Building & Marketing Websites to Women

A lot of discussion takes place in the web development and marketing world about the best ways to build and develop websites that are targeted to women and mothers alike. Stacy Morrison, editor-in-chief of RedbookMag.com – an online magazine dedicated to professional women, states that although people try and build websites that talk to mothers and women personally, they normally end up ‘talking at us’ and in turn fail to create a conversational style of website that truly engages with its viewers.

In terms of marketing, an interesting metric is that women control over 80% of the household spend according to consumer reports, that means that women hold the key to the success or failure of many house hold brands and services. Without using an effective strategy to build and maintain your online presence, it will be increasingly harder to engage with this substantial audience and maintain a relationship with them that facilitates your real life sales and online strategy.

So what are the best ways to engage with women and mothers alike on a website?

First of all, you need to look at the business requirements of your website. Are you going to be selling a product or service online? Or will you be providing an information resource with the aim of advertising to women as your source of revenue? The design & development process of both of the above will be significantly different. Once this is established, a foundation can be made for working out how your layout and design will interact with the visitors to not only provide relevant content, but content that they will truly engage with.

Secondly, your website architecture will be fundamentally different to that of a website geared towards the corporate world or generic audiences. Women are increasingly adopting social media and the web at a much faster rate than any other demographic, they are highly sophisticated and know exactly what they are looking for – you need to make sure your design and information architecture reflects this, as usually you only have a matter of seconds to convey your message before the user continues their search journey for the correct information. You need to get your website right from the moment go, or risk losing visitors to the competition.

You also need to make sure your content is engaging. The content you publish needs to not only share your point of view, it needs to incorporate what others may be thinking and cater to the idea of creating conversational copy to in turn get the reader thinking, evaluating and making purchase decisions on your website. No one likes to be ‘talked to’ they prefer to be ‘talked with’ – doing this will dramatically increase the conversion potential of your content.

Interesting facts about women and the internet:

Source is Flossie.com (leading ad network targeting women) from 5000 people surveyed. 

• For online women the Internet is No1
• Online women find the Internet more important than any other medium for: Researching topics Shopping ideas Inspiration
• The Internet does effect their choices and attitudes, however this is reflective on their age Social media plays an active role in their Internet use.
• There are clear trends when correlated against age, however some activities are ageless Magazine/women websites are held in high regard as a source of inspiration
• Advertising in an environment that is relevant to these women, will lead them to respond more favourably to your brand

Interesting facts about marketing to mothers

Source: The 21st Century Mum Report

• 85% of mums say having a baby changed their purchasing habits.
• 73% say it changed their purchasing criteria
• 62% say it changed the brands they purchase.

What products do women research or buy online?

 

What does this mean?

It means that your online marketing initiatives need to really factor in the female audience, especially if you are in one of the categories above.

Are you thinking of building a website geared towards women or mothers?

Wiliam have experience in building websites to specific demographics, we use market research, usability testing and competitor analysis to ensure that the end product will be highly geared towards your target market. Should you wish to discuss further how you could successfully design and market a website geared towards women, we would be happy to work with you throughout the process to ensure your online project has the foundations to succeed.