Whether the market is teen girls, millennials, baby boomer women or pensioners in their golden years, women at every level are enthusiastic shoppers whom advertisers can’t afford to repulse with inept marketing campaigns.
Currently, women spend £7 trillion pounds annually, serving as the purchasing agents for their entire household. However, they don’t make the decisions at ad agencies and only 3 percent of creative directors are women. The discrepancy is glaring when paired with reports that women don’t see themselves depicted genuinely in advertising. Researchers with Insights in Marketing report that women don’t feel understood by marketers and that many messages don’t effectively resonate.
Here are five ways to avoid turning off your female audience and improve your marketing messages to them:
SOCIALIZE WITH WOMEN ONLINE
Female users dominate nearly all social media platforms. One in five women shop online daily and more than 90 percent are willing to pass on information about products, sales, brands and experiences by sharing on places like Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. This isn’t surprising since women are known for being relationship oriented. In order to build loyal followings and increase brand awareness, businesses should consider shifting a percentage of their marketing to women on social media platforms, and follow them and engage them with retweets, question and answer sessions, contests and polls.
ABANDON STEREOTYPES
Women often recoil from ads that showcase their gender in a clichéd or stereotypical way, such as the happy soccer mom and homemaker or the simple adoring wife. Marketing stereotypes can also include consistently using women with a certain look, in a certain environment or with certain props. Because women are multidimensional, they like to see brands rotate female imagery to include all of life’s scenarios and the complex daily nuances of womanhood; imagery, for example, can evolve to show women as athletes, science geeks, business professionals, college students, technology enthusiasts as well as the domestic or spouse. Ad executives should consider new settings for women when depicting them in print, digital or televised ads – possibly by polling women to see exactly where and how they creatively use certain products rather than simply assuming. Showing women of diverse ages, sizes, looks and personalities can also help companies rise above clichés when marketing to women.
AVOID FANTASY
Just as a businesses should steer clear of stereotyping, they also should sidestep fantasy. Research shows that women who were sold a fantasy of ‘having it all’ decades ago now realize that dream is impossible and want advertisers to present their strivings on a more realistic level. Rather than showing a woman who is the celebrated boss at work, the perfect household manager and the sexy spouse all in one, women would like to see imperfect lives in advertising. They can relate to women who are good at one or two things but not everything, women who are overwhelmed but holding things together, somehow, and women who are satisfied with doing just enough to keep life in balance. What they can’t relate to is an unattainable ideal. So, don’t be afraid to feature flaws when marketing to women.
GO GREEN
Women have become increasingly conscious of their family’s impact on the environment. Often, they are the ones who sort the recycling bins and look for energy saving appliances. They are also the ones who consider brands that back environmental issues and that are earth-friendly. To improve how women respond to your brand, integrate green causes into your mission and your messages.
APPEAL TO AUTHENTIC FEMALE PERSONALITIES
Marketers can tune into the psyches of female audiences by moulding marketing messages to the five psychological profiles of women identified below:
Experience Seekers (16 % of women) This category of women has independent taste and refuses to have her opinion about products shaped by overt advertising. Instead, she is motivated by experience – the desire to have pleasure and enjoyment. This type of woman wants to try the product and compare a range of products to see which ones provide the right level of fulfillment for her life.
Stress Mitigators (17 % of women) This personality type is motivated by products that can calm and balance the chaos of her life because she is frequently stressed out and lacks support.
Routine Lovers (20 %of women) Women in this category operate according to predictable patterns and regimens. They prefer highly reliable products that can also be consistent, particularly in quality and usability.
Traditionalists (21 % of women) A conservative group, this personality type includes women who adhere to custom, family values and religion. They are nurturers attracted to products that allow them to improve their home or better serve family and friends.
Achievers (21% of women) High achievers are the busiest of all the female personalities. They are goal seekers who perform at a high level of excellence and like products that are top notch.
To learn more about marketing to women download the free book “Getting Women to Buy” by Insights in Marketing, here .