How to market to moms

Marketing to mothers to purchase a product can be really dicey. A lot of brand influencers or marketers don’t know how to market to moms. This may not be a result of them not being good at their job, but the challenge of actually getting the attention of moms. Moms are the target audience for several brand marketing and advertising campaigns because they act as decision-makers in the home.

They are mostly in charge of purchasing products that may not even be directly related to motherhood such as pet food, men’s wear, children’s clothing, furniture, household supplies, home decor stuff, etc. This is why many brands focus on winning them over. In a home, moms are the decision-makers for their own products as well as products for their spouses, children, family members, and even their parents and in-laws. Hence, in regard to this, they tend to be the subject of many brand marketing and advertising campaigns.

Research shows that 75 million American moms make or influence 85% of all household purchase decisions. This represents about $2.1 trillion in annual spending power. This shows how much of a value a mom’s attention to a certain product could be. In essence, nowadays, several brands and products are counting on U.S moms to help them survive. However, getting these women to unleash their purse power can be much of a hassle if these marketers don’t know how to convince and connect with them.

The fact is every new brand or already established and existing brand should know that moms of today are not their mom’s moms. If you’re a new brand looking for entry into the market or you’re a brand with an already established presence for decades, one thing you should know is that what worked for moms back in the 1980s will not work for today’s moms. The secret to mom marketing in this time and age is to be engaging, authentic, and valuable.

How you can market to a mom successfully would require some strategy and authenticity. Moms basically want an opportunity to purchase products that fit their style, sensibility, and their own beliefs about their family and children’s needs. Your brand should acknowledge the fact that they don’t just want convenience or low-cost items, they care deeply about their choices in products for their family and household. This should give your brand an insight to always make a meaningful connection with today’s moms and dads.

Let’s discuss some of the tips that could help brand marketing to mothers.

Strategic tips on how to market to moms

1. Understand the generational differences
2. Engage with them
3. Create content that sells out values
4. Interject some humor
5. Don’t limit your mentality to a 9-to-5
6. Try traditional and digital product sampling
7. Concentrate on customer service
8. Create a social media presence

Understand the generational differences

When talking about the generational difference, we are talking about the Millenials vs Generation Z. The Millenials are those born around 1981 – 1996, whereas the Generation Zers are born from 1997 onwards. The moms in these two generations would definitely have some distinct attributes. Thus, in order to have a successful mom marketing, one has to have a plan that would reach out to both the millennials and generation Z moms and also engage them.

Here are some differences between these two generational moms that you can keep in mind for your marketing strategy:

Millennials	Generation Z
The moms in this generation would prefer experiences over products	The moms in this generation are focused on saving money (after all, they grew up in the 2008 recession)
They are mobile pioneers	They are mobile natives
They would prefer to engage with brands that share their values	They prefer to engage with brands that feel authentic
Their social media preference would be Facebook and Instagram	Their social media preference would be Instagram, Tik Tok, and Snapchat

Understanding the difference between Millenials vs generation Z moms will help in your brand’s marketing strategy to get the attention of the moms in these generations and other generations like Gen X (1965-1980) and Boomers II (1955-1964).

Marketers and program developers should be conscious of the fact that today’s moms are smart and savvy, but when it comes to products for their children, they often shop with their hearts. It’s been seen that today’s moms especially the Millenials have very high expectations from brands when it comes to both quality and value. For instance, when it comes to childcare products, they believe their child is unique and distinct and are inclined to think that there’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all product.

Once your brand share discounts or coupons, they are likely to attract generation Z moms because they are drawn to cost-saving opportunities. Moreso, millennial moms are less concerned about celebrity endorsements on a brand compared to Generation Zers. A study showed that these moms clearly stated that their main key purchase influencers are product sampling, recommendations and reviews from other moms, and special offers.

Engage with them

Mothers today don’t just want to be sold to, they want to be engaged. They don’t just want an ad that will reassure them that a product is good, rather they look forward to brands that will engage with them authentically.

