Tips for marketing to parents from top brands

The digital age has made parenting much different than it used to be. Now there are ads on kids’ games, ads targeting Millennial parents, ads targeting Gen X parents and so much more.

Marketing to parents has never been easier, and there are so many brands that are doing it right.

If you’re creating kids’ products, or even products or services that just make parenting easier, your brand needs to know how to properly create a strategy for social media marketing to parents.

Let’s start with the basics.

What are parents looking for on social media

First and foremost, if you’re going to market to parents, you need to understand what they’re looking for from the brands they want to buy from.

When talking about marketing to parents, it’s important to keep in mind the age ranges and generations that you’re going to be focusing on. While there’s still a stereotype of Millennials being young and entitled, that generation encompasses people born from 1981 to 1996, meaning a large percentage of the generation are already or are becoming parents.

In fact, Millennials are parents to 50% of the world’s children, and about 1 million Millennial women become new moms each year.

So for starters, you need to know how to market to Millennial parents. Millennial moms and dads are some of the most socially savvy parents out there, so it’s not hard to find them online.

This also means they’re well acquainted with digital marketing tactics and content, so to understand how to market to them, you need to understand what kinds of things parents actually want to see while they’re on social media.

Support from other parents

One thing that parents love to do on social media is join parenting groups and forums to get help, insight and support from other parents. This helps when parents have questions, aren’t sure how to handle something their kids are doing and more.

Helping to provide tutorials, guides, how to’s and overall support to the parents buying your products is a great way to fuel customer loyalty and help parents realize you’re a brand they can trust.

Zulily intersperses the product images in their feed with infographics and relatable, humorous content that helps get the conversation going with parents sharing their experiences.

Finding expert advice

Another reason that parents tend to flock to social media and the internet is to find expert advice when it comes to raising their kids. Helping kids grow is hard and it’s impossible to know if you’re doing the right thing every time, so following experts in the industry is a good idea.

Consider adding an expert advice column to your website’s blog, social media posts and more to help parents find exactly what they’re looking for from your brand.

Making connections with other parents.

There are many neighborhood mom and dad groups available on social networks because parents want to help their kids be more social as well as be more social themselves.

Generating conversations between parents on your social media posts can be a great way to help parents find social connections, whether it’s in person or online.

How top brands are successfully marketing to parents

To understand how best to market to parents, it’s a good idea to draw inspiration from brands that are doing it right. They’re creating communities for their customers, providing expert advice and more.

Here are a few top brands that are successfully marketing to parents and how you can emulate their strategies for your own business.

Melissa & Doug

Melissa & Doug is a popular toy brand that provides wooden, sensory and other interactive toys for young children. And while most of their social media marketing consists of promotion of their products – for obvious reasons – their Pinterest is a great place for parents to hang out.

The featured board on their profile is all about seeing their toys in action.

And yes, while this is still technically promoting their products, there’s a lot more to it as well. Providing a board that’s dedicated to seeing how these toys can be used is a great way to help parents feel assured that their children are utilizing their playthings in the right and the safest way.

There are several other boards for parents to find educational games, lunch box tips, fine motor skills tips and more, making their Pinterest a goldmine for parents looking for parenting advice.

Baby Tula

Baby Tula is a brand that creates baby carriers for parents to easily take their little ones on the go with them. Aside from having a helpful blog and video tutorials on how to use their baby carriers, they also have a Facebook Group on their Page for their followers to join.

This is a safe space for parents to chat about their little ones, share photos, and gather advice and support from other parents.

Community is huge for parents, so having that as a part of your brand’s marketing strategy can speak volumes to your customer base. Consider creating a Facebook group or even implementing a forum on your website for parents to communicate with each other.

Lego

It’s no surprise that Lego has a killer online presence for both parents and kids alike. Their website is broken off into two sections – one for parents to shop and get help and another for kids to play with toys online and look up how to put their Legos together.

Lego has its own kids magazine, blog pages for parents of different aged kids and more in order to help ensure parents and kids alike are getting the most out of their product.

While not every brand will have the resources that a household name like Lego does to create kids’ activities online, there are still ways to draw inspiration from this.

Whether you consider putting on family scavenger hunts or hosting local events, there are so many ways for your business to get involved with helping kids have even more fun with your product.

Crayola

Why not try sharing content specifically for the kids? Take a page out of Crayola’s coloring book with this printable coloring sheet idea.

Sharing even more unique ideas for how your product can be used or creating interactive content for both kids and parents on your social media platforms is a great way to get parents engaged and continuously coming back for more content.

Horizon Organic

Even if your product isn’t necessarily a kid’s only product, using some parent-facing marketing messaging can resonate well enough.

In the case of Horizon Organic, they’re sharing photos of children using their product and explaining why it’s a great option for them, while including some facts and statistics.

It’s hard to argue with cold, hard facts, and parents like to know that they’re giving their child the absolute best they possibly could. Sharing information like this that is relevant to your product and your industry is a great way to resonate with moms and dads who are just looking out for their little ones.

Guidelines for marketing to parents, teens and tweens

When you’re marketing to parents, or even teens and tweens, there are some guidelines you need to keep in mind.

Teens are active on social media, and they’re very susceptible to online marketing. This makes it very important for your brand to be cautious about the types of content you’re putting out there and how it can influence young minds.

First and foremost, focus on brand authenticity. How does your brand want to be known? This should make it easy enough to keep your brand voice and identity authentic, unique and genuine, without treading into slimy marketing waters just because teens are perceived as easier to appeal to.

Second, make sure that your brand can always be trusted. This is the number one thing that parents want to see in brands that they buy for their child.

They want to ensure that they can trust the product, and if anything were to happen, that they can trust the customer service to make it right. Again, authenticity and backing up your brand’s marketing claims with action goes a long way here.

Third, remember how important community and support is to parents when they’re on social media. Find ways to help parents engage with one another and your brand, create online support groups and more. There are so many ways to make social media even more social for your customers.

Finally, be creative and unique. Think outside the box on ways to engage parents and their children with your brand even further. Come up with online series’ that keep parents continually checking your page, create videos and tutorials that offer help, and more – always be looking for ideas that add meaningful value on top of just highlighting your product.

Create your strategy for marketing to parents

Ready to make a difference in how parents see your brand and your online presence? Take these tips and bits of inspiration to help create your own strategy for marketing to parents.

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