Social media is a critical piece of eCommerce strategy when promoting bed and bedding products.
Brands in the industry are embracing the creative and authentic spirit of video advertisements to present their product features while keeping the audience engaged and entertained.
We've reviewed dozens of great-performing direct-to-consumer mattress brands to find out the marketing tactics they currently employ in their paid media.
Let's delve into how these brands utilize popular social media trends, user-generated content, social proof, and ecological awareness to create a deep connection with potential customers.
The sooner you put these tips into action, the faster you’ll boost your advertising campaign.
1. Create a valuable connection with your audience using social media trends
- What I Ordered vs. What I Got
- TikTok Finds
- ____ Reasons to Ditch Your Old ____
2. Harness the power of customer experiences using user-generated-content (UGC)
- UGC sharing life hacks
- UGC with multiple customer reviews
- UGC using a narrative
3. Feature your most outstanding reviews
4. Show your brand’s commitment to sustainability
1. Create a valuable connection with your audience using social media trends
Social media platforms like Facebook and TikTok create a massive opportunity for brands to reach a large audience.
By going viral or following a trend, these platforms can help you create a devoted follower base waiting for your next video upload.
Trends have immense potential for marketing your products as they are often relatable, entertaining, and shareable.
No wonder the following brands utilize trends in their video advertising. Here a few examples of the trends they’re using.
What I Ordered vs. What I Got
We always wish that the products we order will meet our expectations but sometimes you have to facepalm over terrible online purchases.
Marketers have used this experienced-based content to their advantage, creating the story the other way around. It’s a trend popularly known as “What I Ordered vs. What I Got”.
It is similar to comparing “expectation vs. reality” but here, contrary to the premise of the trend of being disappointed with your purchase, mattress brands are using this to show that they will deliver products as described, therefore instilling trust and confidence in your company.
This Brooklinen ad taps into this trendy concept.
Their ad features an explanation of the customer’s satisfaction with their bundled products and highlights the quality of the fabrics used.
In this type of content, the customers show a video clip (or sometimes an image) of the actual product received after an online purchase from unpacking to usage.
This is a social media trend that is useful in promoting both the quality of your products and the trustworthiness of your brand.
TikTok Finds
TikTok’s influence on purchasing is more evident now that consumers are either finding new products or exciting ways to use their old items by watching videos on the platform and then buying the products for themselves.
In this video ad, Buffy leverages the popular trend “TikTok Finds”.
Starting with the highly-influential statement “…are the best sheets I’ve ever had”, the ad then mentions the mattress materials as being highly compostable and leaving a cool feeling.
The product being promoted is specially designed for hot sleepers. Therefore in this ad, they highlight the advantages of using the bedsheets in order to target the mentioned persona.
____ Reasons to Ditch Your Old ____
Let’s have another excellent example from Buffy featuring “3 Reasons Why You Need to Ditch Your Old Comforter”.
Here, they employ several best practices in a single ad.
The use of the “3 reasons why” hook is a powerful scroll-stopper and three is a good number of reasons to persuade your audience.
You’ll also notice how they cleverly put the content in order, starting off with the general fact that beds collect disgusting things like dead skin, dust, and sweat over time, followed by a more specific knowledge that some comforters are not earth-friendly, leading to a more targeted topic which talks about the comforter’s favorable quality against the current season.
Toward the end of the video, they are able to emphasize their unique value proposition that addresses the third reason being presented.
2. Harness the power of customer experiences using user-generated-content (UGC)
A customer’s experience with your product is also a good source of content for your advertising mix.
Customer experience is the perception a customer has of a brand. It is embedded into every interaction they have with your business. It can be anything from navigating your website, placing and receiving an order, talking to your customer representative, the effectiveness of your products after they’ve used them, etc.
Each of these interactions is an opportunity to build a stronger bond with your customers.
Let’s check on the following examples of how you can use user-generated content along with featuring your most valued asset — your customers.
