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Source: http://transcripts.internetmarketingvoodoo.com/2006/06/imv18-marketing-to-women-online.html

IMV18 : Marketing to Women Online

The following is a transcript for IMV18 : Marketing to Women Online. The original podcast is located here.

Announcer:

Welcome to the Internet Marketing Voodoo podcast brought to you by MindComet. And now, here's your host, Ted Murphy.

Ted Murphy:

Welcome to Internet Marketing Voodoo episode 18. I’m your host Ted Murphy. And with me today is Michelle Madhok, Founder of SheFinds.com and SheFindsMom.com. Welcome to the show today, Michelle.

Michelle Madhok:

Hi. Thanks.

Ted Murphy:

Michelle, obviously SheFinds.com is geared towards women and today’s topic is about reaching women online. I was wondering if you could tell our listeners a little about you and your background and why you began SheFinds.com.

Michelle Madhok:

Well, I started out in entertainment. I worked at CBS Television. And so I got a big, good feel for audiences, what people watched like “Everybody Loves Raymond,” and what they didn’t. And from there I was recruited by AOL to help them figure out their contents for women. And I went there and they were doing very serious things – were great, but with lots of Women’s History Month type of things. And we kind of juiced it up and took it from 100,000 readers a month to 10,000,000.

Ted Murphy:

Wow.

Michelle Madhok:

So I learned a lot. That was basically when I was at AOL I oversaw the women’s audience and at that time AOL was just booming. It was 35,000,000, 52% are women. There’s never been a focus group of women like that online ever, in one place, nor would there probably be again. So it was really amazing experience. I watched them. I watched they click on. I watched what they searched for; all of that great stuff. I saw focus groups. And what struck me about it was the things they were looking for were more fun than serious. Yes, women go to health sites. Yes, they track investments. But women don’t necessarily want a women’s investment site.

But what they do really want is to make themselves feel better. So there’s two parts of women. There’s the women as the CEO of the home; which is “I have to drive the kids to school. I have to pay the bills. I have to go to work.” And there’s the women as me; which is, “I want to feel beautiful. I want to take a bath. I want a glass of chardonnay.” So what she finds is about it’s helping that women find more time for herself and take care of herself by shopping.

Ted Murphy:

So what types of things are you featuring on SheFinds.com?

Michelle Madhok:

Well, one of the things I really noticed is that as women got more things in their life, the first things they go with themselves. So they take care of the kids. Then they’d stop by themselves cosmetics or they’d stop dressing well if they got a really busy job. So SheFinds is about helping women find clothing and apparel and accessories that kind of gives them the self confidence. When they have it’s like they’re dresses well and feel like they’re taking care of themselves.

So we focus mostly on right now beauty and apparel. We also have a site called SheFindsMom which focuses on cool clothes for kids and mom maternity apparel.

Ted Murphy:

And SheFinds.com seems to integrate a variety of vehicles to reach your target such as email marketing, online promotions, and blogging. Is there one medium in particular of that you’re finding works best for reaching these online shoppers?

Michelle Madhok:

Do you know what’s funny? Is when I started I thought I was gonna have an email business. I’d watch Daily Candy. I thought they were amazing. I thought they’d done such great things, but I wanted to do something a little bit more not quite so on the edge of hip. And I thought it was gonna be all about the email marketing. But really the thing that’s taking off has been the blog which was a surprise to me. But the blog has about 10,000 readers a day at this point. And with the really no marketing for the blog, if anything I’d market the newsletter a lot more. And that’s been very exciting. And I think it’s because – I think people may be having email fatigue.

Ted Murphy:

Yeah. (Laughter)

Michelle Madhok:

I think maybe just too much. And with the advent of our RSS readers, I mean I know I have unsubscribed in lots of emails and if it’s available I read them to the RSS reader.

Ted Murphy:

So in terms of the blog and the things that you’re doing, are you partnering or affiliating with retailers for advertising or how does that work? How are you guys making money?

Michelle Madhok:

Well, we do two things. We make money in advertising placements, paid placements. And we also do participate in affiliate programs. I like to call it “retailer placement,” which means they don’t get to pick what we promote. We have such a large stable of retailers. Nearly everybody that you would ever want to work with is now an affiliate. We just use affiliate lix whenever we have them.

