H&M VS ZARA: WHO WINS THE INBOUND MARKETING BATTLE?
H&M and Zara are two of the biggest fashion brands worldwide. They both use multiple online channels to market their brand, however the inbound strategies used are totally different.
WHAT IS AN INBOUND MARKETING STRATEGY?
Businesses implement inbound marketing strategies to attract, engage and delight consumers with long-term value. A successful inbound marketing strategy consists in consistently posting professional and ad-hoc contents, to promote company's products on websites, social media, or blogs.
A search engine optimization (SEO) strategy must be included within the inbound marketing strategy. Search engines use certain criteria to determine contents to show on the top results page. Using the right keywords, making the website easily accessible, including high quality images/videos, are just few examples of these criteria.
H&M INBOUND MARKETING ANALYSIS
H&M’s inbound marketing approach focuses on a relentless promotional strategy, their engagement rate and consistency in producing new contents is high on each online channel. Below is an overview of the strengths and weaknesses of their inbound marketing strategy.
The Social Grabber (2020) H&M swot analysis
STRENGHTS
The H&M website is easy to navigate, and it is accessible and optimized to read with all devices, including the most used smartphone.
The graphic and font are kept simple, but still aesthetically pleasing. Current offers are shown on the top part of the website, alongside with the newest seasonal trends, to attract consumers.
By scrolling down the homepage, the H&M online magazine can be easily found. There is a good mix of contents, to show where the company stands regarding current trends such as inclusivity and sustainability. The magazine includes “how to” tips on fashion and beauty, using the right keywords to implement SEO strategies, and breaking down the content with attractive titles and headings to facilitate a smooth read.
The H&M social media channels are linked to the website. H&M has a high engagement rate on social. The company frequently partners with influencers, and also with other famous brands, to bring up customers attention and create more hype towards the products.
WEAKNESSES
On the website, high quality images are added, however there’s not much variety in terms of digital contents. The lack of videos content is notable, whilst videos are incredibly helpful in obtaining customers attention, and also are within the criteria to implement SEO. (Webnus, 2021)
The homepage does not include a call to action (CTA). Call to action should be placed to attract consumers with specific offers, create an engagement by requesting their details, and eventually delight with discounts. The lack of CTA on the H&M website means that customers will have to actively look for the newsletter tab to subscribe, and the business could lose ground to attract new customers and create a larger email marketing list to convert leads.
The H&M magazine lack of comments and likes section, however it is possible to share the articles on social media, where the engagement rate is naturally higher.
ZARA INBOUND MARKETING ANALYSIS
Zara’s inbound strategy is mainly product-focused. Zara let “their clothes do the talking for them” (Unmetric, 2018); the marketers attention is focused on graphic and visual design, to
make the products and brand recognisable.
STRENGHTS
Zara's website is more visual and graphic oriented. The home page includes high quality images and videos. The professional graphic design implements SEO and gives the impression of opening a high street fashion magazine. The colour panel is also elegant and appealing.
There's a tab at the bottom of the homepage, to adjust the website and make it more accessible for people with hearing or visual difficulties.
The website includes links to social media platforms: the brand has them all, but it’s less consistent in posts frequency, especially on Facebook. According to Unmetric, despite looking more disinterested towards the engagement rate, Zara still has a high engagement in likes and shares, due to the high quality of their visual strategy.
WEAKNESSES
Zara does not have a blog, lacking content marketing and therefore penalizing SEO.
The website, especially when accessed via smartphone, is more difficult to navigate. Also, the products images are surely aesthetically pleasing, but often make it difficult to picture the clothes on a real-life body or scenario.
The homepage includes a subscription option, but this is at the bottom of the page and it is not clearly linked to specific offers, therefore less likely to obtain engagement.
On social media, there's a consistency in delivery high quality images/videos, however, the lack of content is noticeable. The posts perfectly showcase the products, but do no make any effort to look more approachable and attract consumers into the comments section.
WHO WINS THE FIGHT?
H&M strategy is more attracting and engaging. Attract, engage and delight is at the fundament of an inbound marketing strategy; therefore, H&M would potentially be the winner within a theoretical inbound marketing battle ring.
However, Zara strategy “is visible through the attention to each detail of it showrooms. Everything is precise, professional, and elegant” (Avada, 2018). The same elegance that Zara included in the showrooms is consistently brought into their online platforms, and also used to optimise search engine results.
H&M might win the engagement online, but Zara managed to build a significant brand identity that is visible and recognisable on all platforms.
POTENTIAL IMPROVEMENTS
Besides the few weakness points, both brands are performing incredibly successful inbound marketing strategies. However, there's always room for improvements.
H&M could introduce some more variety of digital contents, especially on the website. The brand has an easily found “about” page to showcase their values, and the magazine also helps to keep these in mind. However, H&M often tends to go after current trends, obtaining a temporary high attention from consumers, but eventually risking to lose their own brand identity.
Zara, on the opposite side, lacks
contents. However, their products, images and physical stores are more recognisable. Content is king within an inbound marketing strategy, therefore adding some background stories to the products online could help
Zara to build a closer and trustworthy relationship with customers.
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