Wanting to start a business in Instagram, you need to study its structure in more detail: the appearance of popular profiles, the correct placement of captions, photos and the usefulness of reposts. But the main thing is to understand and recognize the target audience. After all, the creation and promotion of the profile is carried out thanks to understanding and determining the circle of people to whom you will address. It is not unimportant – to make interesting Instagram pages.
Instagram users: who are they and are they dangerous?
Users on Instagram can be roughly categorized as follows:
The most popular brands on Instagram
Famous personalities
Famous personalities (selebrities, stars) – Instagram profiles created by celebrities or fan communities. These pages are subscribed to if one is fond of the star’s activities. Some, developing business in social networks, call subscription to such profiles as a way of “imagi-organic” increase in audience: subscribing and unsubscribing from the profile, the entrepreneur becomes visible to other subscribers. Organic attraction of customers is called so because after subscribing to such a page, a part of the audience is rolled back. Only those who are really interested remain.
Fashion
Fashion (fashn, fashion) – clothing brands and journalists of famous and not so fashionable periodicals, bloggers. There are more than 300 million posts with the hashtag #fashion. Fashion bloggers are ordinary people with an Instagram account who post daily images of their looks. They can be the other halves of celebrities or just wealthy people who are into fashion, who post daily pictures of their image in fashionable clothes. This can also include creators of handmade products: jewelry, accessories, souvenirs, cosmetics, etc.
Cooperation between fashion bloggers and hand-made creators is popular: bloggers test the products of the latter and post photos, the authors of the product can repost the photo, which attracts the audience and increases traffic and sales.
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Affluent fashion bloggers who promote the style of high brands are not distinguished by originality of style: jewelry from Tiffany, sportswear from famous sports brands (Nike or Adidas), ripped brand jeans, evening dresses or outerwear, gadgets from Apple. More interesting pages of bloggers are simpler: combining or updating affordable clothes (even from second-hand), interesting panoramas. Fashion bloggers often participate in various interest associations. Very often new faces are attracted to the communities at the expense of such fashion gurus.
Food
Food – is a separate topic for Instagram. According to experts, we make more than 180 decisions about food every day: our brains react in three seconds, processing pictures 59,000 times faster than text. As a result: more than 120 million images with the hashtag #Foodporn with 218 million posts with the tag #Food created on Instagram (Bighospitality data). This topic has similar profiles to fashion. such as the category of restaurateurs (ChefsTalk with 612K followers), restaurant chefs themselves, caterers, journalists, bloggers, foodies, and those who simply love to eat beautifully presented dishes. The food theme abounds with realistic photos. This topic is quite difficult to promote, so it is worthwhile to first build an audience in life, and then promote online.
Politics
Politics – a topic on Instagram that has quickly gained popularity. It is a communication channel that is actively used in his campaigns, for example, by Barack Obama. To date, a large number of thematic pages of big world media have been created, which make posts about politics and politicians (for example, the profile of The Huffington Post – huffpostpol has 100,000 subscribers). Petro Poroshenko has an Instagram profile (87.6 thousand followers).
Photographers and photos
Photographers and photographers – professionals and amateurs are divided into several categories. For example, the National Geographic page (natgeo has over 77 million followers) stands out with colorful Instagram photos from around the world in high resolution. Professional photographers also have vibrant pages, unlike amateurs who prefer pastel colors and monotony. Often photographers’ pages are thematic, such as a narrow specialization expressed in macro or micro photography, portraits or landscape photos. More interesting in terms of content are amateur photographers. They are interesting by the vitality and harmony of photos that attract subscribers for some reasons: instagrammer lives, for example, in the vastness of England, where the landscape is different from the urban landscape, personal preferences and under.
Communities of interest
Communities of interest: leadership, healthy lifestyle, sports, medicine. Often such pages are aimed at increasing the number of subscribers. Membership in such communities gives status and visibility, which contributes to building up the audience.
Promotion in Instagram: how to increase followers
Marketing on any social media platform – It’s a long game, and it takes patience and consistency to develop and get results on this road.
For a better understanding of the market, download market research from KOLORO.
Instagram has become the top social platform for fashion, where users interact with brands. Retailers are increasingly using the platform as more than a place to accumulate followers and likes.
