Written as a ghostwriter for a private client. The original publication is no longer available. Raw copy shared for portfolio purposes only.
05 May 2021
10 Common Mistakes DTC Brands Make with IG Advertising
Meta Description: Instagram marketing can make or break a brand’s image. By learning from those who’ve gone before us, you can avoid some of the most common Instagram marketing mistakes.
No marketing professional needs to be told how beneficial social media marketing can be for building brand awareness and connecting with customers. But with a huge potential audience comes huge potential for brand-breaking mistakes that aren’t just embarrassing but can harm your business’ perception and performance in the long term.
In this post, we’re going to look at some of the most common mistakes DTC brands make when advertising on Instagram and – more importantly – how to avoid them in your own marketing.
- Not having a clear or thought-out social media strategy
You’re never going to achieve success if you don’t first define what “success” looks like.
Before you even consider your first social media post, it’s essential to clearly lay out your goals and ambitions for using the platform and keeping them in mind with every engagement.
Whether you want to build brand awareness, drive more traffic to your store, promote a new product, or provide information, having a clear roadmap for your eCommerce business is essential for a successful marketing strategy. https://www.gorgias.com/blog/the-annual-roadmap-planning-for-growing-your-store-in-2021
- Inconsistent branding
Every social media platform offers unique pros, cons, and audiences, and it’s important to ensure your brand image flows effortlessly from one platform to another. Not only will this ensure your customers don’t get confused, but it also makes for a much more pleasant and consistent image.
One of the most essential aspects of consistant branding is your logo: It should be on every page. This means every page on your website, every one of your social media accounts, and easily identifiable in your brick-and-mortar store (if you have one).
In addition to your logo, you want to ensure every element of your advertising strategy uses the same language, writing style, and visual style. Without this consistency, your customers are likely to lose faith in the brand and may not even know whether they’re engaging with the real deal.
With Instagram advertising, you should take this further by cultivating a visually pleasing and consistent feed that works with your overall brand image. Remember that your individual posts should also work together on your page to create a beautiful and appropriate visual representation of who your brand is. Try to use the same color palette, filters, and framing for a specific style that’s instantly recognizable as you. https://www.forbes.com/sites/stephanieburns/2021/03/25/how-to-create-a-content-strategy-for-your-instagram-feed/?sh=28ae23474910
- Posting at the wrong times
When it comes to selecting the perfect time to post on Instagram, you’re sure to be bombarded with thousands of studies and recommendations, each offering different opinions.
The simple answer to when is the best time to post on Instagram is, sadly, not simple at all and very much depends on your brand and audience.
The best time to post is when your followers are online. And this will vary for different accounts.
You can use Instagram’s Insights feature for your business account to see your follower’s most active times and dates. As ‘recency’ is a key metric for Instagram’s algorithms, being sure to post when your followers are online is vital; otherwise, your posts are likely to get lost in the noise. https://www.shopify.com/blog/instagram-algorithm
In addition, it’s worth considering when your competition is posting. Many brands post on the hour (:00) mark, so posting a few minutes before or after this can help you stand out against the clutter of competition and allow your content to shine. https://blog.hootsuite.com/best-time-to-post-on-instagram/
While we’re on the subject of post timings, the frequency of your posts should also be considered. While numerous studies claim more frequent posting means more chances of visibility, spamming your followers isn’t necessarily the best strategy. And the quality of your content may deteriorate. https://unionmetrics.s3.amazonaws.com/wp/2014/09/Brands-on-Instagram-Whitepaper-Sept14.pdf
Finding a happy medium between quality posts uploaded at a frequency that works for your business model and your audience is essential for quality engagement and an effective Instagram strategy.
- Paying for likes and followers
Sure, having millions of followers and thousands of likes on your every post might seem like a dream, but buying Instagram followers or engagements is a mistake for several reasons.
Firstly, Instagram and other social media platforms have been cracking down on fake accounts in recent years. This involves disabling inauthentic users or bots and penalizing anyone “attempting to mislead their followers” to keep the Insta community safe. Therefore, buying followers may not be the bargain you hoped for. https://talkinginfluence.com/2020/08/14/instagram-crack-down-bots-with-new-authenticity-measures/#:~:text=Instagram%20is%20looking%20to%20crack,they%20are%20a%20real%20person.
Secondly, inauthentic engagements are obvious and can harm your brand’s perception. Followers may lose trust in your brand’s authenticity or consider you to be less valuable.
… If nobody real is interested in what you have to say, why should I be?
The entire point of social media is to connect with real people using the platforms. If you’re not engaging in a genuine and authentic way, then why bother?
Instead of looking at Instagram as a numbers game, you’ll do far better when you focus on quality over quantity. A smaller collection of highly engaged, authentic followers will do your brand a lot more favors than countless bots.
- Too much emphasis on sales, not enough on value
So, your brand’s Instagram strategy is all about boosting sales… That doesn’t give you an excuse to only post overly promotional content that adds little value to a follower’s browsing.
Sure, incorporating a quality call to action (CTA) and creating a sense of urgency with “limited time money-off” offers has its place in Instagram advertising.
However, if this is all you ever have to say, you could come across as selfish, lazy, or even distasteful (depending on your timing).
Similarly, if you’re using Influencer marketing in your eCommerce strategy, please please please be careful when it comes to editing. https://www.gorgias.com/blog/instagram-influencer-marketing-for-ecommerce
- Misusing hashtags
Hashtags can be a brand’s best friend on Instagram… but misusing them will make your account look cluttered and spammy.
Studies show that posts featuring at least one hashtag average around 12.6% more engagement than those without. However, using all 30 of Instagram’s permitted hashtags can have the opposite effect and actually harm engagement levels. https://blog.fohr.co/post/the-state-of-influencer-marketing-2020?rq=hashtags
Previous research suggested brands use no more than eleven hashtags on an Instagram post. Updates now suggest that two to five relevant hashtags might be the perfect number.
