There is no doubt that Instagram is literally in fashion. Designers and brands have turned towards this platform to help them gain popularity among fashion lovers. As image and social media networks take on the center stage for fashion and luxury companies, fresh strategies on how to optimize digital technology keep emerging.
While some like Chanel, one of the most valuable luxury, fashion, and accessories brand in the world, has a big budget to spend hiring the best Insta marketing team money can buy, smaller brands seeking to turn a profit might have a bigger challenge trying to gain significant visibility on Instagram. For such brands, what are the practical options available to them? Here are some of the most innovative ways that can help fashion brands generate sales on Instagram.
Use High-Quality Product Images
Instagram is a visual content platform, and the first thing people notice about visual content such as images is its quality. Well, on Instagram, all the images that you have to present to your audience should be of high-quality, with zero room for compromise. If you don’t have any knowledge on how to create high quality images, Instagram has a bunch of tools to help clip your image, design it, use filters, and more.
The idea here is to create and post images that are eye-catching, attractive and that will appropriately highlight the brand that you are promoting. Once your target audience visits your social media profile, they should be in a position to immediately recognize your brand.
You should ensure that every image you post on Instagram tells a story about your brand. As you publish your content, aim for Instagram captions that match your overall brand as well as business strategy and let your customers want to own the brand because of how authentic it comes across.
Use the Right Hashtags
Hashtags have the effect of making your posts more visible, even when your following on Instagram is not in millions. To boost your sales, you need to attract the right audience by using relevant hashtags for your product or service. When you associate your brand with the right hashtags, it will become easier for customers to find your products.
It’s not easy, however, to come up with the right combination of hashtags. You need to think outside the box and do an extensive research on the hashtags that would be most effective for your brand. While marketers choose to go with popular hashtags to increase their brand awareness, you need to be careful not to use hashtags that everyone is using that will likely give you visibility in all the wrong places, or else your post might just get lost in the chaos of it all.
Create product Videos
24 hours after Instagram launched its video feature in 2013, it was reported that 5 million videos had been uploaded. CNET added that it would take around 1 year to watch all the videos that were uploaded the first 8 hours after the feature was launched. And this trend has not slowed down yet. In fact , Instagram video sharing has been increasing by a rate of 80% year after year.
It’s clear, that if you are not using Instagram videos to market your brand, you are missing out big time. And if you don’t have any idea on where to start with Instagram videos, use tools such as Ripl, Flipagram, Your Camera App, among others to help you create videos on Instagram.
Create Popular Instagram Posts That Users Want to Follow
If you want your brand to get more popular on Instagram, you must be more than willing to please you followers by posting and sharing content that they want to see. The best way to do this is by posting the kind of photos that will attract your kind of audience and get more likes.
If all you share is your lifestyle, and perhaps a caption of you hanging out with friends, don’t expect people to start following your brand or be excited about it. In addition, never post text or image jokes if you want people to take you seriously. And finally, avoid posting and publishing random screenshots; Psst! Most customers don’t really like them.
Use Instagram’s marketing and Editing Tools to Stand Out
As alluded to earlier, Instagram being a visual platform has given users a chance to get creative. Each year, Instagram has been releasing an array of new features and editing tools including the popularly used Stories feature that allows users to add video clips to their Story which lasts for a period of 24 hours.
What’s more, for clothing and fashion brands, the fun doesn’t end there. Brands with 10,000+ followers, get the chance to unlock the Swipe Up feature, meaning, your audience watching a Story can be directed straight to your sales page by simply swiping the screen. You can use analytics tools to track the performance of the your post.
Reach a Larger Instagram Following
One of the ways to reach out to a larger following on Instagram is by simply partnering or hiring an Influencer. Influencers have the power to increase the awareness and exposure of your brand.
Consider reaching out to an Influencer within the fashion industry, and asking them to create a sponsored post that has the highlights of your products and services and direct their audience to your web page or online store. This way, although it’s not cheap, your brand can gain followers and reach a wider audience.
Invest in Instagram paid ads and remarketing
As is tradition, advertising is one of the most effective ways to create awareness and boost sales for brands. And in Instagram, advertising can help your product or service reach new customers in addition to the existing one. This is an especially excellent tactic if your brand is new in the market.
According to available statistics, 72% of users have purchased a product they have seen on Instagram. It would not be surprising if these numbers are higher for fashion and clothing brands.
But just because a lot of people have at least bought something from Instagram ads doesn’t really mean they are going to buy your product the first time they come across it. And this is where the idea of retargeting comes in place. Retargeting works particularly well for fashion brands, because they tend to remind users about a product they once had an interest in.
Take benefit from user generated content
User-generated content, also referred to as user-created content, is a form of word-to-mouth marketing. According to OMNICORE, user-generated content has at least 4.5% conversion rate. This is where your existing customers or followers help create new content such as images, texts, audio, and videos to showcase your brand. And in return, promote your service or product to new customers and followers.
Nonetheless, however simple that may sound, some customers might not be ready to share pictures/images without marketers stepping up and offering some kind of incentive. You may do this by offering them a reward, such as a bonus, or a chance to win a gift if they post images of your product or if they use your hashtag on their timeline. Moreover, your customers will view this as an excellent way to show how much you value and appreciate them.
Offer discounts or giveaways
Offering discounts and giveaways is (and perhaps will always be) an effective way to boost sales on Instagram. It is also a cost-effective way to promote and market your products and services to increase your sales. When you start giving discounts or giveaways, it naturally attracts prospects to start buying your products and services, and as they buy, they start sharing with their friends.
This is good news for brands as they get to increase engagement, and once they have gathered a noteworthy following, they can leverage it to further stamp their authority as a growing brand worth a mention both online and offline.
