Instagram is a veritable treasure trove of marketing and sales opportunities for fashion brands with the inherently visual and discovery nature of the platform making it the perfect social media tool. As with all marketing however, it’s very easy to lapse into bad habits, neglect to keep up with new trends and sometimes – just plain get it wrong.
If your Instagram presence isn’t paying off for your label or fashion retail business, it could be that you are making some of these all-too-common post mistakes. These are things that you can put right yourself without needing to call in specialist fashion marketing companies but, if you are struggling, expert fashion advertising agencies such as Icing Digital can get you quickly back on track.
Mistake 1: You’ve bought followers
Buying followers is a common trap to fall into, especially if you’re a new company starting out and you’re eager to quickly be able to ‘show’ a following. The problem with this is that those followers won’t be genuine fans of your brand. As many fashion marketing companies will tell you, they often won’t even be real accounts. When you buy followers, you’re consigning your posts to a lack of real interaction and engagement. This can lead to you quickly becoming disillusioned with the platform due to a lack of results. Set your Instagram up for success by focusing on building genuine fans.
Mistake 2: You’re too promotional
An Instagram presence is a sales tool. You’re investing time and effort creating content and crafting an audience because you want to sell more clothes or accessories. Making your posts too promotional is an instant-turn off for your audience and one of the biggest mistakes you can make. It’s also very likely to have just the opposite of the desired effect and see your followers switching off in their droves.
Call in fashion advertising agencies and figure out a way to showcase your best products without every post being a sales pitch. Consider working with influencers for example and factor your apparel into their own stories, or focus on creating beautiful editorial that shows off your products in a more natural manner.
Mistake 3: You aren’t creative or compelling with captions
While Instagram is an image-driven platform, captions matter too. Make use of the space that Instagram affords you to create compelling captions for your posts – you can encourage engagement by posing questions, sharing your story, showcasing a cause or otherwise crafting a message that your audience can buy into. Having compelling captions which offer a meaningful addition to your post is a great way to make your Instagram account stand out.
Mistake 4: You’re guilty of hashtag spam
There’s no denying that hashtags are a very important discovery tool and an essential addition to your Instagram marketing. As a rule of thumb, the majority of Instagram updates will contain an average of between one and ten hashtags. The mistake comes when you get too caught up in hashtag hype and start spamming tags that aren’t relevant to your posts. Stick to fashion related tags. If you’re stuck, search through similar brands and fashion bloggers and shortlist the tags that crop up most often.
