Former British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher is known to have said; “If you want anything said, ask a man. If you want anything done, ask a woman.” Who Gets It Women get it. They’ve always gotten it. In a long ago century (1800s) Harriet Beecher Stowe said, “Women are
real architects of society.”
Women are doers of family, of office, of world. It’s precisely because women get it, and because we are doers, that it’s important for small businesses venturing onto Internet to understand women’s market – a market that isn’t about male bashing, but about embracing new technology. Today it’s about getting your marketing and sales message in front of Jane, not Dick.
Be Friendly The numbers don’t lie; more than 63% of online sales last year were made by women.
Being “female-friendly” isn’t all that hard. Women just want you to treat them with respect and consideration. Online that means using marketing elements women find useful and attractive; elements such as navigational text-links, not graphics that make us guess what you mean. Elements such as showing women on your homepage what you’re about, right in that prime real estate section—the center of computer screen. And, if you’re reading that e-mail marketing is dying a slow death, let me paraphrase Mark Twain: death of e-mail marketing has been greatly exaggerated. Women are prime users of e-mail.
Women share advice in e-mails, they distribute information, and they talk about where to buy best stuff. By targeting women’s market you increase your reach extensively because any woman who reads your ad and likes what she sees, will share it with others far more often than any man will do so. My own daughter recently clicked on an e-mail sales message, found something she liked, bought it – online-- and then wrote to tell me about it.
Being friendly means generating trust. Any sales and marketing expert will tell you that trust is a prime factor in making sales. People buy from people they trust. Women especially need that trust factor. Make friends with women by creating loyalty programs, by offering free shipping, and by asking for feedback. Keep an 800# on your homepage and on your catalog or product page. At very least, make sure you have a contact method with an auto-responder that will follow up any e-mail question within 24 hours.
It’s time to put away childish toys and thoughts. That old Dick and Jane world of marketing to men only, once so popular in 20th century, belongs in history books, not in your marketing plans. If you rely on Dick to buy your products, you will be cutting out more than half of your potential market. Fully 63% of shopping done online last year was done by (women) Jane, not by (men) Dick.
