View Full Version : If you own a business that caters specifically to families, read this!
becky
10-02-2006, 11:48 AM
Jackie and I have been discussing this and we would like to start a small group for people who run businesses geared at advertising specifically to families. This group will start out as a division of SCM, and once it grows we'll see if that partnership will continue or if we'll branch off.
The goal of the group is to have a place where we can dicuss marketing our businesses specifically to families in Marin/Napa/Sonoma Counties.
I know this may still sound vague right now but we would love to hear your feedback and experinences so that we can work together to help make our businesses successful.
We are also looking for a name of the group so that once it does get going we can start a yahoo group. If any or you ladies have any ideas please feel free to post them. I just know i want it to have the name North Bay somewhere in there.
Okay let the fun begin. I am looking forward to hearing what you all have to say.
Hey guys! Just wanted to add the the main focus of the group will be advertising to a small target market: Families with younger children... so if you have a business that markets specifically to that type of market, let us know.. we'd love to have you
becky
10-02-2006, 12:18 PM
To get the ball rolling, I would love to hear who has what kind of business. If you dont have a business yet but are thinking about one that markets to families what are your ideas.
For those of you who dont know what i do, I own Becka Lynn Design. you can see some of my recent work at www.becka-lynn-design.com
I have a strong business material background and can market it with little effort but would love to target families for my personal section of my business which is Announcements, invitations and greetings.
lmfike
10-02-2006, 12:28 PM
My husband sells Herbalife.
jellybeanmichelle
10-02-2006, 12:34 PM
I can do theme birthday cakes.
My3sonsplus1
10-02-2006, 12:38 PM
I am currently a consultant with Natural Family Boutique (www.Naturalfamilyboutique.com/my3sons) but I am thinking about "quitting" and doing my own thing making baby/kid/momma gift baskets and just dealing with my "favorite" vendors directly instead of continuing in the MLM model.
Marisa
10-02-2006, 01:48 PM
Hey guys... I'm not sure if my business would be in this category. You can tell me if you think it's appropriate. My target market is work-at-home moms and dads that need help getting their business books in order. It's not exactly the same target market as you're original plan. How about "North Bay Family Network" or something? Or "Mommy to Mommy of the NB"
My3sonsplus1
10-02-2006, 02:18 PM
Hey guys... I'm not sure if my business would be in this category. You can tell me if you think it's appropriate. My target market is work-at-home moms and dads that need help getting their business books in order. It's not exactly the same target market as you're original plan. How about "North Bay Family Network" or something? Or "Mommy to Mommy of the NB"
IMO you would make a great resource *for* the members of the group even if you weren't *in* the group if that makes any sense. So if nothing else you could be listed as a resource whereever we have the (favorite :)) resources section.
daisydoc
10-02-2006, 02:31 PM
Lisa: Love your new avatar!
My CL biz I can't advertise but once I get my personal training stuff togethr (looks like after the 1st of the year) I want to target people like us... SAHM/WAHM/WOHM who want a place they can go work out where their kids are in the same room with them in a safe area for them to play and where the moms can get one-on-one help with staying on track with their workouts. (what do y'all think about that?)
As far a group name... I like "NB Family Network". If you want to be able to include dads I would stay away from anything with the word "mommy" in it. Maybe something more like "Stay-At-Home Parent Network" or " NB Family Business Network"... just throwing ideas out there!
Marisa
10-02-2006, 02:40 PM
Lisa: That totally makes sense. I'm with ya.
Anna: I guess I'm just prejudiced cuz I am one... LOL I did think of "Family to Family" but there is already a national non-profit with that name and also the State of CA uses it for their public service announcements. "NB Family Network" gets the job done but it's not *catchy*
becky
10-02-2006, 02:43 PM
wow i knew you guys were the right place to start.
MArisa: I definately think you are a great resourse and would have a wealth of information to share.
Anna: Your business sounds like such a great idea and definately something moms would be interested in.
just to clarify, this is less to market towards the parents and moer to market towards the family unit as a whole.
My3sonsplus1
10-02-2006, 03:00 PM
Lisa: Love your new avatar!
Thanks, those are my characters. Ben was peeved I wouldn't let him hold Elias any more (he doesn't actually like to hold him per say but likes to pretend, and then for like 5 seconds before he all the sudden decides he is done and lets go, not long enough to get a picture taken...). This is as good as it gets is my new motto re: pictures of the kids. So hard to get 4 children looking the same way and with decent enough facial expressions.
becky
10-02-2006, 03:01 PM
the photo is so cute Lisa. Your boys are just too cute!
