Affiliate marketing, being an industry dominated by males (Think I can get away with saying that here, it didn't go down too well when my 0% claims went viral!), is rammo jammo to the rafters full of ad texts and creatives that are written from the male point of view.
This isn't always a problem, if you're advertising to other men. But it becomes a problem when you try to crack female markets.
The language and hooks we use both have to be catered to a different brain. In short, men tend to respond to logical and function based advertising:
"You will get a girlfriend because…"
"Your schlong will jump off the end of a ruler in 28 days because…"
Women are hardwired to respond to messages that appeal less to cold facts and more to emotion.
"You will give this fireman a chance because he rescues babies from burning buildings and he's holding a puppy…"
"Apply for our scholarship to be the best possible mom and to make your friends & family proud…"
That's not to say you can abandon reason, but you can't blast your ads through the front door quite so easily.
There's some very interesting stats on how women respond to advertising here.
"91% of women in one survey said that advertisers don’t understand them"
My bet is that 90% of them were seeing our ads.
Take the weight loss niche for example. I see a lot of ads pushing a message that women want to be seen as beautiful or desirable by men. While this is true in part, the much bigger carrot is to be seen as beautiful and desirable in the eyes of other women.
We have to abandon our overly male approach to writing copy and get in touch with the different qualities women look for. There's no clearer case than the dating industry.
I still see ads littered with throwaway lines like '20895 men searching for a date near you'. Copy simply does not get more laden with testosterone. It's a male advertising message born out of spreading the seed and aimed at other guys looking to spread the seed. It's just not going to work with women who want a greater emotional hook.
My advice if you're advertising to women:
Great post!
One minor additional tip here (and I'm nowhere near the expert on targeting women that Finch is, so if he subsequently says "oh god, don't do that", listen to him) - I find it helpful when writing copy to think of specific people I'm targeting.
It's easy to fall into the "cold and unappealing" trap if you're just imagining a vague, homogenous woman-shape between 25 and 35 whom you're trying to sell to. If you think of a specific person you know who roughly fits the demo - friends, ex-girlfriends, relatives - and imagine you're trying to persuade them, it's much easier to imagine the language they would or wouldn't respond to and shape it accordingly.
(Of course, you've got to be careful to picture someone who would have the same emotional/rational reactions as the market you're targeting.)
Relevant:
http://blog.ads.pof.com/2011/09/06/s...-women-part-1/
http://blog.ads.pof.com/2011/09/14/s...-women-part-2/
Love the post. I was just about to make one like this but you beat me to it!
The only thing I will add is a point on pull vs push marketing.. as it pertains to online dating. I have personally found while men can still be receptive to the classic "push" marketing (eg Join here to bang 12,342 single moms in your (geotargeted) hometown!) Women have largely disregarded this in favor of angles that lure them in. As internet ladies are typically jaded from all the attention/creepers they get, it helps to be a contrarian to what they've experienced so far.
One angle I'll dub the "online oasis" where you talk about your site full of rich, handsome, polite, etc. men who are looking for companionship and marriage. This still works but has been bastardized by affiliates and their ludicrous promises of "millionaires looking for 50 y/o fat women!"
Another angle that works for me is throwing a subtle disqualifier in your ad. For example "Can you handle our single dads?" or "Faithful women only". As women are used to being pursued, bought drinks, waved in for free, etc, if you act like there's a chance that they are "unworthy" of your product, it will immediate pique their interest. We all want what we can't have after all.
This thread is a landmark !