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Why Earth?s Best bets on Facebook to target mobile moms

NEW YORK ? An Earth?s Best executive at the fifth annual Mobile Marketing Day conference discussed how the brand?s Facebook-heavy investments are helping it connect with moms. 

Executives from Earth?s Best and Iced Media presented a look at the organic baby food brand?s mobile and social strategy during the ?Social media: Retrofitting an Old Web Model to Mobile? session. The session gave examples and results of campaigns from the brand that are working on mobile.

?Where we see probably our most success is with Facebook,? said Robyn Mermelstein, category group manager at Earth?s Best and Ella?s Kitchen, Boulder, CO. 

?We were the first [organic baby food] brand to launch on Instagram,? she said. ?That decision was made frankly by looking at a natural habit, which is that mothers love to share pictures of their children.

?We have a presence on Twitter, and most recently we have a presence on Pinterest and that also is due to our consumer being there and creating promotions and programs that work best on those particular platforms.?

Social moms
Earth?s Best?s core group of mothers is aged between her late 20?s to early 40?s. 

The company's social strategy directly ties in with the brand?s content initiatives, and over the past year there has been a big push around visual content during the past year.

The brand?s presence on Facebook has grown 74 percent year-over-year.

Not only is Facebook fostering strong levels of engagement with moms, the opportunity to impact the path to purchase is also growing, according to Leslie Hall, president of Iced Media, New York.

Additionally, the brand?s presence on Instagram has increased its followers 742 percent, and Twitter users have increased 129 percent in the past year.

On Pinterest, the brand has grown its following by 62 percent year-over-year.

Eighteen months to two years ago, Earth?s Best rolled out a mobile and tablet site, which has increased total traffic 34 percent. In particular, traffic to the store locator feature has increased, which will eventually drive foot traffic.

?Historically with social media, you?re seeing a lot of KPI that are really focused on engagement, reach, ampflication and earned media, but in terms of traffic and sales, certainly that is something that should be measured,? Ms. Hall said.

?We?re getting closer to see how we can actually use social media to drive Web site traffic as well as actual sales,? she said.

Target demographic
The session also presented a look at moms and how Earth?s Best's core demographic over-indexes on social and mobile.

According to data presented during the session, 72 percent of moms are working mothers, meaning that convenience is key for them.

Additionally, 80 percent of United States moms use a smartphone.

About 53 percent of Earth?s Best?s Web site traffic comes from mobile, which is significantly up from the average 28 percent of brand traffic.

A little more than 50 percent of all Earth?s Best?s searches are local, showing how moms are looking for quick information from whatever device is closest to them.

Moreover, 90 percent of consumers will begin a task on one device and finish it on another device. Fifty-three percent of consumers engage with social content from a mobile device.

Earth?s Best?s consumers are most active on social late at night when moms are caring for their children, so the brand specifically targets messages to consumers at those times.

Facebook is again an opportunity for Earth?s Best to target consumers across devices with a log-in through Facebook Connect. 

?Mobile and our mobile, social strategy in general gives us the opportunity to speak to these individuals and groups of people in really targeted ways,? Earth's Best's Ms. Mermelstein said.

Final Take
Robyn Mermelstein is category group manager at Earth?s Best and Ella?s Kitchen, Boulder, CO