Marketing to Moms: Discovering a new target group online

In times of overmarketed standard target audiences, everyone is trying to find new potential in niche audiences. The new trend is not about a niche per se, because moms are a large segment in general. But not on the net. Online, this segment is not yet properly covered and targeted, even though some studies seem to point out the obvious.

In Germany, there are several sites competing for this apparently very lucrative target audience. Two that I know of are netmoms.de and mamiweb.de. Looks like there is a real run on covering this segment all of a sudden.

Caff now pointed me to several posts/stories about marketing to moms on the web:

The impact of her purchases or what she touts can spread on the Internet far beyond her e-mail list or blog. If your product or service passes the Alpha Mom test, it’s gold. That’s why the nation’s biggest marketers, from Procter & Gamble to General Motors to Nintendo, are focusing on this remix of the modern mom.

The combined study found that 69 percent of online moms subscribe to 1 to 5 retail emails. The study also reported that 86 percent subscribe for discounts and coupons. Also, online moms are more likely to click through emails that include product pricing (62 percent) and photos (61 percent).

When marketing to moms, you need to take advantage of the networks they build. Moms love to talk about what they’re buying, so if you have a good product or message, the word will spread. Virtually all new moms join some sort of play group or support group, so it’s wise to get your message across to these members.

If moms are your target market, you can forget about trying to buy their loyalty with cutesy graphics or long-winded offers. Today’s email-savvy moms respond to price discounts and free shipping in email messages from a handful of trusted senders.

The Omnivores of Web 2.0

A TechCrunch post on the new Pew Internet & American Life Project study mentions the increasing digital divide amongst the internet use population in the US. One thing I found quite funny was the name for the 8% top internet users. They’re called omnivores, because they consume everything, no questions asked.

8% of people are considered to be “omnivores” which the study describes as being Web 2.0 devotes, highly engaged with video online and digital content; “creative participants in cyberspace”.

That’s me, I guess!

A study about user revolution

This seems interesting and obvious at the same time – a study about user revolution:

The report defines user revolution as a major trend that is happening primarily with consumers, who are taking control of content consumption and branding. The historically passive consumer is changing rapidly, not only becoming more informed and confident about purchase decisions, but also increasingly taking control of the consumption of information and content that used to be distributed by networks, studios, publishers and retailers […] We believe this will cause a significant rise in prominence of the Internet as a major content consumption and marketing medium.

The „news“ is from a report by Piper&Jaffrey. They list 12 key findings, such as predicted online advertising growth rates over the next few years (around 20% per year), the rise of communitainment (careful: new buzzword!), the rise of Usites (another one!) – sites with user generated content, and the increase of video ads.

At the end, they list the companies most likely to profit from these trends:

Google (and YouTube), Yahoo!, Disney, News Corp., Time Warner, Microsoft, InterActive, Facebook, Craigslist, Brightcove, Yelp, SINA Corp., Baidu, aQuantive, ValueClick, 24/7 Media, Netflix, Wikipedia, MobiTV, Digg and Hakia.