Adam & Eve. Romeo & Juliet. Fashion & Instagram.
You know what is the one thing common to all these pairings? Destiny!
Precisely! Just the way the former aforementioned pairs best exemplify the ever-cherished ‘made-for-each-other’ bond , fashion and Instagram really are not just inseparable besties but are also fuelling each other’s meteoric growth.
Instagram, on one hand, is the go-to place when one thinks of pictures, the world of fashion, on the other hand, best utilises this inherent characteristic of the former. Think about it – beautiful imagery, stunning creativity and mind-boggling business, all amalgamated into one single powerhouse!
Besides, when you see Vogue using Instagram to launch their latest photo series or Oscar de la Renta already having championed the largest image-sharing and video-sharing platform in 2013 by using it to launch their Fall 2013 ad campaign, exclusively on Instagram that too, you know we’re talking big!
What’s even more interesting and inspiring is that these creative geniuses are actually targeting people on Instagram who would want to buy what they’re showcasing/selling. Don’t believe me? Take a look:-
Don’t worry. You aren’t the only one whose surprised. Even Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom was caught off guard when he confessed in a London conference that he hadn’t imagined Instagram could serve as a platform for commerce, and especially so for fashion folks. He believes that business mixed and matched with visual imagery is what defines the order of the day and Instagram just reiterates that sentiment. And, man is he so right in so many ways!
Instagram: The secret recipe?
Did you just say pictures? Bang on target! This image haven has proven to be a far superior competitor to other popular social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, or even Pinterest. From being utilised (read exploited) by pretty much anyone with a camera to established and upcoming eCommerce brands in highly ingenious ways, Instagram has always been the king of customer engagement.
Think about it – if you saw a beautiful model on the mannequin display outside a store, all you have to do to share it with the world (yup, the entire world!) is to take a snap and upload. Done!
No wonder there are just about 75 million pictures being shared on world’s most popular image- and video-sharing website. So, from #ReginaBag to #VogueScarf, anything and everything picturesque is welcome here! Furthermore, with L2 Think Tank’s study backing up this claim by posting stats such as:-
• Around 92% of prestige brands heavily use Instagram for expanding their business.
• Instagram took half the time of Twitter and two years lesser time than Facebook to gain 150 million active monthly users.
• 60% users on Instagram are outside U.S.A., thus signalling a massive global outreach, especially for fashion brands
• About 63% prestige brands link their Instagram accounts to their brand website
it should be enough (hopefully!) to convince you about the power of Instagram (see infographic below), just waiting to be harnessed by your brand.
What you’re seeing here isn’t some elaborate fantasy angels, but snaps of the launch of actual designer collections. The point I’m trying to make here is – put up awesomely curated pictures of your brand, irrespective of the product you sell (apparel, accessories, dresses, etc.), follow some really smart ways to market your stuff on Instagram (which I’ll be writing about in just a moment), and you’re set!
Instagram: Always a match winner
Just as you meticulously plan for a holiday few days before you actually embark on it, you need to plan how to use this mammoth of a platform, especially since most fashion houses intermittently launch their collections. As I mentioned sometime back, every fashion brand can come up with its own plan of action regarding how they can use Instagram to market their products.
While I admit that I talked about biggies like Oscar de la Renta, who already has a strong customer base. But, thanks to Instagram’s central characteristic – pictures – you can craft a strategy that you think works best for your brand, without mindlessly trying to ape the eminent ones.
In fact, one of the central reasons why Instagram is the apple of everyone’s eye is because it appeals precisely to that – the human eyes! Visual media is now the reigning king when it come to sharing thoughts, information and pretty much everything in between.
Think about it – it all started (most definitely!) with blog writing for you, which few years ago, became more concise as you were too caught up trying to come up with a Facebook status that best conveyed your thoughts. This only for truncated further, thanks to the 140-character stringency placed by Twitter. Finally, we are moving to an era where pictures are speaking way more, and way more effectively than words ever have.
ROI Research’s study presents a clearer perspective of things:-
Basically, with improvements and surge in technology, the ‘on the go’ attitude in today’s instant-coffee world got fuelled further, with high-resolution smartphone cameras being the cherry on the cake. So, understandably, consumers eventually spoke less and clicked more.
