How Apparel Companies Can Use Instagram Stories

Today we discuss:

• How you can stand out in a crowded field
• How to use Instagram's natives features to grow your following and reach
• Why Instagram Live is grossly undervalued

Aaron: [00:00:16] Hey,howdy, and hello. Welcome to another episode of the Marketing Natives. Today isall about Instagram stories specifically how apparel companies can useInstagram stories to grow their business. Couple of topics we're going to coverare apparel companies being a dime a dozen but how to stand out so that youdon't blend in, features with Instagram stories like face filters and stickers,how to use those, and live with Instagram. So let's jump into this.

Christian: [00:00:49] Yeah.So when we talk about apparel companies, and we were talking a little bitbefore this. We're talking about clothing, T-shirt, sort of a little bit ofeverything in there. So if you sell clothing, apparel, T-shirts, anything likethat then you're included in this episode.

Aaron: [00:01:04] Right.We don't have any bias against people who have a T-shirt companies versus asunglass company.

Christian: [00:01:12] Right.

Aaron: [00:01:14] Allright. So the first point here is that there are a lot of you out there. Hopefullythere are a lot of you guys listening here, but there's a ton of T-shirtcompanies, a ton of apparel companies, clothing companies. And all that meansis that if you are not doing something unique like Instagram stories, it'sgoing to be really tough for you to stand out. We know that there's a fewpowerhouses, you know, in the boutique levels or online that really stand out,but other than that you just kind of- You don't want to get lost. So one waythat you can stand out is using Instagram stories. So for example, if you ownthis company- If Christian and I started a T-shirt company, we could useInstagram stories and tell our story day to day and let our personalitiesreally shine out. Because those are the people or the face of the brand or the ownersof the company, are going to be the difference between selling a T-shirt. AT-shirt is a T-shirt is a T-shirt. Maybe a cool design, but the personality andthe feeling you get from buying that T-shirt from that company, that's going tobe the differentiator.

Christian: [00:02:22] Yeah.So the way I see Instagram's stories being different from your feed is that, Imean, you can do a lot more with this especially creatively, and I was talkingabout this earlier. You know, if you're going to- I know Aaron's talking aboutsort of the day to day inside your shop. You can take it even a step furtherand just get a little bit more creative, and I was talking about if you have anew release for let's just say, you know, your fall collection is coming out. Youwant to give out a sneak peak on your Instagram stories. Then don't just post abunch of images of all your, you know, your apparel or T-shirts that are comingout. Tease it first with like you know three or four or five little stories inthere to build out your long story. I mean, that feature, the Instagramstories, allow you to have, you know, multiple parts in there. So you cancreate a really long cool story. So you can tease it. You know, maybe havingjust a blank screen with some text saying like we're cooking something up...And then just sort of tease it throughout the whole day. At the end of the day,you know, you publish the whole thing. Use the link because you can post linkson Instagram stories. So you can swipe up. They can see the whole collection.So I mean, there's a lot of creative things that you can do with the Instagramstories that you can not do with your regular feed.

Aaron: [00:03:51] Andwe're using the term story kind of loosely, and I'll kind of explain that. Soyou may need to go back to English class. I know that some of this may be awhile ago, but you learned this. And Christian gave me a weird face. Is youalways have like in any good story like a rising action, a climax, and thenlike a falling action. So something to lead up to that point that Christian wastalking about, and then you actually give the people what they want. And thenthere's a falling action or a follow up, and that helps you create a betterstory. Exactly what Christian is saying, but there is some terminology with it.And I don't know. I just feel like that understanding that instead of justgoing out and recording is going to do- So do some research is really what I'msaying to what you want to do and do it creatively and strategically. Then justturn on the cameras or recording. So there are a lot of features on Instagramstories. They're are coming out with new features, filters, face filters. Iwould say like once a month now, and so you could be pretty creative withthose. So there's different stickers like lit or yass or not- I didn't say theother word. iTunes don't penalize us for that, but it sounded like it. Theyhave the days of the week. They have emojis, and you could really play alongwith that especially as a T-shirt company. They have a T-shirt emoji, or anapparel company, they have apparel emojis. You can wear different face filters.You can change your voice.

Christian: [00:05:27] There'salso locations that you can tag. You can also tag other people too. So if youhave sort of, you know, legitimate fans on social media and they're postingabout your products, that's another cool way to give them a shout out. It's to-I mean, if you don't want to ruin your perfect Instagram feed, you can do itthrough stories and just give out shout outs to other people who are postingimages of, you know, them wearing your clothing or your apparel. And then tagthem and give them a shout out that way using that feature built in withinInstagram stories.

