• by Maria Bailey , Columnist, January 11, 2019

If you have any skin in the game for selling product to moms, here are five marketing tactics to consider in 2019 for improved sales and brand awareness.

1)    Acknowledge that 2019 is the Year of the Gen Z mom.
The Generation Z woman will turn 26 years old in 2019, which means that she will reach the average age of first-time moms in the U.S. This fact is particularly important to companies focused on prenatal moms because those brands have already missed the opportunity with some Gen Z moms. In short, take the time to start focusing some of your energy on preparing your products, marketing, and strategy on the very different Gen Z mother.

2)      Improve how you use Instagram to connect with mllennial moms.
If you are a brand seeking out Instragrammers who are moms with the largest number of followers, you could be leaving results on the table. This approach is no different than throwing a cast net of banner ads on websites in 2001.  Numbers of followers does not equate to engagement, influence, or particularly, results. Find the mom Instagrammers who match your brand’s values and who have true engagement with audiences across multiple social platforms. It takes more time, but will produce greater results.

3)      Reevaluate your brand ambassadors.
If you have brand ambassadors who you pay to say good things about your brand, they aren’t true ambassadors. By definition, your loyal brand evangelist should love your product so much that she will praise you without being paid.  She loves you so much that even her followers know she is a true brand fan.  Find the right ambassadors and increase your return on investment fourfold.

4)      Increase your IRL mom marketing.
If you had to look up the definition of IRL, you probably aren’t doing it and may not know your consumer well.  Moms want to engage with brands in real life.  With oversaturated social media lives, moms are looking for physical relationships with other mothers and brands. It may be using a retail wall to capture an Instagram-worthy shopping experience or an in-store taste testing, but IRL strategies work.

5)      Jump on the DIY trend.
It’s only going to grow with the growth of the Gen Z mom population, so now’s the time to get on board the do-it-yourself train.  Empowered and fiscally and environmentally conscience, millennial and Gen Z moms seek out new ways to repurpose products and demonstrate their creative and innovative spirits.  Pinterest remains a go-to for new ideas and inspiration and is very brand-friendly to marketer-generated content.

The new year is certain to get off to a good start with a little tweaking of your old marketing to moms strategies and tactics.  To motivate the change, I offer my favorite saying by an anonymous source: “ If you do what you have always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.”  Now is the perfect time to change if you want to improve on your 2018 results.