Women are the power brokers of the universe. According to Canadian Research, mums are responsible for more than $132 billion in spending every year in Australia. They say that if mums were an industry they would be the largest contributor to GDP. They control more than 80% of all consumer spending decisions.
Women are emerging as major players in business too. For the past decade women have been entering business at two to three times the rate of men. They represent more than 300,000 small businesses around the country. The vast portion of these women are also mothers who juggle the rigours of running a business with the demands of raising kids and managing a household.
Just like you, I’m one of those 300,000 mums running a business and juggling family commitments. My name is Katrina McCarter and I’m the Founder of Marketing to Mums. I’m a Marketing Strategist and I specialise in helping businesses sell more to mums. I’m sharing my insights about mums with you over the course of this year so I thought it would be a good opportunity to find out a bit more about me.
I have more than fifteen years sales and marketing experience working across diverse channels including grocery, hardware and online. I hold a Bachelor of Business (Marketing) and an MBA (International Business). Five years ago after the birth of my three kids I launched an online shopping website for mums called Bubbler.com.au which I grew to a community of more than 150,000 before selling earlier this year to another AusMumpreneur, Lyndall Taylor.
During my time at Bubbler.com.au I have worked with more than 100 small businesses and I saw the same issues present over and over again. Prospective clients would come to me needing sales (and really fast) but lacking the expertise around how to get mum to convert to a sale. They didn’t have the time to address this either, as they were so busy working within their business. As a result they were often experiencing cash flow issues, anxiety and for some, they were questioning the long term viability of their business. I felt as though I could assist them so much more, so Marketing to Mums was launched where I offer coaching for mums in business, consulting where I advise businesses how to drive more sales amongst mums and I also offer insight reports into mum’s behaviour for the corporate market.
Last year I launched a book called Marketing to Mums at the AusMumpreneur Conference. The book details the eight essential foundations I believe you need to have in place in your business if you market your products or services to mums. In November my book went #1 on Booktopia’s Business Bestseller list outselling the likes of Simon Sinek, Timothy Ferriss and Sophia Amoruso. It was one of those pinch yourself moments. One of my highlights so far was travelling to New York to lead a roundtable discussion at the M2Moms conference late last year. I really enjoy speaking about the power of mums and how to engage them and this year I will speak at major marketing and advertising conferences including Ad:Tech, Mumbrella and I will also speak at the What’s On 4 Conference in June.
Right now despite the enormous economic power mums hold we are the most undervalued, misrepresented and misunderstood consumer groups. I passionately believe that there is a new way to speak with mums and I am on mission is to change this.
Over the course of this year I will be sharing best practise, latest research and tips to assist you better engage with mothers to drive your business. If there’s something you’d love to see me write about to help you in your business please feel free to post your question on my Marketing to Mums Facebook page and I will look to answer it in one of my upcoming blog articles.
If you are looking to make some quick wins in your business I recommend downloading my free sheet here.
You can also connect with me here:
www.linkedin.com/katrina-mccarter
About our Ausmumpreneur Expert :
Katrina McCarter is the Founder of Marketing to Mums. She specialises in helping businesses sell more to the world’s most powerful consumer, mums. Katrina is a mum of three and a best-selling author, international speaker, coach and consultant. She has won awards for Best Social Media, Best Customer Service and Best Boss and has featured on Today Tonight, Channel 7, The Age and Sydney Morning Herald.
