A dynamic presence of your brand on social networks can strengthen your SEO strategy and increase sales. Today we are going to talk about Instagram: the favorite social network of many users around the world. So it’s worth focusing on the essentials: how to use Instagram’s full potential to increase sales.
Instagram is the social network of choice for the fashion, footwear and accessories industry because it is a visual, immediate and fast channel. The visual element in fashion is crucial, which is why Instagram was seen as the perfect choice to showcase not only a catalog but also a brand personality that no other channel can match.
Instagram, like Google, allows you to better target your posts to get more likes and help you gain more followers. Like everything in life, there is a lot of competition, but there are also techniques for standing out and making a difference. With these tips, every Instagram post will have more impact.
How to Develop an Instagram Marketing Strategy for a Fashion Brand
The first thing to remember is that Instagram can (and should) serve as an online directory, but don’t stop there. People interested in fashion are looking for ideas, inspiration, trends, so strategies should be aimed at fulfilling these needs, as discovered users can become customers.
In that sense, it’s important to drive purchases through the app itself and rely on existing ad formats in Instagram. Don’t be fooled, it’s harder to sell organically. Remember that formats like Instagram Shopping are designed to maximize conversions, so investing in these types of ads will prove profitable. Of course, to reach your full potential, you may need the help of a social advertising professional to help you develop good campaign ideas, ads, messaging and optimal audience segmentation.
Along with catalogs and inspiration ideas, Instagram is a great channel to showcase your brand and express the personality that makes up the clothes you sell. Don’t forget that people want to see what’s going on behind the scenes: people are curious, and our curiosity reaches that point. Therefore, it is a good idea for fashion brands to tell stories in their Instagram marketing strategy, tell about what is happening in our daily life, show aspects that people don’t know, and create emotions around them, with the aim of attracting the public to maintain a certain level.
This is an extremely content-specific web, and leveraging SEO for Instagram is a challenge we must accept if we want to get the most out of our presence.
Instagram SEO
In the early days of Instagram, there were many voices that it was not an SEO-oriented tool. There are indeed features that limit Instagram SEO, especially the lack of links. The direct way, at least as we know it, is to get a link. But these days, SEO is complex and intertwined, and it has many benefits.
Contour
For the possibility of using SEO on Instagram, we will optimize our profile as well as our content and interactions. However, we will achieve a good presence on Instagram, resonate with other social networks, help improve brand image and keyword positioning.
Surname
Like any other field, our Instagram name must be memorable and include our name or brand. This keeps our network together and makes it easier for users to find us. Avoid excessive typography, numbers, and distracting “decorative” elements whenever possible.
Facial photo
Instagram is a visual network, so instead of posting passport photos, be more creative. If you don’t want to show your face, you can use a photo you took of yourself. Logo is the best when we talk about company profile, always try to make sure it is of good quality and stand out in different dimensions.
Description, the key to Instagram SEO
As always, descriptions are an SEO source to optimize on Instagram. Use your description to generate interest when you enter keywords you want to rank for. Be careful not to use hashtags in your resume like you do in Twitter, as they are inaccessible.
Links: A link to your website is of the “no follow” type, but it’s still one of the most SEO-relevant elements on Instagram. Note that putting the link in this field, not in the description, it does not serve any purpose.
Descriptions on Instagram are very specific, unlike what we know when we share a photo on Facebook or Twitter. They consist of several optional parts such as B. SMS, Emoji and Hashtags.
A notable feature of SEO on Instagram is that it does not support links. So forget about putting links in your photos to redirect traffic to your website in the classic way.
Emojis – they are not necessary, but they bring an extra freshness that the company image can benefit from as well.
Use hashtags
Yes, we know that for many people, hashtags are annoying elements that are only used to attract attention and get fake followers. However, a well-thought-out and implemented tagging strategy can bring you new fans who are interested in what you sell and tend to convert into customers.
Tags were originally used as categories to make photos easier to find for people interested in your product. Using hashtags correctly is very similar to doing keyword research for your content.
You need to think about which words or phrases you want your image to appear in that describe the product, its benefits, and most importantly, which words or phrases are popular and used by Instagram users.
Later on we recommend not including more than 5, as your account’s credibility will be completely lost and it will start to look like an all-or-nothing measure. Try to appear confident and market your product, but always with the clear intent of only attracting genuine interest.
