Digital Communications Plan Prepared by: Alexa Banda April ...

Digital Communications Plan Prepared by: Alexa Banda April/May 2016

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BIRCHBOX

Digital Communications Plan

Table of Contents PART 1: OVERVIEW

Executive Summary .................................................................................................................................... 3 About Birchbox ............................................................................................................................................ 5 Monetary Analysis ....................................................................................................................................... 6 Audience Profile .......................................................................................................................................... 7 Competitive Landscape ............................................................................................................................... 8

PART 2: STRATEGY Traditional PR ............................................................................................................................................ 10 Social Media Policy ................................................................................................................................... 11 Sample Posts ............................................................................................................................................ 12 Tactics ....................................................................................................................................................... 16 Sample Timeline ........................................................................................................................................ 19 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................. 21

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Executive Summary Birchbox, an online subscription service, was created in order to give its customers a way to learn about, try on, compare, and experience all types of beauty products without spending too much money. With this business plan, Birchbox came up with the idea to send out boxes containing five different beauty samples to each of their subscribers each month. In 2010, Birchbox shipped out their first boxes of sampled beauty products to women, and in 2012, Birchbox shipped out their first boxes of hygiene care to men. Since then, Birchbox has sold millions of boxes and continue to help their customers find the best products. Birchbox’s mission:

“To help customers find products they love.”1

PROBLEM While Birchbox is a leader in subscription box services, its competitors like Ipsy, Goodbeing, and FabFitFun are also rising to the top. For this reason, Birchbox needs to incorporate new techniques in their social media strategy to offer fresh and new content to their audience. Birchbox does take the lead in most social media platforms, but its biggest competitior – Ipsy – has more likes, followers, and subscribers on their social media sites. The goal of this proposal is to help Birchbox expand their clients and reach as many people as possible. To do this, their social media following needs to increase. These new, proposed ideas will deliver fresh content and incorporate the target audience into the brand itself. With these proposed communications tactics, Birchbox will be sure to rise above Ipsy in the amount of likes, followers, and subscribers they receive. SOLUTIONS Birchbox has a great social media presence and know what tools to use and how to stay relevant. Birchbox uses all effective platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, and Tumblr. These platforms are great sources to reach their target audience of women and men ages 18-34. However, its competitors are catching up. In order for Birchbox to stay on top, they need to implement these new interactive and visual elements to their strategy. Traditional PR Outreach Birchbox has a great traditional PR outreach. They have an integrated press room on their website that provides links to every article they are featured in and they send out mass emails to their customers. Although they are an online company, they still need to increase their traditional PR to get to as many potential clients as possible. There are still potential clients that might not be as comfortable using social media as others, and for this reason, traditional forms of PR still need to be implemented. Birchbox will send out media advisories to let the public know about what events and features Birchbox will be unveiling in the upcoming weeks. The links for these media advisories can come from email blasts. • Why: Traditional PR has been around for a long time for a reason – it works. Birchbox should

step away for a second from social media, and focus a little bit on traditional PR. With this approach, Birchbox will reach new clients that they haven’t reached before.

1 http://www.birchbox.com

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Social Media Policy Birchbox needs to create a clear social media policy for its employees. The recommended social media plan will help deliver content to its followers while still increasing brand identity and reaching as many potential clients as possible. • Why: In order for social media to reach target audiences, Birchbox needs to interact with their

clients. In order to do that, Birchbox’s employees need to create and maintain relationships online with their followers.

Sample Posts Birchbox posts great content every day on their social media sites. The sample posts provided will be sure to relate the product to the clients by addressing fun and notable aspects of the summer that their followers love. • Why: Every social media plan needs just that – a plan. In order to maintain a strong social

media presence and be consistent with goals and objectives, Birchbox needs to have at least a months worth of sample content for their social media platforms.

Tactics These tactics are going to make Birchbox stand out from its competitors. The proposed tactics will help Birchbox engage even more with their target audience and make them feel like they matter. The suggested tactics are especially made to interact with the target audience and get them involved in the brand. • Why: Implementing Snapchat geofilters, homemade customer videos, and infographics are

three ways that millennials respond to content. They want to be a part of the content and feel like their voice matters.

