Luxury essentials: Instagram marketing
What do Chanel, Louis Vuitton, and Gucci have in common? Aside from the fact that they are luxurious fashion brands who are dominating Instagram with their high following number, they mostly use Instagram as a digital gallery. Nothing more, nothing less. In 2020, we say it’s time to shake things up. Here’s how.
Contrary to our instinct, the luxury market grows year after year. Even in 2010, right after the economical crisis, the market proved its resilience and got back on its feet with an increase in worth even higher than in 2007 when the crisis hit us. Maybe this resilience made the market somewhat lazy. Maybe it led some to believe that they were safe and could rest.
The contrary is true. Where other brands tried out different things to engage with their followers, brands such as Louis Vuitton, for the most part, stayed on the classic content path. Meaning posting photos and/or videos regularly without trying to create engagement let alone any real value. The message that they mostly convey to their audiences, simply said, is “buy me”.
Thinking that by posting photos and videos with a short description and a referral to the link in our Instagram bio’s we will be successful is wishful thinking. Instead, customers are looking for engagement and content that brings value to their lives. Hence the reason ad blockers are on the rise. Because the content they block isn’t doing anything for them.
So, what do we have to do?
Create meaningful content
The key to creating meaningful content is by being consumer-centric. This means that your content is tailored around the interests of your audience. You don’t try to sell your products, you are trying to make them curious and give them something interesting to watch/read. 80% of your content should be around what your consumers care about and only 20% around selling. One way to do this is by following the example of Gucci who in 2017 when they started to post memes.
In total, the famous designer brand posted 30 memes. Some people were shocked, others skeptical about this type of content being placed by a luxury brand. The numbers are hard to argue with, however. The ‘collection’ was able to reach over 120 million people and almost hit 22.000 comments. It even managed to become the two most engaging posts on Instagram, ever.
Your consumers will see you as a valuable brand, which helps you to bypass the ad blockers and thus makes them open to later on receive more sales orientated content. They won’t be as resistant because they have pleasant feelings attached to your brand. You’re not the brand that only posts generic content or sends pushy sales letters. You create content they want to watch and care about.
As Seth Godin once said:
“People don’t buy goods and services. They buy relations, story, and magic.”
Series
The best way to create meaningful content is to make one or more series around your brand. An example of this could be a series on your Instagram TV where the audiences follow the CEO or different key managers from your brand into their day to day lives. Who are they? What is their agenda like? What are some of the cool things they do? Are there things we didn’t know they do? This is especially interesting when there is a big event coming up where you can show e.g. behind the scenes footage. In those cases, the videos serve as content for your series but also promote the event.
We suggest making a summary of the activities for a week. This way your spreading the editing and don’t have to film every hour of every day. To help you put out your content regularly we advise creating/making a content calendar. Consistency is key since the end goal is to create a habit with your audiences. You want them to know when they can expect something new from you.
User-Generated Content
Yes, you’re a famous and tasteful brand. However, that doesn’t mean you have to be cold and distant. Every brand, big or small, has one thing in common: the people that buy their products. This is the “magic” part Seth Godin was referring to. That’s why we encourage you to repost the photos and videos you’re tagged in on your stories or on your timeline.
By reposting their content, you show them you don’t take them for granted. It’s also a great idea to make your hashtag for your UGC because this boosts the engagement with 12.6% and makes it easy for people to see all the posts where the hashtag was used.
Valentino, known for its luxury clothing amongst other things, was able to double their following in 2019. How? By mixing UGC with their professional photographs and by responding to comments. They started doing this in 2016. Three years later, they profit greatly from it.
Increase interaction
Engage with followers
Maybe the simplest of all is to like and react to the comments of your audience. It could be that they said something positive about the new collection. Thank them and create a conversation. Ask them what their favorite items are and why. Or when they tag you in a post where they proudly show one of your products they bought, react to it. Compliment them, ask a question,…
Instagram, by far, has a wide range of possibilities to create engagement. Stories, for example, let you create polls that let you find out what your followers like/don’t like, how they feel about your collections, which content type they prefer over another…You can also ask a question that followers can briefly answer.
Live Streaming
Instagram also enables you to live stream. Here are some things to keep in mind when you want to live stream:
- Be prepared. Know what you want to say and practice beforehand.
- Announce it beforehand. This way, you ensure that your followers know when you are going live.