If you have more that you’re desperate to use, adding them to the first comment on your post can be an excellent “cheat” that keeps your description tidy while boosting discoverability. https://later.com/blog/ultimate-guide-to-using-instagram-hashtags/
In addition to not spamming the hashtags, it’s vital to research the words and phrases carefully before adding them to your brand’s post. Learn from Warburton’s mistake and try not to advertise your family-friendly bakery using a hashtag favored by the furry community! https://mashable.com/2017/12/14/warburtons-crumpet-competition-instagram-hashtag-fail/
- Poor quality images
Instagram is, above all else, a visual social media platform. That means that everything you post should be visually appealing.
Whether you’re sharing a picture of the world’s most photogenic bird or a behind-the-scenes of your business operations, ensuring every image is well framed, clear, and aesthetically pleasing is vital for an effective Instagram campaign. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/29/science/instagrammable-bird-frogmouth.html?searchResultPosition=4
Honestly, you’re better off avoiding Instagram altogether if you don’t have any attractive images to share.
That said, you don’t need to get bogged down or feel like you need the absolute best and most professional photography equipment to create attractive and engaging images. Natural light and neutral backgrounds are an amateur photographer’s best friend, and there are so many awesome tools available to help you transform even the most basic image into a first-class marvel!
Even if your brand doesn’t offer obviously photogenic benefits, that doesn’t necessarily mean Instagram is off-limits. General Electric utilizes Instagram to share its company values via photo and video content to make a usually boring subject educational, inspirational, and exciting… Perfect for Instagram!
- Not utilizing Instagram Stories
It’s one thing to have an attractive and engaging Instagram feed, but if you’re not utilizing the Stories feature to its full benefit, your business could be missing out on a massive proportion of your target audience:
- 500+ million people use Instagram Stories daily. https://blog.hootsuite.com/instagram-statistics/#Instagram_Stories_stats
- 58% of people claim they have become more interested in a brand or product after viewing a Story featuring it.
- 50% of people have made a purchase after viewing a product or service in Instagram Stories.
Instagram Stories are an awesome way to connect with your audience and provide a more in-depth look at your brand as a whole. The temporary nature of Stories is perfect for time-sensitive offers or topical posts, plus it’s a great way to increase engagement with competitions or polls. https://www.socialmediatoday.com/social-business/why-and-how-use-instagram-stories#:~:text=’Instagram%20Stories’%20helps%20users%20to,like%20that%20cake%20you%20bought.
The Stories are also brilliant if you have a lot of content to share in a short space of time. By adding to your Story rather than posting to your Instagram feed, you can ensure your followers don’t feel bombarded, and your feed stays clean and attractive.
With these levels of engagement and conversions, plus the overall benefits for your Instagram marketing strategy, advertising via Instagram Stories should be a no-brainer for any DTC brand.
- Poor or non-existent customer service
We get it; social media customer service can be a tricky nut to crack. Yet crack it you must if you want to ace your social media campaigns.
Getting the perfect balance between formality and personalization isn’t always straightforward. Go too formal, and your brand personality can get lost, and your customers can feel undervalued. Go too personal, and you risk being misunderstood.
But customer service goes beyond a client getting in touch with you via direct message, phone, or email. Every comment on a post is an opportunity to wow with excellent social media customer service. And these days, this may be the primary method customers use to contact your brand, so writing excellent social responses to any question or comment is a must. https://www.gorgias.com/blog/social-media-customer-service
Consider that 84% of people using Instagram actively want to discover new products and 90% of users follow at least one business. This means that your Instagram account could be the first contact a customer is having with your brand. You need to make it stand out for all the right reasons or lose potential business. https://business.instagram.com/getting-started/?_ga=2.69849488.1251612487.1620235848-342641443.1620235848
Complaint handling is also vital for an effective Instagram ad campaign. Even the best companies in the world will receive complaints from time to time, and when they’re posted as a public comment for everyone to see, the way you respond really matters.
Even if the complaint is best addressed privately, you should always respond to the original post in a professional manner to let the OP (and your other followers) know that the issue is under control.
- Not proofreading your posts
This might sound obvious, but a poorly written post description or misspelled hashtag can make a considerable difference to your brand perception. While some typos are simple mistakes, getting the wrong there/their/they’re or similar just makes your brand look sloppy and unprofessional, and there are more significant potential issues that can arise from a poorly written or unedited post…
Consider the Influencer marketing fails we looked at earlier. The actual content was perfectly fine, but because the publisher didn’t proofread before posting, they make the whole post feel incredibly unprofessional and inauthentic. The lack of proofreading caused lasting damage to the brand’s perception and probably harmed the influencer’s reputation, too.
But not proofreading can have far more severe consequences than just looking sloppy… Although there are many hilarious spelling errors out there, the wrong word in the wrong place can easily alienate or offend your loyal followers. https://www.boredpanda.com/funny-spelling-mistakes-errors-fails/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic
Think about it.
If you’re guilty of the above Instagram advertising mistakes, then don’t worry! You’re not the first, and you certainly won’t be the last to fall prey to a poorly timed joke or badly edited image… And plenty of brands don’t use all the eCommerce benefits of Instagram to their full advantage.
That said, many of these mistakes are easily avoidable with a bit of foresight and planning. And now that you’re aware of them, you can put more thought into your Instagram marketing campaigns to produce a gorgeous feed that attracts and converts users.
Remember, social media is just that: social. Take the time to establish and build a relationship with your followers, and you’ll end up with a host of loyal customers and a brand image that inspires trust.
