Marketing Mistakes To Avoid
In December, we featured 8 tips to help you in your quest to connect with the women in your audience. I want to thank everyone who responded and shared your stories of success and some really good bloopers. If you missed 8 Tips to Marketing To Women, don’t worry... just scroll down and you'll find them.
So we thought we’d start the New Year off with the flip side, some common mistakes marketers make that can actually scream “turn off” to the females in your audience. So read carefully and we’d love to hear if you’ve made any of these mistakes and how you’ve turned it around!
1) Going Overboard With Unauthentic Drama
Do you remember the Yoplait ads where a couple of women were sitting around talking about Yoplait yogurt like it was the greatest thing on earth? They didn’t work because they were so unauthentic. No one does that. The product was too center stage, and no matter how much you like Yoplait, you don’t sit around and talk about it like you’re talking about the date you had last Saturday night. But I’ve seen radio do this many times too. Promos and TV spots where fake listeners talk about just how much they love their station. It is unauthentic and it does nothing to connect with the listener.
2) Being Insincere and Offensive
Focus on what is important to the women in your audience but make sure the message is authentic. I cannot tell you how many times I hear a male on air personalities making fun of a woman’s size or weight in a mean spirited way. Over 60% of all women struggle with their weight. So believe me… some guy doing middays on your station making fun of Brittney or J-Lo’s rear end is not funny to most women. How can Carson Kressley get overweight women to work with him on his show How To Look Good Naked? He does it with compassion and gentle humor. Know women’s hot buttons, but pay attention to their soft spots too. As a generalization, mean does not work.
3) Avoid Sappiness
It is really easy to go too far. Before doing an emotional TV spot or get too warm and fuzzy, do some testing. You do not want to create an “eye roller.”
4) Don’t Be So Noisy
Women’s senses are sharp and they use them all when absorbing a situation. Listen to your station’s promos. Are they really loud and in your face? Just because you are the loudest or the boldest doesn’t mean you’re being heard. Don’t be loud, be different. Don’t be loud, be real.
5) Understand Women’s Life Stages
There are many differences in the way women filter information based on where they are in their life stage cycle. Understand life stages and know where your audience falls in those stages. Your radio station must stay in sync with the way women think and live. If you are an 18-34 targeted CHR, the women in your audience are at a much different stage in their life than a soft AC audience. If most of your audience is younger, if they have children, they are younger children. So your promotions and marketing must appeal to those life stages. For example, a woman with younger children would probably find it very difficult to go on a week’s vacation without their children. Chances are they don’t have a baby sitter or the extra money it takes to eat and enjoy the trip. You will have better results doing promotions that make that audience’s life easier. Promotions like shopping sprees, purse giveaways and spa treatments all have appeal to younger females. However, older women will jump at the chance to get away for a week. They don’t have the child problem and they have a lot more disposable income.
So know your audience’s life stages and promote accordingly. (If you need more information on life stages, visit www.mstiquemarketing.com)
Create emotion by offering things that they can’t get themselves. Women who are mothers and worried about providing for their children cannot justify buying a $500 purse. Find what they covet but can’t afford, then give it to them. Women love to be pampered, but by the time they care for everyone else, they usually end up sacrificing for themselves. You can create great emotion by connecting with your audience in that way. Take away the guilt and give them what they want, but won’t give to themselves.
Understanding your audience’s life stages is not hard. By using your database, you can gain a great deal of information quickly and inexpensively. If you need help understanding how life stages work and how you can better connect with your audience, let MStique Marketing show you how!
