Five Ways to Better Market to Women

Although women are not always the shoppers of the house in the 21st century, they still do the majority of consumer spending in America.  Every company should know how to target its product to women.  Not doing so would be a monumental mistake.Here are five tips to help you better target women in your marketing strategies.Tip Number One: Do Not Market to Women as WomenIn other words, do not treat all women the same.  Many companies believe that all women have the same interests and values, and so their advertising becomes very generic and stereotypical.  This is a mistake that you want to avoid at all costs.Women are not one giant group of people who are bound together by their estrogen levels.  Each woman is an individual, with unique desires and goals, and you must market to them as such.  Do email surveys or send out postcards that they can return with their information on them.  Find out what the women in your area like, and what they don’t like.  Find out what makes them “tick”.  You want to get inside the heads of women, not as females, but as the individuals that they are.Tip Number Two: Keep Things SimpleSome companies are still under the impression that women prefer bright, frilly advertisements over information rich ones.  Contrary to this belief, women are quite often the sensible shoppers in the family, and are not usually turned on by shiny things alone.  When you design your advertising literature, try to keep things simple, with lots of product information included.  Women, believe it or not, are most likely to be the ones reading that information and deciding if your product is right for them.I’m not saying that you should print bland, black and white ads with nothing but writing.  You should still invest in quality, commercial color printing.  Just do so with practicality in mind, rather than bright, shiny things.Tip Number Three: Market to Women to Market to MenHuh?  What I mean is this: when you effectively market to women, you are also doing a better job of marketing to men.  This is true for several reasons.  First, women, as we mentioned, do a majority of the spending in this country.  So, if you effectively market your product to women, you are successfully reaching the largest market demographic in the land.  But more importantly, women are more complicated than men.  This means that, if you do what it takes to entice women to buy your product, you have probably done more than it takes to entice men to do the same.Tip Number Four: Do Not “Cut Back” When Targeting Women in Your MarketingSome companies make the critical mistake thinking they can spend less in marketing to women, and still achieve the same results.  If anything, the opposite is true.  As I said, women are more complicated, and usually better informed, than male shoppers.  So, when you get your commercial color printing done, do not skimp on the quality.  Invest in good literature (but remember to keep it simple) and women will notice.Tip Number Five: Use Your Print Literature to Drive Women to Your WebsiteThere are just as many women online these days as men.  However, women are still more likely to be persuaded by traditional advertising literature.  So use this to your advantage, even if you are a web-based company.  Use your brochures, flyers, postcards, and business cards to drive traffic to your website.  Print newsletters and booklets that promote your products, and provide your website address so they can go online and buy what they want.Most companies will benefit from targeting women in their marketing strategies.  It’s worth noting again that if you successful market to women, you will almost definitely increase your success with other demographic groups as well.