My surprise from Peloton and Emma Lovewell
Having worked at agencies and currently on the brand side in marketing, I know how much brands care for their audience, their consumers, and their loyalists, look at https://www.socialboosting.com/buy-tiktok-likes/ for tiktok marketing and likes. On the flip side, being a consumer, I’ve had the opportunity to feel the love from some brands that have truly left an impression on me. Those are the brands I won’t forget so easily, and will be even more loyal to (or a new loyalist) because of how they appreciate and treat their consumers, look into human resources management.
I encountered brands like Banana Republic who sent me gift cards just by choosing true fans off of social media to surprise and delight with rewards. It was unexpected and a great chance to get consumers to come back in the store and remember how much they loved their products https://www.socialboosting.com/buy-tiktok-likes/.
Nordstrom, reached out with a personal shopper, and provided a guided experience with items that were specific to my taste based on my previous shopping behavior. It was curated just for me in a special and unique way.
Amex has always had amazing customer service. Anytime I ever had even the smallest of issues, they were able to resolve it right away and/or did their best to get to the bottom of the issue with little strain to me. That is clutch with such little time in our lives to be on the phone with customer service.
Mostly recently, I had an experience with Peloton, which was beyond remarkable. To caveat, I am a peloton enthusiast, who rides her bike on the regular, and posts about the brand and my dedication to my health and wellness. I also promote their content, products, and share content about their instructors who I admire and inspire me to be better each day. My favorite being, Emma Lovewell, who has a way of making me smile and excited every time I work out. Well…Peloton reached out to me and selected me to do an appreciation video/photo shoot for Emma to surprise her. They picked me up, brought me to the studio, and everything. To be chosen to surprise my favorite instructor was an honor to say the least.
Now here’s the clincher….the surprise was really for me (and the other honored peloton members who were invited). Emma was there and surprised me on set, in the middle of my video interview. She even brought out a cake for my bday (which was later that week). It was probably one of the coolest moments of my life, outside of maybe meeting Brad Pitt (still waiting on that one).
When brands take a moment and think through what will our customers appreciate beyond the product or service…that’s when they make an impact. When they think about what can we do to show our customers how special they are, that’s when they make an impact. Whether it’s a curated experience, great customer service, a surprise gift card, or an experience in person… small or big, they are all memorable and impactful.
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Why do some brands get the treasure box of loyalty, while others struggle to gain advocates who will support them? There are many reasons, but a few ways some brands gain the love and support, others crave, is due to how they extend their brand from beyond just a product or service.
Let’s take Peloton for example.
What does Peloton have that makes people love them so much?
- It’s not just a bike, it’s a lifestyle. It’s a way to get healthier, at home without having to waste time commuting to a gym. It’s at your fingertips through an app and a physical gym apparatus in your home.
- It’s a community. People have made multiple facebook groups where you can support one another based on your reasons and passions: including womens groups, weight loss groups, strength training, positive feel good groups, and more. This allows folks to gain friends from a mutual passion point, and extend their bike from just an piece of equipment to something they can share with old and new friends alike.
- The instructors are extensions of the brand. They communicate with the audience, they call them out to say happy birthday in live classes, and their social media presence allows them to be more than just an instructor in the class.
- The brand reaches out to the audience/consumers and brings them into the fold. Sends them surprise and delights. Includes them in their social media marketing, and more.
- The brand incorporates cultural and important values into their monthly themes including LGBTQ, asian appreciation, and more.
Peloton is no longer just a brand, it’s an experience, a community, a lifestyle, and more. The brand has extended itself outside just a bike through the above, and there’s so much more they could probably due including nutrition, health tips, and more.
Not every brand can do this, and it isn’t easy, but it’s a north star worth watching and seeing what your brand can learn from these types of brands, and how your brand can “own” its own story with its own vision. Whether it’s a lifestyle, community or something else, each brand has a way to reach more of its audience/consumers by extending its brand further.
image via pixabay
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Instagram, a visual social platform, known for memes, gifs, and lifestyle-focused posts is where fashion industry pros live, collaborate, and grow relationships. It’s a place to build your brand from a visual standpoint, and allow your audience to see the story you want to tell.
There are many “tips and tricks” posts out there about using Instagram for your business. But we want to go beyond just “tips and tricks”, and instead delve a little deeper into strategy and tactics to show that…
True success is found through well thought-out planning, consistency, and dedicating time to make sure the channel grows for your brand and your business.
Here are 6 ways to grow your brand within instagram
Hashtags: We all know that hashtags allow us to associate our Instagram posts with a category, an event, or a point of view. Using them is a great way to help your posts get found.
But how many of you are using them for search, discovery, and engagement? Hashtags can be used to your advantage to identify and connect with new customers, editors and other media, collaborators, and retailers. The thing here that you have to remember is that you need to take the offensive. Rather than just using hashtags in your posts and hoping you’ll be discovered by the people I listed above, you have to carve out the time to go find them yourself.
What are some ways to do that?
- Search for your competitors, potential collaborators, complementary brands, and people who have already bought from you on Instagram and see what hashtags they’re using.
- Make a list of the most commonly used hashtags (separate by industry hashtags and customer hashtags) in excel.
- Search each hashtag and look at “Related” and add any relevant tags to your excel sheet.
- Regularly search each hashtag, look at the posts under “Most Recent” and open them up. Start engaging with the people who are posting with these hashtags.
Posting Times: Keep in mind the posting times that appear to work best for your audience.
