By Janette Leon-Speyer & Alison Brown, Web Success Team

It’s not uncommon for moms to blog from home, generate an income and a name for themselves in the online world. Blogging not only allows moms the flexibility to work from home, but they can still take care of the household  and other responsibilities while being able to contribute to something of their own.

According to Mashable, the women of the household make about 85% of purchasing decisions and often times that person is a parent. She is making decisions not only for herself, but also for the entire family. Moms also heavily rely on word of mouth to make decisions as well. If one mom recommends a certain brand over another, you can be certain that all of her friends will know. This is good for marketers since the online “mommy blogging” community is fairly close knit. If moms and brands can go hand in hand, everybody wins.

Online Marketing and Mommy Bloggers

Over the last several years, online marketers have really started to take mommy bloggers seriously. In 2010, BlogWorld came out with an infographic that outlined the influence that mommy bloggers have in the marketing world. The brand/mom relationship really does go a long way in regards to brand loyalty. They estimated that 77% of moms will blog about brands they love or hate. Depending on a certain mom’s online influence, this could either make or break a company’s online image. If one influential mom starts criticizing a brand of diapers for example, this could easily go viral in the mommy blogger world.

How to Leverage the Mommy Blogging World

If you are planning to appeal to online moms, you must make sure you target them correctly. Perhaps you could think of it as building a partnership with them instead of trying to sell them products directly. You are trying to get them to buy your product, but you also want them to respect your brand and speak highly of you. In order to do this, you must make sure you pick the right group moms, and there are a lot to choose from. Army moms, school moms, soccer moms, and tons of other communities all share common interests, and most likely brand loyalty. After you decide on the community that best suits your brand you will have a better understanding as to how you can reach them effectively.

Reaching Out to Mommy Bloggers

It’s estimated that over 87 million moms engage with social media every week. They use it to stay connected with other people, they use it to see what their kids are up to, and they also use it for checking in with other mommy bloggers. If you want to infiltrate this market there are a few things you can do via social media to help your brand stand out from the rest. You can do everything from offering online coupons, freebies, sweepstakes and other incentives to get moms engaged. If you want to go a step further, you can get moms involved directly by asking them to promote your products.

But most importantly, if you want to engage moms you must be a brand that is trustworthy. You must make sure that your brand is reputable, reliable and is in one way or another involved with a good cause. Moms really respond to campaigns that have a charitable link because they can feel good about supporting your product. As long as your brand remains transparent and engaging, forging a partnership should be possible. Once you have one group’s support, the possibilities are endless. You may be surprised just how influential their voice can be in helping your brand succeed.

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