This, in turn, had a fission reaction when brands observed, in their clientele, a paradigm shift from writing to seeing, because as they say, ‘Seeing is Believing!’ Moreover, with the Internet of Things, its become almost unquestionable that people feel the need to communicate – quick & succinct. Oh, and just so you know, these figures are from the 2012 study, so you can imagine what those numbers look like right now.
As this graph suggests, with so much information floating and swimming across the internet, it’s very clear – people are talking. And watching. No wonder, the ROI Research study also stated that:-
• 41% respondents responded to posts on a certain brand’s page within one hour of posting.
• 54% respondents visited their social media account daily.
• Median age of user group between 30 and 49.
• 68% internet users are somewhere between ‘likely’ and ‘very likely’ when it comes to visiting the brand’s website; 65% News Feed; 54% advertisements.
So, all this visual stimulation would tantamount to – you guessed it right – business! High Five!
Win the Instagram Marathon
So, now that you have the magic wand in your hand, what do you want to do next? Pretty straightforward – market!
Well, as you probably aware by now, visual fantasy sells way more than any other medium. Just like Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom said, two-thirds of any newsstand that you see will have fashion and beauty related magazines, and hence capitalising on the positive feedback loop – brands engaging more with users through creatively curated stunning visuals and customers inspiring the former to use Instagram as a growth and engagement platform – is unquestionably essential.
Be Creative: Yes, be as creative with your brand and its marketing as you can, in a way that suits your brand. Consider Fox & Fawn for instance. Despite being an upcoming brand, this Brooklyn-based brand really is winning the Instagram game. And how? Simple.
They just upload snaps of their in-store products with a small description of the dress or apparel, accessories, etc. along with the price. Since Instagram doesn’t allow direct selling, they have to call the store and provide their credit card information. Then the store puts their address, payment information, Instagram handle and phone number on file.
Then the shopper must be the first commenter to type “Ring me..” and Fox & Fawn will ship the item for a small fee. Understandably so, their products get sold out within minutes, with customers hailing not just from the U.S.A. but other countries too.
Just to bring you up to speed, one way to handle revenue is through Soldsie, that processes payments for “comment” transactions. Simply put, when a brand posts a picture explaining that it’s for sale through Soldsie, a commenter can write “Sold”. This commenter has to be a registered user in order for his/her comment to be considered as a purchase.
After this, Soldsie manages the transaction for the retailer. Nice, right? LiketoKnow.It, RewardStyle’s is another solution to shopping via Instagram that works through a email-containing-product-details transaction every time a user likes a certain post. Give these a shot!
Run a campaign or contest: Running an Instagram campaign is one great way to ensure engagement. Imagine thousands of users going through your products for a small contest that you organise. And revenue? Well:
▪ Come up with the right incentive. This could be anything. For example, Michael Kors did it just right when the brand held an Instagram contest #mktimeless. Users get a chance to win one among several limited edition timepieces through posts involving the brand’s employees flaunting them.
• Then, come up with a unique and self-explanatory hashtag for the campaign.
• Decide on a campaign theme.
• And, just display!
An awesome app that would really come in very handy for your posting activity is TakeOff. This app very smartly calculates the best time for your post such that you get maximum internet engagement, i.e., hearts, comments, etc. So, if your brand has a strong following in a country with a different time zone, this app will definitely gauge the best time keeping these technical aspects into consideration, thanks to its scheduling algorithm.
Feature your brand’s users: A concept in psychology called ‘social proof’ will definitely prove to be a gift to your brand. This concept states that a person gains tendencies to like what people whom he/she like also like. This gives you a chance to showcase your existing and prospective customers’ images of products featuring actual customers who use and love your brand. Check out @freepeople snaps below:-
Brand Personality: What exactly is your brand about? Apparels? Accessories? Skirts? Blah blah? Whatever it is, create a personality for your brand by posting things that uniquely and best represent the spirit of your brand. So, if your theme of the month is embroidery tops, say, then you could jazz up a post of yours that highlights that quality the best. Like this:-
One very important and awesome facility Instagram provides you is the ability to filter your image through several image-quality enhancing filters. I’ve put up some pictures for comparison, just so you get the idea. So, if you want to, you can really make your product look breathtakingly beautiful, while it doesn’t interfere too much with the natural colour scheme of your dresses, apparels, etc.
