In recent years, there has been an unusual yet fascinating development in the domain of digital marketing. Women have trail-blazed their way to the top chambers, despite the fact that the female workforce amounts to less than a third of the work industry.
As an afterthought on International Women’s Day, let us see how women donned different hats which helped them shape and shake the digital arena.
Purpose-Driven Innovators
Female business leaders have proven to be quite innovative when it comes to meeting the challenges of a diverse and rapidly changing sector. Arianna Huffington founded the Pulitzer prize-winning Huffington Post. Yang Lan, one of the most powerful women in Chinese media, runs a multiplatform empire spanning TV, newspapers and magazines and the Web. Marissa Mayer, ex-CEO of Yahoo! is now running Lumi Labs, a company focused on artificial intelligence and consumer media.
These women were able to excel in their roles, thanks to their capability of multitasking and measuring situations perfectly. Purpose-driven innovation helped them attain desired objectives while running their respective businesses.
Social Media Influencers
While women may still be fighting for what is rightfully theirs across industries, there is one area where they actually dominate the scene. Statistically, females constitute 68% of social media influencers. Moreover, they also have the frame of mind to handle the ‘pressure’ up to four times their male counterparts.
Prominent influencers attribute women’s success in social media to their ability to personally connect with their audiences. High-quality videos and images do count, but the major reason for their triumph is their success in establishing a connection with their followers.
Women tend to use more products than men in their day-to-day life and that makes them more authentic reviewers. No wonder audiences trust and value these reviews more.
Development Drivers
Look around and you will find women driving digital development on their own terms. Many of these ladies come from a non-marketing background, which helps them think differently. Their background is the reason for a uniqueness that has turned out to be their asset in the marketplace.
According to the 2013 Moz Industry Survey, 28.3% of digital marketers are women and this figure is growing fast. At MozCon 2014, 31% of the audience were female, compared to 11% in 2013.
Success in digital marketing requires one to have both technological and creative strengths. Women have the right mix of skills and this has consistently helped them achieving success in the corporate world in spite of challenges and discrimination.
Marketing Educators and Guides
Women, in the role of educators, have mentored fellow females, leading them to career growth and success. Take the case of Amy Porterfield, who is behind the popular podcast Online Marketing Made Easy. As a marketing educator and guide, she has handheld millions of budding entrepreneurs and marketers to success. She has emerged as a go-to online marketing expert, who knows how to use the digital arena to the advantage of business organizations, regardless of their size and structure.
Through publications, conferences, seminars and even one-on-one counseling, these educators have helped female marketers strategize and launch ground-breaking online marketing campaigns.
Skilled Negotiators
Disruptions may crop up when you are least expecting them. Women, who are known to be quite strong mentally, have the skills to negotiate the setbacks and lay down a path to success. They have worked on expanding their skillset continuously and driving conventional as well as new-age businesses to success through online marketing.
When you credit digital marketing for the revival of struggling traditional industries like publishing and retail, you just cannot undermine the contribution of women marketers. Samantha Berry, a key example of such contributions, oversaw the shifting of Glamour Magazine from a primarily print-focused publication to the digital age. Under her watch, monthly unique viewers grew by 12% to 6.3 million, while subscribers to Glamour’s YouTube channel jumped up to about 1.6 million that is more than 110%.
Summing Up
Women, as is apparent, have played a prominent role in keeping business growth dynamic for businesses in the digital arena. Barriers they came across were all steep, yet they soared to breath-taking achievements.