Part One: Why mommy bloggers?

When I started my ‘mommy’ blog almost four years ago, internet advertising was still in its infancy. It was around 2006 that advertising stormed into the blogosphere, causing (seemingly) endless debate between the, “Selling out will suck the authenticity from the marrow of your bones!” bloggers and the, “Hey, gimme some of that action!” bloggers. It all seems quaintly funny now, in retrospect, but at the time it was an extremely divisive and hotly-debated issue.

In the last year or two, PR and marketing types have fallen in love with the mommy blogging crowd. Why? According to the Marketing-to-Moms Web site:

• 88 per cent of moms said they rely on the Web for parental guidance, advice, and ideas for raising their children.
• 86 per cent said they made an online purchase.
• 85 per cent said they clicked on an online ad.
• 95 per cent said they are online at least once a day.
• 60 per cent of moms feel that marketers are ignoring their needs.
• 73 per cent of moms feel that advertisers don’t really understand what its like to be a mom.

And most importantly, moms are a trillion-dollar industry, contributing more than 50 per cent to consumer decisions in most categories of products.

Given the open, friendly, over-the-back-fence-chatting nature of the mom-blog community, it’s little surprise that marketers would love to have these natural (to steal some terminology from Gladwell’s The Tipping Point) ‘connectors’ and ‘mavens’ evangelizing their products and services. Which one would you trust: the friend who mentions over coffee that she tried every brand on the market until Pampers diapers finally stopped her baby’s overnight leaks, or the multi-million-dollar advertising budget of Proctor and Gamble? Mom bloggers have what advertisers crave: an authentic and influential voice and a captive, interactive audience.

As this series continues on Thursdays, I’ll explore what marketers should know as they approach the mom (and, sometimes, dad) bloggers, and some things mom bloggers should consider before accepting ads or promotional considerations.