For several years now, we’ve touted the power of blogs to drive traffic to your site, position your company as an expert in the field, and inform current and prospective customers about products. Turns out, blogging can be equally beneficial when marketing to women online. Why?

Well, for starters, women are nearly twice as likely as men to use blogs than social networking sites as a source of information (64%), advice and recommendations (43%) and opinion-sharing (55%), and 45 percent of survey respondents stated that they decided to purchase an item after reading about it on a blog (1). Consider how women shop online, and a deeper picture emerges: studies show that women research products and services extensively before making a purchase, mirroring how women shop in brick-and-mortar stores (2). And, women spend about 20% more time on retail sites overall than men; 25% of that time is spent comparison shopping (3).

So what should you blog about? Here are three tips for creating blog content that will resonate with women:

BLOG TIP #1: Write honestly about your products and provide exclusive insights. Knowing women visit blogs first and foremost for information, make sure you’re writing regularly about your products in a clear, succinct format that’s easy to browse: bullet point key features, list the current product price, list any options that are available, show a picture of the product and link to its listing in your online shopping cart (if you have one). Now, here’s the important part: include information in your post that allows her to gain a deeper understanding of the product than she’ll get elsewhere on the internet. For example, what are your customers saying about the product? How does it compare to other products you carry? Express an opinion, such as “this might be right for you if…” to demonstrate your expertise and connect with her on a more personal level. Invite feedback and include comments about what your other customers are saying about the product. Don’t make the mistake of posting rave reviews for all of your products, or she’ll be less likely to trust the information you provide.

BLOG TIP #2: Use your blog to post tips about effective ways to use your products.Women also seek blogs for advice and recommendations. Become a source for lifestyle tips relevant to your products to connect with her on a deeper level. For example, one of our clients—a store featuring home decor and kitchen products—suggests tips for using her products for entertaining, posts recipes, comments on home trends, and writes reviews of new products. Her readers come to know her as a source for up-to-date information and advice on home decorating and entertaining.

BLOG TIP #3: Work to develop a community on your blog that extends from the customer’s experience in the store. Women use the internet to connect socially, andaccording to Marti Barletta, CEO of TrendSight Group and author of “Primetime Women: How to Win the Hearts, Minds and Business of Boomer Big Spenders,” see themselves as parts of a community first, and then as individuals. One of our clients, an owner of a yarn shop, creates a community around her blog by posting photos of completed projects by customers and by blogging about her progress on her 12 sweaters in 12 months campaign—an initiative many of her customers joined as well. Other ideas to build community around your blog: ask readers to vote on a photo contest, solicit entries for Best X and post reader responses. Connect happenings in-store to your blog—and social media—to allow your customers to interact more often with your company and other like-minded customers.

By Katrina Hase, Mix Creative
Mix Creative is the perfect combination of graphic design, market sensibility, and advertising execution. So whether your business craves a new brochure and website re-design or a full advertising campaign, we’ve got the recipe for your success. Learn more about what we can dish up for you!

Resources:
BlogHer, iVillage and Compass Partners 2009 Women in Social Media Study
‘Men Buy, Women Shop’: The Sexes Have Different Priorities When Walking Down the Aisles
ComScore, Inc. June, 2010 Women on the Web: How Women are Shaping the Internet

With all of this talk of travel, it’s got me thinking about women and travel. For example, according to Why She Buys by Bridget Brennan, trips where female friends and family travel together—dubbed “Girlfriend Getaways”—are increasing in popularity. In fact, 24% of American women have taken a Girlfriend Getaway in the past 3 years, and 39% plan on taking one in the next three years.

According to Vibrant Nation: What Boomer Women 50+ Know, Think, Do & Buy by Stephen Reily and Carol Orsborn, ladies such as my mother and myself (well, I’ve got a few more years to go, but you get the point…) are most likely to be looking for trips that offer educational opportunities and offer moderate to extensive opportunities for exercise. We epitomize this statistic: our tour includes a pasta-making demonstration, language lesson, and castle exploration. Might have to postpone our hike up Mt. Etna, though, since it appears to be ready to erupt!

Another woman and travel fun fact: according to his research, Paco Underhill (What Women Want: The Global Market Turns Female Friendly) states that, “of all the stats we’ve examined in our work with hotels, this much stands out to me: what’s most important for the female traveler is what amenities a hotel offers.” Agreed. Who wants a cruddy 2-in-1 shampoo/conditioner that’s going to leave your hair slimy all day when you’re on vacation? Get me the nice stuff, please!