Timeline For these strategies and tactics to work, it is important to have a set timeline as to when to implement the strategies and tactics and when and where to post them. This will help Birchbox be consistent with their message and time the right content out to get to the right people. Birchbox already has a great traditional and digital PR outreach, so these tactics will not be hard to implement and will easily transition to the current social media plan. BEST PLAN These solutions will help Birchbox reach as many current and potential clients as possible. By incorporating interaction with their clients, they are setting themselves up for an increase in brand awareness. This brand awareness will lead to more people discovering Birchbox and eventually lead to more clients. KEY LINKS • https://www.birchbox.com • https://www.facebook.com/Birchbox/ • https://twitter.com/birchbox • https://www.instagram.com/birchbox/ • https://www.youtube.com/user/birchboxtv • https://www.pinterest.com/birchbox/ • http://blog.birchbox.com

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Each month, a trendy, cardboard box comes in the mail decorated with fun colors and modern shapes. The box is decorated differently each month and contains five beauty products. The boxes come with personalized notes and recommendations on how to use the products.

About Birchbox OVERVIEW Birchbox is a subscription service that ships beauty products to men and women each month. It was created to give customers a large range of beauty products without having to purchase them all. Birchbox does this by mailing samples of five beauty products to their subscribers each month. In addition to the customer’s beauty preferences, the deliveries are based on skin type, hair type, eye color, and gender. Birchbox also offers gift sets, specialized boxes, beauty kits, and full sized products of the samples. Products include makeup, hair accessories, skincare, lifestyle accessories, tools, fragrances, bath and shower products, nail products, oral care, gadgets and games, and home products. The products are offered for both men and women. GOALS AND OBJECTIVES Primary Goal • Expand clients

o Reach out to as many potential clients as possible and get them to subscribe to their services. To do this, Birchbox must keep up with their objectives and:

§ Reward $5 to members that successfully get a friend to subscribe to Birchbox § Share posts of current customers that love their products.

Secondary Goals • Keep customers purchasing their items by:

o Producing short videos on how to use their products. o Using a point system. Clients can rate the products they receive in the mail and collect

points for doing so. More points equals more money towards products. • Show off and take part in beauty trends. • Connect with their customers. SAMPLE BOXES

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53 53.7 54.89 56.63 58.79 60.58 62.46

2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

Revenue of the Cosmetic Industry in Billion U.S.

Dollars

10.67 10.73 11.31 11.97 12.7 13.55 13.91

2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

Industry Gross Product in Billion U.S. Dollars

Monetary Analysis COSMETICS INDUSTRY The cosmetics industry deals with products that help consumers look, feel, and smell the way they want to.1 Products range from skin care, sun care, makeup, fragrances, toiletries, and other grooming products.1 The cosmetics industry is known to stay at the top of the market, even during economic downturns.2 Today, in 2016, during the economic success, the income of the industry is continuing to increase.2 Sales in the cosmetics industry in 2016 are $62.46 billion, and industry gross product in 2016 are $13.91 billion.3 Hair care is the largest segment of the cosmetics industry at 24 percent.2 Skin care comes in second largest and expected to have a revenue of $11 billion by 2018.2 **82 percent of women believe that social media drives beauty trends1 BIRCHBOX • Over 800 thousand subscribers4 • Each monthly box is sold for $10 (women’s box) and $20 (men’s box)5 • Generates at least $96 million in annual subscription revenue4 • Produces at least $71.8 million in venture funding5 • Pulls in at least $170 million a year5 • 100 thousand of the orders each month come from ordering full-sized products (30 percent of

the revenue)5 • The sales method of sending samples each month generates about $10 million a month5 1 http://www.bidnessetc.com/subindustry/cosmetic/overview/ 2 https://www.franchisehelp.com/industry-reports/beauty-industry-report/ 3 http://www.statista.com/statistics/243749/value-of-the-cosmetic-industry-in-the-us/ 4 http://venturebeat.com/2014/04/21/birchbox-raises-60m/ 5 http://www.fastcompany.com/3044266/innovation-agents/opening-the-box

