virginia.   My sister flew in from LA where she and her husband had just decided to get a divorce.  When I asked her what she wanted to do for the holiday weekend she replied – “sit on the floor in the bathroom and drink tequila”.    

The Power of Personalization

Can you lose a sale in two words?   Yes, you can.   What two words could be so horrible they’d lose a sale from a willing, qualified prospect?

“Dear Sir”

That’s all it took.   I was not happy with my current lawn irrigation company and was actively looking for another company to replace them.   And – there in my mailbox one morning was a letter from another irrigation company.  I opened it eagerly because I thought – hah!  They’re marketing in this neighborhood, I’ve heard of them, maybe they’re even offering a special!    I was a marketer’s dream – familiar with the brand, in a high state of need, and ready to act now.   Then that letter spoke two words to me…

“Dear Sir”

That was it – I was gone.  I didn’t even read the rest of the letter.  I balled it up and into the trash it went.   Shoot…..into the trash it went.   Damn small trash can opening….into the trash it went.  There.

My neighborhood is littered with single people, retired people, and families, many with stay at home moms and a few single moms.    For any of these families where the woman was the decision maker, or there was no male at all – that letter probably ended up in the same place mine did.  Why?  Those opening words told me one thing – this is a company run by good-old boys. (there are a Lot of them where I live) They want to deal with “the man of the house”.  They don’t want to waste their time with “little ladies” like me.  Now, that may have been a completely false impression – but all that matters in this case is customer perception.