The Most Important Fact for companies to note about women and travel, however, has to be this one: 70% of travel decisions are made by women. As they say in marketing: follow the money. Or in this case, hop a plane and follow those two female travel companions!

Pinterest, a virtual visual bulletin board, is getting a lot of buzz these days—and for good reason. Attracting primarily women (68%) with average annual incomes of $100,000+, this social media site has shown itself to be a major source of referral traffic on the internet, outpacing YouTube, Google+ and LinkedIn combined. If you’re a business marketing to women, it’s time you take advantage of how Pinterest can increase traffic to your site and better target your products and services to your audiences. Here are three tips to get started:

1. Get on Pinterest. Using either a Facebook or a Twitter login, you can start a Pinterest account and give it your company name. Once you’ve got an account, you can create boards—categories of images that focus on a topic. Topics must be helpful and/or entertaining, highly visual, and must NOT be overtly about self-promotion. Consider topics such as seasonal must-haves, new products, finished projects, and industry trends (examples: see list at right). Spread the word about your page placing the free “follow me on Pinterest” button on your website.

2. Get “Pinned” to drive traffic to your site. Images from your website that visitors pin to Pinterest refer back to your website, driving traffic. In fact, you may not know it, but some of the images from your site may already appear on Pinterest. To find out, type this url in your browser:www.pinterest.com/source/yourcompanyurl.com.Discovering which images may already appear on Pinterest can inform you of how to shape your content in the future to be “pin-ready”. Don’t have an image on Pinterest yet? No problem! Start adding images to your website or blog relating to your business that are beautiful, cute, inspirational or instructional. Improve your odds by inserting a “Pin this” button next to your image. There’s a little code involved, but your developer should be able to do it in just a few minutes per image.

3. Use Pinterest as a focus group. Never before has there been such a simple way to get into the minds of your audiences! Visit Pinterest.com and type in a topic in the search related to your products or services, and you’ll see a huge visual collection that shows exactly what your target audiences find to be attractive, interesting and inspiring. Use what you see to inform the type of products you carry, predict trends, and even see which of your products are trending!

Also of note: they clearly explained what happened without excuses and communicated how they are fixing the issue.

The cute little monster doesn’t hurt either. Well done, 48hourPrint!

My story started with a visit to Chicago on business to attend the International Freelancers Conference. It was the second biggest investment I’d made in my business at the time—the first being my shiny new MacBook Pro. Initially I had planned to catch a ride with another attendee on her small puddle-jumper, but when the clouds threatened rain that morning, I booked a trip by train, keeping my options open for the way home.

The conference was great—I learned so much about running and marketing a design business. On the last day, I opened my laptop in the hotel lobby and proceeded to book my train trip home to Minneapolis. But the trains were all full.

Slightly inconvenienced, I hailed a cab and headed over to the bus station. Not my first choice, but it’d do. When I got there, the place was packed. The buses were all full. I was checked out of my hotel with no place to go. Stuck in the Chicago bus station.

“What gives? I didn’t think it would be difficult to catch a bus home to Minneapolis,” I moaned to no one in particular.

“It’s Columbus Day weekend,” said a woman who glanced up at me from her newspaper. “People headed home to see their families, I guess.” I wondered when Columbus Day became such a big stinking holiday.

Disgruntled, I dialed the number for the local car rental agency. Booked.

I dialed another: booked again.

I dialed a third. This time, before letting them off the line, I insisted they tell me if any of their other locations showed a car in stock. Finally, success. They transferred my call and I booked a car. They dispatched a car to come pick me up.

Tired and flustered, I waited outside the Chicago bus station for my ride to appear. Buses moved in, people shuffled out and others packed in. An aggressive security agent tapped on the hoods of cars that approached the curb to drop off passengers or pick up loved ones.

“Keep it moving! No parking!” he snapped. I felt my heartbeat rise, knowing soon he’d scold me too, when my ride came.

Sure enough, when the rental car agent pulled up, I noticed that we were in the sights of the security agent. I scrambled to get in the car quickly before he made a scene.

We crawled through Chicago, which was now in the early stages of rush hour, back to the parking ramp that housed the rental car agency. I sat in the narrow office and watched the agent clicking my information into the computer, relieved to be nearly done with this process. My eyes wandered around the room. The luggage I’d packed just this morning while sipping coffee and looking out over the skyscrapers from my hotel room looked out of place sitting next to the door of the tiny office. My luggage. My computer case!…where was it?

