Did you know that 85% of all purchases are made by women?

That doesn’t mean you need to create a separate brand or marketing campaign to reach women. It doesn’t mean you need to use more pink and pastel colors in your ads. And it certainly doesn’t mean you need to use script fonts.

What you need is a smarter marketing strategy.

Women are more likely to take a thoughtful approach to their purchase decisions. They evaluate more details related to the pros and cons of their purchases. Men tend to take a more focused view in their purchase process. So while a woman might consider 20 criteria when making a decision, a man is more likely to consider ten. The good news is that the list of top ten criteria for both men and women are very similar. So if you do a good job marketing to women, you’ll also do a good job marketing to men.

Here are five tips for successfully marketing to women.

1. Connect - Women don't just buy brands, they join them. They buy with their hearts as well as their heads. To successfully connect with a potential buyer, you have to understand how your brand connects with her life. Once you have figured out how to make that connection, you have a change to build brand loyalty with her.

• Make it convenient - Focus on ways to save time for women. Make information quick and easy to find, use and share, both in-store and online. Women will reward sources that make the investigation process efficient, relevant and accurate.
• Build trust - Women are really good at detecting inconsistencies. Your brand has to be authentic. If your marketing message doesn't match up with your product performance and retail experience, you'll lose her trust, and she won't be back.
• Make it easy to access information - Women give their business to companies that provide them with the information they need to make smart purchasing decisions. They tend to be information gatherers, and want to make educated decisions. Make it easy to access the information you know people want. Look for ways to allow your potential customers to ask questions, both online and in person. And then take the time to answer those questions in detail.
• Keep customer service standards high - Women tend to have higher expectations of good customer service and post-purchase follow-through than men. They're less likely to give you multiple chances to disappoint them with your average or poor customer service. In general, they want you to meet and exceed high standards, and consistently deliver on your brand promise.

In addition, women are more likely to share the experience - good and bad - with others via word of mouth or word of mouse. So if you can get it right, you'll probably get credit for it well beyond those you've done business with.

These are challenging economic times. If you haven't taken a good look at your brand and the brand experience you are delivering lately, you may not be targeting 85% of all purchasers as well as you need to. Aim high and do it well. The potential is huge.

This article originally appeared in the Tree Full of Owls column in the Corridor Business Journal.

Inga Rundquist

Inga Rundquist is a Public Relations Arsonist and Co-Owner at MindFire. When she’s not dreaming up ideas that will generate publicity, you can find her knee deep in the social media world, also known as the next PR frontier.