This is as good as it gets is my new motto re: pictures of the kids. So hard to get 4 children looking the same way and with decent enough facial expressions.
That's as good as it NEEDS to get. They are ADORABLE! :love
becky
10-02-2006, 04:37 PM
Before we get to far off track I wanted to post the purpose of the group. As you know, Jackie and I would like to market our businesses specifically to target families. That said I really would love to have a group where we can discuss marketing strategies to families and find out what has worked for some of us already and find new ideas to try.
Once we get better organized I would then like to work together to find ways we can market our businesses together beginning in places like our doctor’s offices and birthing centers. The staff already knows us so we would have a foot in the door from the get go.
This is where marketing can get tricky and I think the key here is to have something in hand before approaching our doctor’s office. By having our business put together in a package of sorts that is not only attractive to the families we are targeting but also attractive for the office we would have a better chance of them say yes to our advertising. I don’t know what this is yet. It could be a brochure, a flyer, a newsletter or just a package. These details will be worked on together and I have lots of ideas because on my marketing and design experience.
We do have to keep in mind there are some offices that may flat out say no or when we approach baby/children boutiques they may want to have a percentage of sales but I think that this is an issue that can be over come by a group effort and careful planning.
becky
10-03-2006, 06:18 PM
Being that there are several of us who have family targeted businesses, do any of you have anything you can share that has worked for you to bring in customer.
So far word of mouth is what has worked for me along with showing samples of my previous work but i would love to branch out to a larger targeted audience.
Lynette
10-04-2006, 12:03 AM
Just wondering, how is this going to be different than the Parent Pack concept? Is it just the target audience is different?
Not that I am a potential participant anyways since my business neither fit what you are looking for and I closed my doors last week :D Just curious!
becky
10-04-2006, 12:24 AM
The only problem i have with the parent pack is that there is no specific target audience yet. The parent pack is design to promote parents (great idea by the way) but it isn't designed to reach the target audience of families. That said, I want to find a way to promote businesses whose Target Market is just to families.
As i mentioned before, the graphic design portion of my business for the most part is very easy to market but the invitation/announcement portion is primarily design to reach the target market of families. That said, it is my best interest to find ways to reach families and spend what little advertising budget i have wisely. Now if i'm going to go through the effort to find ways to market my business just to target families, i want to help others do the same thing.
For example: If i was to print 200 "fillers" designed to market to families I would want to make sure that each one of those reached families in hopes that at least one would return a sale. Now if i was to do the same thing but only a percentage was to reach families then the over all chance of getting that sale is reduced. Same goes for if i were to make "fillers" that were jsut to advertise birth announcements. I want reach as many families as possible because they are the ones who would most likely be looking for birth announcements. Does this make sense?
Basically what i'm saying is that i want more bang for my buck and if i can help other businesses reach thier target market to families then i want to do that.
Lynette
10-04-2006, 07:27 AM
Oh sure, I understand what you are saying, I am just wondering if things like filler or even flyers produced in mass are effective? Especially for your business because to show what you are capable of I would think that is a very expensive flyer! Essentially that is what those big envelopes with coupons are that you get in the mail, the Valu-Pak I think it is called and I know I save them all the time but usually forget to use them. With my own business, I put flyers up at vets, dog parks, etc and never got one call from them. I got my business from my yellow pages ad, the listing on the RP Mom's website, referrals from a local groomer, word of mouth, and listing my site on all the free websites I could find to boost my search engine results. I think when it comes to effective marketing you have to think about how YOU buy your product, ya know? Sure I go through packs and flyers but I lose them or go look at the yellowpages or internet to see what all my options are.
The support aspect is great though! Getting ideas from other people is awesome because you has time to reinvent the wheel? I have no problem with copying other people's ideas that worked for them :D
becky
10-05-2006, 07:49 PM
I need to get the moved to a yahoo group so more people can join in the converstation. Would anyone here like to continue this converstation there? I just posted a note to the Mom Pack requesting to be contacted by other moms working from home who are in the bay area so i should be getting some feed back soon.
daisydoc
10-05-2006, 08:00 PM
I'd love to hear other people's ideas... so let me know what the yahoo group name is... or email it to me.