The goal is to test what does work by trying a few different days and times with a similar kind of post and then determining the ones that work the best. This way you aren’t wasting time on posts that aren’t going to reach your audience. However, keep in mind that this isn’t necessarily the case with partners or influencers you work with. Their posting times will vary against yours, and that is great. It means you’re reaching a wider net of people and hopefully gaining followers too.
Notifications: We all saw the “turn on notifications!” posts that lasted way too long across Instagram. While we tended to ignore these for the most part, I would suggest turning them on for a select few top people.
The goal with doing this is to be notified of a few things:
- When top competitors post a picture, you can be notified to check it out and then observe who is commenting and liking, and how well their different posts are working for them. Take note of types of posts, times of posts, hashtags used, etc. You can start to do some great customer research this way too.
- When your favorite editors or bloggers or podcasters post a new picture, you can be notified and then leave a thoughtful comment that helps to start building that relationship.
- When top complementary brands or possible collaborators post, you can be notified and then leave a thoughtful comment that will be seen by the followers of that brand; hopefully they’ll click through to your profile and check you out too! Which would be great since you have the same customer.
Competitor’s Followers: This one is tricky and should definitely be approached with care. But checking out the followers of your competition, clicking through to their profiles, and engaging with them can be a great way to build your following. One big point I’d like to make here:
- Do not just open up the list of followers and immediately follow all of them. This is lazy and often a waste of time. It’s certainly harmless but in terms of the time and energy that the brand/business is spending, it’s pointless.
- Instead, take time to go through the lists of followers of your competitors, open them up, see if they seem like a desirable follower for your brand and start engaging — follow, or comment, or like a few of their photos.
Strategy and Tactics Take Time: This is something a lot of us don’t want to hear. Clearly, the strategies and tactics listed above are not something that you can do in five minutes time. They take a lot of time and patience. If you decide that Instagram is going to be your main social channel (as many fashion brands do), then it’s important that you take the time to really use it. If you’re simply posting your pics with some hashtags and occasionally commenting things like “nice!” or “love this!” on other people’s posts, then you don’t have an Instagram strategy. You have a social media hobby.
This post was originally written for Startup Fashion.
Being a marketer for your brand, there is little time to waste. You are constantly thinking about the next thing on your to-do list. Content, posting, testing, measuring, and testing again…the process is really never ending.
But where do you find the time to learn and keep up with what’s “new” in marketing?
If you wait to find it, you’ll be waiting for a long time. You have to make the time.
This doesn’t mean spending hours reading through blog posts and getting sucked into the abyss of technology, social media, and the latest app. Although, we’re all guilty of it.
No, you can do it a lot more efficiently.
Use social media. Really.
Most social channels now have features that allow you to “save” and/or view things later. By using these features and putting time slots into your calendar to “learn and grow”, you’ll find that keeping up with what’s new, is not so difficult after all.
Here are five easy ways that your favorite social channels can help you be both productive and efficient while keeping up with the latest marketing trends and technology.
- Facebook “Save link”: This feature allows you save links for later. When you’re commuting to your office – whether it be your home office or a workspace, you don’t always have time to read the whole article, but know it could be useful tomorrow or next week. Bookmark it and go back when you have time fully devote.
- Favorite it: As with Facebook, same goes with Twitter. Favorite the tweet that you found useful. It’s not just for letting people know you found their tweet informative and interesting. It actually is useful.
- Pin it: Save articles on a board that are inspiring. Will it help with a new blog redesign? Will it help with your social strategy? Pin it and go back later to think through it in more detail.
- Create a folder in your email: So much email. Save the ones that matter in a folder so you don’t lose it later.
- Use and app. Pocket is a semi-new app that allows you to collect any articles, posts or seo videos you find and save them to go back to later. All in one place for your viewing pleasure. Evernote also works well.
In the end it’s about what works best for you. Sometimes it’s easier to have it all in one place, and other times it’s easier to save within the app experience you’re in at that moment. Choose your social poison.
This post was originally written for Startup Fashion.
Apps like Timehop have allowed people to look back more frequently and see where they were a year or more ago on this very day. Facebook allows you to see friendships from years ago. It’s typically fun and enjoyable (unless it’s a memory you wish you didn’t have to relive – oops!) and something people are excited to share back out to let others remember too.
And there’s more…
Old bands have been reuniting and creating new albums and having concerts together. Casts of TV shows are being resurrected for new seasons (i.e. Heroes).
Older fashion styles are coming back for another season too. Additionally so are old past times like listening to records, reading actual books, playing with toys from generations ago.
What’s old is new again.
Brands realize that too.
It’s an opportunity for brands to create new content (from old content or events). It allows the brand to show another side to the brand through history and well-received content/events. For example, if there is an iconic package or product, a brand may look back at the beginning and show the evolution over time. And brands are already doing this.
But what else can brands do to take advantage of nostalgia and how consumers are excited about it?
Brands can:
- Create experiences to relive the “new old” in a way that’s unique from before
- Create a series that brings it life (i.e. a comic book, video series, or offline event that reoccurs).
- Allow fans to share their old experiences through the new lens
- Keep it authentic by leaving some to the imagination rather than forcing the nostalgia
- Bring back best sellers to surprise and delight – i.e. Calvin Klein and their 90s campaigns; pumpkin flavored everything; troll dolls; classic old school converse and adidas sneakers; and more.
Nostalgia…not just a thing of the past.
This post was originally written for Social Media Club.