In February 2022, advertising on Facebook* and Instagram* was banned in Russia. These changes affected online stores the most, since these platforms accounted for the bulk of sales. Marketers faced an ambitious task – to find alternative ways to generate sales from social networks. SMM for Stolplit. Increasing sales even after the sites leave.
In this case, we will tell you how the i-Media team not only maintained, but also increased sales using alternative social media. We worked for Stolplit, a hypermarket of furniture and home goods that has more than 200,000 products on the site.
To achieve this goal
We launched new platforms, adjusted advertising activity and began to develop engagement.
It was not so easy to get the audience’s attention. At the beginning of the journey, we faced several difficulties:
large competitors had established themselves on Russian platforms;
users did not trust Russian furniture brands. SMM for Stolplit. Increasing sales even after the sites leave.
New content strategy for social networks
We started with updating the visual design of the pages. We worked out all the formats taking into account the corporate style and modern trends in design.
Order promotion in social networks
Completely updated the content strategy, added more engaging content. We began to mix product and useful content for subscribers. SMM for Stolplit. Increasing sales even after the sites leave.
For example, the brand’s social networks lacked a “live” format. Previously, only product renders were published on the page. We decided to fix the situation and filmed photos and videos directly from the store.
So we began to publish more real content. And we saw an active reaction from subscribers. The footage was also used for Clips on VKontakte.
We launched from scratch and at the time of preparing the case, we had already gained 327,000 views.
Then we set up monitoring comments from sub azerbaijan phone number library scribers and responding to them. Now we provide prompt responses to customer requests. This helps collect feedback and be “on the same page” with customers.
Order promotion in social networks
Attracting subscribers to OK, VK and Telegram
To maintain the level of sales from Zuba Jari Mai Samun Dama Ga Kullum social networks, we needed to strengthen our presence on existing platforms and gain subscribers on new ones.
To do this, we launched cz leads campaigns from scratch in Odnoklassniki and Zen, began to develop Telegram, and strengthened campaigns in VKontakte. We also worked with Instagram* in a supporting mode, attracting bloggers to advertising. SMM for Stolplit. Increasing sales even after the sites leave.
In VKontakte and Odnoklassniki, we searched for subscribers based on their interests in furniture and interiors, as well as contextual phrases (“buy a sofa”, “buy a table”).
VK Advertising account
We launched targeted advertising to attract subscribers and increase engagement. We were among the first to try the new VK Advertising platform. Over the entire period, we tested more than 20 segments.
In VK Advertising, we ran ads that emphasized the usefulness of subscribing to the community. We used the following advertising messages: “learn ideas for your home,” “don’t miss Stolplit promotions and new products,” “participate in competitions.” As a result of testing and launching, we determined that users are more motivated by receiving information about home improvement and interior design.
We implement a CTA for subscription in each ad, as this increases the conversion rate to a subscriber. In addition, we promote posts from the feed to increase reach and engagement.
As a result of the placement, we managed to reduce the cost per subscriber (CPF) by 45% in VK ADS compared to advertising on VKontakte.
We attracted bloggers to increase reach
It was important for us to maintain the existing audience on Instagram*, as well as find a new one. Bloggers helped us with this. They acted not only as the only remaining way to promote the account, but also as a source of live, useful content for social networks.
Order promotion in social networks
At the start, we identified several types of blogs that are interesting to us:
author’s blogs with a general lifestyle focus;
blogs about motherhood;
blogs of interior designers, for whom the topic of furniture is especially relevant.
Bloggers were searched for both manually and with the help of services, and competitors’ placements were looked at. Each blog was analyzed without fail: they looked at engagement, the number of views under posts, and checked for cheating. One of the important factors was the real cost of visiting the page (CPV) – this is how we filtered out blogs that were clearly overpriced.
Also, to generate useful video content, we invited bloggers on interior design to offline points of sale and offered to review the store: give advice on interior design and furniture selection, talk about trends. The video format was well received by the audience and gave more engagement.
