In-depth analysis of SHEIN social media marketing narratives and cases: How to tell a good story?
In the constant competition with giants, SHEIN has gradually become a new giant. Sales in 2021 will be about $16 billion.
In the direct battle against the old fashion brands, SHEIN has won many battles. This record is inseparable from SHEIN's emphasis and investment in social media marketing.
According to similarweb data, among the main sources of SHEIN main site traffic, social media platforms contributed 8.9%, making it the third largest traffic portal. Although this data is not high at first glance, when compared with the main site traffic of fast fashion giant ZARA (8.9% vs 2.7%), we can see the importance of social media to SHEIN.
In previous articles, we have systematically studied SHEIN's performance and strategy in social media marketing using the marketing cloud platform and the data it acquired. At the same time, in our in-depth research on SHEIN, we found its "hidden killer" on social media - storytelling.
What stories does SHEIN tell on social media?
How to replicate SHEIN's successful narrative?
With these questions, we started the research on SHEIN's Facebook global page, the largest entrance of SHEIN's social media traffic.
- From product line to story line: the multi-line parallel narrative created by SHEIN in social media
Recent data from Sensor Tower shows that in the first quarter of 2022, SHEIN still ranks second in online shopping applications in the North American market. At the same time, the champion Amazon lost 16% of the market share compared with the same period last year, and SHEIN continued to grow - SHEIN's data increased by 8% compared with the same period last year to 14%.
SHEIN has obvious advantages on the product side: a digital supply network, a speed of new products, and a multi-category coverage of product lines. These are all important means for SHEIN to transform from a fast fashion women's clothing brand to a full-category e-commerce platform.
SHEIN's marketing strategy is also very clear: from search engines to social media to independent stations and mobile applications, omni-channel user reach and activation.
In terms of social media marketing, SHEIN integrates product strategies into marketing strategies. On the one hand, it maintains the "rapid iteration" of content, and the frequency of posting is much higher than that of ZARA and H&M. As shown in the figure below, from January to April 2022, SHEIN's Facebook page posted a total of 288 posts, which was 22 times that of ZARA and 8 times that of H&M during the same period. The day with the most daily posts posted a total of 13 posts. articles.
(Image Marketing Cloud - Report - Social Account Comparison Function)
On the other hand, it excavates the narrative angle and creativity from the rich product line, and continuously provides inspiration and mining materials for social media content. This is also the focus of our research.
From a storytelling point of view, SHEIN has a rich material library.
In addition to the environmental protection product line evoluSHEIN, which was just launched in April this year, according to incomplete statistics, SHEIN also has five first-class categories of women's clothing, plus-size women's clothing, men's clothing, children's clothing, and home furnishing. And dozens of secondary product categories such as tops, dresses, beachwear, sportswear, footwear accessories, underwear, home furnishing, pets, office...etc.
Therefore, on the basis of frequent publications, SEHIN chose to simplify the story line and highlight the product line that its own brand most wants to cover and that can produce the most effects on social media - forming a multi-line parallel social media narrative structure, namely:
Start with the users themselves and tell their own stories
Starting from social media platforms, tell stories that match the platform’s preferences
Start with the needs of the brand and tell the story the brand wants users to remember
- Clear hierarchy and high frequency communication: You can also use SHEIN's storytelling method
Through the content of the posts published by SHEIN's Facebook global page in the past 28 days, we can sort out the main story lines of social media narrative adopted by SHEIN recently, and learn from them how brands can tell good stories on social media:
- Users' Own Stories: Beautiful and Authentic UGC Content
- Stories that fit the platform’s preferences: cute pet content that breaks the communication circle
- The Story Brands Want Users to Remember: Refined and Practical Lifestyle Content
Using the Marketing Cloud, a global social media data marketing management platform, we can also independently classify and tag all the posts on the SHEIN Facebook global page within this range, so as to discover the content ratio of different story lines.
As can be seen from the figure below, the SHEIN Facebook global page has published a total of 121 posts in the past 28 days. Among them, there are 73 UGC content from users, 13 pet content, and 35 direct brand content (including product introduction, promotion & warm-up, SHEIN lifestyle and holiday wishes).
The proportion of the three narrative contents of SHEIN can be clearly seen, SHEIN's layering strategy for these three narrative contents:
UGC content: Based on the huge SHEIN community and existing fans, UGC content that can resonate with new and old users can be continuously mined. At the same time, supplemented by the same item number or purchase link, it can promote the further conversion of UGC content. And UGC content also accounted for 50% of the TOP10 content with the highest interaction within 28 days, which shows the popularity of this type of content.
Pet content: Pet content is one of the most popular types of content on social media platforms, and pet content is not restricted by circles. Although pet content does not account for much of SHEIN's global Facebook page, pet content can occupy 2 of the most popular TOP10 posts on its homepage, ranking second and fourth respectively.
Directly display the content of the brand (namely, brand communication): This part of the content is the original content created by SHEIN in combination with the information the brand wants to convey (such as product advantages, promotion information) and user preferences. This section is essential for all sales-focused brands. And how to tell the content of this part, SHEIN chooses to "introduce the product without writing the product", and achieve the purpose of attracting target users through the lifestyle represented by the product.
For example, the 3 posts in the TOP10 that directly show the brand all adopt the method of "a copy of the life style + purchase link", and avoid introducing stereotyped content such as the model, material, and use of the clothes in the copy.
Summary: How brands can tell good stories on social media
Starting from your own product line, simplify the complexity to find the most suitable content for social media communication
Set different focus on content from three aspects: user, platform and brand
Increase the frequency of content publishing, cultivate users' reading habits, and occupy more positions in the information flow
Brands targeting sales don’t forget to include product links in their content
Brand storytelling on social media is a long-term process that requires constant exploration of what content is more in line with the preferences of target users. During this process, you can use the global social media data marketing management platform Marketing Cloud to set release calendars, recycle release data, and form social media data reports for more in-depth analysis and optimization.
The marketing methods of successful fast fashion and e-commerce brands represented by SHEIN are worthy of our continuous study and research. At the same time, we will continue to analyze and share the latest and most successful social media marketing cases of other Chinese overseas brands. Welcome to keep following us.