INSTA APPEAL

“As a business to consumer stationery brand whose business is built around visually appealing product, Instagram is a requirement these days; customers expect to be able to browse photos of your product and get a feel for your brand values.”

Alex Boston, Director – Digital, Paperlust, confirms Instagram has been central to the company’s strategy from the day it launched in 2015.

Paperlust* is an online disruptor established to create a point of difference in the event stationery market. Enabling consumers to interface directly with design creatives, the company’s product stable comprises personalised invitations and stationery created in collaboration with first class Australian and international designers. It epitomises the kind of business that aligns seamlessly with Instagram, says Boston, who adds that there are a number of ways to use the platform in a business context.

“On the organic side, we post three or four images per week on Instagram, showcasing new products, artworks and visuals that inspire our stationery designs, in-venue shots of our product being used (for example stationery at weddings) and shots of the team to give customers a peek at the people behind the brand.”

“On the paid marketing side, we use a number of Instagram channels as part of our campaigns which are also linked with Facebook, Instagram’s parent company. For users that have shown certain engagement metrics on a the Paperlust website, we show product and brand photos and videos, accompanied by messages promoting what Paperlust’s finished product has over our competitors, depending on where we think they are in the purchase making decision. This is known as re-marketing, where you show advertisements to past visitors and warm leads to get them back in and engaged with the brand. We also use these advertisements to educate customers on our products. Wedding or event stationery is typically a once in a lifetime purchase, and the customers might not know about our different print and paper types.”

Boston says Paperlust also uses Instagram Stories to run video brand awareness campaigns targeting people within its broader target market. “For weddings, this might mean people who are engaged on Facebook or who are in a relationship but show signs that they are engaged. The short Instagram story creative consists of eight to 10 second clips showcasing our foil stamped invitations, which are one of our flagship products. We consistently test these videos to see which ones get the best brand engagement and brand-recall metrics.”

“The objective of these videos is purely brand awareness but they have even been leading to on the spot sales, which is rare for our product because the buying cycle decision making can be anywhere up to 12 to 14 months, given that a wedding has such a long planning cycle.”

“The Instagram Stories feature gives us a low cost and effective way to reach our audiences at almost a TV commercial level but in a more targeted way, to get our brand in front of upcoming and or current potential customers. Our total target market pool in Australia comprises around 300,000 people that are engaged at any one time. In correlation with this campaign we have seen a 30% branded search increase for the word ‘Paperlust’ on Google since we began running the brand awareness stories campaigns.”

Aside from advertising, Paperlust also uses common hashtags to gain new organic

followers interested in event stationery, design and paper, he says. Paperlust also uses Instagram as an important feedback loop to learn and test responses to new potential products the company is either testing or looking at launching on a bigger scale.

And while Instagram’s direct business outcomes are hard to gauge, Boston says increased brand awareness created by Instagram is invaluable.

“With increased awareness people are more likely to refer their friends if they need our products. They’ll also recognise the brand once they come into the purchase buying cycle, for example if they search ‘wedding invitations’ they will find our brand in the general organic results and also in the paid Google Adwords sections, and research has shown that customers are more likely to click on a result that they recognise.

“Overall, Instagram and Instagram Stories play a complementary role to our broader online and offline marketing strategies. We also put heavy focus into referral marketing stemming from brand awareness and previous customer experience with the brand, SEO both targeting Australian organic searches and now international searches. Google Adwords marketing also plays an important role for customer acquisition, and Instagram marketing plays both a remarketing (engagement with existing or current potential customers) and an acquisition role to market to new customers unfamiliar with the brand.

In terms of what makes for a successful Instagram marketing campaign, Boston says understanding the customer and creating unique, engaging content are critical.

“Instagram is a hub of fresh content and if you do not produce something unique and engaging to your target market, it will not be able to compete with the content out there.”

“Content can be educational, however the primary reason people browse Instagram is to follow friends, acquaintances or celebrities, and or follow beautiful things that inspire them. That means it is first key to decide if you have a visually appealing product that would connect with certain. Video is now in high demand with this particular form of advertising. If you have a customer that is in the market for a particular product, present that product in a video format to get them excited about your brand. It doesn’t need to be a long video, perhaps 7-10 seconds, which could then be targeted to people who already have visited your website within a certain timeframe, and or continually shown to them if they have shown interest and or watched a portion of that video.”

