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Instagram is hands-down the most popular social media platform today’s wedding clients are using to discover and select their vendors.
Facebook, Instagram’s parent company, released a report earlier this year on how Instagram can drive sales. This study found that just your brand simply being on Instagram can have a positive impact on how audiences perceive your brand.
They found that consumers view brands on Instagram as more popular (78%), relevant (74%), creative (77%), entertaining (76%) and committed to building community (72%), than those that are not.
As the floral industry is a visual one, Instagram is an important channel to use to market your business. Here are five Instagram marketing tips for florists to help get you started.
The first step is to create an account and set up a Business Profile.
1. Photo Quality
When posting to Instagram, it’s important to be thoughtful and critical of the photo you’re posting.
Ask yourself, is it blurry, out of focus, busy, or unbalanced? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, it’s best to choose another photo or re-take the photo you want to post. You want to associate your brand with high-quality flowers and content.
Your photo will be high-quality if you use a good-quality camera. Don’t have a fancy professional camera? No problem. Find the person in the shop with the best phone and use their camera to take the picture. Tap the part of the photo you want to focus on and capture! Be mindful of the shot. Are there too many products in the frame? Do the colours clash? Is it unbalanced? Tweak and adjust your background and foreground to get the perfect shot. Try shooting from different angles to add interest and diversity to your photos. Shoot from above, super close, or an angle.
2. Curate Your Feed
You want your Instagram feed to be consistent and cohesive. When clients and customers look at your feed, they should be able to get a sense of your brand, business perspective, and approach to florals. Do you want to focus on a specific colour scheme, style, or feeling? Do you want to adapt your feed to the seasons or showcase different scenes and events with your beautiful products?
It’s never too late to change the theme of your feed. Think about what you want to communicate with your page and get posting!
3. Captions & Hashtags
After thinking about tip #2, you’ll have a better idea of what you’re trying to communicate with your Instagram feed. Make your captions an extension of those messages and feelings. Keep your captions and short and as clear as possible as people are more likely to read it if it’s short and to the point.
Use hashtags in your caption that relate to your industry, photo, and location. Using a lot of hashtags? Post them in a comment directly under your caption. Hashtags will help people find your photos and page.
4. Make a Connection
People connect to stories and faces. Use storytelling techniques to showcase your products and staff. This could be done by using a model or setting a scene to tell a story that enhances the meaning and connection to your product. Use photos from events and ask clients to send or share photos so that you can post them to your feed.
It may not be possible to achieve this in every photo, but it is a great way to add variety and meaning to your feed.
5. Boost Engagement
Social media statistics have always been an important part of monitoring brand awareness and public perspective of your business, in the hopes of increasing sales. To boost followers, likes, and comments, it’s important to be active on Instagram, as Instagram rewards active accounts. Being active doesn’t just mean posting regularly, although that is important in maintaining and boosting engagement.
Spending a little time everyday liking, following, and commenting on other accounts will grow your following and engagement. Follow hashtags that relate to your posts, businesses in your industry, influencers and potential clients. Think about possible relationships and partnerships that would benefit your business, or that could benefit them by connecting with you. Start an Instagram relationship by following, liking, commenting, and messaging them! You never know what kind of exciting opportunities could come out of this.
Once you’re all set on Instagram, follow us at @floristssupply, and share your photos using #FSLiving for a chance to be featured. Happy posting!