Transferable skills I have gained whilst on maternity leave

Some of you might know (I might have mentioned it once or twice) that I had a baby in August. She’s lovely. I’m not going to blog about her because I’d bore you to tears. Suffice to say, this is one proud mummy.

No, today’s blog is about all the wonderful things I’ve learned looking after a baby, being a SAHM (stay at home mom), that I will take back to work with me in a couple of months.

I know, it’s amazing. Just when I thought my brain had passed the mushy point of no return thanks to baby talk and operating on 3 hours of broken sleep, there I was, actually thinking, this has been useful for me as a professional person. And as a strategist.

So here are a few skills and bits of knowledge I will take back to Equator with me…

Marketing to mothers

In the hospital I signed up for Bounty. I’ve wished I hadn’t ever since. I’ve been bombarded from day one with a blanket of offers I’m just not interested in. A half price Bumbo?

Some of these emails are irritating as they are about products I am not interested in – and some of them are just useless.

They try to be helpful, and are based around the age of your baby, or at least they are supposed to be. But they can have a negative rather than helpful impact.

For example, a friend of mine was most upset when an email to her from Boots parents club said ‘Now that your four month old is sleeping through the night…’ Her baby was still waking every two hours and she was tired of being told what her baby ‘should’ be doing rather than what was happening to her was perfectly normal and healthy.

I guess what I’m trying to say (I need to get back into the practice of writing) is that most marketing to mothers feels impersonal and opportunistic. It doesn’t feel like its aimed at me, more some 28 year old childless marketer’s idea of what is be interested in.

It feels like because we are a captive audience we can be treated like one.

I’m perfectly capable of googling the best Bumbo deal or finding out what my six month old developmental milestones should be. I don’t need a brand to do that for me and clog my inbox up with it.

I would like to be informed when there are sales on for things I’m genuinely interested in. Boden do this very well, by email and in social media. Their offers are genuine. They don’t send you stuff that you wouldn’t consider. They know you better. Of course, it does help that they’re a brand I want to hear from.

So brands who target parents, my advice to you is try to get to know your audience better. Work to tailor your communications to them, and do it early in your relationship with them. And use technology better. Stop sending emails they don’t open, like Fab.

The role and importance of community

When you’re awake at 3am feeding your baby you can feel like the only person in the world. It can be a lonely time – the loneliest you’ve ever been. But if you’ve got a mobile phone then suddenly you’re not alone because you can instantly connect with other people who are in exactly the same position as you.

There are spaces for communities – independent forums, forums created by brands, blogs, and communities on Facebook and even Twitter.

The learning here is that you can be very specific online about what people are doing and what situation they are in. The fact that much of it is done via mobile is also interesting. I do wonder what mothers used to do before smartphones. I guess the telly was better back then.

Anyway, I’ll be putting myself in my 3 am feeding shoes when I am thinking about users and what they’re really doing, what they really want, when they try to connect with others online.

Always in beta

When you’re looking after a baby – and a house – it’s always a work in progress. You’re always seeing something that could improve or be improved, and you’re always anticipating the next big development.

When we work on the web it’s the same. We should point out the imperfections of the current project. We should plan for lots of phases, even if the later phases are just sketched out. Then our clients can start to anticipate what’s likely to come and plan for it in a way that’s easier for them to manage.

Multitasking

My ability to do more than one thing has improved. Admittedly, my ability to forget what I am doing in a particular room has also improved.

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So… Those are some things I’ve learned. And this is the first thing I’ve written in over 6 months. And it’s the first thing I’ve ever written with just my left thumb. I’m calling it progress, but there’s plenty of room for improvement.

What’s in a name?

I’ve been catching up on the events of last week’s Planningness conference.  I wish I’d been there – sounds like lots of interesting discussions were had.  There’s been a lot of discussion before, after and since, about the planner’s ‘toolkit’, and previously I’d never really thought about naming any of the things I do or presenting them to clients as particular ‘products’, ‘packages’ or ‘formulas’. In fact, I’d always been a little bit anti- because it seemed to me that it’s our job as planners to recommend the best methodology for the job, start from basic principles and adapt our skills and expertise to suit their needs.  Every project is different, after all.

However, I can definitely see the benefit of being able to neatly and coherently describe some of the tools and methods I use, especially since collaborating with other agency staff who are not planners, and clients, is extremely useful, so I am going to spend a bit of time putting some of these techniques into words and pictures and I might share some of them on here.

The other thing I thought was interesting was a presentation on ‘Connections Planning’ – with the remit of planning getting so broad and not about just being able to turn insights into single-minded propositions, do we need to re-define or re-label it?  I don’t think so.  We probably just (especially we planners who live and work in the provinces) just have to get better at telling people what we do and how it can benefit their business.

Take a look at the presentation and let me know what you think…

Connections Planningness

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