- Make sure to read the comments of your followers and if possible respond to them.
A great extra to live streaming is that you can save the live stream when you end it and later post as a video on Instagram TV. This way people who missed it can still watch it and you have a new piece of authentic content.
Differentiate
The key to keeping your audience engaged is to vary your content. Storys are a great beginning but don’t stop there. Why not make a habit of introducing an employee with a short text about who he/she is, what they like to do, how long they are work for the company,... Why not show a ritual the employees have such as going out together on a Friday evening? What restaurant/bar are they going to visit? Make some fun photos/stories and upload them with a hashtag.
Instagram TV
Another tip is to use Instagram TV. It enables you to post longer format videos and thus focus more on storytelling. For example, upload an interview with a celebrity who is a loyal fan of your products. Make sure both your audio and video (9:16 ratio) are of good quality, your thumbnail must be a JPEG and that you use the right hashtags for your brand in the description. The video will then automatically appear on the timeline of your audience. Later you can look at how well it did via the Instagram statistics.
Takeover
Something also worth trying out is to use influencers, employees and or brand ambassadors to do a takeover. In short, you announce that one of the above will take over control of either your Instagram completely, your stories or Instagram TV depending on your preference. He/she will then make content that is in line with the brand but also gives enough control to the creator to be able to make great content that suits his/her style.
If you found the info useful, leave a like, comment and/or share it with your network. We are always open to constructive feedback to help improve our content. This way we can offer our followers the most value.
Luxury essentials: video marketing
We as humans are visual creatures. We like to consume visually appealing things, whether they are photos or videos. In recent years our attention span has further decreased, placing us below a goldfish. Videos, therefore, become even more important to keep visitors engaged. These reasons are meant as a wake-up call to luxury brands. We advise you to start working on your video marketing if you aren’t already. To help you get started, we give you some relevant information about video and tips you can use to conquer your audiences.
Around 2018, it was hard to ignore the need to implement video in your digital strategy. 2 years later and you can say it is impossible.
- This year, 80% of the internet will consist of out of video
- Mobile video consumption increases with 100% year after year
- YouTube has become the 2nd most visited platform after Google
- Ads spend on online videos will increase to $ 61 billion
Some marketing pros have picked up on this evolution and are increasing their investments in videos since August 2019. Others haven’t. This is disadvantageous because video offers many advantages
- Great ROI
- Increase in views
- More people are afterward interested in you
- More shares hence more engagement
Something that also makes our hearts beat faster, is the fact that video can be used in every stage of your marketing funnel. Need proof? In the awareness stage, you can implement brand videos, product demos, and behind the scenes. The consideration stage is perfect for tutorials, social proof, vlogs, explainer videos and more. Moving up to purchasing and webinars, advice videos, FAQ’s, and demos are ideal content. Finally, to increase loyalty, use videos to thank customers and reassure them they made the right decision.
Where to start
As is the case with everything new, you might have cold feet. That’s understandable. One of the first questions to pop up is about which topics a brand should cover. To answer this question, we will use Gary Vaynerchuk as an example. When he was still in the wine business, Gary was a pioneer in terms of video. In 2006, he started making reviews and analyses about the wines he sold. Today Gary has a huge multi-million-dollar business with his communication agency and media hub.
The idea was and still is to create content around your brand and your products. The only side note here is to diversify your content in terms of subjects it covers.
Real estate case
Take real estate as an example. If you are a broker, there are several types of videos you can make to attract visitors. A very relevant example is market updates. How is the market doing currently? Has COVID-19 impacted the industry? How do you see it evolving? Are there trends surfacing, like luxury customers still being interested in buying, e.g. secondary residentials? How is your business evolving? Ryan Serhant is a great example of this. He recently made a video about how you, as a broker, should go about working in a volatile market.
You can also make a video about you. Who are you? How did you become a broker? Has it always been your dream/passion? How long are you in the business? In which city are you active? As you may have noticed from these questions, storytelling is vital. You are essentially trying to create a bond with your viewers. The goal is to give people the feeling of knowing you after finishing the video. Aside from this, it is equally important to inspire people and let people dream away in your video. Even if a certain property is not in their price range, you engage again with people. And maybe later, they will find interest in a more affordable house or apartment.
