This document outlines a presentation on digital marketing strategies for fashion brands on Instagram. It discusses how Instagram's algorithm prioritizes user experience and recommends focusing content on conveying brand meaning and relating to audiences. It also covers segmenting audiences based on motivations, developing content strategies, and using analytics to measure performance through key metrics like engagement, traffic sources, and conversions. The overall message is that brands should focus on understanding their audiences and providing inspiring, shareable content to thrive on Instagram.

1. # W I N N I N G AT I N S TA G R A M ,
O R H O W T O L E A R N T O
S T O P W O R RY I N G
A N D L O V E T H E A L G O R I T H M
D I G I TA L M A R K E T I N G
F O R FA S H I O N B R A N D S :
M E A S U R A B L E I M PA C T O N I N S TA G R A M A N D B E Y O N D /
C O N T E N T A N D U S E R E X P E R I E N C E
P R E S E N T E D B Y:
K A T E O ’ N E I L L
I N PA R T N E R S H I P W I T H
T H E N A S H V I L L E FA S H I O N A L L I A N C E
M A Y 9 , 2 0 1 6

2. W H AT C H A N G E D ?

3. W H Y N O T J U S T H AT E T H E A L G O R I T H M ?
• Algorithmically-driven platforms want the user to have
as relevant and sticky an experience as possible,
because advertising
• In the end, isn’t that a good thing for users?

4. B U T N O W M O R E T H A N E V E R , I F
Y O U WA N T A W I N N I N G A C C O U N T,
D O N ’ T U S E I N S TA G R A M J U S T T O
P O S T W H AT E V E R P I C T U R E S Y O U
F E E L L I K E TA K I N G .
I T ’ S T I M E T O
D E V E L O P A S T R AT E G Y .

5. S O W H AT I S T H E B E S T
WAY T O T H R I V E I N T H I S
E N V I R O N M E N T ?
F O C U S O N
U S E R E X P E R I E N C E .

6. U X :
U S E R E X P E R I E N C E

7. W H AT D O E S “ U S E R E X P E R I E N C E ”
R E A L LY M E A N ?
• empathy, alignment in language, interactions, and
design with their motivations, needs, and context
• in other words, make it about them, not you
• remove roadblocks

8. S O W H AT D O E S T H E U S E R
P R O B A B LY WA N T F R O M T H E I R
I N S TA G R A M E X P E R I E N C E ?

9. T O E N J O Y A N A S P I R AT I O N A L V I S I O N
O R A V I C A R I O U S E X P E R I E N C E

10. ( T I M E S S Q U A R E P R O F I L E )

11. ( F I V E D A U G H T E R S B A K E RY P R O F I L E )

12. T O R E L AT E T O B R A N D
P E R S O N A L I T Y

13. ( N I S O L O P R O F I L E )

14. W H AT O T H E R A S P E C T S O F U S E R
E X P E R I E N C E F O R I N S TA G R A M ?

15. D O N ’ T
• Expect users to follow your every post through push
notifications.
• Turn your whole feed into a campaign.

16. ( K AT E S PA D E S AT U R D AY E X A M P L E )

17. B R A N D S A R E A B O U T
C O N V E Y I N G M E A N I N G .

18. – P E T E R D R U C K E R , S U P E R H E RO
Imagesource:blinkist.com
“The aim of marketing is
to know and understand the customer so well
the product or service fits him
and sells itself.”

19. M E A N I N G F U L M A R K E T I N G
I S A B O U T L E A R N I N G .
I T ’ S A B O U T
M A K I N G E F F O RT S T O K N O W
T H E C U S T O M E R / A U D I E N C E / C O M M U N I T Y
A N D TA K I N G M E A N I N G F U L A C T I O N
B A S E D O N T H AT K N O W L E D G E .

20. H O W W O U L D Y O U D E S C R I B E T H E S E
S U C C E S S F U L FA S H I O N A N D A P PA R E L
B R A N D S ?

23. E X E R C I S E : B R A N D P E R S O N A L I T Y /
C H A R A C T E R I S T I C S L I S T
• Make a list of 3-5 adjectives that describe your brand
as if you’re describing a person
• Share your list with the person next to you

24. W H Y I N S TA G R A M A N D
V I S U A L M A R K E T I N G ?
• Past images become a visual lexicon of relevant brand ideas
and orientation for new customers
• Blend online and offline experiences through shared photo
capture of common places, items, and events
• Hugely reshareable
• Hugely repurposeable
• Huge for fan images and content
• Lends itself to visible goods

25. U S I N G I N S TA G R A M
F O R I N S I G H T S

26. E M B E D T E X T I N I M A G E , E I T H E R A
C A L L T O A C T I O N , C A M PA I G N
H A S H TA G , O R B R A N D U S E R N A M E
Easy:

