How To Score With Women Online
Ray Van Eng (09/19/96)
- Let's put women before men. Why not!? We say "Ladies and
gentlemen..." in public speeches, don't we?
If surveys like the one from Jupiter Communications are to be believed,
on a un-biased and random basis, 63% of the readers of this article are
male (that being the proportion Jupiter says is the male online population
with females claiming about 37%).
'How To Score With Women Online'. With a title like that, we might attract
more men than we actually would like. It is a shame really. Because we
are trying to reach both the women and men out there on the Internet.
Sorry guys, we are not going to talk about "Your place or mine?"
that sort of scoring. It is actually more like -- "Your web site or
mine?" Or more precisely, how to attract women to your web site.
The web is a greatly distorted place especially in the early days when
web surfing is a predominantly male 'sport' but there are signs that things
are changing for the better. In the Jupiter survey, it says that the growth
rate among women coming online today actually outpaces than that of men
and by the year 2000, we may see an almost even split of women (47%) and
men (53%) on the Internet. As well it should be.
So what are the things women most interested in online? Communication and
information gathering, Jupiter says. Another study from Bellcore Research
seems to suggest that for those women staying at home, "Home schooling
(is) more important than home shopping" and a majority of them expressed
high interest in any interactive service dealing with education. This group
of women makes up about 12% of the population who are potential targets
for interactive services, said the telecommunication research group.
Jupiter also advises that news related subjects have an appeal for most
web surfers, women included. And especially for her, career and family
information are at the top of the list. And for those women keen on making
financial investments, they may begin to go online for that kind of services,
as in the words of Yvette DeBow, editorial director at Jupiter, "Women
are often intimidated by brokers".
Some big publishers are already catching on. The Hearst Corporation has
launched HomeArts online (www.homearts.com), hoping to capture the fancies
of a female audience. It has incorporated a number of editorial content
from such magazines as Good Housekeeping, Redbook, and Country Living.
Logically, some of the most popular web site specially designed for women
are run by women. Women simply know women better.
Take the Women's Wire web site (www.women.com) for example. The San Mateo,
California based venture is produced by Wire Networks Inc. and the site
gets about 2 million hits a week. A glance at their editorial staff listing
and you would notice first names like Barbara, Mary, Ann, Susan, Ellen,
Alison etc. Oh, yeah, there is also a John and Tim if you look hard enough.
The nicely designed site is roughly divided into seven channels which include
sections like daily news about women, fitness, money management, fashion
and style, career and work, shopping, chat etc.
The web site also has a Canadian affiliate at www.women.ca. Run by the
Canadian Women's Internet Association, they aimed at making sure 'women
feel welcome and comfortable on the Internet'. Good thing.
The web at this stage of the development is most effective for branding,
establishing good relationship with your customers, putting up sales and
marketing information and providing some customer service. What about shopping?
Wouldn't women shop til they drop online? Some studies suggest that they
would.
Jupiter says that the current average of $27 online purchases by women
today will increase to $80 by the year 2000. That would translate to a
$3.5 Billion purchasing power made by 43.3 million women as we enter a
new millennium. Jupiter acknowledges that there will be heavy spenders
among those who will not buy anything online at all.
There are opportunities and challenges.
"Women represent a very significant portion of consumers and shopping
is going to be one of the big money makers on the Web," DeBow said
but he also warned, "Sites and services that don't address women markets
will be missing a large segment of the market."
A copy of the report 'Women Online: Developing Content and Advertising
for an Emerging Market' is available for $995 at Jupiter Communications
web site at www.jup.com.
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© Copyright Ray Van Eng 1996 - 1999. All rights reserved.