Advertising to a Home-Based Working Mom Target Audience
by Tammy Harrison

How simple is it to place an ad with HBWM or with other businesses in the "home-based working mom" target audience? Frankly, it takes little effort if you can make your way to an order form!

You place an ad, it runs and you wait (im)patiently for the orders to roll in. Right? When you do not hear a thing, you write to the advertising contact to verify that your ad has run. When you learn that it was delivered, as promised, three hours ago, you get aggravated. You blame everyone else for the poor response and try to find a number of excuses as to why you haven't become an instant millionaire from that ad. 

Wait just a minute. Have you stopped to consider the audience your ad was delivered to? Have you defined your product and what benefits it would have for home-based working moms? Have you created an ad copy that spoke to that audience? Have you considered that one little ad was not enough to capture the attention of the intended consumer?

There are many facets to advertising that must be taken into account when you purchase advertising space. Let's assume that you know your target audience is home-based working moms. This could entail moms, entrepreneurs, small business owners, parents, etc. Now, stand back for a minute and look at your own life. What type of life do you lead as a home-based working mom? From my own standpoint, I can list out what kind of life I lead and what it takes for me to make a purchase based on an ad:

Busy and time-conscious 
Organized but not consistently 
Kids come first 
Will the product help me in my business? 
Will the product help me as a parent? 
Simple to order? 
Discount offered?

Many times I receive an ad order, run it as scheduled and never hear back from the advertiser; or they send me a message about how disappointed they are that they did not get a single order and think they have wasted their money. What needs to be understood is that the business you place the ad order with has one job and that is to deliver an audience. Your job, as the person who places the ad and/or writes the ad copy, is to relate to that audience, define that audience and produce a pleasing and enticing ad that will capture the attention of the audience. 

Additionally, you must remember that one ad will probably not be enough to garner exorbitant profits to send you on an island vacation for a month. Research has shown that it takes an average of at least three or four times for an ad to be seen, read and absorbed before someone will actually do anything about it. 

So, the next time you decide you want to do some advertising within your home-based working mom target audience, take the time to know that audience and to call out to that audience. Make your ad copy such that it speaks volumes about the product and how great it would be for a home-based working mom. Do not expect immediate results from a single ad, but budget for a few strategically placed ads to the same audience. And, don't blame the advertiser unless they have not delivered your ad to the audience. It could be that they have the exact audience you need for your tropical island paradise vacation!

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