Tag: brands

Social Media Marketing Tips for Luxury Brands

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Brands and Social Media

Social media marketing is no longer an option for most brands. Just hop on to Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram and you’ll see brands of all kinds pushing product and services through their social channels. And there’s a reason their spending money to do so: it works. For run-of-the-mill ecommerce stores and average consumer products, platforms like Facebook have made it so ridiculously easy to reach and target new customers that businesses of all sizes have recognized the potential. It’s a win for all parties.

But not so fast. If you’re a luxury brand, social media advertising isn’t as simple as it seems, and most of the strategies and tactics other brands are using on social might not apply.

“We’ve had to change the way we think about social media marketing, as we’re trying to maintain a high-end, luxury image but with discounted prices,” said Leon Rbibo, President of The Pearl Source and Laguna Pearl, which sells pearl jewelry online.

Here are the top five tips and tricks for advertising luxurybrands on social media.

  1. Take Advantage of Income Targeting

While Pinterest and Instagram audiences are (or should be) the main outlets for advertising luxury products, platforms like Facebook are still significantly used when in need of promoting premium services with higher price tags. In order to do just that, brands should take advantage of income targeting – especially since Facebook users are usually older, as well as more financially stable than Instagram users. The audience demographic data is currentlyobtained from average household income per US ZIP code, with four main options to choose from:household income – top 5% of US ZIP codes,
top 10% of US ZIP codes, top 10%-25% of US ZIP codes and household income – top 25%-50% of US ZIP codes.

  1. Maximize Brand Heritage by Selling Stories

When you are in the business of luxury marketing, one of the major aspects to keep in mind is that the client wants to know your story, your values, as well as why and how you create your products. One of the best examples is no other than Apple, who chooses to communicate with their customers by creating a cohesive story, from explaining the reasons why they exist to what they do: “Everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo. We believe in thinking differently (why Apple exists). The way we challenge the status quo is by making our products beautifully designed, simple to use and user friendly (How Apple achieve their why). We just happen to make great computers (What Apple do).”

3. Hop on Social Networks with Visual Impact

When selling luxury items online, one of the main things you need to compensate on is the exclusive boutique experience – and in order to do just that, creating a boutique-like atmosphere through your website is imperative. The first thing on the ‘to do list’ when aiming to build up your aspirational image is to focus on extremely high-quality, high-detail photographs, then share them on visual social networks like Pinterest. The power of Pinterest when it comes to luxury items has been long demonstrated by Chanel, who, despite not having an account on the social platform, manages to be pinned thousands of times daily, simply by their supporters and clients. Whether it’s an image of their latest catwalk styles, pearl strands or chic belts, the brand has a very powerful presence on Pinterest.

  1. Use Comment-Baiting – The Right Way

As a luxury brand, hunting for comments might seem a little too frantic – and that might interfere with your exclusive image. But the good news is that there are a few simple tricks you can apply in order to make sure that those comments are rolling in. While not exactly in the luxury arena, take Forever 21 as inspiration: the brand’s creativity paid out when they asked their followers indirectly to formulate their rapper name, which lead to thousands of comments and shares within hours. A little innovation is all you need when trying to achieve your likes and comment goals on social media, be it Instagram or Facebook.

  1. Post Previews as Teasers and Estimate Demands

You are about to launch a new collection – or, you’re just starting to design a few new products. Whatever stage your creative process may be at, it’s never the wrong time to post a little teaser on social media. This tactic will achieve multiple things at the same time: it will create demand and stir interest, it will show you just how liked your new designs are via the likes and comments you receive and it will make your followers tune in again to see your final products – all of which are great for your business. If you b enjoyed bthis post, why not check out this article on Social Media for your Organization!

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Build Brand Credibility on Social Media

Brand

If you are a Wordpress site or business owner, you want to be that brand people rave about to their friends, remember first when they need your product and patronize no matter how other brands convince them to do otherwise. You want to be that brand consumers trust so much they wouldn’t mind spending more knowing that they’ll get their money’s worth. You want to be that brand so credible stores would fight for your product to be on their shelves. But the question is: how will you make that happen?

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know the power that social media has to the consumers of today. 90% of marketers said social media has increased business exposure and 75% said it drove more traffic to their website, which is no surprise considering that there are 3.196 billion social media users around the world in 2018. That’s almost half of the world’s population. To get started with your social media efforts in building brand credibility, here are a few takeaways that you could use:

Before you go viral for the wrong reasons, fix any business glitches first

If you want to go viral on social media, it has to be for the right reasons. So before someone digs up your flaws and tarnish your credibility online, make sure to fix any glitches within your business first. Be like Erik Gordon, so they say, where he used consistency to defend himself against accusations thrown at him and continue to be successful in his career as an investor, philanthropist, and film and television producer. You will make mistakes at some point, whether in your personal life or business, but being transparent about it and finding the right solutions to address those problems is a good way to establish your credibility before you start your social media marketing efforts.

If you haven’t done it yet, start a website or blog

Blogging Image

A blog or website is not only a great starting point for you to build credibility, but it is also an incredible platform to show the more human side of your business. But setting up one just wouldn’t do the job. You also need to create consistent, refreshing content that people will love enough to share on social media platforms, articles that are useful for your audience and compelling enough to push them to take action. A lot of entrepreneurs still write their own blog posts because it gives them the opportunity to connect with their consumers, which is a great way to build that trust in them.

Be the brand that offers value and nothing but

Blendtec

Blendtec, an appliance manufacturer selling blenders went from being nobody to becoming a global brand by using YouTube videos featuring its products blending everything from CDs to an iPhone 4. Their videos became so viral that Steve Jobs even made a guest appearance when they blended the iPhone 4.

Now, this is a classic example of social media marketing done right. In a sea of useless promotional videos, you need to be that brand that offers value to your consumers by showing them exactly what your product can do. This gives you the opportunity to build a relationship with consumers before making a sale, which is very important for retention.

Practice a habit of consistency in all your social media platforms

According to research, 51% of social media users unfollow brands that post irritating promotional content or those who don’t post anything at all. Now the key to a successful social media marketing campaign is consistency. Consumers nowadays look to social media for product information to help them make purchasing decisions, so it’s the perfect opportunity to put your brand forward by providing consistent content on your social media platforms.

Brand

Finally, always make your social media campaigns about your consumers and not about you. Simply put, give them what they want to hear. For instance, if you’re selling a gadget for the elderly, you can’t expect them to want to hear you talking about all the technical features of your product because really, all they want to know is how they can use your product and how it will benefit them. Also, it’s a good strategy to come up with several problems and show your audience how your product can help address them.

Building brand credibility doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a process that takes time because if you want your relationship with consumers to last, you can’t force them to like your product immediately. It has to come from a sense of trust that will eventually give them more confidence to your brand that they’ll be more than happy to share it with others.   

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