Boston says Paperlust’s Instagram journey has furnished a few key lessons. “One is understanding the customer buying decision points in time and the barriers holding customers back from purchasing. We are beginning to tailor our message differently to customers at different points in the buying cycle. When we started out our approach was quite broad and used the same message for everyone at any given point in time. The objective of the new approach is to build trust, but also to pre answer a lot of common questions that get asked on our Live Chat or support email.”

“If there is a strong opportunity to educate or showcase your customers out there about the benefits of your products, or could communicate your products’ clear superiority in video and photography format, and you have a visually appealing product then I would strongly consider Instagram marketing. Given the tracking and data abilities furnished by the Instagram marketing platform, there will always be an opportunity to find your audience, engage them, and continue engaging them until they purchase your product. If you are interested in starting an Instagram marketing campaign, we also run a sister digital agency called Krafthaus. If you are looking to market to your customers but are unsure how or which approach to take we can provide consulting and strategy services, creative and campaign management to help you understand your goals and how these can be reached by marketing through Instagram.”

THE INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE
Window furnishings players confirm Instagram is a consideration for most typical marketing strategies these days. Danielle Crosby, Marketing Manager at Dollar Curtains & Blinds (DCB), confirms the company has been using Instagram since 2014.

“We use it as a way to tell our brand story visually. Our Instagram strategy is to inspire our customers with photos of our completed products in Australian homes similar to theirs, rather than using the platform to ‘sell’ from.”

In fact, with overt “selling” regarded as an Instagram no-no, Crosby says like most marketers, her idea of a successful Instagram marketing campaign is one characterised by new and engaging content.

“Another key lesson I’ve learned is that it’s important to plan posts to ensure they fit with the essence of our brand and not to post for the sake of posting. More engaging content is always worth more, and will get better traction, than posting irrelevant content.”

Kelly-Jade Penton Managing Partner of Blinds by Peter Meyer, says the business has been active on Instagram since May 2015.

“Instagram is a very important part of our strategy. We use Instagram to encourage meaningful interactions with our audience by sharing company news and giving our customers a sneak peek behind the scenes. We also use it to increase brand awareness, showcase our products and share design trends. Instagram is our most successful social platform in terms of goal conversions, page session duration and bounce rates.”

“However, we do not measure the success of Instagram by these metrics alone. We understand that Instagram is a great tool that can increase credibility and authenticity for people researching our company and our competitors. In this case, we will never know how successful we are in achieving credibility via this channel but we know to not ignore the fact that although people may not follow us or interact with our page, they may be silently making a judgement before going to our website or contacting our sales team.

To ensure content is of interest to audiences, she advises testing new types of content before committing to the content attracting the most interactions. “As many of our most engaged customers are dealers, we find we gain the best traction from behind the scenes posts and therefore try to include this type of content dispersed between our product and trend stories.”

“Think really hard about what your customer wants to see. They don’t want their feed filled to the brim with hard sell posts.”

Hayley Boyd of A&B Interiors confirms the company opened its Instagram account back in 2015, having had a presence on Facebook a few years prior to that. “Instagram is fantastic marketing tool for our industry, as it is such a visual social platform. Consumers want to be able to see pictures to help visualise what their furnishings are ultimately going to look like in their home.”

“When I first came into the business 12 years ago, other than a website, all other advertising was print media, this has changed dramatically, with 80 per cent of our advertising spend now going to online and social media. As the online world evolves, we’re constantly reviewing our marketing strategy and spend and we have found over the past 24 – 36 months that Instagram has been an integral part of this.”

“In terms of the key to a successful campaign, ultimately you want followers to comment and tag friends on your posts as your reach then becomes broader. We find our real life installs engage with people really well, as do images of us, the family and staff. Being a small family business, with majority repeat and referral work, our best marketing strategy focuses on the people behind A&B, so any posts that involve us always get really good engagement and reach.”

Boyd concedes a key challenge as a small business owner is finding the time to be constantly posting. “My advice is: don’t be afraid to outsource! Either hand the job to a tech savvy employee and make it part of their contract, or find a marketing company to assist. Originally I was trying to do it all on my own. It’s too hard. I strongly recommend outsourcing to someone who understands your brand and the message you’re trying to convey. Yes, it will cost you, but it takes the hassle away from you. Shop around; there are plenty of companies out there offering these services.”

* Paperlust is a sister company to WFA parent company Boston Publishing and digital agency Krafthaus.