Figure 13.1 To get people’s attention, we showed Janes next to TOMS.
Using the power of free isn’t the only way to conduct marketing on Instagram. There is another campaign style many marketers are using very effectively. It goes by different names, but I refer to these campaigns as “multistep” campaigns because they involve multiple steps. Each step is designed to do a specific part of the marketing job. When you put them together, you have a strong marketing plan that works very well.
In this chapter, we’ll look at the concept of multistep campaigns and how they’ve evolved. Then we’ll examine the two common forms of the approach being used on Instagram. Finally, we’ll focus in on how we use this kind of campaign in an ongoing way at Liberty Jane Clothing to sell shoes for two to three times more than the competition.
A multistep Instagram marketing campaign is a campaign that involves an unveiling of details or messages over an extended period of time. Through several steps, the marketer works to capture attention, pique interest, create a desire to buy, and then call the customer to action. These steps aren’t new to most marketers; they are known as the classic AIDA marketing formula (attention, interest, desire, action). It is the basis for most marketing campaigns today.
Although AIDA isn’t new, the journey of how it started showing up on Instagram is worth understanding. From the print advertising world of 1899, to the direct response marketers of the 1950s, to the Internet marketers of the 1990s, to the smartphone marketers of today, AIDA has stood the test of time and been adapted to many different forms. Its application to smartphones via Instagram is another step in its evolution. Let’s look at how it got there.
A catalog marketer named Fred Macey first wrote about the four-step plan that has become known as AIDA in 1899. That year, the Bissell Carpet Sweeper Company held a contest and asked Macey to be the expert judge. The contest was to see who could make the best advertisement for Bissell’s carpet-cleaning machines. Macey’s guidelines were described as follows:
1st. The advertisement must receive “Attention,” 2d. Having attention it must create “Interest,” 3d. Having the reader’s interest it must create “Desire to Buy,” 4th. Having created the desire to buy it should help “Decision.” (“The Bissell Prize Advertisement Contest,” Hardware, March 1900, p. 44, from Wikipedia)
In Minneapolis in 1925, the Burma-Shave company started using roadside signs to sell its product—shaving cream. The signs became a hallmark of outdoor display advertising in the early years of the American highway system. The Burma-Shave signs were developed to contain six brief messages, each message on a different sign. As drivers would pass them, the full message of the campaign would be revealed. The sign campaigns ran successfully from 1925 through 1962. An example of the sign messages is as follows:
Our fortune
Is your
Shaven face
It’s our best
Advertising space
Burma-Shave
As roads improved and speeds increased, it became a less effective way to use the AIDA model. But the concept of using AIDA in a multimessage serial way was born. The breakthrough was that you could break the AIDA model into multiple messages and share them over time. Although the roadside signs ended, AIDA moved on to new platforms, including direct mail.
Direct response marketers became very accustomed to using the AIDA model. Direct mail, it seemed, was a natural way to apply the method. The best direct response marketers and agencies perfected the model through constant testing and refinement. Over time, they learned that advertisements that were longer, with lots of copy and product information, were better than shorter-form ads. Through the long-form letter, you have the chance to fully develop each of the elements of the AIDA model. The customer gets engaged, convinced, and, through involvement, sold.
By the 1990s the AIDA model was very common in all forms of direct response marketing. It worked in display ads in newspapers and magazines, outdoor display ads, direct mail, and television, and it was about to find its way onto the Internet.
The first version of the AIDA model on the Internet was simply an adaptation of the long-form sales letter, modified for web pages. The beauty of this version of the AIDA model was that a shopping cart link could be included in the ad, allowing good copywriters to immediately make sales. Yet another context, but again, the AIDA model worked.
Soon Internet marketers realized that capturing e-mail addresses and sending prospects a series of messages to generate a sale was yet another version of the model. The system, still very much used today, includes two steps. First, the marketer captures the e-mail address from a prospect in the targeted niche or industry, and then in subsequent e-mail messages the marketer uses the AIDA model to sell all sorts of related products in that niche.
