Marketing Specifically to Women – Why It Can Be So Beneficial
Nowadays, if you want to improve business sales, you first need to deliver high-quality products. With the power women have when it comes to business purchases, you can then boost your sales by optimizing your marketing efforts to this subsect of the market.
“Women now drive the world economy,” writes Michael J. Silverstein, senior partner in the Boston Consulting Group’s Chicago office and Kate Sayre, partner in BCG’s New York office, on Harvard Business Review blog. “Globally, they [women] control about $20 trillion in annual consumer spending, and that figure could climb as high as $28 trillion in the next five years.”
Millennial women in particular spend about one-third of their salary on shopping, according to some market statistics. Currently, women are spending more than $7 trillion annually on shopping in the US alone, which is quite higher than others subsets of the market.
If you want to increase your business sales, investing resources in advertising and marketing specifically targeted at women is vital.
Tap into the Vibrant Female Economy with Marketing
It is projected women will soon control two-thirds of consumer's wealth, representing an increase in real spending of $12 trillion in the next 10 years, per an A.T. Kearney Consumer Wealth and Spending study. This is a huge opportunity that means factoring women’s needs in all your business and marketing efforts is no longer an option.
Oftentimes, marketers ignore women and spend disproportionally more time on male consumers and then they wonder why they failed to improve their sales.
Whether you are selling cars, health supplements or digital products, investing resources in marketing and advertising to women is absolutely crucial.
Let's discuss key issues and potential benefits of marketing to women.
Key Issues and Benefits of Marketing to Women
Understand the XX and XY brains
Men and women are markedly different in terms of their neural development. Men and women have intrinsically different XY and XX brain cells respectively, which may explain their often different consumer behavior, interests and preferences.
The female brain is also said to be four times faster in certain tasks than the male brain. For example, it is widely accepted women are better multitaskers than men. You can use some of these differences and unique strengths to your advantage when marketing to women, say, in your choice of visual marketing stimuli.
Do your research to know exactly what makes women in your industry tick and what triggers their responses the most. Hiring a female marketer that understands women well can also prove useful. Women are said to be more intuitive and better in communication-related tasks than men.
If you are developing a targeted strategy for marketing to women, these considerations are important to bear in a mind.
Pink may not be as effective as you might think
It’s important to be cautious of clichés when marketing to women.
Many businesses and companies advertising to women use pink as the predominant color in their marketing materials. This is often a lazy move as it often indicates you haven’t put any efforts in research and collecting other useful data about your target customers.
Going this lazy, cliche route in marketing could result in you promoting your business according to a widely accepted male viewpoint rather than the actual preference of the female consumers you are targeting, which isn't going to be as effective.
Instead, research, analyze and use a data-driven approach to marketing to women. This way you will deliver precise, well-presented and interesting marketing messages that resonate and attract female consumers in your space. Marketing to women interested in sports is not the same as marketing to women interested in fashion trends. Know who you are marketing to.
A research-based marketing strategy is relevant. It requires you to do something extra in terms of research and understanding your customers to improve conversions. Women are not all the same.
What about stereotypes?
Women complain of being overly subjected to stereotypes and objectification in media. Don’t be one of those marketers and business owners perpetrating this crime in marketing by constantly misrepresented women in your promotions.
Avoid stereotypical gender roles and characteristics in your marketing materials and promotions, including advertisements that suggests a specific activity is inappropriate for women because it is stereotypically associated with men, or vice-versa.
If you want to do something extra, consider the predominant stereotypes of women in your industry and maneuver around them cautiously and carefully, depending on the message you want to deliver. So, if you are that marketer that thinks it’s funny to feature a belligerent, high maintenance woman in your ads, it isn’t. It’s actually a very frustrating gender marketing stereotype everyone should avoid.
Playing into stereotypes of women won’t attract more of the female consumers you want.
Segments of the female demographic matter
Bear in mind that if you want to create a viable business, your marketing strategy should be on point. This calls for you to pay close attention to the life stages and age brackets of your target customers. In this case, your female target customers.
Most women consider certain issues, topics and problems more important to them at different stages of their natural development than at other stages in their life. A relationship issue with a boy may seem (and be considered) more pressing to a teenage girl than it would be for a 40-year-old woman.
Each woman follows different purchasing behaviors, interests, and other responses based on, among other things, the stage they are at in life and their personal development. Craft your marketing message with this in mind to attract a lot more of your target consumers.
Make sure you are targeting the right segment of the female demographic and delivering something appropriate and positive for members of that segment of the market. This means your choice of language, tone and writing style should appeal to the customers you are targeting.
Storytelling can be quite effective
Nothing is quite as effective as storytelling in marketing these days. It is a winning marketing strategy right now. If you want to create the brand appeal, trust and reputation required to succeed in business, then you need to master the art of storytelling in your marketing campaigns. It will make your business shine.
A good marketing story can last for years in the minds of people. So, be deliberate and meticulous in creating creative, credible and captivating stories about your business and products that represent what you do in good light. This will catch the attention of women in the market.
Factor in consumer behavior and trends
Always be aware of what’s happening in and around your industry. Keep abreast of all trends and talking points happening in your industry.
What is the hot topic and current thing sweeping across your industry? What are the attitudes of your potential female customers towards trending social movements? What are they talking about most in your niche? What would they like to see happen or offered in the industry?
It's crucial for marketers of all stripes to stay on top of consumer trends. You don’t want your business campaigns and product offerings to come across as dated and out of touch with current realities and sentiments. So, make sure you understand the underlying values that drive consumers toward certain products and services and away from others.
Keep in mind understanding the underlying consumer values and behavior is important because consumer values evolve over time. For example, some analysts argue that our focus on acquiring physical objects is shifting toward the consumption of experiences instead. This consumer trend is consistent with research that shows experiential purchases provide greater happiness and satisfaction.
Did you know that?
Keep an eye out on competitors' moves
Make sure that you are also monitoring your competitors and striving to stay a step ahead of them. This is why focusing your marketing efforts to target women specifically is important. It will give you a marked edge over those marketers who are not doing this.
Use different strategies and tools to monitor your competitors, including following competitors’ social media channels, enrolling in your competition's mailings and promotions, and using competitors analysis and reporting tools like SEMrush, Alexa and Moz.
Don’t forget to pay attention to individual marketers and influencers in your niche and related industries. Study what they are up to and how effective it is. You can learn a lot from them to improve your own marketing campaigns simply by observing their strategies in action.
Bottom line
A business’ success depends on the quality of its products and marketing strategies. And, in this day and age, your business' success may ultimately come down to how effectively you win business from women and inspire loyalty to your brand from your female customers.
