Channel Word of Mouth to Reach Women

What do women do if they like your product/service? They tell their friends. You can bet on it. Smart brands understand this and build long-term relationships with the women in their customer base, knowing they’ll likely gain access to a network of similarly-minded women if they do. The other brands? Well, they’ll continue swinging and missing with women everywhere. 

Today, we’re talking about another aspect of women’s lives that has been ignored, stereotyped, and denigrated: her social connections. Let’s go where it’s most problematic. Frenemies. Gossiping girlfriends. Queen bee. Cut-throat. The homewrecker who sleeps with her friend’s husband. Think of the multitude of ways women’s relationships with each other are reduced to derogatory terms and television tropes. 

The reality is women’s social lives represent a rich tapestry of relational goodness. Women especially connect with other women for support, commiseration, shared joy, laughter, traveling, healing, community, and more. It’s a far cry from the diluted representations of women’s relationships that persist in popular media and advertising. A fundamental lack of understanding of women’s social lives lets us all down. 

For brands to convert women from prospects to customers and then to advocates—inspiring them to bring other women into the brand experience—you must understand women’s social behavior. 

How expansive are women’s social networks in 2023?

How do women pursue emotional closeness with the people in their orbit? 

To what extent do women prioritize relationships with other women? 

Our research answers these questions, and our insights will give you a starting point for connecting with women in ways that encourage them to share their love of your products and services with others—all the while dismantling those exhausting tropes.  

The company she keeps 

Through robust word-of-mouth activity, brands can quickly reach women who will benefit from their products and services. Still, it’s important to know that the friendship landscape for women has changed dramatically in the last few decades. Mapping this landscape is crucial to understanding what connection looks like for women and identifying potential unmet needs worth meeting.  Let’s get the lay of the land so you can lead with empathy when engaging women.  

Women’s (and men’s) social circles are shrinking. About half of Americans have three or fewer close friends, and one-third have between 4 and 9, a substantial decline from the last few decades when one-third of people had ten or more friends. According to the linked study, only half (48%) of women said they had a private convo with a friend in the last week during which they shared personal feelings. 

Our research yielded similar takeaways to the study linked above, supporting overall trends with some additional insights about the state of women’s friendships. Most (82%) women we surveyed have fewer than five friends in their friendship groups. We also found three in four women have close friends they speak with about their feelings and experiences, though we didn’t ask how frequently they have these conversations. Either way, women have fewer friends, and they may be connecting with the few they have sporadically. These conversations are important moments for women to connect with their people, but are they getting enough? 

Unfortunately, these friendship quantity and quality changes reflect a public health crisis: Americans are lonelier than ever, and it’s pressing enough for the U.S. Surgeon General to develop a national strategy to address it, including efforts to bolster in-person opportunities. 

The State of American Friendship Study (linked above) doesn’t account for the profound influence social media has had on our friendships. An individual woman has access to and can be influenced by hundreds, if not thousands, of other women through her social media platforms. She also may be trying to meet her connection needs through these platforms, leaving her lonelier than ever. Even though brands lean on social media for their advertising strategies, what is this doing for women’s sense of connection? What responsibility do brands have to change the social landscape for women? 

It’s no surprise to us that our research shows women depend on other women; it’s one of the most reliable ways to feel seen and heard. About one in three women say their close friend group is ALL women and another one-third say it’s mostly women. So, although women have relatively small friendship groups, two in three mostly associate with other women, and most are talking to the women in their orbit about their feelings and experiences. 

It’s a lonely world out there, and anything brands can do to facilitate connection, to understand the loneliness women may feel, and to address this crisis head-on will be in the service of women’s interests. 

Yes, women appear to have fewer friends they’re regularly in touch with, but let’s do our best to meet women where they are and create a pathway for where they want to be. 

How can you create connection through social media and beyond? Have you assessed for loneliness in your audience? What are you doing as a brand to convey empathy to women? How do you help women deepen and expand their friendships? 

What segmentation tells us about female friendship 

Let’s clarify the pathway to accessing more women who need your products and services. Hint: You get there by understanding the nuances in their social behavior. Our research offers three attitudinal segments that can form the basis of your next marketing strategy: Brand Approvers, Boundary Pushers, and Female Favorers.  

Brand Approvers comparatively have smaller than average social circles and reflect less closeness with the friends they do have. They’re significantly more likely than Boundary Pushers to say they have 1-2 close friends—the smallest social circle of all three segments. Brand Approvers are also significantly less likely to say they have close friends compared to both Boundary Pushers and Female Favorers. So, your opportunities for word of mouth may be a bit limited with Brand Approvers. Something to keep in mind if you’re targeting them. 

Female Favorers are significantly less likely than the other two segments to say they have a friend group with a mix of genders. These women stand out attitudinally because they put women first in their lives; they often talk about sensitive topics with their girlfriends and like to support brands led by women. Out of all the segments, Female Favorers are the most likely to spread the word to the women in their lives about your products/services (Boundary Pushers are a close second). 

So, read up on our research segments. Identify them in your customer base and craft messaging that speaks to their unique perspectives and friendship behaviors. It all starts there.  

Power your advertising with word-of-mouth 

Word of mouth is an incredibly effective strategy to engage your prospects and cultivate loyalty amongst your existing customers. For women, a recommendation from a friend they trust can be worth its weight in gold—it’s personalized and personal. The recommendation comes from somebody they have a track record with, who they confide in, and who understands their needs.

Your best outcomes come from a woman feeling like an ad was created just for her (high resonance) and her feeling inspired to share her satisfaction with others (high influence). If your products/services are made for women, and your messaging resonates, women will be more likely to share their new favorite finds with their friends. Win-win, right? 

How do you make it resonant? Segment your audience. Adapt the messaging accordingly. Then, watch as women share your impact on their lives with their friends. 

Working with brands to create ads that resonate and influence is what we do. And it starts with ditching the stereotypes. Email us at hello@fancynyc.com so we can turn on that word-of-mouth engine for your brand.