How Vera Bradley Turned a Social Media Deficit
into 20,000 New Followers in One Week

SUMMARY

Vera Bradley's leading marketing team partnered with Quikly to produce the following resultsin just one week:• 13,000 new Facebook likes and 7,200 new Instagram followers• 39,000 new email subscribers to their CRM database• $84,172 in attributable transactional revenue“ Social media is a crucial part ofTHE BACKGROUND
Many people know Vera Bradley for its distinct luggage, bags,
fragrances and accessories. But there's more: Behind this brand isa team that genuinely cares about serving the women who makeup its devoted customer base.

building brand awareness andstaying top of mind for ourcurrent customers. Throughrelatable language andauthentic imagery, we use social

That’s why social media is a staple for Vera Bradley.

media to build a relationshipYou see, while several marketing teams obsess over how social

with our fans.

”channels are filling their sales funnel, Vera Bradley focuses on howsocial channels are building customer relationships.
Here's how Kaylee DeLacy, Vera Bradley's social media specialist,
explains it: "Social media is a crucial part of building brandKaylee DeLacy
Social Media Specialist

awareness and staying top of mind for our current customers.
Through relatable language and authentic imagery, we use social
media to build a relationship with our fans."

VERA BRADLEY CASE STUDY

1

THE CHALLENGE
With social media being such a critical customer communication tool, Kaylee and the rest of Vera Bradley’s marketing team keep a close eye on
their acquisition of social followers. They're measuring a dual-strategy — that of converting existing customers into social followers, while alsocapturing new customers as social fans. And they stay on top of those numbers.
That’s why, when the team noticed that acquisition was trending behind, it was a big deal. It hit them doubly as hard to see it happen on
Instagram, the social channel that had previously grown the most consistently for Vera Bradley.
”It’s frustrating to see your growth plateau when it feels like you’re doing all the right things,” Kaylee said. “We needed to get our Instagram
follower growth back on track to meet our annual goals.”
In this situation, many other brands would simply purchase more followers. But that wasn’t an option for Kaylee and her team. Beyond needing toconvert more existing customers into social followers, they wanted to bring in new followers who felt an authentic connection to Vera Bradley andwho would convert to actual customers. Plus, they measure social media success by looking at engagement — likes, comments and shares.
Accumulating a bunch of followers who weren’t really interested in Vera Bradley wouldn’t work.

“It’s frustrating to see your growth plateau when it feels like you’re doing all the right things. ”

Kaylee DeLacy, Social Media Specialist

VERA BRADLEY CASE STUDY

2

THE INGENUITY
Luckily, along with the core values — like empathy and kindness — that make it great at relationships, Vera Bradley also builds an environmentthat prioritizes ingenuity, or using creativity to solve problems with flair.
Kaylee and her team tapped into theirs. They came up with multiple ideas to solve their social media challenge, eventually placing their bets ontwo:
1They would look at boosting follower acquisition through paid social.

2They would try to come up with a solution that was a little more creative — something that could help them stand out from all of thenoise they’d be competing with on social media to acquire new followers.

That’s when Vera Bradley discovered Quikly, a solution that could help to not only drive authentic social followers, but do so immediately. Bytapping into consumer psychology, the marketing technology would get potential customers who were genuinely interested in Vera Bradley tofollow the brand on social media — and with urgency.
The team worked with Quikly to design a digital experience for existing and prospective customers. It would all be automated through Quikly’s
technology, and it would work like this:MESSAGESnow

The Vera Bradley Secret
Giveaway is NOW LIVE!
SECRET LINK

Earn Time Now!
Take actions below to earn a heads up!
+5
MIN

+3
MIN

+3
MIN

Like On Facebook
Follow On Instagram
Refer Friends

8:00
Earned Heads Up

THE INCENTIVE

HOW TO WIN

BONUS

Vera Bradley launched a campaign using Quikly to release
five of its most iconic bags along with gift cards andlimited purchase-driving offers — all at random. Eachreward would be awarded on a first come, first served
basis.