UGC sharing life hacks
Life hacks make our daily to-dos so much easier and people simply love them. With more and more hacks making their way onto the internet each day, there’s no excuse for people not to try them. It’s understandable why this type of content is prevalent in social media.
Brooklinen is able to incorporate this internet trend while subtly promoting their product in this video ad.
The toned-down product promotion (showcasing the three outstanding features of their products) is intensified by sharing simple life hacks that are effective in captivating an audience.
Here, they use life hacks to their utmost advantage by showing the features and benefits their products provide.
You too can think of life hacks you can associate with your products and communicate them to your audience in the best way possible.
UGC with multiple customer reviews
Adding customer reviews to your video ads can improve your campaign’s performance.
When customers shop online and find a few products that catch their eye, they start researching about them. They read the product description, check out images of the product, compare its price with other similar items, etc.
Sometimes reading the full product description is not enough for shoppers to buy. Sharing customer reviews helps build immediate trust with shoppers and slashes the time to purchase.
Eight Sleep delivers a powerful ad by showcasing a diverse group of customers in a single video. These individuals discuss the features they admire about the products.
What makes this email stand out from the pack is the collected UGCs composed of four short clips from customers sharing one to two lines about their satisfaction with the mattress.
Seeing this kind of ad, potential buyers will see that a lot of customers have already found value in your product, encouraging them to take that leap of faith and buy.
UGC using a narrative
A single narration can go a long way in promoting your products.
This is what Casper proves in this video ad presenting one of their hot sleeper customers who talks about his dream.
What makes this narration effective?
It’s got everything you’d expect from a good story:
- a compelling banner statement “Bringing Daniel’s Dream to Life” speaking to the general audience (those who want a dream-come-true kind of experience)
- an eye-catching, pleasant illustration that is easily retained in memory
- a happy customer telling his own story while still in bed (as if he doesn’t want to get out of it)
This ad does not even pitch anything about the Casper bed. Interesting!
It engages the audience merely by sharing a customer experience that relates a beautiful dream with a good night’s sleep.
3. Feature your most outstanding reviews
Aside from the ad strategies mentioned above, here’s another form of social proof that brings your customers a step closer to the checkout screen.
It is important to note that among the many reviews you’ve received, you need to carefully pick the best ones to highlight in your campaign.
How do you choose the most outstanding reviews from an extensive pool of 5-stars?
To show some of the best ways to do this, we’re featuring three brands that show how impressive their products are by sharing the feedback they’ve received.
Leesa shows a testimonial from a well-regarded magazine and a special mention of being the top pick of its product review website.
These authoritative bodies help improve your brand image and credibility and your product’s perceived quality.
In the ad, they highlight the phrase 21 out of 29 pertaining to the result of blind-testing Leesa’s mattress and similar products. This adds reliability and measurability to the outcome of this particular review.
Similarly, Buffy’s strategic approach involves testimonials from magazines recounting their appreciation of the product.
They also highlight key phrases like “cool all night” from the 5-star review to summarize the product’s main benefit.
Casper headlines their favorite testament that is fun to read and highly relatable to the audience.
They highlight negative words here on purpose. “Be careful” and “ruin my days” are enough phrases to create intrigue that compels the readers to read more.
4. Show your brand’s commitment to sustainability
Building a connection with your audience can also be done by sharing a cause your brand firmly stands for.
Among the growing concerns nowadays is the need to ensure environmental protection when doing business.
Showing your brand's unwavering commitment to this advocacy promotes a shared purpose with your audience, appealing to their emotions toward doing what is right for the planet.
Take this example from Buffy:
Buffy's advertisement centers around the brand's pledge to sustainability and compassion for the environment and animals.
The ad prominently highlights their dedication to preserving nature through various means, such as utilizing recycled materials and eco-friendly resources.
While playing soothing background music, this ad shows a side-by-side comparison of what eco-friendly steps they use in their production process versus the harmful practices used by others in the industry.
With the above insights, we hope you’ve gained tactics to boost your next ad campaigns. We have more examples for you here.
Let’s meet again for another industry review.