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80.2 83.1

87.7

January February March

Monthly Traf?ic Visits in 2016 (In Thousands)

No College

Some College

Graduate School

College

Education 1

Male Female

Gender 1

Audience Profile PRIMARY TARGET AUDIENCE Birchbox’s target audience is women ages 18-34 who are tech-savvy and keen to use the online subscription business model. The target women are educated and middle to high class (because they are willing to spend money on high-end products). These women want to look, feel, and smell good. SECONDARY TARGET AUDIENCE Birchbox’s secondary audience is men ages 18-34 who are willing to try new ways to improve how they look, how they feel, and how they smell. AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHICS The following graphs represent the demographics of Birchbox.com, compared to the general Internet population (the black dashed line represents the general Internet population). WEBSITE TRAFFIC • 87.7 thousand monthly U.S. unique visitors1

1 http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/birchbox.com 2 https://www.quantcast.com/birchbox.com

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Competitive Landscape OTHER COSMETIC SUBSCRIPTION BOX SERVICES • Ipsy: 5 samples of beauty products for $10 a month delivered in a reusable make up bag1 • Goodbeing: Healthy, natural, organic items in each box. Different membership plans2 • FabFitFun: Beauty, wellness, fitness, and fashion boxes for $50 each season3 The following statistics were found on each company’s social media pages and are representative as of April 2016. All of the social media platforms are linked from the company’s website, except for the Ipsy blog, which can be found on Google. NOTABLE SOCIAL MEDIA CHARACTERISTICS • Ipsy:

o Social media is filled with inspirational quotes, high-definition pictures and videos o Constantly reminds followers they are just a tweet away if there are any questions o “Typically replies within a few hours” on Facebook o Replies to almost every Facebook post o Has its own Twitter for questions and comments from customers: @ipsycare o Biggest weakness: Not too much scrollable content on website o Biggest threat to Birchbox: Amount of social media followers/they, in addition to

Birchbox, respond to almost every customer post • Goodbeing:

o Focuses a lot of their posts on current events and mentions of other beauty product brands

o “Typically reply within an hour” on Facebook o Biggest weakness: YouTube channel is lacking videos and subscribers o Biggest threat to Birchbox: Goodbeing promotes its partners right at the top of the

website which is easily visible to viewers • FabFitFun:

o Social media is all about leading a fun, healthy, and fit lifestyle o The social media sites provide links to the blog o Don’t respond too often to consumer’s posts o Does not indicate on Facebook how long it takes for them to respond o Biggest weakness: Doesn’t engage with audience o Biggest threat to Birchbox: Has a lot of celebrity influencers and promoters

1 https://www.ipsy.com 2 https://joingoodbeing.com 3 https://fabfitfun.com/

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SOCIAL MEDIA BY THE NUMBERS

Facebook Twitter Instagram Pinterest Youtube Blog

Birchbox 1.7m Likes

70.9k Tweets 174k

Followers

5k Posts 469k

Followers

96 Boards 13.6k Pins

925.1k Followers

17.3m Views 667 Videos

96K Subscribers Yes

Ipsy 4.3m Likes 14.8k Tweets

294k Followers

3k Posts 1.6m

Followers

51 Boards 5.5k Pins

299k Followers

4.5m Views 603 Videos

1.1M Subscribers

Yes

Goodbeing 11.4k Likes 4.4k Tweets

4.7k Followers

521 Posts 12k

Followers

44 Boards 3.6k Pins

2.2k Followers

288 Views 1 Videos

2 Subscribers Yes

FabFitFun 351k Likes 17.1k Tweets

149k Followers

1.7k Posts 227k

Followers

42 Boards 7.6k Pins

76.7k Followers

468k Views 92 Videos

2k Subscribers

Online Magazine

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Traditional PR CURRENT OUTREACH Birchbox has a great press room that is linked to their website. The “About Birchbox” press materials are linked to a Google Drive. The other press materials are all categorized between “In the News” and “Press Releases.” Each “In the News” category features the media logo and a link to the story. There are also options to look up press kits in France, UK, and Spain. RECOMMENDATIONS 1. Media Advisory • Title: “Birchbox to Begin Surprising Customers With Urban Decay Palettes in Monthly Boxes” • This media advisory will not only inform their consumers to look out for Urban Decay products

in their monthly boxes, but it will also attract non-existing customers and give them a reason to sign up for a subscription.

