What would you do differently with a female audience?
Flaxington: While not all of us are alike, women tend to like to be a bit more personal and look for the connections. I’d spend more time with the sugarcoating and relating it to something meaningful to them. Women want to have the “Aha!” experience and learn, while many men just want to know what’s up next!
Bergin: Women generally tend to put a higher value on backstory than men. While a statistic alone may adequately convey a problem or a solution, a powerful anecdote could strengthen the connection a female audience has with the material.
Liberatore: In my experience, female clients tend to feel more comfortable talking on a personal level. I think women desire a personal connection and generally need to like the person they are working with. In response to this, my approach to discussions with women has to be open and keep a high level of interest in the matter we are discussing (no matter if it is a new media interview or vacation plans). Similar to how I speak with male clients, I still offer things in a straightforward, factual manner, but tend to soften the approach just a bit. At the end of the day, all of my clients (no matter male or female) have unique communication objectives that we work to accomplish by understanding their messages and how we can best position them so that they ring true to their audiences.
Men/Direct, Women/Connect
While not all women are exactly alike, nor are all men, we learn from our experts that there are some themes that resonate when marketing to the different genders. To be safe, I’m not going to suggest women will be more comfortable vacuuming, nor will I hand out sticks of dynamite too often to my male colleagues! But I will be more direct with the men, and tell more stories to the women in order to be more effective in my interactions.
Gail Graham is Chief Marketing Officer at United Capital, an innovative and fast-growing national wealth counseling firm with a unique approach to the market. Having earned awards in retail investor and advisor marketing, Gail is driving United Capital’s brand development, marketing and lead generation across all channels. Follow her on Twitter: @GailGrahamUC.