I bolted out to where the driver was preparing to pick up another customer. “Wait!” I belted, “I think I left my computer in there.”

He shook his head: no, I checked it already. Then seeing my face, waved his arms for me to have a look.

I tore through the car, stupidly opening the glove compartment, as if my computer might have shrunken suddenly and slipped away hidden. The car was empty.

I ran back to the office. The agent was standing now, shaking his head. No computer. The keys to my rental were in his hand. I was hesitant to leave, thinking it might be my last chance to save my computer. I asked if we could call the bus station first, just to see if anyone had turned it in. The phone buzzed, unanswered. We called again. Busy.

So finally I folded into the rental car and pulled away with the two agents shaking their heads. I’m sure they were thinking, “What idiot loses track of her computer in a bus station?”

I resolved to return to the bus station, if anything just so I could tell myself I did everything I could to get my new computer back. My mind went over all the files that were on it—what would put me at risk? What would I lose forever? I dreaded facing the cranky security guard upon my arrival.

And then I had a peculiar thought: if it were me, and I found a laptop computer at a bus station, I’d turn it in. I wouldn’t take it. I wouldn’t dream of taking it. I thought of everyone I know: my family, my friends. None of them would take it, I was sure of it. I was willing to bet there were a lot of people who were the same way. It might be a big city, and it might be a busy bus station, but it was filled with people—people with friends and family who were probably a lot like mine. People like me. I began to feel hope.

When I pulled up to the bus station, the activity level had dropped. The security guard was nowhere in sight. Cautiously, I parked my rental car at the curb and got out. I took two steps and was greeted by a man who said, “I know what you’re looking for.” He told me to follow him. Could it be?

“You left it on the curb,” explained the man as we walked. He was a bit taller than me, dressed simply and carrying a single small bag. His dark skin was spotted with age and his eyes creased with smile lines. He led me to the back of the station toward the security room. “I tried to catch you before you took off, but you didn’t see me. So I brought to security.” He knocked on the door. “Here’s the woman who left the laptop,” he announced.

“Is this yours?” the guard asked.

“A  MacBook Pro laptop computer?” I nodded at the black case.

“Yep,” he confirmed. “You got lucky.”

I knew it. I smiled sheepishly, reclaiming my laptop case and started back to my illegally-parked rental car. The kind man followed me.

“Thank you,” I said. “I’d really like to reward you for what you did…you really saved me! My whole work is in there!” I reached into my purse to offer him a reward, but he shook his hand No. He didn’t want a reward. His reward was seeing it returned to its rightful owner, he told me.

I teared up suddenly, moved at the thought of one stranger helping another. Without thinking I gave him a hug before heading back to my car. And just like that, two lives intersected for a brief moment like so many others have throughout time. We connected as human beings; two members of the human race.

So why post this story on a blog about marketing and design? The experience of connecting with this man  reminded me that at the heart of what we do as business owners, as marketers, as designers is exactly that: reaching out to our fellow human. I realized then that marketing works best when we do more than just tell people what we offer, what we can do, what it can do for them. Successful marketing finds a way to tap into that thing that connects us; that powerful thing that makes us more similar than different. When you find that connection, big things can happen: a video goes viral, an idea becomes Facebook, or a song becomes a number one hit.

How do you find that connection? Shift your thinking. Remember this story and start by assuming we’re more alike than different.

Recently, we had the opportunity to design the identity, website and business cards for a new store: Forget Me Not In Stillwater. For the design, we drew upon a combination of trellis-style frames and old world illustrations with fresh, contemporary colors. Here’s the result:

Pin It

Photoshop is the tool of design professionals for all kinds of reasons, but this video illustrates—in humorous fashion—the amazing retouching abilities of the program.

1. Veer.com. Sure, there are a lot of free font sites out there, but this one only has the best. Count on Veer fonts to have all kinds of great character alternates and lots of faces from which to select. Plus, with the addition of low-cost images, their well-curated image library is a must for designers on all budgets.
2. Thebestdesigns.com. This is a gallery of exceptional website designs that will inspire and amaze. It’s a great starting point for any design project.
3. Ted.com. Whenever I’m feeling stuck, I know I’ll find inspiration from any of the thousands of stories and videos from thought leaders of all walks of life on this site.
4. Paper-source.com. Paper Source is always on trend when it comes to colors and invitation design. Their unique envelope shapes and sizes help me to think more creatively about print mailers.
5. Netted by the Webbys. An e-newsletter that presents top websites and apps that are out there. They search the internet and bring the trends to me, so I don’t have to!