Marketing To Boomer Women: Recession-Proofing Your VolunTourism Program
Marti Barletta heads up Trendsight.com. She is also the author of Marketing To Women and Prime Time Women: How to Win the Hearts, Minds and Business of Boomer Big Spenders. In a recent blog post on She-conomy.com, Stephanie Holland, President and Executive Creative Director for Holland & Holland Advertising, touches on some of the key points that Ms. Barletta emphasizes in her writings. The post, “Men, Women Lead 4 Out of 5 Stages of the Buying Process,” outlines the five stages. The two I will discuss are: 1) “Stage II – Research,” and 2) “Stage V – - Word-of-mouth.”
Research
In the world of VolunTourism, there could not be a more important step in determining what trip an individual, couple, family, or group may take. This means that your website must be in top condition, with relevant content and regular updates to that content. (Warning: Reminder: Think that if you have a calendar listing on your website of the last update, this may very well serve as a point of reference for determining an expiration date for your website.)
Is it possible to create content that serves the variety of women that will be visiting your site – one content fits all? Or should you target a specific demographic? If you have to pick one, you may want to target those with a birthday pre-1964/post-1946 and female.
According to this article on DMNews.com entitled “Boomer women get social,” just because there are a growing number of women with a birth-date prior to 1964 utilizing social media, expecting them to respond in the same manner as younger or older members of the gender could be a major mistake. From the article:
“Realizing that boomers interact differently online than younger generations is what reaching baby boomer women is all about, says Mary Brown, the director of marketing at Eastland Shoe who co-wrote Boom (Boom: Marketing to the Ultimate Power Consumer – the Baby-Boomer Woman) with (Carol) Osborn and maintains a blog at Boomerwomenmarketing.com.
“‘It’s not like a 20-something who quickly goes online, texts, sends a message, and then they’re out,’ she explains. ‘Boomers take more time making those connections, with longer e-mails or texts.’
“Also, she says, content is king — it leads to social networking, not the other way around. ‘It really has to be relevant and when you’ve got them with the content it can engage boomers to engage more on the social networking side.’”
Since these women may be selecting such a trip for themselves or may be screening a purchase of this kind for their children, significant other, or entire family, this audience is likely the most ideal. And to further assist in the planning of your marketing efforts, you may want to review some pointers from Too Busy To Shop by Kelley Murray Skoloda.
Word-Of-Mouth
If you are new to VolunTourism, then you may not yet know the importance of this marketing phenom. Tried and true, there simply is not a better form of promoting your brand than this. In “Hello, girls,” The Economist.com quotes Marti Barletta: “Second, women are more likely than men to spread information about products they like through word of mouth and social-networking sites.” Where are you likely to discover what women are sharing about their VolunTourism experience? BLOGS!
In this e-Marketer.com post, “Women Who Blog,” the author asks the question: “Sure women love social media – did you ever have any doubts?” to introduce a write-up on the “2009 Social Media Study” from Blogher, iVillage, and Compass Partners. According to the study, 22.7 million women read blogs, 12 million post to blogs, and 8 million publish blogs. Blogs, therefore, may be the appropriate form of Word-of-mouth advertising and you may want to encourage your voluntourists to share their experiences post-trip.
Wrapping it up with Stephanie Holland, she writes, “If women feel strongly enough about your product, service or company they will recommend you, and because they take this role so seriously, they will be convincing.”
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