Instagram is a useful platform for fashion lovers to point out what’s on trend and what’s going out of style.
To build up subscribers, and therefore potential customers, you need to follow some rules:
Is Instagram the fashion industry’s best friend or worst enemy?
Instagram has an army of more than 600 million users who put about 1.6 billion likes and post more than 60 million photos to Instagram every day. It is a social network with a large number of online stores (especially clothing) that cannot be ignored. It is also worth adding the fact that beautiful images are the basis of successful commerce and it is Instagram that is designed for posting photos and images. Imagine the situation: you’re browsing Instagram for different news and then you come across a pair of shoes of mind-blowing beauty. You want to know more about them, about the possibility of buying them or familiarizing yourself with the range, right? And since Instagram isn’t really designed for that, you have to go to the brand’s website, look for the shoes section and out of hundreds (if not thousands) search for the exact pair you like. Too long and boring.
It’s hard to sell through Instagram, of course. Even though the right steps are being taken towards mastering the fashion niche, there is no guarantee that a shot will be fired and you will get noticed. Many people who start their business on Instagram think it’s as easy as, for example, Facebook or VKontakte. But for this social network you need a well-thought-out plan and a clear strategy.
Key steps towards the target audience
1. Making Instagram sell
Instagram is a social network not exactly created for commerce. Many brands that are on other social networks or offline are trying to operate through Instagram as well. And while it’s not exactly easy, they’ve found ways to make themselves known.
Here are some good examples.
Prep Obsessed
Tidy accessories boutique Prep Obsessed is using an app called Soldsie Sold in the comments section on Instagram posts. Fans can simply leave a “Sold” comment, along with a size/variation and their email address to send an invoice for the item.
Nasty Gal
Nasty Gal has a short link that takes you to the store, where you’ll have to search for your favorite product, though.
Nordstrom
Nordstrom uses a service called “Like2Buy” from Curalate, thanks to which you can create separate pages similar in appearance to Instagram pages, but with active links to product pages. This makes it easier to make a purchase.
2. Image crowdsourcing
Social sharing is becoming a more important element of web design, fashion brands are increasingly turning to images of fans writing about products (e.g. at Olapic): now anyone can become a model.
Black Milk
Black Milk clothes are images from Instagram of models and female customers. Such communication with subscribers is a good way to demonstrate Black Milk’s style and level of respect for fans.
3. Simple communication
Instagram emphasizes beautiful, carefully crafted images. Many fashion pages use their profiles to show the behind-the-scenes life of a brand.
Paul Smith
Sir Paul is a British fashion designer. He regularly updates his page with photos from his glamorous life.
4. Personal stylist
A personal stylist advises on how and what to wear, using things from, for example, the ASOS store. In this case, the fashion blogger posts a photo with a fashionable look from this store every day. As a result, subscribers may be interested in things from the store or ask for advice.
Promoting on Instagram: tips for the beginner
Here are some marketing tips for Instagram promotion:
Tip #1: Create a powerful profile
It’s social media. On any channel, and even more so on Instagram, you need to make sure your profile is optimized. This means taking care of the cover (avatar) and the product description. Always link to the website or e-store of the clothing should be a working link. You can ask your subscribers who have purchased a product from you to write “tag with #yourbrandname so everyone can see the pics!”. This is to create an extra level of engagement with your audience.
Tip #2: Hashtags
To make sure that a brand finds its target audience, each of the posts should not only have a witty and interesting title or description, but also a decent number of accompanying hashtags. Unlike Twitter, there is no character limit here, so you can write as many hashtags as you want. The only thing is, don’t overuse them.
You can also develop specific hashtags for each of your products or collections, and each time you post a closet item or collection, use the hashtag along with the others.
Tip #3: Video Production
Video is becoming increasingly popular. Shoot short clips of clothing items – either by yourself or with a model and post these videos to Instagram. This will not only make the brand authentic, but also create a strong connection with the audience.
Tip #4: Contests
Contests are quite popular on Instagram and the ROI is quite high.
You can make a contest related to the brand or its history. It could be a survey or a mini-quiz. You should not make it too complicated. Another idea: you can organize a contest for the best photo with clothes from the store and the best one gets a discount coupon.
