Moms are the single most powerful group of consumers in the world. That’s because they are not only buying for themselves, but for their spouses or partners, and especially their children. Moms control the family budget in most cases, which means they are the primary financial decision makers in most households around the globe.
Their key buyer status means moms are a major focus of marketers. Marketing industry professionals understand that if you can find a way to attract moms to a new product or service, then you’ve hit a major gold mine.
How to Market to Moms
Marketing to moms can be a challenge given that this segment encompasses a broad range of demographic categories. Mothers can be Millennials, as well as come from a variety of cultural or socioeconomic backgrounds. There are some traits that nearly all moms share, and it’s these shared characteristics that offer some of the best opportunities to connect with and market to moms. In this post, we’ll take a deeper look at how to market to moms. Let’s get started!
Moms Love E-commerce
American moms made almost 90% of their overall purchases online in 2015. This is notably higher than the 76% online purchasing rate of Americans as a whole.
There are a number of reasons for this trend, but the primary reason that moms love ecommerce is the time and convenience of online shopping. Moms today are busy juggling jobs, children, and personal time, so being able to order the light bulbs and holiday gifts online is a huge time saver.
Another reason moms are flocking to make purchases online is that many retailers and businesses today are offering better deals than they are in their brick and mortar outlets. Savvy moms across the country have caught onto this trend, and are increasingly taking advantage of these too-good-to-resist online deals.
Moms Stay in Touch Using Social Media
Moms are 20% more likely to use social media than the average consumer in the United States. Millennial moms in particular belong to 3.4 social networks each, on average.
Facebook remains the platform of choice for mothers as well. In fact, more than 60% of moms visited Facebook more than twice a day in 2015. Note that this 60% is a notable increase from the 47% of moms who logged into Facebook more than twice a day in 2014.
Moms Are Key Influencers in Social Networks
Given their propensity to utilize social media, it’s only reasonable to expect that mothers will also be key influencers on social networks. For example, most moms undertake online research, utilize peer reviews before buying, and also typically share their experiences online with others.
This means that business owners trying to increase their penetration of this segment would be well advised to try to tap into “mom bloggers” as key influencers to spread their message.
Visual Marketing Works Best for Moms
Mothers are engaged by visual content and this presents an opportunity for marketers. Keep in mind that 38% of Millennial moms use Pinterest and 33% spend time on Instagram. Millennial moms are also the biggest overall Pinterest users, with 43% of this group having later purchased an item they saw on Pinterest.
What this boils down to for marketers is that they need to stay focused on engaging moms with exciting and visual content and branding that aligns with their needs and motivations.
Moms Love Their Mobile Devices
Mothers are keen on using their mobile devices throughout their buying process and you can expect most moms—especially Millennial mothers—to be pretty tech savvy, and use their smartphones for more than just phone conversations and texting. Recent surveys suggest that American moms spend an average of 2.3 hours per day on mobile devices, compared to just 1.4 hours a day watching TV and 1.4 hours a day using desktop computers.
According to a number of industry analysts, mobile-oriented marketing campaigns focusing on moms (especially Millennial moms) are going to be a major trend throughout 2016.
Focusing Your Efforts on Marketing to Moms
Marketing experts emphasize that virtually every retail segment needs to increase its emphasis on marketing to moms. Business owners in relevant industries would be wise to take a very close look at their marketing plans for 2016 and make sure that they are targeting this segment and reaching them in the areas that they can be found the most.
Targeting mothers on social media and on their mobile devices is a great place for business owners to start, given how much time moms are spending in these areas. Take a look at your current marketing efforts in relation to the information above as a way to create an effective marketing strategy that will best allow you to start reaching out to mothers today!
