We are looking at how to make sure your website appeals to both parents and children if you’re selling something that relies on appealing to both. We’ve whittled it down to one brand to look at who have nailed the art of marketing to those who (predominantly) use their products and those who pay for them.
From a distance, having your website appeal to both parents and children seems impossible – how can you keep kids engaged while providing adults with important information? Well, here are our top tips and a few do’s and don’ts to find the right balance and sway them both.
- Don’t lean into preying on parental guilt, the ‘your kids deserve more’ approach only promotes competitive parenting and worry. Word of mouth is vital in parental communities and this approach will often lead to a bad name and distrust.
- Despite the stereotype of millennials being young and entitled, millennials are, in fact, parents to 50% of the world’s children and the internet is a central part of youth culture. Not doing market research on popular trends and understanding current networks and relational complexities will diminish your chances to engage with parents and children and build brand loyalty.
- Avoid distancing your target audience by labelling parental content to ‘Mum’, in a talk the co-founder of Mumsnet stated only 23% of mothers are happy with people other than their family calling them mum. For some parents ‘Mum’ is a very personal family term and advertisers who wade in and use the word without first being invited can be seen as intrusive or irritating.
With these no-no’s out of the way here are tips that you should do!
- Focus on brand authenticity, that means committing to creating quality products and honest, transparent marketing to show your customers who you are and why they should care.
- Make sure that your brand can always be trusted. This is the number one thing that parents want to see in brands that they buy for their child. Authenticity and backing up your brand’s marketing claims with action goes a long way here. If it’s not recyclable, don’t infer it is. If it’s low fat but full of sugar don’t pretend it’s healthy. If you pledge to be ‘Made in Britain’ but actually your office is based here but products are made elsewhere, don’t try and pull the wool over people’s eyes (unless it’s Dorset Down as that is actually British).
- Be creative and unique. Think outside the box on ways to engage parents and their children with your brand even further. But don’t tell them you ‘think outside the box’ – show them. Come up with an online series that keeps parents continually checking your page, create videos and tutorials that offer help, and more – always be looking for ideas that add meaningful value on top of just highlighting your product.
We can learn from Lego.
Lego’s website invites visitors to navigate off to a section for parents to shop and get help and another for kids to play with toys online. They even have their own kids magazine and blog pages for parents to help ensure parents and kids alike are getting the most out of their product.
Whilst your marketing budget may not stretch to your own magazine, blogging is a cost-effective way to show you know your stuff and can cater for everyone involved in the purchasing process of your product or service. You can categorize blog posts either by content type or by who they’re aimed at giving you Lego-like dedicated content for parents and children.
If you’re looking for help figuring out how to use your website to appeal to multiple target markets or stakeholders, get in touch today.
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