Now, there’s one more way you can communicate the brand’s persona. Thinking? Well…
Go behind the scenes: The best way to bond with your customer is to give them a feel of what it’s like backstage (however shabby that may be!) This way, customers wold certainly feel more at home, thus catering to the killer in the fashion industry – strong public relations. Pat on your back!
Use hashtags: Well, this one is a must-do! Hashtags let other users can find your content on Instagram. Relevant hashtags would garner more attention (read sales) since any user who performs a hashtag search will end up looking at images of your brand.
Of course, don’t overdo it, though. Then, your posts would be perceived as pretentious and might steal away existing and potential customers. Well, as with everything, you can observe what your competitor is doing. For instance, #love is the top hashtag, followed by #instagood. So, hit these hashtags, and keep gawking. By the way, check this for more on hashtags for greater clarity.
While we’re at it, I’d say again that TakeOff wins in this segment because it lets you add your hashtags! This means, you can give your brand the flavour you want through these hashtags and generate more user engagement as people start following your hashtags. And if don’t need any of the suggested tags, just remove them. Easy.
Since you have hashtag independence with TakeOff, you can strategise your hashtags accordingly:-
• Branded hashtags – This is more in line with your brand. For instance, #burberry or #vogue. This basically acts as your brand stamp which followers would remember and use it again & again. Very effective, isn’t it!
• Idea hashtags – This moreover describes the idea or the theme behind a certain campaign or contest you intend to hold. For instance, #robertocavalliss15 is a Roberto Cavalli campaign for 2015. Similarly, you can come up with custom hashtags that best describe your idea. Try it!
• Specific hashtags – These are the generic ones that broadly describe your brand. For instance, #fashion. Duh! Other generic ones are #instagood, #photooftheday. While some of these are very popular with users, some don’t have a very long shelf life. So, think and use!
Posting pictures: The most important things about your brand, your posts should be posted at a time when your brand is most likely to garner maximum attention. But, how do you decide which days to post on and which ones to give a miss? Weekdays? Weekends? Actually, your marketing strategy should exercise consistency so that your brand posts frequently and regularly.
Here, be it posting images or 15-second videos, their marketing should surge ahead in a disciplined manner, and not in a random fashion. And, mind you, if you have no strategy in place, even that would be visible to your customers. So, lesson of the day – Ponder. Plan. Post. The info graphics below would help tremendously.
As the graphs suggest, with the average number of interactions at 33.44, Instagram videos are best posted during off-hours (9pm-8am EST) gaining on average 33.44 interactions.
Additionally, though I know many Instagram scheduling apps, TakeOff factors in the time zone of your customers, their most-active hours (for hearts, shares, comments, etc.) in order to determine the best time for your post. You also have the option to manually post your posts, if you’re really impatient. But, it goes without saying that such a move wouldn’t neither be a good one nor a wise one.
Reach out to Influencers: If you know any, knock on their doors for sure. If you don’t, the easiest thing you can do is to see where your followers are! Yeah, they’re not seeing your products, but it’s like a fair. You have to go to someone else’s stall, understand what is it that someone else is doing right, and then try it out in your stall.
All this, while you keep your brand’s pros and cons in mind. You can follow their posts, leave insightful, meaningful comments on them. With that much engagement, you can rest assured the honeybees are coming towards your honey jar.
Alright, I gave you enough food for enough thought. What I want you to remember, more than anything else, is that Instagram is a very powerful medium to convey your thoughts, apart from your brand. Success in this part of the world depends not only on your creativity but perseverance. I say that because no fashion powerhouse was built in a day, never mind Rome! So, get out there and redefine the runway. Keep it stylish!
The post How To Fashion Instagram Into A Runway For Your Fashion Brand appeared first on Crowdfire (Formerly JustUnfollow).