A ROUND THE WORLD, women are primary decision-makers for high-dollar purchases. If you are not marketing to women in ways that appeal to and engage them, you’re not benefitting from their purchasing power.
Here are three marketing suggestions to improve your female appeal, and which illustrate the differences between male and female buyers.
1. Attract women with ideas. Picture the typical Ace Hardware ad. Ace focuses on products and prices. They know men come to their stores for specific tools and solutions. Ace’s lifestyle advertising features outdoor cooking, lawn care, and similarly specific objectives.
Those themes all appeal to the average guy’s get-it-done style of shopping.
In comparison, Home Depot’s advertising focus is soft. They convey the joy of making a home beautiful and welcoming through fun projects with one’s spouse. Home Depot is not selling tools — they’re selling hearth, home, and togetherness.
When women shop for luxury goods, they consider how they will feel when they have the object, and how the object will affect their happiness (even if the object is not for themselves).
When you advertise, do you push specific items? Or do you promote the ideas your business stands for, and how you contribute to the quality of your customers’ lives? Specific item promotions are useful for your male shoppers, but to bring in more women, you must tell meaningful stories.
2. Nurture leads with social proof. Social proof is the psychological tendency of people to conform (also known as herd behavior). The digital marketplace skillfully exploits social proof to make sales. Ratings, votes, reviews, likes, comments, and shares are all forms of social proof.
But remember that men and women use social proof differently. Men prefer votes and ratings, because they want measurable, specific feedback. Women use dialog to enhance the shopping experience, so they appreciate comments and reviews. To attract female buyers, develop a library of reviews and comments.
3. Merchandise your store for themes, not things. Walk into any Williams Sonoma, and you’ll find theme-driven baking displays that include bakeware, utensils, mixes, and the latest color Kitchenaid mixer. Williams Sonoma does a phenomenal job of merchandising to women (not coincidentally, women hold almost 60 percent of Williams Sonoma’s top executive positions).
Men like to cook too, but they are more likely than women to head to a restaurant supply store for their kitchen purchases, partly for the prices, but also because restaurant suppliers offer the compartmentalization and categorization they crave.
Women don’t shop for things; they shop for themes. Merchandise around themes in your store, and women will gravitate to those sections and displays.
These are just a few of the ways in which female buyers respond and behave differently than male buyers. If your buyers are more than 50 percent male, you could grow your sales instantly just by attracting more women to your store and keeping them there long enough to close.