2. Email Blasts • Subject Line: “YOU Got Noticed By Us. We Got Noticed By MTV. Check It Out!” • While email blasts may be a form of digital communication, they are still a somewhat traditional

form of PR. • The email blasts could send customers links to press releases and media advisories that they

should be looking out for. This will show customers that the products they use at Birchbox are actually noticed by other brands around the world, and they will want to continue to take part in using those products. The email blasts can also inform customers of the Snapchat geofilter (“Have you tried out our new Snapchat filter?!”), which is explained on page 15, and provide links to “homemade customer videos,” which are explained on page 16.

PR CONCLUSION Although these recommendations are good for Birchbox to implement, they are still doing just fine at their current level of traditional PR. Since Birchbox is a web-based company, they need to keep their PR strategy at that – a digital level. The amount of traditional PR they have should stay where it is – at a minimum, and only needs to be implemented once or twice a week. These tactics should be focused on getting sent out on weekdays. Most of Birchbox’s target audience are young professionals, so getting an email during the week that doesn’t have to do with work will be refreshing. The biggest advantage to using traditional PR is that the brand will reach different types of clients – those who don’t use the Internet as much.

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Social Media Policy Birchbox does not have a publicly accessible social media policy online. However, it is important for a company to have a social media strategy so the brand can advance their goals and keep up with the same tone of voice. The following policies are recommended to create a social media policy for Birchbox. If these policies were to be implemented, it is important that the wording of the policy stays quirky as to be consistent with the brand of Birchbox. 1. Keep Content Non-Controversial All content should be fun and trendy. Stay away from emotional topics and content that can cause controversy. 2. If You Mess Up – Fix It Everyone makes mistakes. If there is a mistake made on social media, please fix it right away. Then, report to your supervisor to assess if there should be any further actions taken. 3. Be Authentic, Be Fun, Be Charismatic Birchbox is all about leading a fun and healthy lifestyle. We use social media to connect with our target audience and let them know that we are all in this together. Do what you can to connect with followers – the authentic, be fun, be charismatic! 4. Only Positive Media This is pretty self-explanatory. If an employee has their own blog, or does their own tweeting, while they may mention that they are affiliated with Birchbox, they may not say anything negative about the brand. 5. Stay Trendy At Bircbox, we keep up with all the latest trends. Whether it’s the short-lived “man bun,” the “bae” aficionado, or the “eyebrows on fleek,” we like to stay trendy. That’s what makes us so successful. Being trendy is being able to connect with our audience and keeps us relevant. 6. #Hashtag It We all love a good hashtag. If there is a trendy hashtag circulating, use it! If you think of a short, clever phrase that fits with the post, use it! Use hashtags when they really mean something, or you think they can advance the Birchbox brand. Stay within the guidelines, of course.

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Sample Posts OUTLETS The top three recommended social media platforms for Birchbox are Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Since the company’s target audience is women ages 18-34, these are the platforms that millennials use the most. These recommended posts are intended to be used in the summer. FACEBOOK CONTENT 1.

BIRCHBOX Man bun. Yes or no? Learn how to tame those locks here: https://www.birchbox.com/guide/article/how-to-style-a-man-bun-tutorial. Or, just take a look at this picture of Jared Leto with a man bun. Either works.

*Image Credit: Getty/Birchbox

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BIRCHBOX It’s time to customize your summer boxes! Choose the featured boxes or opt to receive a SURPRISE box at https://www.birchbox.com

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3. BIRCHBOX Our favorite type of flight? A fragrance flight! Take one NOW! (men only) https://www.birchbox.com/shop/the-fragrance-flight-classic-scents

*Image Credit: Birchbox 4.

