5 Critical Trends For Marketing To Women

The female market is the fastest growing, largest segment of consumers worldwide with money and buying power. And they cross over into almost EVERY brand. Check this out … Women today represent the majority of the online market. According to Mindshare/Ogilvy & Mather, when it comes to women and their digital habits …

• 22% shop online at least once a day
• 92% pass along information about deals or finds to others
• 171: average number of contacts in their email or mobile lists
• 76% want to be part of a special or select panel

If you want even more proof that women are an economic force to pay attention to, here ya go …

• Most family incomes are dual, but the female spends 85% of the COMBINED money;
• Women buy 66% of all small consumer electronics;
• 65% of all new car purchases are made by women;
• 70% of all new businesses are opened by women;
• Single women account for 20% of all new home sales …

And the list goes on! The top 5 emerging trends for marketing to women you should be paying attention to. (Psst! What I'm going to share with you actually relates to men as well. You won't alienate them as long as you don't douse your marketing in lace and pink.) 1) Women love their smartphones. Being on the go and staying connected has become a way of life for women (and men). According to a study done by Nielsen, by the end of 2011, 1 in 2 Americans will have a smartphone. A smartphone is a phone that also has Internet, email, PDA (personal digital assistant). That means we're taking in information not only at home or in the office but also on the go. That gives us as consumers more opportunities to take in information. I don't think I have to explain why that's important to you as a marketer, but I will. We have more opportunities to be in front of our target market via smartphone … if we know what we're doing. So having a website that's congruent with a much smaller mobile screen works to your advantage. Here are some tips: a) Websites should load very quickly, so be sure your graphics aren't oversized. b) Video auto-launch becomes more of a no-no with this medium. Imagine being in a meeting, at a movie, or surfing the web only to have a disembodied voice interrupt. It's rude and disruptive. c) Your copy should be shorter and punchier. Following the fundamentals of quality copywriting is more important now than ever. It simply needs to be placed in smaller chunks for a 2" screen. 2) Video killed the sales letter. Well, not really. There is still a stronghold in marketing for the long copy sales letter … and there always will be because of how we as humans are designed to make decisions. (That is a topic for another article.) Only now, it's also transferred to another medium … video. Nevertheless, you need a script with a strong opening, bullets about what's in it for them (in other words, what the benefits are), and a call to action – whatever that may be. Copywriting at its best is conversational and should be read aloud anyway. So learn to write direct response scripts to get what you want. 3) Feminize your copywriting language. Backing away from confrontational and moving toward relationship marketing is what's in vogue. There are MANY distinct differences between masculine and feminine copy. I can't cover them all here, but here's an example. Masculine copy uses much more emotionally aggressive language, whereas feminine copy uses emotionally bonding language. (Caveat: bonding doesn't mean boring. You still need to use action words that make her feel emotion, but you don't need to scream at her.) MASCULINE EXAMPLE: "If you are a whining, complaining baby who needs your hand held constantly, this program is probably not for you." FEMININE UPDATE: "This program doesn't work well for those who expend a ton of energy telling you why something won't work instead of trying new ideas." The lessons for the feminine update are these: a) The message is the same but without the "yelling" tone rnb) One of the techniques is to make her feel safe by deciding to try this new skill rnc) No name-calling or bullying in the feminine versio Use uplifting words and phrases rather than negative or harsh, in-your-face ones. But you must still have a call to action and follow the rules for direct response marketing to get results. Simply soften the edges, if you will. 4) Share personal things about yourself to set yourself apart. Women don't do business with companies as much as they do business with people. Sure, there is brand loyalty to bigger companies, but often that's because that company took the time to create a persona. It's much more interesting to hear about your real life as well as your business tips. So what are you into? Pets? Music? Travel? Whatever it is, use it to spice up and personalize your copy. And, this trend if you're in the information marketing world or are creating a service or product based on your personality for women … 5) More people writing their own copy to maintain their own relationship with their community. You are un-imitatable. NOBODY can do you better than you. That's one of the reasons I don't get uptight about people modeling my copy or business. I'm the only Lorrie Morgan-Ferrero there is, so I'm naturally going to be able to express myself about me better than anyone else. And you're the only YOU there is. This is the reason it's so important to know how to write your own copy. Think of all the ways we communicate daily with language … sales letters, articles, blogs, tweets, Facebook, videos … all of these require language and effective copy. Especially if you're looking to create a sales cycle. Your copy should represent you and be delivered with a purpose. In fact, just about every successful guru/marketer out there who I know actually knows how to write his own copy.