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“Millennial Moms”, or mothers born between the mid 80’s and the early 2000’s, represent 20% of moms in the US and 80% of new mothers, according to US Census Bureau of Data. It is not new however that mothers act as ‘chief financial officers’ in families, controlling up to 85% of household purchases and representing $2.4 trillion in US spending power. These new figures show that millennial moms possess significant economic power and yet, they are so often misunderstood by marketers.
Millennial Moms
Who are they?
Millennial moms are a unique demographic of parents who grew up with the internet and therefore feel very connected to it. Additionally, these millennials are choosing to become mothers later in life, the majority waiting until 30 to have kids. Thus they are older, more experienced, and more mature than previous generations of new mothers. They are also more connected: 17.4 hours a week being the average amount of time a millennial mother spends on social media. Moreover, they are using multiple devices to shop, socialize, and educate themselves.
What is their use of digital?
Internet usage among mothers has skyrocketed in the past five years alone. In 2013 fewer than two-thirds of US mothers had a smartphone whereas in 2016 it was estimated that more than 90% did. According to e-marketers, more than 95% of US mothers were frequent internet users in 2016, with an average of 3 and a half hours a day spent online. While Facebook was adopted early on by this population, their usage of other platforms (such as Instagram and Snapchat) is a fairly recent development. Compared with other demographics their digital use largely concerns shopping: federal data published on July 15 suggests that an average of $13.000 is spent per year, per child. Their second primary usage consists of social media. Essentially, mothers are using digital with two main goals in mind: to help run their family life more efficiently and to be entertained and stay connected.
Source: Weber Shandwick
So what does this mean for marketing efforts?
First and foremost, brands must adapt purchase funnels to the diversity of devices these women are using. What’s more, it’s time to change the traditional marketing approach of paid ads and commercialized content. Millennial moms use media differently than generations before them. They don’t trust obvious marketing tactics, rather they look for advice, referrals, and education from other millennials. Indeed, 42% of moms believe that advertisers don’t understand them (according to Trybe.) This means that in order for brands to sell they will need to diverge from previous strategies and create content that has that extra, creditable value that determines success in 2017. But how do you sell without having a selling voice? Impossible from a company platform. As you will see, working with Influencers is the innovative solution to targeting this new generation of tech-savvy, ads-wary mothers.
Properly identify this demographic and do not neglect influencers
Best practices for companies:
Many marketers make the mistake of treating millennial mothers as if they are one homogenous group when in fact, there are two distinct profiles you should be targeting: the typical millennial social-media type and the more traditional, reserved kind with older values. While they both use media at the same rate, they prefer different content. The latter embodies how conventional moms have been targeted for decades: they want utilitarian and lifestyle content. The real challenge is interacting and adjusting your voice to “new breed” millennial moms, who are fueled by pop culture and social sharing. This may or may not reflect the two different ends of the age spectrum that constitutes “millennial.” In any case, you want to use behavioral and demographic analytics to properly identify this diverse group. Consider values, household size, and ethnic background before targeting millennial moms.
Why are ‘Mom Influencers’ important?
Mothers have always relied on the advice and recommendations of other mothers. So it makes sense that blogging would have a strong impact on a millennial mom’s purchasing decisions. In fact, 66% of moms reported somewhat or strongly agreeing that, “Things I read on mom blogs are more likely to have an impact over my purchasing decision than any other form of marketing” and even more (74%) identified with the statement: “I trust sources such as mom blogs and online communities more than brand advertisements when it comes to gathering product information.” Where suggestions were once restricted to word-of-mouth, today 4.3 million (and counting) US mothers run blogs, a platform which is highly adaptable to brand engagement (such as the ever popular giveaway & contest. )
Credit: travelmadmum.com
Conclusion
Nowadays moms are more and more connected, their use of digital on multiple devices for both purchases and social media is by far higher than other demographics. Moreover, they still control most of the household expenses but their purchasing behavior has evolved in the past years. Facebook was early adopted but we noticed that their use of Instagram or Snapchat was a recent trend. Platforms such as blogs, influence mothers running their daily family life.
Millennial moms can’t be considered as a homogenous segment. Marketers have to adapt their strategies to each one and create added value to meet moms expectations. Influence marketing seems to be an effective strategy to meet such requirements. Indeed mothers have always trusted each other and mom blogs have amplified their voices far away from the playground. As we have seen through this article such platforms are highly adaptable to brand engagement providing authenticity and extra value to the targeted audience.
However targeting blogs only is not enough, and Influence marketing has to be part of a bigger strategy as we have seen if one of our previous post.
