Marketing Profs

Women are a burgeoning demographic. They constitute 63% of online shoppers and influence 80% of household spending.

When the archetypal woman is online, she's looking for a connection. She wants products and pertinent information that relate to her health, her family, her life. For her, the Web is a tool, not a toy. She knows exactly what she's looking for; she searches the Web efficiently—viewing 40% fewer pages than men—and, when she achieves her goal, she's gone.

Her favorite sites connect with her on multiple levels. They are thoughtfully planned and simply designed: almost 65% of women rate good design and ease of use as extremely or very important qualities in a Web site.

Successful sites don't happen by chance. A compelling online experience geared toward women is developed with care and the understanding that she has to be considered from the very beginning of the process.

To help your site take up residence in her bookmarks, here are suggestions for developing a Web presence that connects with women.

Avoid a Tragedy: Adopt a Persona

In Ancient Greece, theater productions consisted of a few actors playing several parts, using only masks to differentiate between their characters. Each mask was a persona.

Fast forward from Medea to modems, and imagine your site as such an actor. Profiling who's using your site will, in turn, allow your site to wear different masks and entertain multiple audiences. Building the personality profile (or persona) of your typical users will not only help you define your content and user experience but also drive your site's technical requirements.

Write her bio. Give her a name—is it Maria from Miami or Aunt Alice from Albuquerque who is browsing your site? Does she listen to Maroon 5 or Abba? Does she drive a used Grand Marquis or does she have a second home on the Amalfi Coast? Is she a mother, a grandmother, a businesswoman, single, all of the above? Does she have dial-up, DSL?

An example: the Nike Women Web site (www.nikewomen.com) is built completely in Flash. Nike knows that its audience is technically proficient enough to have the latest browser or to update their plug-ins if the latest version is not already installed.