Facebook may be the key to marketing to an important demographic — moms
While digital platforms often try to market to millennials, there’s another demographic they should also make an effort to appeal to: mothers, who often do the lion’s share of housework and may use technology to make their lives easier.
In fact, 88% of moms with kids below the age 18 use some kind of social media, according to a 2016 Moms and Media report from Edison Research, which surveyed 2,001 consumers including 319 mothers. Those mothers spent an average of two hours and 58 minutes online over a 24-hour period, and 79% owned a smartphone.
“When the technology to get things done is right in the palm of her hand, mom will use it,” Melissa DeCesare, author of the Moms and Media annual reports from Edison Research and a mom of two children, tells Yahoo Finance. “The smartphone dominates the mobile space for mom because it helps her keep on top of her very full to-do list. Mobile has been a game changer for everyone, but especially for moms.”
The report found that mothers, in particular, are huge Facebook users, with 74% having used Facebook in the week prior to being surveyed. And moms checked Facebook 10.1 times a day compared to the non-mothers surveyed, who checked it just 6.9 times every day.
Sara R. Fisher, a mom of two kids and the co-founder of 2 Moms Media, a marketing and public relations company that caters to brands that want to be reach moms, tells Yahoo Finance that she also uses Facebook for multiple professional and personal purposes.
“I need to be honest, Facebook is really like the number one platform I use,” she says. “Like the other moms, I use it to get news, to keep up with my friends, businesses or other influencers. I check Facebook more than any other platform because I feel like it really encompasses all of it.”
While Facebook seems to be the favorite online activity among moms, they also turn to other platforms such as online radio and podcasts. In the month prior to the Edison survey, 61% of listened to online radio. A third of moms had used Pandora in the week prior to being surveyed, and half of moms accessed the internet on their mobile phone. Advertisers and marketers need to take advantage of all this time mothers spend online, according to DeCesare.
“[Moms’] buying power and their decision making for the household are what prompt [the researchers] to focus on moms’ media habits,” she said. “Moms are very engaged on social media, they spend a lot of time on the Internet and they are mobile which allows for engagement at any time or anywhere.”
DeCesare added: “Advertisers and marketers need to be able to reach moms for their product messaging. Moms are a key demo.”
So, Fisher and her business partner, Caitlin Murray Giles, both moms, started their company, 2 Mom Media, to help companies reach mothers in a targeted and authentic way.
“We understood how we wanted to be spoken to and we have the skill sets so we felt like this was a natural step for us to take and our kids are young and we can relate [to what others moms want],” says Fisher on why she started 2 Moms Media.
She targets her audience through private mom groups on Facebook : “We get most of our bang for the buck on these groups and now we’ve been in this industry and have been working here for a while, we know who those people are and we work with them.” In these private groups, moms share their thoughts about products they like and give tips to fellow moms.
Nowadays, with so many ways to get information and with more choices ahead, media is no longer just for the younger crowds like teenagers. Parents like moms are active members on these platforms and they expect to be reached more personably and directly. For marketers and companies, this may be good news but also one that is challenging.
“You have to be very targeted or else you are going to miss people,” Fisher says. “I feel like it is very valuable to own a niche where you understand the audience you have the connection and you can place your product and message in a targeted way that people can see it.”
Minyoung Park is a reporter at Yahoo Finance.
Read more:
How the Supreme Court is hurting the economy by killing immigration reform
America’s brick-and-mortar retailers are vanishing
A mysterious US industry has been growing since the recession — psychic services
