Is Your Marketing Message Reaching Parents—or Missing the Mark? | Social Joey

If you’ve read some of our blogs and other content, you probably know that each audience you’re trying to reach requires a unique approach. We’ve talked a little before about how to get your message across to Gen Z and millennials, specifically.

But what about parents?

Regardless of which generation you’re trying to reach, the odds are good that parents are part of your audience. There are 83.48 million families in the United States, with an average of three people in each household. In total, more than 40% of American households include children—which means there is parenting going on!

With September 16 designated as National Working Parents Day, we thought this blog was the perfect opportunity to ask the question: Is your marketing message reaching parents or turning them away?

We have some suggestions to make sure you’re hitting the mark.

What Parents Are Facing

There’s no doubt about it—working parents face challenges both inside and outside the home. But at no time has that been more true than it is right now.

Parents and families are facing distinct challenges as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Some families are helping children through virtual learning in the home, while others are anxiously sending their children back into the schools.

In many cases, parents are also working from home these days, as many workplaces move from an in-office model to a model that at least includes remote work. That creates a unique dynamic, particularly if children are also in the home during the workday.

That’s a very real challenge for many people since around 61% of families with children have both parents employed. Working from home also presents challenges, often blurring the lines between work and personal life and making it more difficult to disconnect.

Knowing these challenges, when you’re marketing to parents in today’s world, your goal is to thoughtfully consider how you can support moms and dads and provide resources that are beneficial and relevant.

Marketing Your Products & Services to Parents

First, consider the obvious—parents don’t have a ton of time to waste. They may spend a good bit of time each day scrolling through social media, but they’re looking for information and engaging content that catches the eye.

Marketing to parents requires a special approach. We’ve mentioned before that it’s a good idea to put your content through the “UHR” test: Is it useful, helpful, and relevant?

If not, it’s probably time to retire it. You want your social media posts and blogs to provide information that’s noteworthy to parents. The kind that makes them pause and consider it.

That may be information that’s helpful—perhaps a tip on how to quickly clean the kitchen, for example. Or it may be information that’s related to a product that could help parents keep their kids focused and on task while learning at home. But it may also simply be something that makes them crack up with laughter!

There is tremendous value in content that allows people to stop doomscrolling and enjoy their time online.

So make your social media content lineup a good blend of resources related to your expertise and content that’s engaging and eye-catching. Speaking of the latter, include images and videos regularly. Research has shown repeatedly that people engage much more with aesthetically pleasing posts.

Throw in an occasional call-to-action promoting your services and products. But it’s best to prioritize other parts of your content lineup and keep “hard sell” content to a minimum.

It’s also good to be very thoughtful about your CTAs—when you’re speaking to parents, make sure that what you’re saying has been personalized to that audience and their specific and unique needs.

Marketing Your Franchising Opportunities to Parents

Now, let’s talk about a totally different way of marketing to parents! Are parent-preneurs part of your franchise development strategy?

If not, they probably should be! With the changing dynamics of the workforce—and the aforementioned challenge of having kids learning virtually in the home—parents are looking for more flexibility.

In many cases, parents find being their own boss appealing, since it gives them the flexibility they’re searching for and a different way to use their skills.

While they could use their entrepreneurial and leadership skills to start up a new business of their own, franchising has distinct benefits over other small business ownership. One of the franchise’s biggest pros is that it allows for all of the positives of business ownership while providing parents with a support system and established brand to work with.

Through parenting, both men and women develop and hone skills that serve them well in franchising—attention to detail, passion for their work, a solid work ethic, and a keen understanding of what other employees might face in their personal lives.

Home-based franchises can be particularly of interest to parents—especially these days when virtual school has entered the lexicon.

So, how can you market your franchise opportunity to parents? Some of the tips we offered above are relevant for franchise development messaging, too.

But you can also benefit by really honing in and focusing your messaging on the benefits of becoming a franchisee with your organization can have for parents. This means putting a focus on factors like financing options, flexibility in how often they’re on-site, resources franchisees receive, such as marketing collateral, and even virtual options for franchisee training.

To reach this audience, it’s also a good idea to personalize your content. By that, we mean putting a face—or faces—with your brand to show other franchisees at work. Demonstrate your company’s diversity by posting images and videos and do the same to promote work you’re doing within individual communities.

It’s important to remember that parents with children in the home will now be millennials or Gen Z in most cases. That means they make decisions related to brands based on whether those brands take a stand and have a mission. Using social media posts and blogs to put your mission out there is a key way to show off your brand and help you stand out from other franchises.

Finally, while you’ll save the bulk of financial and other details for the Franchise Disclosure Document, it doesn’t hurt to toss in relevant statistics related to your business on social media. Potential parent franchisees will find interest in information about how much your business earned across the board, how many locations opened up in a given period, and other relevant, eye-catching details.

Need some help getting your message across to parents? Let us go to work for you! Reach out to our Social Joey team to get started today.