Tip #5: Behind the scenes
A great way to engage your audience and make your brand more popular is a “behind the scenes” post. It can be a photo of the process of choosing clothes for the store or photos of the production process. It could be a photo of the warehouse or the packaging process.
On a more personal level, you can post business, employee and team, office or warehouse news.
Tip #6: Celebrate Followers
Each week, thank and recognize the best subscribers, the ones who interact with the brand and announce them.
Tip #7: Overlaying text on an image
Not all products or services can be beautifully photographed. In such a case, it is better to create messages, graphics or interesting design to tell users something valuable.
Tip #8: Photos
Images should be non-boring, interesting. There are many settings in Instagram that allow you to change the color, making the image more attractive. Instagram has a service called IconoSquare, which allows you to determine when users were most active on your photos.
Ukrainian retailers: new trends of the time
“Apartment 31 ” is the first store that chose Instagram as the main tool for attracting customers. The store attracts the attention of fashionistas with stylish images. It is a brand that tells the story of a fashionable modern girl.
“482” – Kiev showroom, which tries to focus on the mass market. Clothes for the store are always selected with special original cut and comfort.
Another interesting fashion retailer is the Window to the Courtyard showroom
There are also luxury retailers on the Ukrainian market. Helen Marlen is a multi-brand online store that offers clothes from almost all designer houses.
The Ukrainian fashion retail market today is mainly focused on mass consumption. Instagram in promotion does not have a great influence in Ukraine and acts, most likely, as a tribute to fashion, rather than a way of promotion and development. Ukrainian retailers make a big bet on social networks popular in Ukraine. Most often it is Facebook or VKontakte.
The most popular in Ukraine is OLH – an online marketplace of ads for the sale of used or new goods. The site with Chinese consumer goods aliexpress remains no less popular.
Due to a number of socio-economic reasons, such a choice of Ukrainians is not surprising: the cost of a closet from the showroom and from the seller “from home” can reach tens of thousands of hryvnias.
Famous Ukrainian singer Mika Newton, who moved to the United States a few years ago, is trying her hand at modeling and has already succeeded, starring in ads for Facebook, Google, FIAT, Bud Light and Benefit cosmetics. She has also become an equally popular fashion blogger.
Topical novelties for fashion retailing
1. Present the product in a new way. Unusual and interesting way of presenting the goods is welcome. A wide smile of a cheerful model is half the success.
2. 360 degree rotation of the product. Buying, for example, sneakers – we twirl it in our hands.
3. Magnification with a magnifying glass. For this reception, the photos must be of high quality, preferably taken by professionals.
4. online fitting room. The virtual fitting room can use images that are superimposed on the user’s photos, or a full-fledged service involving a webcam.
5. Video. Another way of showing how a garment fits the figure.
6. Size Chart. The sizing grid makes it easy for the buyer to choose.
7. Characteristics of the model with photo. This dress fits well on the girl from the photo, but how will it look on the buyer? In order not to ask this question, it is worth posting the parameters of the model showing the clothes.
The challenges of fashion retailers
Fashion Change. The recommendation system was collecting data and was ready to recommend this tie to a man – but then another Fashion Week happened and such ties turned out to be unfashionable accessories from the “last collection”. The recommendation system has to adapt to regularly changing conditions.
Exceptional Industry Algorithm. If it is not there, then stiletto shoes may appear in the recommendations to men. The algorithm should determine all the nuances of the consumer: from gender to physiological features.
Changing preferences. Today I’m looking for shoes for a walk, tomorrow I’m looking for sandals for a date, and then I’m looking for shoes for my daughter. As a result, the system can get confused and in the future recommend me only children’s clothes. But this problem is solvable – authorization via social networks.
Wrong size. The problem with receiving a size that does not correspond to the size written on the site is known to everyone who has used the services of online stores. Also today, many people order several sizes to try on, with subsequent return of inappropriate sizes. But in this case, the store incurs losses due to transportation, plus the product is not in stock. The problem is theoretically solvable with the help of online fitting rooms, as well as reviews. But in practice, many still step on the same rake with sizes.
KOLORO Branding Agency is great with sizing, but if you need to size up, get in touch:
