• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, January 20, 2016

Syncing Fossil's CRM platform with data from Facebook, Twitter and Instagram provides insights into where  -- on what social sites -- customers interact with the brand. Based on the data, it can link social site interactions with sales, and estimate the lifetime value of each.

It turns out that customers who follow or engage with the accessories brand on social sites spend four times more over their lifetime, compared with customers who don't, says Jencey Keeton, digital brand manager at Fossil. "Even if we don't see a click and a sale, the relationship we have with them creates awareness and consideration that could turn them into a brand advocate for life," she says.

The social group teams up with the company's direct response team to retarget in Facebook, Twitter and Instagram based on search patterns.

"About 60% of the sales attributed to social occur in the store," Keeton says. "Now we can see the conversions."

The clarity helped Fossil to run a campaign at the start of the 2015 holiday season through Instagram, rewarding all new followers with an exclusive promo code sent via direct message (DM).

The goal of the campaign was to create visibility around Fossil products while creating a direct and personal conversation with new Instagram fans. The DM also included a relevant product image.

This first-time promotion supported by Curalate enabled Fossil to track new followers, interactions and impressions for the campaign by pulling custom data to help the brand have one-on-one conversation. It mean finding the followers, confirming they were in the U.S. and then DMing them.

Fossil gave out about 2,000 promotion codes to new followers in the U.S. during the campaign.

"It was a test for us to see if it would create word of mouth or a response through a DM," Keeton says. "People on Twitter responded immediately, but it took time for people to feel comfortable to receive DMs on Instagram."