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Marketing to women: It’s time to get it right

Marketing geared towards women has dramatically evolved over the years. Before, marketers seemed to see women as caricatures of themselves who needed beauty products, clothing, and cleaning products to survive. But in today’s society, many have recognised that women change societies and are often the driving force behind societies. Today, women have much more representation which has improved marketing towards them, but some marketers still haven’t gotten it right. If marketers fail at representing women properly, and respectfully, the brand loses money and customers. To have effective marketing campaigns geared towards women, marketers need to take note of a few key tips.

Make it interesting

This is an important skill and technique to use in all forms of marketing, as marketing campaigns need to be attention-grabbing. But when creating a marketing campaign geared towards women, using a story to make the campaign peak their interest is a very good trick to use. Women, more so than men, will form an emotional connection to a brand if the marketing campaign conveys a message or highlights things they are passionate about. For example, women with strong motherly instincts will most likely be drawn to marketing campaigns that include babies. But marketers need to remember that not all women are motherly and like soft, cuddly things. Knowing which stories would work best for your target audience requires you to know your audience.

Marketers should know their target audience

In this past, and still today in some cases, marketers have made the mistake of marketing to all women as if they share a single personality or interest. Using one marketing technique or campaign on an entire gender has been proven to be ineffective seeing that women, being human beings, do not have the same personality or interests as all other women. To create a successful marketing campaign geared towards women, marketers need to understand the type of women in their target audience. To do so, marketers could set up meetings, focus groups, and create questionnaires to determine their interests, their dislikes, how they receive content online, and their decision-making processes when purchasing a product or service.

Marketers should know their target audience

Represent women

To create a successful marketing campaign, marketers need to represent women in the campaigns. If the campaign uses models, it should be diverse women. By doing so, the target audience will feel seen and build trust with the brand. Having the target audience trust the brand is important as this makes them more likely to support a brand that ‘sees’ them. Women should not only be represented in the campaigns, but also behind the scenes. This means employing women in the marketing teams and valuing their input as they likely share similar experiences, personality traits, and interests as the target audience.

Represent women

Challenge topics that are usually avoided

Marketers tend to avoid topics that affect women such as menstrual cycles, menopause, breastfeeding, contraceptives, and more. These topics are normal parts of the lives of women and shouldn’t be avoided. To cover and challenge these topics, without making women feel exposed or awkward, marketers should aim to focus on the positive aspects and the answers to the questions women may have regarding these topics. This will ensure that there is a safe space around touchy topics and will build trust between the brand and the target audience.

Pink is not the new black

The colour pink is largely associated with girls and women. Although society has made the colour pink feminine, using the colour in marketing campaigns has been done for decades. It’s an overused trend and is not effective anymore as women recognise the intention behind the colour. Using pink, and other soft pastel colours, carry the connotation that women are soft, girly, and fragile. Some women are attracted to this marketing technique, but many have moved on from this stereotype and do not want to be placed in that box.

Marketing to women is not as difficult as it may seem. Marketers need to remember that women, the same as men, as diverse and cannot be targeted with blanket marketing campaigns. To create a successful campaign geared towards women, markets should ensure to know and understand their target audience while making sure to avoid stereotypes and clichés.