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Is online technology starting to make women in traditional age band demographics look more alike than unalike? Are assumptions about interest interest and aptitude obsolete? One key thing women in all age demos have in common: They don't want to be patronized. Are marketers falling into that trap?
BlogHer co-founder Lisa Stone moderates this discussion with a trio of experts on women online:
- Maria T. Bailey, author, speaker and Founder/CEO of BSM Media
- Ellen Siminoff,
once named one of eight "Masters of Information" by Forbes Magazine,
former founding executive of Yahoo! and now Chairman, of Efficient
Frontier - Robin Wolaner, long-time media executive, Founder of Parenting Magazine and now Founder and CEO of TeeBeeDee
Lisa: We continually hear two things: women are tired of being referred to as a "soccer mom" or a "SATC single." People are also tired of trying to convince people that the Internet is a worthwhile place for marketing spend. How are women using technology today? What are your assumptions? How can we build our businesses with an emphasis on revenue? The Wall Street Journal used the "recession" word earlier this week. How do you leverage marketing dollars in this economy?
Ellen: Clean out the bad marketing plans and track things that have a very high ROI. In times when it is more challenging to get people to hit the purchase button, you have to really track things. It's a good time for online. People will think about the vanity spending. For your dollars spent, if you are tracking to results, you will find that online is the best bang for the buck.
Know what you're trying to accomplish. That defines your strategy. If you want to get users to your site, if you want to get people to buy something, or if you want people to just know what you're doing. There's SEO, social networking opportunities, branding opportunities. You don't want to pull back in a recession, but you want to know what your objectives are.
Lisa: So it sounds like you're recommending some aggression?
Ellen: Yeah. Amazon made itself way ahead of all those merchant deals by being the first.
Lisa: If people in the audience have a spend to make, they can actually go after the markets they want with an assumption that because the market is softer, people might be predisposed to be helpful.
Ellen: Especially right before the quarter ends. Find the salesperson who needs the sale.
Lisa: Robin, can you talk about the boomers.
Robin: Boomers are 1946-1964. I'm 1954, and I've gotten really used to saying I'm 53. We have a gazillion dollars to spend. We're now being discovered. Boomers behave just like younger people online with one exception. Social networking is that exception. People like me are trying to figure out how to unlock networking for boomers. Even though it's tough to market to people over 40, if you're authentic, we're much more loyal than younger people. Recessions are great opportunities to establish your business.
If you've got a boomer-targeted audience, do it. Once you get them, they're very loyal.
Lisa: The Compass survey said boomer women are much more likely to comment. What are the biggest "don'ts" in this space?
Robin: We had a competitor launch earlier last year, and the page said "For Boomers and Seniors" and I thought it was a mistake. Nobody knows how to talk about mid-life in a way that looks forward that doesn't rely on striking a false nostalgic chord. Stock photography was all white hair walking on a beach for over 40. It was not the way my friends and I look. People who create advertising tend to be quite young. People are tending to do very stereotypical images of mid-life men and women.
Lisa: You made a decision to blog your own eyelift. Are people over 40 going to become more and more comfortable with Facebook and MySpace?
Robin: As people become more and more comfortable, people are starting to use their real names and their real pictures. I live my life online and I always have. It's a scary thing in the health area. You're worried about insurability and that. The eyelift -- it's the ultimate TBD. There are no secrets about what mid-life brings with it. Nobody talks about the middle of plastic surgery. They show you before and after.
Lisa: Maria, you are an expert on
