Sizzling Stats on the Mom Market

If you are looking for some great insight into the world of marketing to moms or marketing with moms, there has been a flurry of good data released over the past week that I would highly recommend reading:

1. Edison Research just released a new report called Moms and Media: 2011. The study examines media habits (as in social media) within the mom market. Not surprisingly, they found that moms are highly active on Facebook, have a higher rate of smartphone adoption, and spend more time online than any other group.

As this post details, Facebook moms are just as integral as mom bloggers, with Moms 40% more likely to follow brands on social media platforms than Dads. If you are a regular reader of this blog, you will notice that this aligns with our own research and thoughts.

2. Move Over Helicopter Parents. iParents are here.

Retrevo asked parents about their iPhone activities and found that iPhone parents have more Facebook friends and tend to be more digitially active than other groups. Even I have to admit that when I moved from a Blackberry to an iPhone I noticed that my own social media activities increased dramatically so the results of this study aren’t terribly surprising.

3. Finally, eMarketer reported that children have a major role in what (American) Gen X parents decide to buy. These consumers (aged 35 to 44) are also said to be more inclined to try new brands and stores if they have a coupon and that these Gen Xers enjoy shopping with their significant others and family.

I personally can’t relate to the latter point. To me, there’s nothing worse than shopping for a child that begs to buy some new bright-and-shiny object with every step you take through the store or be accompanied by a husband that questions every shopping decision thus lengthening the whole trip by at least an hour. But maybe it’s just me.

Eight ways to get your Mom Blogger pitch deleted

How much do you know about this mom blogger?

By Harriet Fancott, Limelite PR Senior Associate

Mom bloggers are prolific writers, social media mavens, entrepreneurs, and caregivers. Many are former professionals, and yet despite this, businesses often fail to treat them as valuable partners in promoting their message.

Here are eight surefire ways to have your pitch ignored:

1) Start your pitch with “Dear Mommy Blogger.” Expect this one to hit the delete bin before she gets to the first line. Personalize all correspondence from the first pitch to followup emails.

2) Don’t read her blog. You can’t fake this part; you need to know who she writes for, what she writes about, if she’s PR friendly, and whether she does reviews or giveaways.

3) Mis-target your pitch. If she writes about healthy food, don’t send a pitch for potato chips. If the blogger is a breastfeeding advocate, you won’t get a glowing review for formula, and you may damage a potential relationship.

4) Send a generic, overly commercial email. Say things like, “You have a great site, and we think Product X would be of interest to your readers.” Your pitch needs to be personable and translate into a fun, relevant or interesting story. Mom bloggers are looking to build community not exclusively promote products.

5) Ask a blogger to do something valuable to you for free. A good pitch offers should be mutually beneficial. A photography studio asking a blogger to include a full-page ad on their blog as a post is not beneficial to the blogger. Another guaranteed “delete,” is to ask for multiple posts right off the bat.

6) Expect a positive review or plug in exchange for a free sample. Mom bloggers need to maintain integrity with their readers, which means writing honestly about products and services. That said, if your offer is of significant value, be clear about your expectations.

7) Write a really long pitch. Mom bloggers, even new bloggers, get a lot of pitches. Don’t waste their time; get straight to the point. Start with your most important points, and put all boilerplate information at the bottom of the email.

Don’t connect via social networking. Pitching to mom bloggers is about relationships. Follow them on Twitter, join their Facebook page, interact and chat with them as people. When your friendly pitch arrives in their inbox, they’ll know who you are and read your email.

Feel free to share your mistakes or tips for pitching to mom bloggers.

Why Twitter marketing is as important as Facebook marketing

By Jeanette Miller, Principal, Limelite PR

As Harriet’s last post outlined, it’s obvious that companies need a Facebook presence if they want to reach moms. But the question many companies are still pondering is “Do we really have to be on Twitter”? When I caught the post Why Facebook Marketing is More Important Than Twitter Marketing on PR Squared, I felt the need to clarify that having a Twitter strategy is as integral as a Facebook strategy if you plan on reaching the mom market.

