Your new best customer in 2012

Five years ago when I started SmartCompany I had a challenge on my hands. I knew that women were not big readers of the business press.  Back then the AFR was lucky if more than 25% of its readers were women. And BRW wasn’t any better. That always struck me as ridiculous and I felt it was very important we get women reading the business pages.

But convincing people to change their reading habits can take time and I assumed it would take me years to build a strong female readership.

But guess what? Our first research survey showed us that 40% of our readers were women. I was delighted.

Now of course women are flavor of the month… well, decade. Businesses know now that women make most of the purchasing decisions. And not just commercial decisions. Women make or influence a lot of purchasing decisions in the office as well, particularly when you run the company, as I well know.

And I didn’t just do it once. All our new publications have a high proportion of female readers. More than 50% of StartupSmart’s readers are women and 40% of Property Observer’s readers are female.

So how did I achieve this miracle I am often asked? What did I do to appeal to women and get them to change the habit of a lifetime and read the business press?

It is so simple, it is truly stupid. I just made sure there were lots of women in SmartCompany. Female writers, stories on female entrepreneurs, female commentators and so on. We weren’t stupid about it. We just always made sure there was a balance. I particularly focused on pictures and events. If we ever had a panel of photos of men, I would clip someone – usually a man – over the ear. Where are the women? Go and find me women, I would roar. And guess what? They never gave me that line about tokenism.

It was quickly engrained in all staff that this a part of the way we do things. And I laugh every time the business press start a new “women’s column”, in an obvious attempt to get the female reader. Surrounding the women’s column are photoes of blokes, lots of blokes, sitting at round tables, in portrait galleries, in single shots. And most of the stories are written by men, the designs are by men, the look and feel of the product is aimed at men.

So what’s wrong with that, I hear you ask? In this country most of the senior players in business are blokes. Fine. But don’t expect women to read you.

So the message for all you entrepreneurs out there is to have a really good look at your products and services. What changes could you introduce to appeal to a female audience? How could you change your functionality, color, design, feel, tone etc to get that female customer?

And don’t let stupid arguments from your staff or even yourself get in the way. If you think it will put the blokes off, forget it. What? Blokes won’t want a better design, easier instructions, smarter functionality, a more friendly tone? Blokes don’t like looking at women? And listening to really smart ones?

So get moving. Selling is going to be tough in 2012. But just think. You could be getting a  lot more customers at the same cost of sale by taking a different perspective.