Founded by Marissa Cristina Grootes in 2015, STIL creates organizational products to encourage productivity and empower women to achieve their goals.
Created by women, for women, their sleek yet functional collection of notebooks, planners, and journals are designed to help manage busy schedules.
Social media is a big channel for STIL – it’s where new customers can discover them, and it’s a place to build their community and brand.
Since 2019, they’ve used Later to plan and schedule Instagram posts to promote their products, share productivity tips, and elevate their customers’ stories.
Balancing content streams
For tons of businesses, social media is a primary channel for customers to discover their brand – and for STIL, it’s no different. Instagram is now one of the highest traffic drivers to their website and accounts for a large proportion of their sales.
From product announcements to productivity tips, STIL uses their Instagram to inspire their followers. Sharing valuable content for their audience – whether they’re customers yet or not – has helped them grow a loyal online community.
Finding the balance between sharing valuable content and supporting business goals has really been our focus.
To balance their product announcements with their other content, the team uses the Visual Planner in Later. The planner helps them organize their Instagram feed in advance to make sure they’re supporting different content streams while maintaining a cohesive look.
Later allows us to visualize and plan out our feed.
Leveraging peer influence
Creating a two-way conversation on social media is more than replying to comments. STIL makes their customers part of the brand – from reposting customer reviews and unboxing videos to sharing their favorite user-generated posts on Instagram Stories.
STIL also hosts Instagram takeovers where other women entrepreneurs share their morning routine, how they use STIL products, and their advice for staying productive.
By lending their account to other women, STIL stays true to their mission of supporting women-led businesses by giving them a platform. At the same time, they’re building an online community and offering social proof to potential new customers who discover them.
The best part of my role is that I get to work with and get to know incredible women.
Helping the experts stay organized
As a brand built on organization, STIL knows a thing or two about planning ahead. Being able to visually plan their feed and use the Calendar View in Later has helped them stay consistent on Instagram. As a result, they’ve improved their engagement on the channel and grown their following.
Plus, with a team of two collaborating on social media, the Calendar View keeps them accountable and makes sure they both have an overview of the posting schedule.
It makes the process more seamless because we can both be on the platform and make changes at the same time.
The team does a lot of their social strategy planning within the Later app. The Best Time to Post feature helps them plan their posts more strategically by seeing when their engagement is highest.
The woman behind the brand
STIL has worked hard to grow an authentic online community. By elevating the stories of other women-led businesses and sharing her own story, Marissa has created a brand her audience can relate to. Instead of solely posting on the feed, she shows up on Instagram Stories, takes followers behind-the-scenes, and helps humanize the brand.
People really resonate with not just what the product is you’re selling, but who the person is that’s selling it.
Marissa uses storytelling to build an online community of like-minded women. By spotlighting their customers, creating an authentic brand, and planning ahead, STIL has been able to maintain a stunning feed and online community, while driving impressive results for the company.
Watch the video case study below!
