If you market your product specifically to women, and in particular, Generation Y women, you’ll want to read this. I recently came across a study commissioned by Pop Sugar which examined the buying habits and lifestyle choices of Generation Y Women. The findings are interesting indeed.

In this blog post I’ve featured summary of the major findings plus I’ve added some action steps to make those findings work in your business. To download the full report go to http://media.onsugar.com/static/imgs/WhyYWomen.pdf

In many cases, Gen Y and Gen X women are quite similar in that once you win them over they’re fiercely loyal brand advocates with as many as 61% Gen Y’ers telling their friends about products they enjoy. The key is in capturing their loyalty in the first place.

1.       Honesty is paramount (this should go without saying anyway)

Gen Y women are happy as anything to share their entire lives on Facebook and other social media. They’re familiar with reality tv, confessions and personal blogs. As such, they expect transparency in advertising. Baby Boomer women are much more likely to believe those Rug commercials that scream out “Water Damage Sale”, “Shipment Error Sale” “Everything Must Go 75% Off or More” etc. Gen Y women don’t buy the BS - not for a second.

Gen X women are more influenced by expert opinions and testimonials whereas Gen Y women are influenced by their peers which extends to their friends but also their online friends and blogs.

Action Step: Scan your headlines and copy for “rubberiness” … if the claim appears over the top remove it because Gen Y women won’t believe it even though it’s true. When you make claims back them up with proof so they can see that you’re being 100% above board. Honesty can also be conveyed in the way you communicate marketing material as well as in your design, typeface and much more.

2.       No social media loyalty …

Don’t just assume that because today Facebook is the flavour of the day with Gen Y women, that it will always be that way. It won’t. According to the Pop Sugar study, Gen Y women are fickle and swap between difference social media platforms so make sure you stay on your toes and stay up to date with what the market is doing.

Action Step: Pay attention and focus on all Social Media platforms.

3.       They Tweet Differently

Although Gen Y women aren’t big Twitter fans they ARE fans of Twitter when it comes to following their favourite brands to find out the latest specials and new releases on offer from those companies.

Action Step: On Twitter freely feature specials, promotions, launch details, giveaways, selection or usage tips and other information that helps Gen Y women directly engage with your brand.

4.       Context is critical

Generation Y Women are not big on clicking on banner ads but they are influenced by advertising. What is very important however, is the context in which Gen Y women see your ad. That determines in their minds the trust they place in your brand. Trust in site equals trust in brand especially for unknown brands.

Action Step: According to this report, direct response advertising eg. a roughly laid out ad with the headline “FREE XYZ click here” isn’t enough to get a GEN Y Woman to click on it, but the words and the design of that ad will leave an impression in that woman’s mind. With that in mind, it’s often much more effective running a Facebook Ad that focuses more on creating brand awareness and association than it is to have an in-your-face, offer based headline that encourages them to click.

NB:  This is the opinion of the report  - we haven’t tested this ourselves so you’ll need to make your own decisions in that area.

5.       Market across channels

Gen Y women still engage with multiple forms of media, internet, social media, mobile phone, television so share the media spend.

Action step: don’t put all your marketing eggs in one basket.

6.       Too much IS too much

Gen Y chicks are less tolerant of being bombarded by marketing material and … so if you have a lot of Gen Y women on your Facebook or Twitter Feeds and you post 12 or so times a day, don’t expect them to hang around.

Action Step: Limit the tweets and status updates but also engage them. Remember, Gen Y women are the most narcissistic of any market segment so feed them offers, ask their opinion, engage them in conversations that appeal to their self-interest.

7.       Reciprocation is Mandatory

Gen Y women know that their opinions and their personal contact information is important. With that, they’re not going to give it away for nothing. If you want to conduct research or capture information for a lead generation exercise, you’re going to need to cough up some interesting freebies as a fair exchange.

Action Step: Test various incentives and giveaways and see which work best.

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