Jeff Walker, a Colorado-based Internet marketer, is widely regarded as a pioneer in adapting the AIDA model to the task of launching a product on the Internet in a serial way. Jeff wrote a stock market newsletter and wanted a way to engage prospective customers with the hope of signing them up for his monthly paid subscription. Starting with a very small list, and with the AIDA model in serial form adapted to the Internet, he built a six-figure business in six days. His use of the model worked.
He first used e-mails as the method to share the AIDA content as separate but related messages. Later, he pioneered the use of videos to engage with prospective customers. His approach was to break the long-form sales letter into a series of unique messages, each building toward the launch of the product. He called it the “sideways sales letter.” It was the AIDA model in a serial format, a la Burma-Shave signs, applied to an information product launch.
Jeff has helped literally thousands of marketers adapt this model to their products. It works for both physical and digital products and for low-value items as well as very high-priced items. Our first use of his model was in support of our Design Academy program. It is a $79 course that teaches people the basics of effective fashion design. We run it a few times a year. Before using his model, we averaged 20 students per class. When we used his system to market the course, we had over 100 students enroll. We were shocked at the effectiveness.
As you might guess, the AIDA model has found its way onto Instagram. There are two primary models in use. Let’s look at each one and see how it might apply to your business. The first one is rather obvious; the second one might take you more time to learn but might end up having a larger impact on your business.
You only focus on one of two goals when you are a direct marketer: to get a lead for a future sale or to get a sale. There is no other outcome you are focused on. The two-step lead generation model is designed to accomplish the first goal—getting a lead. The basic premise of any social media site is, in some ways, a two-step lead generation methodology. The steps involved in a two-step lead generation model are as follows:
1. Capture the prospects’ attention and then pique their interest. The call to action is to have them follow you on the site.
2. Effectively market to your followers. If you’re on Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, YouTube, or Twitter, you’re using a two-step lead generation model. But you didn’t need to buy this book to learn that you’re supposed to get people to follow you on Instagram and then market to them.
The difference between a social media two-step lead generation process and a more traditional two-step process is that in the more traditional setting, you are focused on getting an e-mail address or mailing address. Then the second step is done via those media. You can use Instagram to complete this strategy very simply. Just advertise a free product on Instagram and let people know that to get their free copy they need to visit your website or landing page. On that site, you collect their e-mail address, and then you fulfill the promise of delivering the free product.
Let’s look at the second type of multistep campaign in more detail. You may be less familiar with this type of campaign strategy, so I’ll spend more time explaining it. It is working very well for lots of companies on Instagram. Let’s jump into this technique, which I call a “visual product launch.”
Not only is a visual product launch on Instagram possible, but it is also easy. It is an adaptation of the AIDA model in the tradition of Jeff Walker’s product launch method, but it has been applied to Instagram using pictures as the primary marketing content. This model is yet another twist on the AIDA model and is clearly working for the pioneering marketers that are implementing the approach on Instagram. The exciting part about this is that it represents the AIDA model being used on smartphones. The timeless model lives on once again, this time in a postcomputer way.
Each business will implement the visual product launch strategy differently, but in general, the strategy conforms to the following steps. See if you can adapt them to your situation.
1. Attention. Share an image of a new product and explain what you’re working on. This is a way of revealing a new product in a manner that will get people’s attention. Frequently this is a physical product, but it could also work well for a digital product. The picture can be a behind-the-scenes photo, or it might be a picture of the “under-construction” version of the product. It can also be a picture that positions the product in a fun or interesting way. Your goal is to capture people’s attention and get them to take notice. Having your followers like or comment on your new image is a bonus action. The main goal is to have them be excited to have seen it.
2. Interest. Build interest and enthusiasm by sharing pictures of the behind-the-scenes work involved in launching the product. Answer questions that people ask in the comment section and explain further details. This step is important for two reasons: First, to capture people’s interest by sharing the images and information. Second, to gauge people’s interest and learn from their input. If you frequently use the visual product launch strategy for products, you’ll begin to see differences in the level of enthusiasm and learn more about your customers’ preferences and interests.
3. Desire. People want what they can’t have. It’s human nature. So part of the visual product launch strategy is to put out images and information prior to the item being available as a way to intensify people’s desire. By announcing a specific product launch date, you escalate people’s anticipation for getting the item and give them time to plan for the purchase, building up a level of excitement.
