Want to Market to Moms? Get Online

By Rieva Lesonsky

The image of mom as an old-fashioned traditionalist needs to fall by the wayside—at least, if you’re hoping to market to her successfully. Today’s moms, especially those with very young children at home, are embracing the digital world and increasingly researching, shopping and sharing product information online.

eMarketer recently reported on two studies about moms’ online shopping behavior and here’s what they found. In an Eric Mower and Associates survey, more than half of new mothers said they now spend less time watching TV (59 percent) and reading magazines (55 percent); 59 percent also spent less time shopping in stores. The percentages didn’t change much among moms with more than one child or who had older children.

So where were moms spending more time? On the Internet, where 25 percent of moms said they are going online more. And what are they doing there? Shopping: 33 percent of moms said they spend more time on ecommerce than before having kids.

But being smart consumers, moms aren’t just buying—they’re also using the Internet to do lots of research before they ever make a purchase. A separate survey by BabyCenter, reported by eMarketer, found that when it comes to comparing prices, searching for coupons or deals, comparing product features, getting product ideas and recommendations, deciding where to buy and actually finding a store, moms were more likely to use websites to do each of these things than they were to use retail stores, traditional media or their mobile phones.

Mobile phones are quickly picking up speed, however. For instance, 28 percent of moms used mobile phones to compare prices; by comparison, just 15 percent used traditional media like newspapers and magazines to do so. Sixteen percent used phones to figure out where to buy, and 29 percent used phones to find physical stores, compared to just 9 percent who used traditional media.

As moms’ kids get older and Mom is chauffeuring them to more activities, moms are even more likely to rely on mobile devices to get information, advice and directions. (That’s not from the survey, but just my own observation from knowing a lot of moms.) What does all this mean to your business?

First, digital clearly needs to become a bigger part of your marketing mix than traditional media, if it isn’t already. For many businesses, making sure your business comes up quickly in local search engines like Local.com or Google Places is becoming more important than having an ad in the Yellow Pages or local paper. Once you’ve got those basics down, consider offering your customers deals and discounts via mobile phone, whether that’s text messaging or sending your email newsletters and offers in a mobile-optimized format.

Moms’ adoption of digital and mobile shows no signs of slowing down, so your efforts to keep pace with them shouldn’t, either.

Image by Flickr user goodncrazy (Creative Commons)

This entry was posted on Friday, January 27th, 2012 at 6:00 am and is filed under Email Marketing, Marketing, sales process, Search Marketing, Small Business, small business, Social Media, Technology, Web Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.


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