Marketers Court Female Bloggers

AUGUST 13, 2009

Know your audience

Many marketers now comfortable with social media and the power of online product reviews have also started to lose their timidity about approaching bloggers.

In fact, some women bloggers report marketers may be becoming overeager.

Ketchum, conducting a survey of registrants for July’s annual BlogHer conference—billed as the largest gathering of female bloggers in North America—found that nearly one-half of respondents were contacted by PR professionals weekly. A further 30% got such messages on a daily basis.

Some of that contact, however, appears to be unwanted. Respondents to the Ketchum study indicated that marketers were not doing the necessary research when looking to stir up online word-of-mouth about their products.

One tip: Women would like marketers to read and understand their blogs before making contact, to make sure they are a good fit with the product or service being marketed. Some bloggers reported hearing about offers that were not even available in their location.

Also, despite the “mommy blogger” buzz, not all female bloggers fit that category.

ShesConnected found that more than one-half of US female social network users polled in spring 2009 had started their own blog.

“The incidence of starting a blog was exceedingly high, likely a reflection of the education level and social media involvement of these core users,” according to the report.

March 2009 data from BlogHer, iVillage and Compass Partners indicated that 8 million women in the US publish a blog.

The same study also found that 31% of women who read or posted to blogs did so to “provide advice and recommendations.”

Women bloggers are more than willing to help marketers out—when it makes sense to do so. About 40% of Ketchum respondents said they had provided marketers with information collected on their blogs, and 53% said they would consider doing so if asked.

“Our research at Ketchum shows that women want marketers to understand them, and the female blogger audience is saying the same thing, loud and clear,” said Kelley Skoloda of Ketchum in a statement. As with all social media, it is crucial for marketers’ blog outreach efforts to be a good fit for everyone involved: the brand, the blogger and the audience.