Long title, but important to note--- being female friendly doesn't mean pink splashy backgrounds, flowery wallpaper or promises of perfume and chocolate, although it could. Those are all images associated with women, and some sites use them successfully. But, for the men out there, and the sites that sell services or technology products, getting women to your site to buy from you requires some thought. Here are 5 tips to get you started:
1. Compliment successful women in your industry. Note something personal about them. It's not hard to get bio information. Google them, it works. For instance, if you Google my name, you get 1, 420 hits. Lip-sticking is at the top (thank you, google) and most of the other links go to articles I've written and pages from my websites, all good sources to find out about me.
2. Offer a loyalty program that actually means something. Women like shopping at places that give them a return on their investment. This could be in the form of a free newsletter that would normally cost them money--i.e.: "After four purchases, you will be eligible to receive xxxx newsletter, normally offered at $$$." Or, let them gather points for purchases. I earn points to complete surveys for Harris Interactive. The points are good for some great products that have nothing to do with Harris Interactive, but give me incentive to fill out every survey they send me because I want one or two of those products.
3. Offer quizzes. Quizzes are fun and informative if you ask relevant questions on your industry needs, and let the women tell you what they think by voting. To get the results, ask for their email addresses. When you email them the results, ask them to opt-in to your monthly newsletter or sales message. Use a soft-sell by including a description of one, just one, thing you can do for them, or one product you offer that they might be interested in.
4. Find a way to allow women to personalize your homepage. Visit the Farmer's Almanac and see what I mean. They allow visitors to set their homepage elements such as city, weather conditions, puzzle of the day, and more. This doesn't change their look or feel, but it gives the woman great stuff about her particular location, birthdays to remember, gardening information, etc, etc.
5. Develop a bulletin board where women can post messages. Encourage interaction. Women like to talk... you will get tired of hearing that, but it's true. We like to share things and discuss things and support each other. You will discover many interesting things about your women visitors if you have a bulletin board for them to post comments on. Don't forget to reply, on the bulletin board, at least once a week.
Chances are, the men who visit your site are interested in many of these things, also. If Jane becomes fond of your site and shares it with Dick, and he mentions it to Jack, Jack is going to check it out because men are competitive. It's all about understanding that being female friendly does not mean alienating Dick...it means helping Jane show Dick that he should be shopping at your site. And, if Dick doesn't mention it to Jack, Jane will. I promise.
Now, what's not to like about that?
Good advise, but I must ask, how do you make a search engine more female friendly?
Posted by: search engine webmaster | April 30, 2005 at 10:49 AM
Yvonne, Great site. And great insights!
Isn't it terrific to see so many highly successful women blogging on business-related topics? When it comes to political and war blogs, the men seem to have that arena all sewed up (with a few notable exceptions). But I am thrilled to see so many great blogs by women on business subjects -- and each blog is so interesting in its own way!
Best,
Anita
Posted by: Anita Campbell | June 08, 2004 at 09:40 AM