Gender Differences - Understanding Your Market

There is an age-old battle of Men vs. Women, no matter how much we try to gravitate towards the norms of the other gender. Anything you can do; I can do the same or better. This is not that. Within marketing, gender differences still exist profusely and even more so from a digital footprint perspective.

Are you capturing your target market’s attention? Are you meeting their online needs based on how they search, shop, and interact online? Do you understand how gender plays a role in all of this? If the answer is maybe, no, or unsure to any of these questions read on. This article is intended to help inform you of how to better understand your market based on their digital activity.

The Digital Revolution of the new century brought about new ways to send messaging to your customer. Businesses are now able to communicate one-to-one with their actual consumers through digital platforms such as social media, interactive games, targeted messaging via search engine optimization, and so much more. The amount of time a single person spends on their phone or laptop nowadays is staggering. Millennial shoppers, those born between 1981 – 1996, have spent anywhere between 10 to 12 hours per day online or on screen from 2019 through 2020. The average spent online or on screen varies by each generational segment. Gen Z, the generation with the most spending power and buying influence, spends roughly the same if not an hour or two more per day online or on screen.

So how does a business ensure that they are speaking directly to their customer in a way they want to be engaged? Read on. I promise, it’s about to get really interesting. Gender differences that exist online are based on certain characteristics such as their privacy concerns to where they spend their time researching down to how they engage with a company. Granted, these are averages based on decades of continuous data providing informed consumer profiles, but there is always an exception to any rule.

Men

The male gender tends to go online for a wider variety of reasons. They enjoy entertainment such as streaming short-and long-form videos, listening to music, etc. They also are engaged in online gaming and betting, catching up on news, as well as online shopping for a specific item such as “ties” or “shoes”. Men are less likely to join a social media network but once they do, they engage with a small subset of their peers. They are more focused on personal hobbies and interests such as sports or politics and choose to spend more of their time gathering information rather than building relationships online.

Men are less likely to have privacy concerns and are more likely to share personal identifiers, such as their full name, phone number, email address, mailing address, etc.) with companies. They are also more likely to engage with a company with little to no research. When they see what they like, they are in. They are also more likely to visit a website or follow a company on social media without regularly engaging with it unless it ties to their personal values.

Women

Women on the other hand, tend to go online to communicate and interact on social media. Their entertainment choices vary a bit from men as they are more inclined to stream music, listen to podcasts, and stream television shows or more short-to mid-form content but will watch more documentaries more often. They are also more interested in Lifestyle media such as travel, fashion, world events, cooking, and child-rearing related matters. They care about the news and tend to be more interested in domestic and world news as well as entertainment and celebrity. Women also tend to go online to conduct research and browse without searching for a specific item.

Women are more likely to join a social media network and engage more actively, focusing more on building relationships with others (either peers or influencers) than information gathering. They are more likely to have privacy concerns and are less likely to share personal identifiers with companies.

The female digital consumer is also more likely to research a company before engaging with them to ensure it aligns with their personal values and are more likely to sign up for an email newsletter or follow a business on social media with regular engagement.

How it All Comes Together

Understanding the differences in your gender audience can help inform how you communicate to your target audience.

If you are targeting men, keep content short and punchy. Show them who you are without much need for research. Place ads where they are in areas where they spend their time online such as news or sports mediums. Ensure that your search engine ranking is high so you appear on the first page so they do not have to search for you. If you run a social media contest or campaign, keep it simple to capture their attention and invite them to engage without much effort, so they do not scroll past you.

If you are targeting women, leave more digital breadcrumbs around for them to satiate the researcher in her. Tell her directly who you and show her as well in every platform. Create short-form videos for her to watch that include relationship building similarities either showcasing how she can use your product/service, how she will feel when she purchases, or how others have experienced your brand. Since she cares more about the opinions of her peers and chosen influencers, onboard social influencers to help push your brand to the right audience.

If you are targeting both genders, find a balance between your strategic approach. Create a newsletter but also share short snippets of that information on social media to appease both. Advertise on audio streaming platforms while also developing engaging display ads. Create an interactive game and place this as a social ad for those who are just passing through their feeds in order to give them an exciting, visual break from the monotony.

There are a variety of ways you can utilize gender variances in your marketing strategy. Once you know who your customer is and how they like to engage with a business, meet them where they are. Their interactions with you will become more valuable to both of you when you do.