Aaron: [00:06:03] Right,and we did talk about the locations I believe in a previous podcast. I can'tremember the number of that, but when you tagged location, you have the abilityor the option to be featured on a local story. So it's kind of outside of ournotes, but it does give you some extra exposure in your location or the areathat you're tagging that you decide to choose there. A big thing with this isjust to really use and kind of humanize your brand by having fun and using itthe way that people use Instagram. Like there's a reason that the filters arethere. There's a reason that the stickers are there, and a brand should usethose as well. And if you do do those, people can really start to look at youas more than just a company, and they consider you and start to create arelationship with you. And you can also use those stories to drive traffic backto your feed or to the website like Christian mentioned.

Christian: [00:06:59] Andanother quick tip here is to also use your stories - I know Aaron I thinkexplicitly just said that - to connect with your community, but you can do itdirectly by asking a question in your stories and telling your following to DMyou right there and then.

Aaron: [00:07:18] Directmessage.

Christian: [00:07:19] Directmessage. And I know Aaron actually sent me a screenshot. I think it wasyesterday of Noah Kagan-

Aaron: [00:07:27] Shoutout to Noah Kagan.

Christian: [00:07:28] Shoutout to Noah Kagan. Aaron commented on one of his stories, and Noah Kaganresponded back, which is pretty freaking cool. I mean, you don't get that-

Aaron: [00:07:36] Holdon. Christian didn't acknowledge that it was cool. He just ignored me, just soeveryone knows that.

Christian: [00:07:42] Imean, yeah, okay. It was pretty cool, but you know, brands are doing this. So useInstagram stories to truly connect and have a one on one conversation with yourfans and your community.

Aaron: [00:07:54] Onebig thing that happened last week actually - we're recording this in October of2017 - is polls came out. So you could say "Who wore it best?"Somebody on the left wearing the shirt or somebody on the right. You actuallycan get real live results of people who voted, and then you can tell who votedon which one. So say for example, you could do a contest on there. Do a polland say who or which shirt do you guys like the best? You know, the winners ofthe people who picked the best, the one that was picked, and then they pick onewinner from that to send them a free T-shirt or something. You know, I'm justthrowing out an idea here, but use polls because that could be a reallycreative way for you to find out which clothing to buy more of for the holidaysor, you know, a season.

Christian: [00:08:38] Yeah.And the last thing here is you can have regular Instagram stories, but you canalso have live within the stories feed. And any brand that's using live storiesright now are benefiting from this feature. Why? Well, because Instagram ispushing live with notification straight to your followers. You may be gettingthese, you know, quite often now because a lot of brands are doing this and alot of people are doing this. You get that notification that says Aaron Pearsonjust went live on Instagram, and another thing is that Instagram is givingpriority, putting live stories, you know, before any regular story on thatstories feed. Now the trick with live stories and to make it interesting, youknow, is just to have really engage in content. Try to do it as often aspossible, but at the same time, I mean, don't make it a chore for you to- Did Isay that right? Chore.

Aaron: [00:09:35] Chore.

Christian: [00:09:35] Chore.You know, for you to do that. You know, make sure that it's interesting. Makesure that you're engaging. You know, right there within the stories, they cancomment and leave hearts and stuff. You can see who's in there. So make sureyou give people shoutouts. Make sure you keep them engaged while they'rewatching.

Aaron: [00:09:53] Yes.And you can use a couple of the other tactics we talked about. Use Instagram storiesto let people know when A, you're going to go live. B, maybe you do like acontest on the live where they have to actually be in their live to do it, andthose who are on live will get like, you know, something if they do it or ifthey jump in. So it's kind of like a reward for it. Like Christian said for thetime being, they're really pushing live video. So absolutely use it, and ifyou're thinking about doing something as an Instagram story, maybe try to seeif it could work as a live story first because that will stay on there for 24hours as well. And you also have the ability to download that video, cut upsegments of it, and you could use it again later for maybe another Instagramstory in the future. So a lot of opportunities and features with the livevideos. All right. So that was pretty quick, but I believe it's a great episodefor you guys. A lot of these tactics can be used for people who are notnecessarily in the apparel company, apparel industry, but this episodespecifically for apparel industry people. So if you sell T-shirts, you own aclothing boutique, maybe you sell the coolest like wooden sunglasses online,this episode is for you. And if you know somebody who has one of those kinds ofcompanies or is looking to start one online, make sure you share this episodewith them, and as you are listening right now, if you're not running, biking,or doing something that requires your hands, make sure to go ahead andsubscribe. And remember that sharing is caring. Go ahead and share this with afriend, and we will talk to you guys next week.

Christian: [00:11:31] Allright. And also since we're talking about Instagram, follow us on Instagram@BitBranding.

Aaron:[00:11:37] Right.Send us a DM. That's a direct message, and mention that you came over from thepodcast. And we will send you- We'll mail you guys something special.