Remember, it’s one thing to use a hashtag for any reason, but quite another to use a hashtag with a clear purpose.
Know who your competitors are following.This might sound challenging, but the reality is that if you know who your competitors are after, you’ll be dealing with dissatisfied potential buyers looking for new buying options and willing to spend their money elsewhere. We are not saying that everyone is like this, but at least a large part can have these characteristics.
What you need to do is list your competitors’ accounts. Then do the following one by one:
- Check if there are influencers among these followers and highlight them.
- Among other followers, identify 100 people that you think will meet the needs of potential customers, and analyze whether they are worth joining. A decision is made and potential candidates are eventually added.
- Follow this process even if followers don’t 100% meet your client’s needs.
- Finally, select the 100 accounts you’ve added and individually comment on one of the photos that you think is relevant to your brand.
These actions may take all day, but you will find that you will experience immediate and noticeable results. Your job is to attract those followers and turn them into existing customers of your brand.
Create quality content
This is crucial, without really good quality content, you won’t be successful. When we talk about quality content, we mean well-crafted creations that give users exactly what they’re looking for.
Photos should be taken in the most professional manner, looking for the best framing, lighting and composition. Filters also help us make content more engaging.
We must not forget that every contribution must contribute something to the user. Helpful information, news, curiosities… make every post on Instagram memorable! Creating high-quality content is important. In fact, producing content through a blog or YouTube channel will help you gain a spot on search engines and entice undecided customers to make a purchase. What else can we do with content? Let’s look at some strategies:
Guest writing on external blogs
Bloggers are always looking for high-quality content. If you are an expert in a certain field, please suggest writing an article on that topic. With this in mind, add a link to your website as this strategy will help your store’s SEO. In this case, you win because your site links to relevant blogs, and bloggers win because they receive quality articles that add value to their sites.
Donate Products Endorsed by Expert Websites and Blogs
One possible strategy is to offer products to specialized websites and blogs to try and write reviews about them. This also helps with your website’s SEO, as the annotations may contain links to your online store.
Instagram Stories – This Year’s Secret Weapon
It seems clear that Instagram Stories should be an undeniable part of fashion brands’ digital marketing strategies this year. As Instagram continues to grow in 2019, the real winners will be those who find the secret to success through Stories, as it offers brands the opportunity to seek and experience success while keeping advertising costs relatively low.
Betting video
Consumers who watch product videos are 85% more likely to purchase the product. do not doubt!
Find the Best Publishing Program
The upside is that you already have the opportunity to schedule your post at a moment that suits you best. Now you just need to know the schedule. For this, you can use IconoSquare, a tool that allows you to visualize in a very dynamic way on which days your posts have more activity, as well as record the programs with the most visits.
Armed with this information, you can prepare your content to appear on specific shows that you believe will have greater reach.
generate dialogue
In order for users to identify with your brand and feel more empathy, it is necessary to engage with your followers beyond just posting photos. Start a conversation and encourage interaction within the community. This is the only way you can generate more engagement.
Your website url
This is the only place on Instagram where you can post clickable links. You can change it as many times as you want, so you can start from articles for your content marketing strategy, your most recent or most important content (such as your most recent blog or video posts), special events, or the homepage that referred visitors. Try using URL “shorteners” with tracking codes to get real-time statistics on your Instagram visitors. The URLs you post in this section are key to boosting your Instagram SEO strategy.
Why choose an Instagram account and how can it benefit your online store?
Before proceeding with the strategy, you need to understand why you are investing your time in this social network. The visual nature of the platform, combined with the high engagement generated by most social networks today, make Instagram an excellent communication channel to showcase your brand and its products.
Visual content plays a very important role as a branding strategy as it can increase user interaction and ROI for a company if implemented properly. If we add some statistics about Instagram mentioning that this social network currently uploads about 40 million photos per day and has 1 billion monthly active users, then you can understand why it is necessary to consider this social network as a communication and marketing channel.
Some advantages are obvious:
- Increase traffic to your online store
- Locate markers in the visual environment
- It is a communication and visual advertising (video and image) channel with growth potential
- Very low investment costs (application is free)
In this way, we see that SEO on Instagram is less about connection than it is about qualitative presence and therefore visibility on the web itself and in synergy with other social networks and Google search. In fact, SEO on Instagram is not much different from other platforms, because we always need good content as the basis for positioning.