Why you need a Twitter Strategy

PR Squared’s post includes the results of a study that points out that content shared via Twitter is down from 12 percent to 8 percent. Looking at these numbers alone, you could assume, as PR Square did, that Facebook Marketing is more important than Twitter. But what they did not consider is that 75% of mom bloggers are on Twitter . Note: From personal experience I believe this number to be much higher as it’s rare for us to come across a mom blogger without a Twitter presence.

I agree that there is a limited number of the general mom consumer population on Twitter (our own research indicates that 25% of Canadian moms are on Twitter); however, to effectively penetrate the mom market, you need to identify and reach out to those with the greatest influence: mom bloggers.

Twitter is the water cooler for mom bloggers. It’s the place they go to chat with others like them – mom bloggers and  mom entrepreneurs.

Mom bloggers publish links to their own posts, read and share links produced by other bloggers, leverage their participation in brand campaigns, and  network with brands and businesses. In other words, they tweet like crazy in a participatory, open dialogue manner. Of course, it’s this latter point about networking with brands/businesses that needs the most emphasis when we consider the reasons why you need to be on Twitter.

If you want to work with mom bloggers, leverage their influence, ask them to promote and recommend your brand or company; then yes, you need to build and maintain a relationship with them on Twitter. You need to be part of their water cooler experience.

The best part of having this narrow, bullseye approach is that it provides you with a clear focus on who to follow, what to tweet, and when to be most active.

As you will quickly discover, moms on Twitter use the channel constantly. In addition to using Twitter to talk among themselves, they also use the channel to talk openly about brand experiences – whether or not said brands have a Twitter presence or not. So, in order to gain opportunities that will protect as well as enhance your brand’s reputation, you must interact with this strong and influential community. And the best place to start this relationship is on Twitter.

Are you interacting with moms on Twitter?

Social media rivals email for marketing supremacy

By Harriet Fancott, Limelite PR Senior Associate

Email is still the queen of marketing tactics but social media isn't far behind.

If you’re a small or medium-sized business (SMB), you need to take social media seriously. The latest research by Pitney Bowes in a post by E-marketer indicates that social media is rivaling email in marketing effectiveness for SMBs.

Researchers asked SMBs to rank marketing tactics such as email, social media, direct mail, advertising, QR Codes and mobile marketing based on ease of use, cost-effectiveness, comfort and knowledge, effectiveness, channels used by competitors. Email came up top on almost all parameters and social media was a very close second.

Whereas 60% ranked email first for ease of use, 53% said the same for social media. In terms of cost-effectiveness 59% ranked email first, and 54% said social media.

What can you take from this as a mom-focused business? When we look at statistics around the popularity and use of social media tools for moms, it’s clear that email may be the reigning queen but Facebook, Twitter and blogging are rapidly vying for supremacy.

That said, the research indicated that old-fashioned direct mail campaigns and advertising ranked ahead of social media in “proven effectiveness.” Still we all know how costly direct mail campaigns and print advertising can be, so when you’re looking at bang for buck, social media is clearly the best area to educate yourself, experiment and make connections with moms online.

Consider the stats, which we outlined in our post The Power of Moms: 85% of Canadian moms regularly use Facebook logging into the site two to four times a day. They are connecting with each other, spreading the work about events, issues and brands (47% liking one to five brands, and 25% liking 16 or more brands). Similarly, 25% of Canadian moms and 78% of bloggers regularly use Twitter. It’s easy to see the importance of connecting with an influential segment of consumers, who will re-tweet your messages, enter your contests, and engage in friendly banter.

Moms average 109 word-of-mouth conversations per week about products, brands and services, which is not surprising when you consider that 94% of moms rely on recommendations from other mothers to make purchasing decisions. Moms’ community of peers and friends (including their online community) are the primary source for information and recommendations on products or services, so when you connect with one mom you reach a whole community of moms.

No one is saying dethrone the queen. She’s proven her worth, and will certainly live to a ripe old age. Social media simply adds some much needed sparkle and vitality to her reign.

How does your business connect with moms online?