Since 2017, startups targeting parents have generated over $300 million in funding. This doesn’t even account for more established brands who already have a strong foothold of the industry. It makes sense that so many brands try to attract the attention of little ones, and ultimately their parents – it’s a customer segment who are happy to spend money.

So whether your brand offers organic cotton t-shirts using only natural ingredients or kids shoes for the entire family, with the right messaging and price, you’re likely to have a great customer base.

Many brands rely on influencer marketing to get their messaging, story and products out into the public. Parents who post content online about their children are very vocal about products they do and don’t like in order to help fellow parents make good decisions about their future purchases. 

For brands, though, this presents a brilliant opportunity to work with parent, child and family influencers. 

Word of mouth marketing is one of the best ways you can grow your brand. We have over 200,000 influencers on our platform and we wanted to see how many times the top kid, child and parent brands were mentioned…

 

 

Bugaboo

Bugaboo, the stroller company use influencer marketing on their Instagram channel. Instead of just writing a caption and using their own image, they utilise their customer generated content and include it as part of their overall feed.

For parent and baby brands, this is a great way to show other potential buyers that people love your products. If you do decide to use your customers’ photos, it’s a good idea to ask them first before you do. If you do, tag them in the posts too, this way other users will be able to see it in their feeds, but also they’ll be likely to re-share it in their stories.

Mamas and Papas

Mamas and Papas couple their influencer promotion with freebie offers. In this example, they feature a photo of reality TV star, Chloe Lewis with her bump and some shopping bags.

The use of influencers draws people into the photo and the caption keeps them there. They let everyone know that if you visit any of their Mamas and Papas stores, you’re eligible for a free personal shopping experience. What’s more, you’ll also receive a free gift. 

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H&M Kids

H&M has a clothing range for all the family. When they share their influencers’ photos on their feed they go one step further and include the product numbers. This way, other potential shoppers can easily locate each item featured in the photo and make the purchase.

 

Baby Zen UK

Baby Zen’s entire feed is mostly made up of their customers’ photos. This is a great marketing asset to use. By including customers and influencers throughout their insta feed, they’re able to show the benefits of using their product.

Their motto “stroller for parents on the move!” is only effective if you can show potential buyers how handy the stroller is across various terrains and locations. 

 

Tiba and Marl

Tiba and Marl, sell bags and accessories for all ages. Because of this they need to make sure their feed appeals to both parents and young children (if they want the whole family to buy into the brand).

How to Market to Parents?

Before you market to parents, something to keep in mind is that you’re both marketing to the parents and also trying to appeal to their children. Although the parents will have the final say as to what they do or don’t buy, there’s still a chance that their children could say they don’t like your products. If you’re marketing to parent brands, here are four handy tips to keep in mind before you get started.

 

Try a range of social platforms

Not all social platforms are created equal. Each social platform will have a different audience demographic and so it’s important to check who your audience is and then find out where they frequent online.

After all, there is little point trying to promote your products on Snapchat if none of your audience uses the platform. But also factor in that you might have to use a range of social platforms before you can find the one that works well for you. 

Some platforms are better for influencers and promoting your products. Others, however, might be better for customer support or customer feedback. Find out what social channels work best for your brand and and make sure you win.

 

Quality of influencers over quantity

Selling to parents can be tricky. Parent’s much prefer to buy from a company that’s authentic and cares about the same things they do. If you have the budget to work with more than one influencer, your efforts are best placed putting quality over quantity. What this means is, working with 100 influencers who might not even have an audience you want to target will have less of an impact for your brand than simply working with 10 parent influencers.

When you find your ideal influencer to work with, try to build a long-term relationship with them. The better you get to know them, the better you’ll get to know their audience and improve your campaigns. 

 

Create an experience

Selling your brand to parents is as much about offering the right products at the right price, but creating a storytelling experience too. The market for parent and child products is so saturated that you’re constantly up against tonnes of competition.

In many cases, you’re unable to compete on price and so instead you need to compete on branding. Getting your story right is crucial, especially if you’re going to ramp up your social presence through influencer marketing.

Every influencer you work with should also understand the story behind your brand and try to feed this through their posts when you work with them.

 

Parents have the final say 

Above all else, though, make sure you’re sensitive to the parents. They’re most likely tired, stressed and strapped for cash. So when you do market to this audience segment, be mindful of what they’re going through. Whether they’re new parents or seasoned parents, you need to make sure your marketing (especially with influencers) shows them that you understand their lives.

 

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Featured Photo by Sai De Silva on Unsplash.