As Brafton recently reported that blogs are bugeoning tools among SMBs, it seems the back-to-school season could be an ideal time for retailers to launch blogs. Unicast's new Back to School survey reveals that "Power Moms," who regularly access the internet and make purchases for their families, frequently turn to blogs when making buying decisions.
According to the survey, 45 percent of moms are reading blogs to find money-saving advice before they hit the stores. Marketers should take this point to heart as Power Moms are a powerful demographic, spending an estimated $21.35 billion on 2010 back to school supplies.
One chain that consistently does well during back-to-school season, Walmart, features a Mom blog community to catch the clicks – and ultimately cash – of these discerning shoppers. On its Walmart Moms page, the brand introduces the community: "We're real Moms. And we're bloggers. We've come together with Walmart to celebrate Moms, share our experiences and create a community." This is precisely the kind of content Power Moms desire – the Unicast Study found that reading blogs written by fellow parents was a top activity for these online shoppers.
Walmart connects web visitors to different "Mommy blogs" on various topics. For instance, Amy Allen Clark offers "mom advice" while Lynnae McCoy focuses on "being frugal." The blogs offer retail-industry relevant content, such as Clark's blog entry, "Back to School" that promotes different products, but they also offer myriad insight that these mom shoppers may find compelling. Through links to blogs, Walmart establishes itself as a parenting thought leader.
Other businesses may want to produce unique blogs on their sites to draw consumers to ecommerce pages with quality content. Power Moms will likely be spending big for upcoming holiday shopping, and Unicast says one-third of them read six or more relevant blogs – 62 percent spend at least three hours a week perusing blogs.