4. Action. The beautiful part of the visual product launch strategy is that because you’ve done a lot of preselling, you can do a very soft close. The prospective buyers will be very enthusiastic to buy. In fact, if you’ve done the first three steps effectively, the call to action can be very matter-of-fact.
Closing the deal and confirming the order will look different for different products and services, but there are two common elements. First, if the product or service is going to be limited in some way, then the call to action needs to have the clear dates or other details. If the product is going to be a part of your regular ongoing catalog of offers, then it is frequently a good idea to give some type of extra benefit to the people who are your initial buyers. These can look different for different circumstances, but it can frequently take the form of a launch bonus for the first 1,000 buyers, or perhaps it could be an extra gift for people who order during the first day. Give them something tangible, practical, and generous.
At Liberty Jane Clothing, we recently launched a new style of doll shoes that we call Janes. They are doll-sized alpargatas shoes, also known as espadrilles, like the very popular TOMS brand. Here is how we used Instagram to conduct a visual product launch. As an important side note, we make these shoes in small batches by hand in the United States, and we always immediately sell out when we make them available for purchase. Here is how we use Instagram to help us achieve this success.
In the attention-getting step, we strive to position an image as fascinating, unique, fun, or compelling. This will be different for each company—and very different from one niche to another. For our Janes, we took this simple image shown in Figure 13.1.
Figure 13.1 To get people’s attention, we showed Janes next to TOMS.
In the interest-getting step, we strive to share a message that informs people who are attracted by the original picture. Our interest step, as shown in Figure 13.2, was to show another product image with the following message: “Behind the scenes, getting the JANES ready to list!”
Figure 13.2 This image and message is meant to do one thing–attract prospect’s interest.
In the desire stage, our goal is to provide another sneak-peek image and give an update on the status of the product. In the case of our Janes, as Figure 13.3 shows, we shared another image and then added this message: “Red JANES coming soon to Liberty Jane Clothing!”
Figure 13.3 In the desire stage, we provide more exciting pictures and a message to build enthusiasm.
In the action step, we simply mentioned to people that the shoes were available and included a smiley face (see Figure 13.4). No pressure, no hard sale, just the facts.
Figure 13.4 In the action stage, we simply let people know the shoes are available. No pressure tactics are necessary.
Conducting a visual product launch and only using Instagram as the launch platform is probably a serious mistake. The only reason I can imagine doing it is to test the efficacy of the Instagram platform to drive sales—in other words, as an experiment to examine the power of Instagram. As with any other site, there are pros and cons to using it for any job. Let’s look at the pros and cons briefly and then discuss what an integrated campaign might look like.
A visual product launch on Instagram is a launch optimized for smartphones. There is a lot of wisdom in that!
Images are generally the most powerful product-selling devices.
You can leverage hashtags to expand your reach beyond your usual followers.
The Instagram platform only allows for a very short-form copywriting strategy, which is unfortunate.
Instagram is a feed-based distribution system, so there is a good chance that even your followers won’t see your image. They might not be on Instagram when you share it.
There is no ability to share a direct link to your e-commerce site. You can include the URL, but it won’t have an active hyperlink. Maybe this will change in the future, but for now it is a drawback.
Unless you’re running an experiment, an ideal product launch will leverage your existing social media and web assets, including, of course, e-mail. Why not bring all your weapons to the battle? Your goal is to use each social platform for its highest and best use: images on Instagram and Pinterest, videos on YouTube, quick updates on Twitter. Facebook can serve as a host for almost any type of content, and so any images you create can be shared on Instagram and Pinterest and then published to Facebook. Videos can be shared on YouTube and then published to Facebook and Pinterest. All your content can potentially be included, or at least mentioned, in e-mails. An ideal visual product launch will include a collection of e-mail messages that use your rich media content and help expand and explain the basic story.
In Part 5, we’ll work to integrate Instagram with your other social media platforms. There are specific tactics and actions you can take today to extend and improve the power of your Instagram work. When you combine Instagram in this way, you make each of your social media platforms stronger.