Ep147 Marketing to Mums with Katrina McCarter

Mums are one of the most powerful consumer groups in the world and make up a huge part of our audience. Episode 147 on Her Empire Builder Podcast, I interview THE expert in Marketing To Mums, Katrina McCarter, and she's sharing so many practical and tangible marketing tips that you can implement in your business to help to appeal to the powerful and influential Mum.

Katrina is the founder of Marketing to Mums, a marketing strategist, best-selling author, speaker and business advisor, who specialises in helping business owners and brands sell more effectively to mums. A prolific researcher into mothers’ behaviours, Katrina has published two books: Marketing to Mums and The Mother of All Opportunities.

Through Katrina's extensive research, she has found that many businesses do not understand how to market effectively to one of the world's largest consumer groups.  The typical advertising professional is a 27 year old, single white male who's not had children. He's advising brands on how to invest and spend their money and the majority of the time, is speaking the complete opposite language to what mother's want to hear - which is ultimately leaving a huge loss for those brands.

Katrina, a fellow data & statistic lover, says there are 6.2 million mums here in Australia who are responsible for $132 billion in spending every single year. But, not only are they really financially powerful, they're incredibly influential. Another statistic she mentions, is that when a woman becomes a mother, research shows us that she's eight times more likely to talk about businesses and brands that she would recommend (and also not recommend). Mums are often the go to for things like, "Who's the dentist that I should go to?" or,  "What accountant should I go to?", etc.  So, even if your business or brand doesn't directly sell to mothers, you need to be considering mothers in your communications, because she's likely to be asked about who to go to in your industry, and you want to make sure that she's got a favourable response and that she could potentially recommend your business.

I asked Katrina the most common mistakes she sees businesses make when marketing to mums?

Katrina says there are two main mistakes she sees businesses make. One of them is that businesses target too broadly. They try and be all things to all mothers and it's just impossible, especially when there are 6.2 million of us just here in Australia alone. A lot of businesses just don't understand mothers deeply enough. When businesses don't understand their consumer deeply enough, credibility and trust becomes a real issue. This ultimately results in poor loyalty, diminishing sales, and potential brand extinction.

The other mistake businesses make is stereotyping. Many women say that motherhood is really important to them, but it's not all of them. Businesses need to make sure that they're communicating with women on all of the different levels. Katrina feels there is a huge disconnect between advertising and their reality. Mums really aren't quite as aspirational as brands and businesses would like to think that they are. For example, in one of Katrina's recent studies she did, one of the women she surveyed shared her story and said something that stuck, "We're not all chino-wearing blonde ladies with perfect kids and a border collie. You know, being a mom is bloody hard work".

So, through all of Katrina's research and marketing, what's the one thing that influences a Mum to purchase?

Katrina says the number one thing that will influence a mum to purchase something is actually a written testimonial. It doesn't have to be from someone that she knows, it just needs to be something that she can see and relate to, and think "that's exactly what I am going through, and that's exactly what I need". So for businesses that Katrina works with, she constantly reinforces the importance of having a testimonial strategy. Not just an app collecting testimonials, but really amplifying the testimonials that you have and finding more about that person.

If you want to find out more about Katrina, and get some more tangible tips and practical marketing strategies you can implement in your business, head to the show notes at tinatower.com/147