Mixing data with emotion to empower and delight new parents

At the intersection of innovation, empathy and data, one brand has carved out a unique space in the baby tech market—and their Chief Marketing Officer is helping to lead the charge. In the most recent episode of Marketer’s Alchemy our host sits down with Liz Teran, CMO of Owlet Baby Care, as she shares how her team uses both hard data and human insight to craft marketing strategies that deeply resonate with a highly niche and emotionally driven audience: expecting and new parents.

What’s inside this episode

As many Deluxe customers know, life-event trigger marketing has transformed the way brands connect with consumers. These real-time indicators have helped enable more timely, relevant and personalized outreach for businesses of all kinds and sizes. By tapping into key moments like moving to a new home, becoming a parent or switching jobs, brands are better able to anticipate needs and offer solutions that truly resonate with their target audience.

For Liz and the marketing team at Owlet, understanding what’s happening in someone’s life provides a powerful lens for delivering value-driven marketing. After all, it’s not just about reaching the right person, but reaching them at the right moment—with empathy, context and purpose.

New parents: Reaching a constantly refreshing market

Owlet’s core customer base is small in volume but highly dynamic. With less than 1% of the U.S. population pregnant at any given time, reaching these consumers requires precision.

“We have a very niche customer,” Liz explained. “It’s an adjustable market that is constantly refreshing; we have a new person coming in and another person exiting at any given time.”

From late pregnancy through a few months postpartum, this fleeting customer journey means the Owlet marketing team needs to be swift and smart. They leverage a range of data points to do so, from first-party insights like web traffic and product usage to qualitative feedback from social media, customer reviews and direct interviews with new parents.

Blending behavioral triggers with smart targeting

While there’s no single “button” that identifies new parents, Liz and her team pay close attention to behavioral indicators, such as someone creating a baby registry or researching parenting solutions online. From there, they trigger targeted actions: cart abandonment emails, educational pre-purchase content and retargeting campaigns to gently move consumers through the funnel.

“Our goal isn't to interrupt that journey, but to just be there and show up as a part of it,” Liz said, “and offer a trustworthy and relevant message to them at each stage of this journey.”

Emotion: A powerful marketing trigger

Liz emphasized the importance of tailoring messaging to where the parent is emotionally. First-time parents may not yet understand the gravity of sleepless nights or post-birth anxiety—experiences that change how they respond to marketing.

“One interesting thing about our consumers is that the behavioral and psychographic attitudes before a baby has arrived versus after can be pretty significant,” Liz shared. “It’s different from other industries where you might be thinking about different consumer segments, but you're not thinking about how that consumer changes so much within the lifecycle of your marketing.”

This insight has driven Owlet to rethink not just what they say, but when and how they say it.

While Owlet leans heavily into data, one of their most successful recent campaigns came less from analyzing and more from listening. This campaign pivoted away from technical specs to focus on something more powerful: real parent testimonials.

“We were seeing that over 50 percent of our [customers] first heard about us from a friend or family,” Liz explained. “Through discussing with these parents [to learn] what the most impactful piece of media or advertisement was that got them to consider a product, it came back to real parent stories. That led to us switching up our strategy and building a campaign that focused less on features and more on real, authentic, raw parent stories.”

By showcasing these real-to-life messages across every channel (including trade shows, ads, press and even retail displays), Owlet is better able to connect with customers on an emotional level.

Creating a data ecosystem

With the launch of a subscription service, Owlet is creating a new source of data, building a feedback loop of deeper health insights for consumers while simultaneously collecting trend data that can inform future marketing and product decisions.

Owlet’s approach is a masterclass in balancing quantitative rigor with emotional intelligence. By honoring the intensity of the parenting experience while using data to support rather than interrupt it, the brand is proving that marketing can be both strategic and soulful.

Listen to Marketer’s Alchemy on your preferred podcast platform (including Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Audible), and rewatch past episodes over on our YouTube channel—don't forget to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode.