I recently attended a roundtable discussion about Marketing To Women... Online during which I got to hear several marketers discuss how best to connect with women consumers.  Two of the participants I had heard before:  MaryLou Quinlan from Just Ask A Woman and Grant Schneider, CMO Time Inc. and author of She Means Business: 7 New Rules for Marketing to Today's Woman.  In fact, I had heard them [and read their books] several years ago.  We're talking 2005. 

At the same event, I got to talk to Holly Buchanan who writes about marketing to women online and authored The Soccer Mom Myth.  In comparing notes, we expressed amazement that so many still don't get that women are the primary purchase decision makers.  Yes, women are the chief purchasing officers at home as well as at work.  And, if they aren't purchasing, they are influencing purchases.  And that goes for carpet and flooring, too!

We remarked that at most events and presentations where marketing to women gets discussed, the audience consists of more women than men. The women understand what's going on.  You see them nodding their heads as strategies and tactics are discussed.

The men attending get it, too.

But what about those who don't attend events about marketing to our coveted woman consumer?  Where are they?  Why aren't they participating and listening and absorbing the information being presented?  Is is that they don't care about their business?  Is it that they know it all?  Is it that they don't appreciate how important to this industry's well-being women consumers are?  Is it that customers don't matter?

It's time to refocus on customers, particularly women customers.

In the past few years, something major has changed.  And that's why we all need to pay attention.  Because of that new consumer world order I discussed in my last post here, marketing to women consumers has taken on a whole new level of urgency.  Via the web, consumers can choose to bypass us.  They can talk about us.  They can drive other customers to us.  Or not. 

By the way, women are the majority of Internet users. 

So, it matters that we be connecting with women customers and doing so on their terms, that we be listening and engaging them in discussion, that we be responding and building strong relationships, and generally making our brands, products and services [and retail experience, too] meaningful and relevant.

The benefit?  Not only will you increase satisfaction with women consumers, but your men consumers will appreciate you, too.  That's a benefit that American Express discovered.

So what are you waiting for? 

Given all of the talk about the web, it's time to put the web phenomenon into a consumer context. 

How do you go about getting information about a purchase?  Do you get into your car and drive to a handful of stores gathering details?  Or, do you sit down in front of your computer and type in a search term in Google or Yahoo!, or perhaps Amazon?

The more complex the purchase, the more research I do, and the more I prefer to do that research on my time, on my terms, without being hounded by someone who doesn’t have my interests at heart.  I distrust hard sells and marketing pitches that are too biased.  I seek out reviews and perspectives from peer consumers; I follow people [virtually] whose perspectives I respect.  I value corporate sites only if they offer me relevant information and act/feel like real human beings. 

Does it sound familiar?  If it doesn’t, it will soon because this is the new world order where consumers call the shots, ignore traditional push marketing communications, trust others before we trust organizations and their marketing messages, and immediately start the purchase process searching online.

Think of that.  Before going to a company website for information, we type our query into Google and then examine the results delivered.

That goes for carpet and flooring, too. 

The funny thing is that the new world order results from technology – easy-to-use technology that enables search, engagement, conversation, interaction and community-creation.  That's the web.  It’s a democratic tool breaking down geographic, educational, cultural and personal boundaries.  It allows like-minded individuals to connect and share information; it facilitates crowd-sourcing, co-creation, unexpected problem-solving and amazing cooperation.  It also allows corporations to engage in conversations with customers.

For you see, the people taking part - in blogs and wikis, photo-sharing, online reviews, help boards - are no longer at the fringe.  They are you and me.  Entrepreneurs, corporate business people, retirees, school teachers and operators. Men and women.  Especially women.

Although the conversations happen on an individual level, they increasingly affect large organizations which are made up of individuals.  Traditionally, corporations have formed walls around employees and brands while issuing carefully crafted and controlled messages to end users or customers outside.  Those walls are becoming more porous, disintegrating before our eyes, all for good reasons.  Not only can we now communicate directly with our consumers, our end customers, but our organizations can now be appreciated for the sum of the individuals making them up.

Individuals who are consumers and endusers and the ultimate customer, too.  Individuals with passion and perspectives to share, eager to take part in meaningful conversation. 

If the new world order is about engaging those interested in the conversation, regardless of corporate affiliation, how can corporations and brands participate?  After all, if they don’t, how will they remain relevant to customers?  How will they develop meaningful solutions?  How will they be found? 

Welcome to the New World Order!

Most companies don't understand the importance of a web site's Title Tags and Meta Descriptions Tags. The Title Tag and Meta Description Tag are located in the top of a web page and contain words describing the content for the page. They often contain targeted keyword phrases to help improve search engine ranking position and are very important for Search Engine Optimization. Unfortunately, most companies are unaware of this fact and don't have a clue how to find and review what words the web site developer inserted in these important two HTML tags.

So I wrote a simple web application to help companies review the Title Tags and Meta Description Tags for any web page in their web site. Just click the link below...

SEO - Examine Web Site Title Tags and Meta Description Tags for Better Search Engine Optimization

 

Google 'AdWords' is the name for Google's Pay-Per-Click Advertising Program

• Organic Listing - is the name for the free listings (not sponsored or paid for). also called Natural Listings. The free listings appear along the left side of the search engine results underneath the top sponsored links. The web sites that appear in the free natural listing section have the most relevant content for a person's searching term based on the search engines interpretation.  There are only 10 web sites listied per page in the natural listing section.
• Pay-Per-Click Ads - are sponsored listing where advertisers  bid a set amount for specific keyword phrases. Everytime someone clicks on the sponsor's text link ad the sponsor's credit card is charged the bid amount, or close to that amonut, until the advertiser's pre-set daily budget is met. Pay-per-click ads (PPC) appear at the top of the search results page and all along the right side. The exact sponsor ads that appear are based on what the user's types in the search textbox. The relevancy of the keywords the advertiser bid on along with the dollar amount the advertiser bid helps determine the order in which each sponsor's text ad will appear. Also, with Google the more times a sponsor's ad is clicked on the ad may also get boost in placement without bidding a higher amount. That helps keep the most popular sponsored ads near the top.