What Women Should Expect from a Marketing Department - And It's Not the Color Pink
September 24, 2011
guest post by Amanda DiSilvestro @businessdotcom
As a woman, you would assume marketing to women would be simple. Believe it or not, this does not always come easy to men or to women when it comes to creating company campaigns.
Many marketing departments have set their sights on social media, Ebooks, QR codes, and other emerging ways to advertise, yet they are forgetting about who is receiving these advertisements. Finding your target audience has proven extremely important, but all of the new marketing platforms seem to be taking over the focus of many marketing departments. In other words, I think companies need to go back to the basics and start coming up with more creative ways to market to a specific group of people. So, starting with the best and most interesting—women.
It seems that marketing to women has never been quite as “in the spotlight” as marketing to different cultures or different age groups. However, women have more influence over purchasing than some may realize. According to The Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2010 women made up 46.7% of the labor force. With this new age of working women, it is becoming even more important to know how to market to them, so keep a few of these key tips in mind:
Marketing to Women—A Few Tips All Men and Women Should Keep in Mind
v Marketing is about more than just the way it looks
Sparkling up your ad with pink letters or changing your product to include glitter will not get you very far. Just because pink was coined the feminine color hundreds of years ago does not mean that women inherently love it. When it comes to marketing for women, consider what they need. For example, women are constantly multi-tasking. If your product or service can help this, bring in some examples of when women are forced to multi-task and explain how your company can help. This is not only a practical approach, but it can be flattering.
v Make sure your ads depict real women
In general, men are less sensitive about the way they look. Comedians such as Kevin James, Chris Farley and John Belushi made the overweight guy funny, so over the years this has become more accepted. However, quite the opposite is true for women. Women are constantly bombarded with images that are extremely unrealistic due to plastic surgery, air-brushing, and fad diets.
As a normal woman myself, I think I speak for everyone when I say the skinny 20 year-olds are getting old. If a woman can visualize herself using the product or service then your company has a better chance at her business, and this is easier for her to envision if the woman looks normal.
v Spend a little extra time on the details
Your website, public reputation and customer service representatives usually matter to women (and many men). This may seem obvious, but the details should matter in your marketing campaigns. Do not put all your focus into being “cool” or “laid back.” While a sloppy website may be cool to younger teens, women will not appreciate it.
If you think back to any woman you’ve ever known vs. a man, you would probably agree that women are usually the ones to go the extra step and make a referral. In other words, marketing to women is more than just a onetime sale. If you can master a few of the tips described above, you will likely have a loyal customers and her friends for a long time to come.
Amanda DiSilvestro is a writer on topics ranging from social media to postage scales. She writes for an online resource that gives advice on topics including postal meters to small businesses and entrepreneurs at Business.com.
Absolutely. I know first hand how time consuming it can be to market a product or service, but details are things NOT to be pushed to the wayside!
Posted by: Amanda | September 27, 2011 at 04:05 PM
I really like the last tip on spending extra time on details. If you want to be excellent, all your marketing materials should be excellent too, and this can be clearly shown in your website, your posters, emails, etc.
Posted by: Zsa Zsa | September 26, 2011 at 07:43 AM