Online Moms a Key Audience for Online Marketers

Ignore Moms online at your own risk. This group is a powerful force directing family spending habits. And for many Moms, the Internet is their most prefered source of information.

JoAnne Erickson, Director of Research and Brand Development at Disney Online described some of the key learnings from Disney’s study of 1,800 online Moms. They’ve developed an impressive set of information about the preferences and influence of this group.

There are 31 million Moms online today. With their study Disney hoped to find out what makes these Moms tick, how they are different from each other, and also how they are similar. They identified four key segements of wired Moms:

• The Tech Nester - Comprising 32% of online Moms a woman in this segment feels that the Internet is a key part of her life, and that it has actually brought her family closer together. She spends 10 hours online a week, excluding email and actually prefers online shopping to the offline experience. All this time online is coming from time spent watching television and reading the newspaper.
• Mrs. Net Skeptic - This Mom is Married, generally with two young children and represents 31% of online Moms. She uses the Internet with her children but is more protective of them online. She spends 6 hours a week online excluding email.
• The Yes Mom - Generally a working Mother, professional, with two older children. She is pressed for time and uses the Internet more than other media for information and represents 14% of the wired Mom population. She has a high average income of $58k/year, and spends 8 hours a week online excluding email.
• Passive Under Pressure - This group used the Internet less than other groups, and more frequently represented single Moms.

Disney chose to focus on the first three groups, all of which have a very high reliance on the Internet. These groups represent a total of 74% of online Moms. And, their study found that the similarities between these groups were even more important than their differences.

• They all have a need and desire to simplify their lives.
• They all use, trust, and appreciate the Internet.
• They are all key decision makers in their households.
• 84 percent say they would miss the Internet more than any other media if it went away.

The new Internet Mom is the primary decision maker for most everyday items household items. They research their purchase decisions online, and are also the key or joint decision maker on big ticket items like vehicles and travel.

If you want to reach these Moms online your best strategy is to focus on providing value through your marketing efforts. Informational advertising is often perceived as a benefit, rather than an annoyance. Provide tips, ideas, and suggestions that are family related. Give real information. And, connect with family needs in your messaging.

This was one of the few sessions I’ve attended this week that was less than half full. And, one of the most frequent requests I’ve heard from audience members in other sessions is to be more specific. They should have attended this session for a fast paced, one hour data download on a very important online audience, that was nothing but specifics.