BIRCHBOX Three words: Cochella. Packing. List. Prepare for your #Cochella weekend with these products: https://www.birchbox.com/magazine/article/the-ultimate-coachella-beauty-packing-list

*Image Credit: Birchbox

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TWITTER CONTENT 1. @birchbox: NEW PRODUCT ALERT! Treat yo’self to a few of our favorite summer must-haves! https://www.birchbox.com/shop/featured/new 2. @birchbox: Put your whole #Birchbox in your pocket & download our app at the #AppStore https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/birchbox/id715027700?ls=1&mt=8 3. @birchbox: Did you know we have free shipping for orders over $50? That’s like, 5 different lip glosses. #MyLipGlossIsPoppin 4. Ladies can’t have all the fun. Gentleman – order your monthly subscription of customized products here: https://www.birchbox.com/men/shop INSTAGRAM CONTENT 1.

birchbox What was your favorite product in this month’s #Birchbox? Rate it online and get points! 10 points = $10!

*Image credit: Birchbox

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2.

birchbox Which hair products will you be using this summer to get those perfect beachy waves?

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birchbox Introducing our #BEAUTYBESTIESKIT! This kit features three products that got awesome reviews from gals like you! Visit us online or our app for more details!

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birchbox Last months featured skin products had us feeling like...

*Image Credit: Tone It Up

*Image credit: Birchbox

*Image Credit: Vibe.com

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Tactics CURRENT Birchbox has a phenomenal digital strategy and implements social media tactics effectively. Notable tactics include: • “How-to” videos about how to use products • Uses Facebook Live • Posts high-definition pictures and videos in almost every post • Provide links in almost every post • Re-posts customer pictures of the products • “Typically replies within an hour” on Facebook • Replies to almost every customer post The following tactics will be easy to transition into as Birchbox already has a great amount of tactics to keep its brand awareness up. Birchbox posts meaningful content every day, uses new social media techniques to keep followers interested, and interacts with their audience by responding to and reposting their posts. However, these proposed tactics will allow Birchbox to increase followers and pass Ipsy in Facebook and Twitter followers. RECOMMENDED TACTICS Tactic 1: Snapchat Geofilter Snapchat is quickly becoming a top contender in the social media market. Most millennials use Snapchat, and love the geotag effects the application provides. A geofilter allows the Snapchat user to add overlays to their pictures that they take and send to their friends and family. Implementing a Snapchat geotag once a month for Birchbox can be a subtle way to increase brand awareness. • What: Birchbox will select the first day of each month to promote the brand on Snapchat. On

the first of each month, Birchbox will incorporate a product that will be featured in the following month into the geofilter. For example, the July box is going to include an eye-shadow kit. On June 1st, Birchbox will roll out a geofilter on Snapchat that will visually apply that eye shadow to the users eyes. At the bottom of the screen, Birchbox can promote that item and box for the next month by displaying, “Coming next month at Birchbox!” Each month, different products will be featured on the geofilter. The geofilter will only be up for 24 hours.

• Target Audience: Millennials, both male and female. • Why: There are 100 million daily Snapchat users, and 73 percent of those users are

millennials. There are nine thousand Snapchat photos shared each second, and eight billion video views each day. 71 percent of Snapchat users are under 34 years old. The best evidence that this tactic will work is that 76 percent of Snapchat users purchase products online.1 That is Birchbox’s goal – purchase those products online.

• Influencers: This tactic does not need influencers. The whole point of using the Snapchat geotag is to have the users participate in the promotion. However, the most followed accounts on Snapchat include:

1 http://expandedramblings.com/index.php/snapchat-statistics/

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o DJ Khaled: If Birchbox got DJ Kahled to participate in the Snapchat filter, millions of viewers would see it. The whole purpose of this particular celebrity using the filter is because of its irony – a big guy using beauty products. It would also reach different audiences that Birchbox doesn’t normally reach.

o Hannah Bronfman: Hannah is a fitness blogger and is know for her motivational Snapchats. Being one of the most followed celebrities on Snapchat, Hannah’s use of the Birchbox Snapchat could surely reach out to millions of people.

