Fashionable apparel and accessories retailer Hennes & Mauritz, commonly known as H&M, is boosting sales with curated lists of trending items in the form of a blog post on social media, playing on consumers’ love of pictures and snackable content.

The brand sends out an image via Twitter with hashtags and a headline that draws in potential readers, and once clicked, the link takes users to a mobile site with a list of apparel and accessories from the image, with each item then bringing consumers to the online page to purchase. For instance, on Monday H&M tweeted “Looking for an instant wardrobe update? Look no further,” with the hashtags #HMLife and #HMeditorpicks and an image of shoppable, collected items related to the weekend.

“H&M’s posts are part of a broader re-engagement strategy,” said Shuli Lowy, marketing director at Ping Mobile, New York. “We all know about the brand but it takes triggers to get us to engage with it and buy products.

“Typically passing by a store with a big sign, getting an email, seeing an ad or social media post will trigger us to explore further and ultimately buy something,” she said. “Brands are always focused on getting consumers back in their court.

“That requires some form of content to re-engage them. H&M’s tweets of curated lists has a lot of strategic elements to it that makes it a solid re-engagement push.”

Everything that the brand does on social media and mobile encompasses its brand image as a whole, and these curated lists coincide with that mission. This type of post is highly shareable on social media and produces high engagement.

Locate the consumer
The editor’s picks from H&M are short, sweet and to the point. This is the kind of content that consumers are likely to engage with in the current mobile-first, always on-the-go lifestyle.

The optimization of the mobile site and limited steps it takes to finalize the sale make it more likely for consumers to complete purchases. The more pages and courses of action it takes to purchase, the more likely it is for a consumer to discontinue.

This is key for brands attempting to drive up sales, especially through mobile.

Making these posts available through mobile is crucial as well. The number of users accessing social media through mobile makes up most of the user base, meaning it is the key platform for brands to connect to consumers.

The post on Twitter grabs the attention of the H&M demographic to increase sales

“The tweets focus on delivering a limited amount of content to consumers,” Ms. Lowy said. “That is particularly important for Twitter, as over 85 percent of time spent on Twitter in the U.S. is done on mobile devices.

“Mobile devices are small and the screens are not well suited for browsing through massive product databases,” she said. “Marketers often use techniques such as providing multiple sorting options to get the amount of products down to something that is easy to browse and will not take forever to load on a phone.”

Branding an image
Not only does this simple marketing trick drive up sales for H&M, it also coincides with its trendy brand image. The pictures are clean-cut, aesthetically pleasing and appeal directly to its demographic.

It is imperative for brands and retailers to focus on their overall brand image and utilize social media for this.

Recently, Triumph Lingerie did just that and attempted to ramp up sales of its merchandise by unveiling its first cartoon model and short animated movie to depict the process of finding a perfectly fitting bra, asking consumers to answer questions on social media for a chance to have their likenesses animated (see more).

Also, Kohl’s ramped up efforts to bridge the gap between the retail world and the fitness sector by partnering with popular bloggers and instructors to provide workout tips on the retailer’s social media channels, in a bid to drive sales of its expanded active wear offerings (see more).

“The small lists lead to a digestible amount of content that consumers can smoothly browse on their phones,” Ms. Lowy said. “The curated lists are also image heavy; images make posts more likely to get clicked on, favorited and retweeted.”

“The blog style of the post combined with the fact that it’s mobile optimized and inlaid with many opportunities for social sharing lend to a seamless user experience,” she said. “In the modern day, winning over a consumer is all about putting out good content.

“When H&M puts out their best picks we can be sure they put thought into which items consumers would really like.”

Final Take
Brielle Jaekel is editorial assistant at Mobile Marketer and Mobile Commerce Daily