Carolyn Erickson

Scott Stratten of Un-Marketing begins his guest post video at Jessica Knows by saying there are two types of people you don’t want to *p* off: religious groups and WAHMs (work-at-home-moms).

Then he does it. Actually, he leaves religious groups alone. His message to WAHMs is simple: it’s bad business to market yourself as a WAHM unless your prospective clients are other WAHMs. According to Stratten, the WAHM label may carry with it a negative connotation. At best, it is irrelevant to whether you can do the job for your prospective clients.

I suspect his intention with the post is to raise the ire (and gain the notice) of those who proudly embrace the moniker. And just so I’m not a total cynic, I’ll allow that he may truly want to do some good by warning mothers away from using a term that will diminish their marketing efforts.

Choose your words wisely and with intent. If your prospects value the WAHM title, use it. If they don’t, don’t. On the other hand, I don’t advocate trying to hide it. If you set up your website so that you appear to be a large agency in a high-rise office building, the first scream of “Mommy, I pooped!” while you’re on the phone with a client is going to give you away. And if I was the client, I would immediately feel uncertain about your honesty.

That doesn’t mean, however, that you have to advertise your WAHM status with cute buttons and links to coupon sites. In that, I completely agree with Stratten. A link to your “mommy blog” might be perfectly appropriate; it depends–as does everything else in your promotional materials–on whether it’s relevant to your market.

But take note: When huge companies like Wal-Mart and Frito-Lay enlist the services of moms because they are moms, it doesn’t do to dismiss out-of-hand the possible added value of your WAHM status.

Marketing Smarts, Mommy Bloggin', Working from Home | RSS 2.0 | Comment it , or trackback this post.