Gastronomy case
Another interesting case is gastronomy. As a luxury chef, you know your business like nobody else. This enables you to make great video content. Tell your consumers about the restaurant. Give them a small tour inside your gastronomical heaven on earth; show the kitchen, the wine bar, the interior,...Schlosshotel Fiss did this on the YouTube channel of WBP Stars with a video giving a tour in the restaurant with the manager of the hotel. Next, make videos about your dishes. They don’t have to be super long, just enough to stimulate the senses of your audiences.
When discussing your creations, it is a good idea to discuss the wine that pairs well with one or more dishes. Third, let your audiences testify. Your business is awesome, show it! Happy customers are ideal for creating trust between new visitors and you as a brand. Today, unfortunately, we see too many statical websites and social media pages. Certainly, we face hard times during the COVID-19 crisis, but we also know that the businesses who use this a time to rethink and re-engage with their audiences will come out as first and winning out of this crisis.
4 key points
Now that you have some inspiration on what to talk about let’s discuss some important factors to take into account. Budget is a determining factor in everything. Video is no exception. Knowing how much you can spend dictates if you can hire someone to shoot the videos for you or if you will have to free up some of your time.
In the case of the latter, it will also influence the amount of material you can afford and the quality. Fortunately enough, having a limited budget is no longer a big issue. Why? Because the most affordable camera is already in your pocket. Smartphones have become so advanced, there is a group of filmmakers that create with only their smartphone and some accessories. Going on Amazon, we discovered several sets with prices ranging between $ 100 to $ 170. Especially for iPhone, there are a lot of sets available.
Switching it up
It is also a good idea to make your videos short enough so people stay engaged. Depending on how interesting the content is, most videos are between 30 seconds and 1 minute. There are always exceptions such as with the gastronomical dishes or with the market updates in real estate. On a related note, it is important to apply subtitles to your video. Believe us, we know the time and effort it takes to do this. We also know that 500.000 people in Belgium have hearing problems and that 85% of people watch Facebook videos muted. Make it a bit harder on yourself but so much easier for them.
But when deciding to spend budget on marketing budget in video marketing, think about the longevity video has. It spreads more quickly across platforms and remains longer ‘in the air’ by this social effect. Nothing against the pint ad business, but we all know that the lifetime of a print ad is limited to 1 day or 1 week with some small exceptions. Hence any good marketeer calculates the cost/impression rather than to have a look at the absolute cost.
Different formats
We advise making two types of videos: everyday low-cost videos that keep your brand beat ongoing whilst investing in some so-called ‘tent pole’ videos. These are videos that require more budget but will create a great long-lasting circular effect on your brand equity. Lessons we have learned at one of the biggest media production companies: No, it is not Walt Disney or Netflix but Red Bull Media House, the dedicated media company of the world-famous energy drink.
Last, choose the right platform for your content. If you have a wide audience of different ages, Facebook is the way to go. In the case of younger audiences or if you have a visual product like food, we advise going all-in on Instagram. If you are not sure, look at your graphs on your socials. We will go deeper into the right channel mix in our next blog articles.
Tips going forward
As always, we end our blog post with some tips and tricks we think will help you. The first tip is about regular posting. Making a habit out of posting your videos regularly is important. To help you, we suggest using a content calendar. Look at the number of channels you have and try and update them weekly. In the beginning, we suggest creating one piece of content per channel and uploading them once every two weeks. Later, when you are used to this, try every week. When you are used to that, try multiple times in one week. Also, write holidays and special days like Mother’s day in your calendar. This helps you to find inspiration for creating content.
On a related note, try to shoot multiple videos at once. This is not always easy but will save you time long term. You can do this by shooting video on the weekends, sacrificing some spare time. The alternative might seem beneficial but you aren’t always able to shoot every week, hence making content in advance can save you some trouble.
Finally, you will have to do some practicing before you are comfortable talking to a camera. Even the more extraverted people can suddenly freeze when confronted with it or start to behave and talk differently than they normally would. A tip we find useful is to set up a camera somewhere in your house you visit daily. Your office is an ideal location. You then start to daily talk to it. At first, this is strange and feels unnatural. But, as time slowly progresses, this will become a habit and feel less forced. The eventual end goal is to see the camera as your friend and that your talking to it reflects this.
If you found the info useful, leave a like, comment and/or share it with your network. We are always open to constructive feedback to help improve our content. This way we can offer our followers the most value.