So we are putting out a great deal of content at this point. I have about 20 writers across the country who are out researching and scoping things to post. And the newsletters we’re doing two to three a week. So our revenue from a affiliate commission which also which also is a very small thing has tripled this year over last year.

So the one problem I’m having though is that affiliate partners don’t necessarily appreciate the branding opportunity. For ad placements, I do not do solely a rev share agreement.

Ted Murphy:

So in terms of the content generators you have, I know that there’s been a big movement online where we’ve got just these massive amounts of users that are creating content and for a lot of the things that we’ve seen with some of our clients; we actually have situations where people are creating this content for free. Are your writers paid, not paid? Is there a mixture? Are people just behind it? Talk to me about how that’s structured.

Michelle Madhok:

Sure. My writers are paid.

Ted Murphy:

Lucky them. (Laughter)

Michelle Madhok:

Yeah. Well, they’re not paid a lot. But there’s a lot of perks in working for SheFinds. It’s funny now they go to press events and we’re getting some credibility, “Oh, you’re from SheFinds,” which makes me feel very good. ‘Cause we are influential and it’s kind of been an uphill battle especially in New York where the media publications are.

I mean Vogue has 1.5 million subscribers. But we’re gaining on you. So why would it be any different. This is the thing I also argue with the advertisers who I see buy these huge spreads; Vogue in the fall with twelve pounds, literally twelve pounds. And I just can’t imagine that an advertiser is reaching their audience so well by participating in that.

So with online I really think retailers are one of the last ones to come around. And the fact that they only want to work on rev share sometimes just doesn’t make sense to me.

I just had a conversation with Sephora who is a great company. I said to them, “Listen. I can only get people to click on and go to your sites. That’s all I can do. I can’t make them buy anything. And plus, I know anecdotally that people print out the recommendation and take it to the Sephora store around the corner. I mean, there’s 50 in New York. And purchase it there. And there’s no way for me to know or for you to know that we just got your brand a sale.”

And a lot of these stores are not integrated enough for that to matter. It’s everybody’s siloed department that needs to get the hit.

Ted Murphy:

So you had mentioned that you’d grown up to 10,000 unique visitors a day. Is a lot of that happening from referrals and from viral growth?

Michelle Madhok:

Yes. It’s very much word-of-mouth. We haven’t really bought any advertising. And I’ve bought a few things. Actually I bought on blogs just because I think that’s where the taste makers are. It’s odd that people will call me up and say – actually the Feed Burner people contact me because one of the account reps there said that he’d turn on this computer and he was looking in his blog reader and his girlfriend had added me to their list. (Laughter) SheFinds on the list so he said, “It must be something that’s spreading.” He says, “And I got to office and I turned around my office mate was also looking at SheFinds.”

Ted Murphy:

That’s great.

Michelle Madhok:

So it’s been very viral. I think that one thing that distinguishes us is that it’s very functional. We aren’t really a trendy first moving fashion site. We’re more about what’s useful; what’s a solution. I always say I want to inform, instruct, and inspire a purchase. So essentially it’d be done. Like I feel women and everybody is so busy these days. You really need to something to act upon otherwise who’s gonna call around looking for a blouse or go paw through Bloomingdale’s. Whenever I walk into Bloomingdale’s and I wish can Google it and find what I’m looking for.

Ted Murphy:

Just a kiosk in the front of the store.

Michelle Madhok:

Where is this exact pair of pants? But if you go onto Google right now and you type in “black pants,” there’s 10,000,000 results.

Ted Murphy:

That’s a lot of pants.

Michelle Madhok:

For black pants. So how am I supposed to know? So SheFinds I think steps in. I just read some report that women are using internet more and more to social connections like it’s a social circle; like how you talk to other people. And that’s because that’s how women shop. Men shop in a kind of search and destroy method.

Ted Murphy:

Oh yes.

Michelle Madhok:

You know?

Ted Murphy:

“Get me in. Get me out.”

Michelle Madhok:

“Give me the big screen TV.” Lots of commodity. Women have to think about it. It’s a circular thing. “What do you think? Does my butt look big in this? Is it the right color?” All of that stuff. But now that most of us have moved away from our friends, there’s not very many people who still live in the same place they went to school or grew up. So there’s – I think you kind of feel disenfranchised. And that’s where we step in. “We want to be your friend. This is the new cool thing. This will make you look thinner.” One of our absolutely best sellers have been underwear.