• Measurement: The success of this tactic will be measured in the amount of Snapchat ‘friends’ Birchbox receives each month. Particularly, the most important time to monitor new ‘friends’ is within that 24 hours period that the geofilter is up.

More information on guidelines and pricing of geofilters can be found here: https://www.snapchat.com/on-demand. Tactic 2: Homemade Customer Videos • What: Birchbox will run a mini campaign each week. Birchbox will have its customers video

themselves using one of Birchbox’s products and unique ways they use that product. The contestants will submit their videos to an email address. The email method will be the most effective because the customer might not want their video to be on their own social media platform – just for the use of Birchbox. Birchbox will pick one video each week and feature it on their Facebook and Twitter pages. The video does not need to be featured on the YouTube channel, because Birchbox’s YouTube is a reliable channel with expert advice and expert video. The video requirements will be:

o Video must be less than 5 minutes o The product must be sold via Birchbox o The customer must include one unique way they use the product – a little tip to make

the product even easier to use • Target Audience: Millennials, male or female. • Why: As stated throughout this plan, Birchbox has a great digital strategy. Part of what makes

the strategy and tactics so good is the fact that they constantly retweet and repost pictures that their customers post. This is an effective strategy because its shows that Birchbox cares about their customers and that they matter. With this tactic, Birchbox can take their customer interactive tactic and expand it one step further – with videos. Along with these video submissions comes the contestants reposting Birchbox’s when they are featured in the Birchbox post. This will lead to their followers seeing Birchbox’s handles and hopefully following them on social media as well.

• Influencers: Like tactic #1, this tactic relies on the customers. However, to get the campaign started, and to get the target audience excited about making their ‘how-to’ video, Birchbox can turn to a few key YouTuber beauty gurus, and other brands.

o Carli Bybel: Carli is a YouTuber who teaches her followers how to apply make up using the most trendy techniques. She has over three million Instagram followers and over 358 thousand Twitter followers. If this professional videographer makes a short movie using the video camera on her phone, it will inspire her followers to make the same kind of movie with the technology they have right in front of them.

o Toms: The shoe, eyeware, and bag brand is partnered with Birchbox. They have high-end sunglasses that are also sold through Birchbox. To help with this campaign, Toms

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will retweet and repost the homemade customer video posts that Birchbox features each week.

• Measurement: To measure the effectiveness of this tactic, Birchbox will get more and more video submissions each week. Additionally, Birchbox will see an increased amount of followers on social media because they will want to see if their video made the cut.

Tactic 3: Infographics • What: Birchbox will start to post infographics on their social media websites. To keep up with

the theme of sleek but fun, the infographics will contain bright colors and fun patterns. The infographics can include different types of information about health and beauty and enforce the idea that Birchbox’s products are worthwile, effective, and practical:

o “X amount of people use the wrong cream for their skin type” o “X amount of people are subscribed to our monthly samples. Are you one of them?” o “”You are X times more likely to fall asleep quicker when you use X before bed”

• Target Audience: Millennials, male or female. • Why: 90 percent of information transmitted to the brain is visual.1 Infographics allow to transfer

multiple amounts of information quickly and easily for the user to understand. Publishers that use infographics grow their website traffic by 12 percent more than publishers who do not use infographics. Again, Birchbox’s goal is to sell more products online – the way to do that is through website traffic.

• Influencers: Any online beauty guru could be a great influencer for these infographics. Their contribution would be to retweet Birchbox’s posted infographics. The thought behind beauty gurus like Nicole Guerriero reposting Birchbox’s content is because when customers see that beauty experts support the facts, they will more likely understand the importance of them and the importance of good hygiene.

• Measurement: Increase of purchase of individual products. The use of infographics is to show customers that there are specific products that are essential to living a healthy and beautiful lifestyle. These types of products promoted through infographics should see a rise in the sales of those products.