Participants simply needed to click a special claim
link when the prizes were released. The fastest few
to click won the biggest reward.

Participants could increase their chances of winning by
liking Vera Bradley on Facebook
or following them on Instagram. To boost acquisition,
participants could also referlike-minded friends into the campaign.

Quikly made the entire effort turn-key for the Vera Bradley team by designing all of the assets, as well as hosting and deploying the entire
experience from start to finish.
Jillian Speck, Vera Bradley’s brand marketing manager, validated this support: “Working with Quikly was so easy and so seamless. Everything was
set up without a hitch.”

VERA BRADLEY CASE STUDY3

“ Not only did we see a huge spikein growth directly from the Quikly
engagement, but it was able to put usback on track for the year with
continued growth month overmonth. We gained 13,000 new likes
on Facebook and 7,200 new
followers on Instagram during thecampaign. These results weresubstantially higher than our weekly
average growth of around 100 new
Facebook likes and 1,000 new
Instagram followers.

”

Kaylee DeLacy
Social Media Specialist

THE RESULTS
Quikly ended up being the most successful idea tested. Through their work with Quikly, the Vera Bradley team not only filled their social
acquisition deficit, but gained followers on top of that.
More specifically, in just one week, they saw the following results:• 13,000 new Facebook likes and 7,200 new Instagram followers (as compared to the 100 new followers/week on Facebook and 1,0001,500 new followers/week on Instagram that they can expect organically)• 39,000 new email subscribers to their CRM database• $84,172 in attributable transactional revenue“Not only did we see a huge spike in growth directly from the Quikly engagement, but it was able to put us back on track for the year with
continued growth month over month,” Kaylee said. “We gained 13,000 new likes on Facebook and 7,200 new followers on Instagram during thecampaign. These results were substantially higher than our weekly average growth of around 100 new Facebook likes and 1,000 new Instagramfollowers.”
The Vera Bradley team also realized that in Quikly, they’d found more than just a one-time solution: They’d found a long-term partner forcustomer engagement. “The Quikly team has taken great care in learning our strategic priorities, making them a trusted partner when it comes toideating and executing campaigns that tie up to our long-range goals,” Jillian said. “Furthermore, they also pay close attention to the importance ofbrand standards and set up campaigns on our behalf that require little input from our internal creative team, freeing them up to work on otherprojects and initiatives.”

VERA BRADLEY CASE STUDY4FUTURE PLANS
Today, Vera Bradley is thriving in social acquisition.
Quikly continues to play a key role in this, helping the brand togrow — and engage — a quality audience on Facebook andInstagram: "We are looking at Quikly as an exciting way to keep ourcustomer engaged through the entire year, in key time periods
when her attention matters most,” Jillian said.
The team's newest focus is to look ahead at key events, likeproduct launches, and then proactively build up their social
following for important announcements around those events. They
pulse Quikly in to create a big wave of followers and engagement
over a short period of time, helping to drive response in thesepivotal moments.
The team is also looking at how they can strengthen additionalcustomer touch points through the help of Quikly. In fact, they justran one campaign where Quikly outperformed any other strategy
Vera Bradley has tried thus far for acquisition into their text
message marketing program.
This success, in both social and text message marketing, is freeing
up Jillian and her team to focus even more on what matters mostto them: their relationship with customers. This is what willcontinue to make them a top retail marketing team for theforeseeable future.

they just ran one campaign where Quikly outperformed any other strategy Vera Bradley has tried“thusIn fact,
far for acquisition into their text message marketing program. ”

ABOUT QUIKLYQuikly is the leader in urgency marketing. Marketers leverage the Quikly platform and expertise to motivate consumer actions and create
excitement and fear of missing out around branded promotions. In turn, marketers generate incremental revenue and reduce customer
acquisition costs.
Interested In Learning More? Say Hello!

quikly.com

VERA BRADLEY CASE STUDY@quikly5