Aside from being the largest demographic group of online buyers, women ages 35-55 constitute a very social, interactive group that spends time online discussing everything from relationships, to sharing their children’s stories and achievements, to exploring business opportunities. Though they are the largest group of online consumers out there – they are harder to market to than other, more compulsive spenders. There are several important factors to take into consideration when launching your marketing campaign targeting this content-craving niche.
At one point or another, you have probably asked yourself these very important questions.
1) Who is she?
2) How can I increase conversions?
Since the information regarding this particular topic is fairly extensive, I will be breaking it up into separate posts. For today, we’ll be looking at 1.) Who is She? We’ll go over a few particulars about women within this age group as far as where their values and interests lie.
Who is she? Women ages 35-55 constitute the largest demographic group, and many researchers have called this changing marketplace, “a fundamental and historic shift.” This represents an enormous opportunity for affiliate marketers. Though this demographic has been heavily marketed to by affiliates who already know this niche to the tee, it that does not mean that there are any less opportunities out there. So let’s get started!
When embarking on a marketing campaign, you should break this down into smaller, targeted units. For example, if you are looking to market Acai Power to single mothers, the landing page with an older healthy woman and her husband will not relate to her as well as a landing page that features a younger, single, healthy woman.
Obviously, each of the following could be broken up even further, targeting this age group based upon education, socio-economic status, ethnicity, and etc. Targeting that specifically is highly recommended, because knowing your market increases chances that she’ll buy a product on something geared specifically towards her preferences. As a starting point – here are the basics.
Women Ages 35-55 – Who are they?
- Single Mothers – Approximately 10.4 million women are single mothers. Her first and foremost concern is providing for her children. She wants: to provide for her children, make more money, find a partner who has similar values (family), and to spend more time with her children. The idea of working from home is definitely something she thinks about –but she isn’t sure about what opportunities are worth the effort (legitimate business opportunities). She has proven that that she can do it alone (without a husband) and therefore has an innate sense of independence and power. On the cognitive level, she would like the time to find love, increase her status, move up in the workplace, etc. Appearance is important. Highest values: her kids, her time, making/saving money, and finding a partner.
- 2) Stay-at-Home Mothers – Consist of approximately 25% of married women (5.1 million women according to the U.S. Census Bureau). The number of stay-at-home moms declined from 5.3 million in 2008 to 5.1 million last year. That was the lowest since 2001, which was also during a recession. What does this mean? While some stay-at-home moms picked up part-time jobs to support their families during the recession, many of those who are at home right now most likely have a husband is bringing in some cash. They place an extremely high value upon their family. When you market to this group, you are marketing to both mom and family. She is interested in helping to support the family while working at home, keeping the entire family happy (both kids and hubby), associating with other stay-at-home moms (mommy networking – check out various Ning sites and iVillage Communities for examples), the nuclear family unit, and she places high value upon the needs of others. On a more cognitive level, she wants to take care of herself – she’s been through marriage, has kids, and has most likely not paid much attention to her own needs. Therefore, hearing stories about other stay-at-home moms who have managed to take care of themselves and their families is inspiring to her. Highest value: meeting the needs of her family. Secondary: making/saving money, helping others, her own needs (health, beauty, etc).
- Working Mothers –Working mothers constitute a large percentage of this demographic. Many are powerhouses and you have to take into consideration that they are managing children, relationships, and work at the same time. Ambitious and determined, they are educated consumers but do not have frivolous time to waste researching products for hours. She has much less time for mommy networking and would give anything to spend more time with her kids. She values: her family, hard work, moving up in the corporate world, and time. She would kill to spend more time with her kids, so products/services that save her time and money are of great value. Also to take into consideration, the number of working mothers has increased alongside the recession out of necessity. Highest value: her time, her family. Secondary: marking money, her own needs (health, beauty, etc).
- Married Women without Children – Approximately 4 million women. Though this isn’t necessarily a large number, the majority of these women have made up their mind that they will not be having children. They typically come from educated backgrounds and hold degrees from major universities. For that reason, they are more likely to be well-established. They typically do not have the “family” concerns that a typical mother has. She values freedom, independence, and power. Highest value: making/saving money, her husband. Secondary: having fun, her needs (health, beauty, etc).
Single Women, Not Married, and Without Children – This represents a smaller portion of this population. Women within this category are more likely to be interested in finding a partner/husband and for those in the younger range of this spectrum – they are most likely still interested in having children. (i.e. think Dating and/or products that improve her image) Highest value: finding a partner. Secondary: her needs (health, beauty, etc), making/saving money.
As a general statement, it is safe to assume that women greatly value time and wish they had more of it. Women care about having a sense of power and independence as well, but please, in written articles always use the word “empowered” when it relates to a product improving her life. To use the word “power” is far too strong, and not feminine in nature.