The infographics can simply be made on websites like canva.com and piktochart.com.

1 http://unbounce.com/content-marketing/why-do-infographics-make-great-marketing-tools/

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Sample Timeline

June 2016

Sun. Mon. Tues. Wed. Thurs. Fri. Sat.

- - “Happy Memorial Day” post

- 1 Launch Snapchat filter for 24 hours/ Email blast about Snapchat filter

2 3 4 Inform followers about video campaign

5 6 First follower video

7 Refer to post from yesterday & encourage to post videos

8 Infographic/ Email blast about “new” infographic

9 “Catch us Monday and see who was selected for follower video”

10 11 Remind followers to post video

12 13 Second follower video


15 Media Advisory

16 Infographic 17 Media Advisory

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19 Father’s Day post on all SM platforms

20 Third follower video


22 23 24 Infographic 25 Fourth of July prep post

26 27 Fourth follower video


29 Media Advisory about upcoming Snapchat filter

30 1 Launch Snapchat filter for 24 hours

2 Infographic

These strategies and tactics should be implemented by next month, June 2016. Much of the sample content created here is strategically formatted for the summertime. It will be easy to get all of the materials ready for these tactics in just a month, as there is no cost to these tactics, except for the Snapchat geofilter. The calendar above is an example of how the tactics can be implemented throughout the month of June. Keep in mind that in order for this to work, Birchbox must maintain their current strategy by posting content everyday and interacting with followers. These next items are examples of content to post that pertain to the specific days on the calendar. The content can be used on any social media platform. • “Have you been on Snapchat today?! Check out our filter – it’s only up for 24 hours!” • “Catch us on Monday and see who we chose as our favorite homemade customer video!

Could it be you?!”

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• “We love pretty colors, fun facts, and cute photos. So we put them together. Check it out here: [link to infographic].”

• “What did you think about @X and their homemade video? Submit yours and have a chance to be featured as OUR favorite homemade beauty video!”

• “Get ready. It’s back by popular demand! Which beauty product is going to be featured next week on Snapchat? Find out on Friday!”

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Conclusion NEGATIVES The one concern that Birchbox should have about using social media is the negative comments that users leave when they aren’t satisfied with the product. There are quite a few users that post negative experiences with the brand on all social media channels. However, if Birchbox sticks to what they are doing in terms of trying to respond to every negative comment, then they should be just fine. POSITIVES Birchbox should be excited about the word of mouth awareness their social media strategy will promote. Through the three tactics, Birchbox will be able to incorporate their target into their audience and make them part of the brand by using overlays on pictures, posting videos of customers, and being a part of the statistics in the infographics. OVERALL Overall, Birchbox has a great social media presence and implement great strategy and tactics. Birchbox knows about the importance of posting interesting content every day. They are very strong in posting content with high-definition photos, “how-to” videos, and product promotion. They have all of the effective social media platforms that gravitate towards millennials including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest, YouTube, and a Tumblr. They also use the right amount of hashtags – not too many, but not too little. However, competition is slowly creeping up on social media, and Birchbox needs to stay ahead of the game. A media advisory and email blasts with powerful subject lines are sure to boost product sales and word-of-mouth promotion even more. These traditional forms of advertising have worked in the past and continue to work. These methods will only give even more information to the target audience by supplying them with other resources to their products. The recommended social media policy is in place to align with the company’s objectives and goals. It allows for all employees to be directed in which way the company wants to handle their social media. The sample social media content is created to have the most impact in the upcoming months. The posts mentioning the best parts of summer, like wavy hair, Cochella, and all things warm weather. The posts are also aimed to influence millennials by talking about current events like man buns, Beyoncé, and free shipping. The three recommended tactics will increase social media following and increase sales overall. They will be effective because these campaigns allow for the target audience to be a part of the brand experience. Incorporating Snapchat, homemade customer videos, and visuals to Birchbox’s digital strategy will allow Birchbox to reach out to as many potential clients as possible and get them to subscribe to their services.

Digital Communications Plan Prepared by: Alexa Banda April ...

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