Commentary

Tune Into Her With 10 Tactics

Research data and philosophical approaches toward engaging mothers are often written about here. Today, I'm going for practical and immediate tips to improve your mom-marketing. Here are 10 ways to immediately impact current and future online marketing programs.

1. Copywriting
Features and benefits are nice, but nothing resonates quite like a story. A story that can help someone envision themselves with your product or service can be as short as a sentence. "When it came time to choose, Molly always picked the one she trusted most."

2. Insight
When conducting research or just talking to customers, be sure to ask open-ended questions where opinions can be expressed and ideas stated in their own terms. "What do you like most about XYZ?"

3. Service
Be quick to respond to service-related inquires, even if it is not yet possible to resolve the issue. The recognition and communication are actually more important. "I've received your message and am looking into the issue. I expect to get back to you within 24hrs."

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4. Contact
Have a real person respond to inquires or at least identify the person handling the inquiry. Nothing is more irritating than an automated message without a human connection. "Hi, my name is Janet and I will take care of you."

5. Data
When creating online forms for users to complete, think about the data that are truly needed. Less is always better. For example, is Last Name really required, or is First Name enough. Many people appreciate some anonymity and privacy.

6. Birth year
Any parent knows that the challenges and joys related to newborns, toddlers, and teens differ significantly. Capturing children's birth years can be very useful data for targeting and customizing messaging for moms according to the parenting life stage they are in. Ask for it, but don't make it a required field.

7. Word of mouth
Sharing news and experiences is something that comes naturally to many moms. Making it easy for them to talk about your business or share a product with friends can go a long way toward success. Online, this means including buttons on web pages to send email, share on Facebook, and post to Twitter.

8. Value
Offer unique value to customers with special coupon codes and customer experiences. The recognition will be appreciated, build loyalty, and often shared with a friend, thus positive word of mouth builds.

9. Web design
Moms are busy people. Create elegantly designed web pages that are aesthetics pleasing, efficient and easy to use. It can make all the difference in engaging a mom with your brand.

10. Email marketing
Defining boundaries and setting expectations are important in any relationship. When asking for a user's email address, be crystal clear with the email opt-in language. Ambiguity here can crush involvement and ongoing attention, while increasing the rate in which people opt out of future communications. If you can give her the ability to pick and control of the types of the messages she receives, all the messages will be all that more relevant and, thus, both parties benefit.

Most of these tactics can be implemented by most organizations with minor adjustments to operations and marketing strategy, but can have a huge marketing impact. They are all detail issues, but extremely worthwhile since moms are tuned into the details of how well your business is tuned into them.

1 comment about "Tune Into Her With 10 Tactics ".
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  1. Tiffany Jonas from The AIO Group | AIO Design LLC, October 27, 2010 at 11:20 a.m.

    I completely agree with all your points! Regarding #5, I personally think Paco Underhill says it best in his book What Women Want: "[A] site that requests too much information too soon is like being chatted up by a creep."

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