How to Create Content Moms Care About (And Read)

In case you needed someone to tell you, moms rule the world, at least the world of social commerce. As reported in Marketing Daily, moms represent a $2.4 trillion market, are more brand conscious than men and basically live online – a full 90 percent use the internet to make or research purchases, connect with others and read content. You don’t have to be a Harvard graduate to understand the power of this demographic, but it may help to hear from one – the Harvard Business Review reports that women represent over $20 trillion of consumer spending annually and make most of the household buying decisions for their family. That may be a lot of cribs and granola, but it also represents a significant amount of real estate, SUVs and a whole lot of other assorted you-name-its.

How to Harness the Power of Moms
Are you wondering how to keep moms engaged with your content and coming back for more? Of course you are. And so is everybody else. Connecting with moms and keeping them engaged requires more than stringing together a bunch of keywords and calling it content. You have to understand this demographic and reach them where they live. Plus, you have to understand how to create and market content they want to read online.

1. Start With a Powerful Persona
If you want your content to resonate with moms, your website needs to stand for something, so starting with a consistent frame of reference around which to build content is key. This is where a blog, featuring seasoned, powerful writers able to tell your story, becomes imperative.

Moms are not one-size-fits-all and neither are their interests, but all moms want what’s best for their kids and will seek out sites to educate them about that. A site specific to luxury trends in children’s apparel should look and feel different than a site focused on couponing, sure, but many topics covered can be the same, as long as they’re presented in a consistent and distinct way. Moms shopping around for uber-expensive robotic toys want the latest information on vaccine reactions, just like moms who are into thrifty flea marketing do. There is also, of course, readership overlap between sites. Make sure moms keep coming back to yours, because the topics you’re covering fit her interests and are told in a voice she relates to and believes in.

2. Moms Trust Other Moms’ Opinions, Except for When They Don’t
If you think putting Republicans in the same room as Democrats is bad, try eavesdropping on an online conversation between stay-at-home and working moms, or those who homeschool versus those who don’t. The ideologies are endless and most, if not all, are played out via social media and in the comments sections of blogs and articles, some of which, should be yours.

Community building and interaction is hugely important to this demographic of consumers. Moms want to hear the opinions, evaluations and product recommendations that other moms, like them, are willing to offer. Including a community-building component on your website and expanding upon it throughout multiple social media networks is important. Think of this as creating gathering places, where moms feel safe congregating and sharing. Posting relevant and provocative content to rally around is a great way to create and maintain community, plus get your message out there consistently. It’s also important to choose your social networking sites wisely, based upon your specific type of content. Not all sites appeal to all moms and it’s better to saturate one, than dabble on three or four.

3. Be Timely
Was Beyonce and J.Z.’s daughter, Blue Ivy, photographed today in an amazing dress? If you sell children’s apparel, you need an article that helps moms recreate that look, with items they can buy on your website, stat. Did Tyra Banks just have a baby with the help of a surrogate? If you cover health and infertility, you need to tweet about it and nab a blog on that subject, pronto. Moms are johnny-on-the-spot when it comes to breaking media stories and trending topics. Seizing upon what’s important to your audience as quickly as possible is a great way to steer the conversation, and traffic, to your website.

4. Be Trustworthy
This bears repeating, over and over again. Your content must be accurate and your voice, sincere. Period.

5. Be Mobile
Millennial moms, that most coveted of consumer groups, spends 35 percent more time trolling the internet from their smartphones than they do from laptops or PC’s, according to Mobile Marketer. Gen X’ers may be lagging behind, but not by much. Moms use smart phones for everything, from buying movie tickets to reading content. Make sure yours is available as an app and optimized for mobile devices.

6. Be Unique
Ho hum just won’t cut it. Even the most search-engine optimized content will ultimately fall short if it’s not interesting, special or vibrant. Anyone can re-hash someone else’s blog or article, so don’t do that. It’s way better to be amazing, original, thought-provoking and unique. It’s also more fun to write that way. Make your website the first stop moms make when a story hits, a product has reached must-have status, or an opinion, hopefully yours, is sought.