Relevancy is particularly important to women when receiving marketing communications, with more than half (58%) of respondents in a recent survey of more than 1,000 women saying they want information that pertains to their lifestyle or relates to their recent purchases, according to Prospectiv, which conducted the survey.

Key findings:

• While relevancy is important to all women, it's more important to mothers: 45% of mothers said they are most interested in receiving marketing information that pertains to their lifestyle, vs. 30% of women who are not mothers.
• Mothers are more interested in being marketed to than women who are not mothers; only 20% of moms said, "Don't send me anything at all," but 35% of non-mothers said the same.

Product Samples Beat Out Blogs

Brands have successfully reached their female audiences by leveraging so-called mommy bloggers because of their “word of mouth” value. But nearly half of respondents (45%) to the Prospectiv survey said that brands can communicate with them most effectively through product samples offered online, way ahead of the percentage (3%) who said the same of blogs. Mothers in the survey came out even more strongly than non-mothers in favor of product samples (47% vs. 38%):

Key findings:

• 39% of respondents reported finding coupons an effective way for brands to communicate about their products.
• Only 10% said the same about email, and a mere 4% said the same about banner ads.
• When it comes to driving an actual purchase, samples win the day. Survery respondents were asked which would most likely get them to purchase a product: trying a sample, having a coupon to use, necessity, or receiving a personal recommendation. Some 39% of survey respondents said trying a sample.

Coupons Work

With the recession still underway, about one-third (31%) of survey respondents said they will make a purchase because a coupon or discount is being offered, whereas only about one-fifth (21%) said that necessity drives them to make a purchase.

Asked about what actions they had taken in the past year regarding coupons, 53% of the women surveyed said they had clipped coupons and 18% said they had redeemed an online coupon:

Key findings:

• Moms clip coupons in greater percentages than non-mothers do: 54% vs. 49%.
• 10% of mothers and non-mothers alike reported downloading an online coupon but never using it.

Other findings from the research:

• While 35% of the women surveyed said they are reluctant to share information such as email address, age, and gender, but 71% will share such information to receive discounts, promotional offers, and coupons. 
• 50% of respondents said they prefer receiving email about a product once per month; 40% said once per week; and 10% said once a day.

 About the data: Prospectiv surveyed more than 1,000 women to learn about their preferences around marketing, marketing communications, and purchase drivers.