When marketing to mothers, it is best to be real with them. Tell them the benefits of the product and give helpful advice that can show how the product can help them. Marketing and convincing moms go beyond just marketing jargon and fancy branded ingredients. What helps to build a strong, supportive relationship between a brand and mom users is an emotional connection that is inspired by authenticity and empathy.

Hence, if you’re trying to win moms over, you must participate directly with them and develop a credible voice that is personal, engaging, authentic, and participatory. You can engage them by helping them connect with your other customers.

Moms tend to drift towards brands that help them connect and converse with other moms. This can be achieved by a brand through blogs, websites, and other social media sites where moms are connecting. Your brands should be able to create tools that will allow moms to interact with each other as they interact with the brand. Then, you can listen to their feedback and make changes accordingly.

Create content that sells out values

The content your brand creates and shares should provide value. Making fun marketing videos and branded storytelling can be used to market to moms but it shouldn’t be the core of your brand’s content marketing strategy. Your marketing strategy should focus on creating content that would render value both before and after the purchase of the product.

Interject some humor into your content

Your content doesn’t need to be too serious and rigid. It is good to find ways in which you can add some humor to your content and social media presence. This can make your brand feel more real and authentic to moms. Moreso, with the avalanche of busy schedules that comes with being a mom, this could help moms with a much-needed break in their day-to-day activities. Make moms laugh because they love to laugh. The sense of humor in women grows out by identifying with another person in a funny situation and being able to relate. Help them to be able to find something they can relate to in humorous situations.

Don’t limit your mentality to a 9-to-5

When mapping out a mom marketing strategy, think beyond the 9-to-5. Being a mother is a full-time gig that could involve them feeding at 1 am to taking the kids on a dog walk on a weekend morning. Hence, your brand has to be ready to market to moms on their own schedule and not yours. This means your marketing plan has to be in line with these moms’ full-time schedule.

It is advisable for your marketing approach to be mobile-first. This is because the majority of busy moms don’t have the luxury of time to sit on a desktop computer for hours at a time but would rather spend some time on their mobile phones. It is best to test the best times to run your ads and also create audio ads that can run over radio or via digital platforms like Spotify.

Try traditional and digital product sampling

It’s been observed that when moms want to try brands that are new to them they prefer to try them in hand before purchasing them. They love to be able to evaluate the quality of a sample product if possible. Since moms prefer to see products in hand, traditional product sampling (in-person or in-store) would be a good mom marketing strategy. This form of sensory marketing engages consumers physically with a free sample before they buy it. Consumers are able to familiarize themselves with a specific brand and product using their 5 senses before they make an in-store purchase decision.

However, a more cost-effective product sampling approach compared to traditional product sampling is digital product sampling. This approach will be a good idea when marketing to moms. Digital product sampling is one of the best digital marketing methods because it gives brands the ability to target specific audiences. This will ensure the right product always ends up in the right hands, and it encourages customer engagement. With digital product sampling, your brand will be able to track your consumer’s product experience across multiple channels from start to finish, collecting valuable data along the way.

Concentrate on customer service

One of the biggest factors that influence the purchasing decisions of mothers is word-of-mouth. Moms seek recommendations from people they trust and will avoid brands that other moms relay bad experiences. Hence, as a brand, you should ensure that word-of-mouth doesn’t work against you. Your brand should always ensure they are committed to rendering impeccable customer service. Always go the extreme mile and include some sort of “thank you”. Most importantly respect her. Moms are drawn to brands that listen to them and respond to them by showing respect and understanding their needs.

Create a social media presence

If at this time and age, your brand is not on social media, you’re probably frozen in time. However, it’s not enough to be on social media, are you using some of these digital social apps to their fullest extent? Are you building a devoted fan base that is always eager and ready to support your brand and its mission? Or you’re just busy coercing your followers to buy your latest product?

You may have an idea of how to market to moms, but how to reach moms on social media can be a bit of a hassle. The best approach on how to get moms’ attention on social media is to first research where she is online. For instance, moms like to shop online and read blogs. You can also find them researching health information online, conducting online banking, playing games, and watching videos. However, since patterns vary by life stage and interests, marketers need to understand their audience and how they are using the internet. This will help give them an idea of where and when to run their brand’s ad online to get the attention of their target audience.

