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:

1. Be prepared. Know what you want to say and practice beforehand.
2. Announce it beforehand. This way, you ensure that your followers know when you are going live.
3. 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.