Ted Murphy:

Hmm.

Michelle Madhok:

And it’s the SheFinds Readers Guide to Underwear. We had all the readers send in what their favorite underwear was.

Ted Murphy:

See, I get around all that just understanding that my butt’s gonna look big in everything.

Michelle Madhok:

(Laughter) There’s actually a site called “Does My Butt Look Big?”

Ted Murphy:

(Laughter)

Michelle Madhok:

You can send in a picture and people will vote.

Ted Murphy:

So I have a question that came in from our voicemail. And for those of you that are listening, we invite our listeners to call in and give us some questions and we try to find the right people to talk about those topics. So you can give us a call at 1-866-206-4461. And I’m going to play this message right now for you.

Caller:

Hey Ted. It’s Sarah. Great show this week. I was kind of interested in learning more about the effectiveness of advertising on blogs. I hope to hear it one of your shows soon.

Ted Murphy:

So not necessarily women centric, but certainly blog centric. And I think that you’ve got a lot of experience there.

Michelle Madhok:

Yeah. I mean, I think it’s one of the best places for us. That’s the only place I’ve bought advertising. I bought advertising on Gawker.com, which is a media blog; because I know all of the New York media reads it. And they are the influencers and the ones who would probably write about shopping sites for their columns.

And I have also bought advertising on a site called Cute Overload, which is site about cute puppies and kitties and it’s very women focused I think.

Ted Murphy:

Yeah.

Michelle Madhok:

And so I think it’s a great place. So SheFinds blog, we have three spots on it. We work with Blog Ads and Ad Brite. And we also are part of the Glam network. And I think it’s very focused. And people are coming there every day. And I think a great deal of shopping is also about getting a lot of exposure to build that trust that your reputable brand people to buy.

Women’s number one concern in buying online is fear that you’re never gonna get the item. So if they see that you’re sticking around for a while, I think it’s a great place to be.

Ted Murphy:

What are some of your favorite women’s blogs?

Michelle Madhok:

Oh my goodness. There’s so many! (Laughter) I like Popgadget.net which is gadgets for women. I read the Consumerist which not necessarily just for women. But it’s about bad consumer experiences in retail. I read Luxist which is about very expensive handbags, jewelry, and shoes. I like Delight. And I mean I have a list of about a hundred. Splendora, they’re in San Francisco; just so that I can feel of what’s going on out there.

Ted Murphy:

And do you use those mostly for business or for pleasure?

Michelle Madhok:

Well, business is pleasure now. (Laughter)

Ted Murphy:

(Laughter)

Michelle Madhok:

Right? I mean the funny thing is when I left AOL I wanted to go be a magazine writer. And I went to Conde Nast. And I interviewed with the HR person there. And she said to me – she was probably an really old time Conde Nast person. She said to me, “I think you’re a marketing person who wants to be an editorial person and that just doesn’t cut it here.” And summarily dismissed me which I find very ironic because I think that marketing and editorial are very close, if not the same.

It’s both about knowing what your consumer wants to do; wants to read; and how to speak to them in their gut. So it’s a roundabout way of saying, “I think that all of these sites are great ways to have fun with your job. And you know that doing what you’re doing.

Ted Murphy:

Absolutely. So to round out the show here, can you provide with us with the top three best practices for marketing to women online?

Michelle Madhok:

Sure. Make it simple. Get to the point of what you want them to do, what’s the benefit for them, which means make it a solution. Like I said, “Underwear is one of our best.” Bras is our second best. Shape wear, which is things that make you look skinny. Those are all of the things that really speak to women. And you have to speak to them as if they’re intelligent. A lot of sites I’ve seen back in the early days kind of pandered in some ways. And I think that women are really smart and we want to know what’s going on out there and we will trust sources that continuously deliver high quality content.

Ted Murphy:

Well, that is all great. I really appreciate you taking the time today to speak with us. For people who are interested in going on SheFinds, if you actually go to SheFinds.com/blog, you’ll find the blog that we’re talking so much about. And there’s also a link off the home page of SheFinds.com.

Michelle, I hope you have a wonderful day and thank you very much for coming on the show today.

Michelle Madhok:

Thanks so much, Ted.

Ted Murphy:

All right.

Michelle Madhok:

Bye, bye.

Announcer:

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