For example,
“The 6 step business program empowered Renee to take control of her financial future, and thus the needs of her family.” Feminine – relates to target market. Good.
Is far more effective than
“The 6 step business program gave her the power to take control of her financial future, and thus the needs of her family.” Masculine – relates to men. Bad.
The language in which you use to market to your feminine audience is extremely important.
Women are naturally empathetic. Speak in a language that relates to her, appeals to her caring nature, shows concern for her time, and complements (not complicates) her life. The last thing she needs is a process that takes more of her time – simplicity is key.
One of the most important keys to success in affiliate marketing is knowing your niche; their likes, dislikes, values, and needs. As a disclaimer – not all women fit this mold.
All of this information alludes to our next topic, “How do I increase conversions?” Next week, we will examine what keeps women of this age demographic on a page and increases the chances that a sale/action will take place.
I hope you found this post useful and interesting. I would love to hear your feedback and if there is anything else that you feel should be included in future posts surrounding niche marketing tactics. For Part Two of Marketing to Women Ages 35-55, click here.
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Yea we’ve done the blood drive out here twice a yr for the...
this is a great blog spot and makes me start brainstorming
This is a great article, we market to women in this age group and this article has been a great help.
Good article.. fyi – the image you used for this post is of Rose Byrne (Australian Actress) and she is only 30.
great article. marketers should look more into this niche.
I was surprised to see nothing mentioned about baby boomers women. Do you realize, that group of online population is growing by leaps and bounds. Check out Facebook statistics.
Hey Alla, thanks for the feedback and great idea. You are exactly right – according to FB statistics, women over 55 represent the fastest growing age group on facebook. Additionally, more than 60% of boomers, both men and women, are avid consumers of social media (Forrester Research). I will examine this Post-WWII generation in detail in the future, however, they weren’t the focus of this article because this group was impacted by major societal and historical events that shape their values and perceptions. There are several factors that go into the values, mindset, and heart of the Boomers: the majority of their children are 18 or older (out of the household), they have kids graduating from college and/or picking up a new career, they are taking care of their parents and have that stress to deal with, and several societal and major historical events have impacted their lives.
Since we are on the topic of niche marketing, it may be useful to look at:
Boomer Generation #1 (born 1946 to 1955), a group of free-spirits who valued independence who were a powerful force in creating social change in the 60s.
Generation Jones “keeping up with the Joneses” (born 1956-1964) This group experienced Watergate, the imposition of the Draft, and were held to high expectations to succeed in society. Therefore this group shows characteristic competitiveness and more distrust than their slightly older Boomer counterparts.
This is a great idea Alla, and thank you so much for sharing. It will make for an excellent post in the near future.
Great article… I’ve tried cracking this demo with several campaigns in the past and have had limited success. Breaking down the individual groups has given me some fresh insight with regards to the approaches I can take to appeal to this demo.
Looking forward to the 2nd part…
Thanks MisterD
I think you’ll like the 2nd post that I’ll have up next week. I’ve got some great recent stats and info on this group’s online spending habits and the major reasons they decide to make a purchase.
These are very interesting insights into the subtle differences in language when writing for women. Bloggers can gain insights into both their own site demographics and the target audiences of the companies whose products they review using Quantcast.
Using it I was surprised to find that even on a men’s gift site like Executive Gift Shoppe (shown as an example at that link so you can see what I mean) that they show more women shoppers for their products than men!
Thanks Gail!
I’m also a huge fan of Quantcast – another interesting feature is its ability to provide insights revealing other popular sites that an average website viewer browses. Really cool!
Oh, I love that you are discussing this age group as they do have the spending power – and a great deal of influence. I’m just a couple of years over it, but most of my online women friends are in the 35 – 55 age group and word of mouth marketing is very important to them/me.
I like how some larger companies have started tapping into the ‘mommy blogger’ niche. When you gather a group of women together like that, they have so much more influence and are really able to get the word out to their peers.
I’ll be interested to read more about your suggestions for targeting this age group
Hey Heather, really glad you enjoyed the post. You are spot on with what I’ll be touching on in my next post, which will focus on how to increase conversions through utilizing the social networking component that is so important to this group of women. I’m a bit younger than the 35-55 age group and it is interesting to see that they seem to be more involved in social networking than many women my age (who first started out on facebook, myspace, etc). Also here’s something interesting I came across while looking through a report on emarketer.com -
35 million – This is the number of American women with children under 18 who are online. This is more than 40 percent of all online women in US. The projected increase in their numbers till 2012:
2007 – 34.2 million
2008 – 35.3 million
2009 – 36.5 million
2010 – 37.7 million
2011 – 38.7 million
2012 – 39.6 million
Regardless of the exact cause of these projected increases, it is safe to assume that the internet provides valuable resources and is a great place to meet other moms (network, vent, share), and gather product info (research) for moms across the world.