29. U P D AT E P R O F I L E U R L W I T H
C A M PA I G N - S P E C I F I C L I N K
Medium-Easy:

30. U R L PA R A M E T E R S F O R L I N K T R A C K I N G
HTTP://WWW.WARBYPARKER.COM/
MEN/OPTICAL/LINWOOD-
REVOLVER-BLACK-M?
UTM_SOURCE=TELLAPART&UTM_
MEDIUM=RETARGETING&UTM_CAM
PAIGN=PRODUCT_FEED_RETARGET
TING

31. GOOGLE URL BUILDER

35. R U N A N A D T O T E S T A N I D E A , E V E N
I F I T ’ S J U S T A S M A L L C A M PA I G N ,
PA R T LY J U S T T O S E E H O W I T W O R K S .
More committed:

40. U S I N G I N S TA G R A M F O R M E A N I N G F U L
M A R K E T I N G
• Make your content both on-brand and share-worthy (or at a minimum
like-worthy)
• Captions can add a lot to the brand voice of an image
• Experiment with relevant opportunities to use video: making-of,
behind-the-scenes, close-up, etc.
• Don’t spam hashtags; it can get your content throttled
• Do like others’ content; they’ll tend to like yours
• Do look over your image grid for consistency and weed out past
images that don’t stack up

41. C O N T E N T S T R AT E G Y

42. R O U N D U P T H E U S U A L Q U E S T I O N S
• WHY are you communicating?
• WHO is your intended audience?
• WHAT might you say?
• WHERE might you reach them?
• HOW do they want to interact with you?
• HOW WELL are your efforts paying off?

43. O V E R V I E W O F A U D I E N C E
S E G M E N TAT I O N

44. T H E A U D I E N C E
M O T I VAT I O N S M AT R I X

45. E X E R C I S E : A U D I E N C E / C U S T O M E R
S E G M E N TAT I O N L I S T
• Make a list of 3-5 distinct kinds of customers that
either interact with you now or ideally will in the
future
• For each kind of customer, identify what you think
motivates them
• Share your list with the person next to you

46. A U D I E N C E M O T I VAT I O N S M AT R I X

47. H T T P : / / K I N S T S . C O M / A U D S H E E T S
D O W N L O A D T H E S E
W O R K S H E E T S

48. W H E N E V E R P O S S I B L E , Y O U WA N T
I D E N T I F I A B L E C U S T O M E R
S E G M E N T S .

49. “ H O W W E L L ” = E F F E C T I V E N E S S
Leading
Indicators
Lagging
Indicators
Success
Event
Clicks through to website from
social profile
Purchases / event registrations /
sales inquiries
Social as “where did you hear
about us” on surveys

50. B R E A K

51. A N A LY T I C S A N D
M E A S U R E M E N T

52. T H AT M O M E N T W H E N Y O U H AV E N ’ T B E E N
PAY I N G AT T E N T I O N T O S T U F F T H AT M AT T E R S .
photo by flickr user a4gpa

53. A N A LY T I C S A R E P E O P L E .

54. A N A LY T I C S P R O C E S S
• Determine KPIs
• What factors will determine success?
• What’s actionable?
• Establish a baseline
• Where are the pain points?
• What’s the range?
• Prioritize
• What’s most critical?
• What’s easiest?
• Validate
• Form a hypothesis
• Test
• Analyze
• Compare with baseline
• Extrapolate to ROI
source: Omniture SiteCatalyst Basic User Training Workbook

55. W H AT ’ S M E A S U R A B L E ?
• Traffic
• Sources (finding methods)
• Composition (visitor profile)
• Engagement
• Navigation
• Content
• Conversion "Not everything that can be counted
counts, and not everything that counts
can be counted."
- Albert Einstein

56. W H AT ’ S M E A N I N G F U L ?
• “Where in the site are visitors most often deciding to
leave?”
• “Where do visitors most often go after using the
internal search?”
• “Do visitors who come in on blog posts actually visit
the rest of the site?”
• “What search terms are used by the people who are
most likely to purchase?”
In other words:
start with a good question.

57. P L A N N I N G I S K E Y T O M E A N I N G F U L
A N A LY S I S
Anticipate
Implement
Modify
Data collection begins!
Incremental data only

58. W H AT I S M E A N I N G F U L H E R E ?

61. C O N V E R S I O N M E T R I C S
• Conversion Rate (Orders or Leads per Visit)
• Orders
• Revenue
• Leads Completed

62. W R A P - U P / C L O S I N G ( 1 0 M I N U T E S )
• Thank you
• Final questions
• Feedback form

63. B E PAT I E N T A N D P E R S I S T E N T.

64. T H A N K Y O U !
Facebook:
/kateoneillpage
LinkedIn:
/kateoneill
Twitter:
@kateo
connect with me here:
Image credit: Robbie Quinn (http://robbiequinnphotography.com/)