Your brand’s social media presence is very important and in order to improve it, consider adding the following to your social media marketing efforts:

• Create video content
• Make use of user-generated content
• Share coupons/discounts
• Turn moms into advocates

How to improve your brand’s social media presence while marketing to mothers

Create video content

You need to bring more videos into your social media presence. Create video contents that you can put on your feeds on also on your Instagram and Facebook stories. Let these videos be relatable and intentional content that would pass an engaging message to a mom. Most importantly, remember that moms are not just moms, they have other interests and don’t want to watch or read just about mom-related topics. You can make your video content diverse, entertaining, and informative.

Make use of user-generated content

Do you know that these moms you’re trying to market to would trust other moms more than your brand? Nevertheless, this dislikeable fact can be used to your advantage and this is where user-generated content comes in. User-generated contents are contents that are created by your audience on behalf of your brand. These could be online reviews, honest stories, selfies that feature your brand, etc. Such posts with user-generated content tend to have more engagement and drive more conversation than a typical brand post.

Moms trust other moms and usually seek advice from them. They do their research, particularly with other moms. Since social media helps them to connect to like-minded moms anywhere and anytime, influencer marketing is a good way to connect with moms. Using real moms as influencers who can help provide information with honesty about the brand will help build trust for the brand. However, it is advisable to use real moms for this user-generated content than celebrity moms. A recent survey shows that moms trust non-celeb influencers more and that such influencers are 10 times more likely to drive in-store purchases.

Share coupons/discounts

If you want to take your social media presence to the next level with moms nationwide, it is advisable to use your social media presence as a channel to share discounts, coupons, and other promotional messages. Once, there is a strong promotion or cost-saving opportunity, moms are good at getting the word out there to other moms. Making use of this powerful mom-to-mom network can help increase your own social media audiences and also help build awareness of your brand across new audiences.

Turn moms into advocates

Utilizing the all-powerful mom-to-mom network, you can get your favorite moms to share all of your branded content by turning them into advocates through advocacy marketing programs. As these moms join your advocacy marketing program which can be managed through platforms like SocialToaster, they can have the opportunity to receive and share your latest content directly to their own social media channels.

Moreso, they also have the opportunity to earn discounts, rewards, or entries into any contests or sweepstakes you sponsor, just by them participating in the advocacy marketing program. By involving these moms in such a program, you can get increased exposure and engagement on social media. Moreso, these moms have an opportunity to give valuable content to their social network about the brand as they earn a little something for themselves from the brand.

Conclusion

We are no longer in the times when a simple endorsement from a celebrity or doctor would propel a product’s success. To Generation Z and Millenial moms, their own experience with the brand matters more to them than objective research or guidance from experts. Therefore, for brands trying to market to mothers, it is important to recognize the fact that moms want to experience a product before they commit.

They basically want an opportunity to curate offerings that fit their style, sensibility, and their own beliefs about their family and children’s needs. Your brand should acknowledge the fact that moms don’t just want convenience or low-cost items, they care deeply about their choices in products for their family and household. This should give your brand an insight to always make a meaningful connection with today’s moms and dads.

From research, it’s been observed that quality is the number one influencer for moms’ purchases, and most times they had to make use of a brand or product themselves to evaluate the quality. It was seen that for moms, quality surpasses price, and the brand heritage and emotional pull were also important to them. They may shop online for commodity items like diapers, wipes, etc but for new items like toys, car seats, etc, they would prefer an in-store experience.

Conclusively, what brands really need to understand when marketing to moms, is that the price of products is not even part of the conversation with moms especially when it comes to products for their babies. Even though they want a well-priced product, they prioritize quality, functionality, and reliability over price. Moms tend to patronize brands based on quality, peer recommendations, awards received by the brands and an emotional connection with the brand advertising.

The bottom line is moms want it all: quality, honesty, a great value for their money, and superior customer service. She already has a lot on her plate and would love your brand to be useful and help simplify her life. Once your brand can check all the boxes you’re likely to have a mom as a loyal customer for life.

Last Updated on July 8, 2022 by Nansel Nanzip Bongdap