How to Build Your Brand on Instagram

Mary Harcourt.m4a Hi guys, my name is Mary Harcourt. We are at the Gatsby Mansion in Austin, Texas as part of the BDSS Market Masters event. So today I want to go over something that as I sit in on these panels, I'm hearing a lot of people struggle with. How do they build an audience off the platform of Amazon? And I'm going to talk to you today. I only have 10 minutes, so I'm going to go really fast. And if you don't understand a term, go ahead and Google it. But we're going to be talking about how to build your brand on Instagram. So why Instagram? It is a video and photo platform. Many people, including yourself, probably have products that are explained better through a video or through multiple pictures rather than just reading text. And Instagram gives you a great platform to do that and really expand on not just your product line, but who you are as a brand. It allows you to connect with your audience. These are the people in the real field using your product. They want to know more. They want to dive deeper and they want to feel connected to your brand. Instagram has over two billion users. And fun fact, almost 70 percent of people will check an Instagram page before they go to a brand's website. So this is the new trending extension of your website, extension of your brand. And it's really important. So we're going to dive right in on how you can get set up for you, your brand or your product. You're going to go into Instagram. And make a business page. There are three ones you could pick from: a creator's profile, a personal profile or a business. I recommend business. And even if you have one that's kind of business, kind of personal, split them up. Keep your personal personal and your business business. You want to be able to promote your brand and have people connect with your brand. What you do in your personal time. Let that be your personal time. So we'll set up an Instagram page on the business. First thing first is you're going to have this here, This is your logo or your profile, picture something that sets you apart. People are going to identify it and instantly be able to say, oh, that's the brand that I have the product in my pocket. For me, it's a logo. But for you, maybe it is a picture of your face or a pet or whatever launches your brand. Second, we have it's called the handle, also known as a username. And you want to pick something that is unique to your brand. And I would try to get something that makes perfect sense with your brand. Or your product title in it. There is over two billion people on Instagram, so you might have to be creative in how you work around that. But you want to be able to have people land on your page, see your logo, read your username and go, 'That's what I'm looking for.' Then you come down here. You can fill this out however you want. It's kind of an extension of your username. It's more detail. So maybe you have a way of putting your product up here, but then this tells the people who you are, what your brand is. What your brand is about, what your product is about. Don't worry about these. Don't worry about your followers. It really doesn't matter. We're using this as a connection tool to your audience and follower account. It doesn't matter to get that connection. Then we have your bio. So I see a lot of people mess this up and they just skip this part. This is so important. You want to say who you are, what you're all about and what makes you special. And as Instagram moves away from hashtags. It's moving into keywords and SEO. So if you have something that's identified with keywords, that's your place to put it. Next one down. You can have a message button. This goes straight to a DM. You can also have contact you. So if you want someone to email you, send someone to phone call you, this is where you would put that information and it allows you to pick. For me, I don't really like phone calls, so they can DM me, which is this message button here. Another one you should check out is shop. And that allows you to pick. All of your products on shoppable links on Instagram. So if someone says, 'I love that UGC user generated content video that just went up and I must have that product,' it's a really easy connection for them to say, 'I love that video.' Boom. I'm going to buy it. Next, we have the highlight reel. So these highlight reels are when you share a story, a story is going to be up here and what it is when people tag you, which is like, I love this brand. I'm going to tag them because I just made. I made a video about it. You're going to get a little DM that says so and so shared your story. Click into that. It'll be on your messages, which usually is the you'll see a little notification button up here. Click into that. You'll see a button at the bottom that says add to your story. Go ahead and add that to your story. It's going to show here. And what that does is you just added value to your customer by saying, hey, thank you for tagging me. Thank you for showing my product or my brand to your entire audience. And I'm going to go ahead and repost you. To say, thank you. And then when you post a story, all of your followings can see it. But the great thing is you can save it. So these become saveable stories. It's a great place to put any upcoming events. Maybe you have tips and tricks, a great place for reviews, anything that makes your brand important or special. Maybe it's an about you or any competitive advantage is going to go in these highlight reels and they're very customizable. Then comes your post section. So this is where the magic happens. So a transaction is very transactional. You get it one time and sometimes they'll come back to stay by again. But when we build a platform or we build your audience off the platforms, you're cultivating relationships. So people feel connected to you. They want to like double dive, dive deep into who you are, what you're all about. And so we're going to pin three videos here. Pinning is this little button here. You're going to see a menu when you click into your post, scroll down a little bit, you'll say pin to profile. That's these three pins. You can only pin three. But if it's up to me, I would tell you to do one. What's special about you? Maybe it's your brand story, how you got started, how you came to market. Anything that has to do with like, hey, here's who I am. Here's what makes my brand special. Second, this is a great place to put a properly done commercial. If you went to a studio and you're demoing your product and it's just a great shot of showing exactly what your brand is. What your product does, or maybe it's a deep dive into your brand. Maybe it's a deep dive into your entire product line, whatever it may be. Have that be your second one. And then third is up to you. It could be a great user-generated video of someone giving a video testimonial. I love this product. It changed my life. You guys should also get it. But those are your three, and you can put them however, whatever order. But I recommend pinning those three. So when you set your page up like this, it allows you to grab your product. You have your audience. So if you sell something on a marketplace, they pick it up. There's a QR code. Sometimes you can say things cute, like join our community or download a free PDF or follow us for fun tips. They scan that QR code, go straight to your Instagram. All of a sudden you have dominated and controlled the narrative on exactly what they're going to see. So they're going to see who you are, what your product's about, what your brand's about, how it works. All of this is kind of like a landing page. And. And you also have a links button here. Actually, it's this one. So this is also where the magic happens because as they share their stories, you're hitting their target audience. So you have access to put your product perfectly placed in front of someone else's Instagram following. If they say, 'I love this product so much, I'm going to tag the brand, share it to their story.' Now, all that they're following has to do is say, 'I want to know more.' Let me click the tag, land it back to this page. And here they are. They know exactly what your brand's called. They know the logo to look out for. They can read all about the bio, who you are. They can read your highlight story and take a deep dive into who you are, what the product or brand does. And all of a sudden they feel connected. And usually when they feel connected, they want to go to a link. So this link up here can be your Amazon site. It could be your website. It could be anything you want. And I recommend using a link tree. There's a couple out there like a Milkshake or anything like that. And what it does is allow you to take one link. But it opens up a menu so You could have this be just your website if you want to get started basic one-on-one, just to a website or maybe your Amazon listing. But if you want to go explore more, get a link tree and then you can put, 'Hey, find me on YouTube', follow me on TikTok, sign up for my newsletter and you can start building this audience that you're connected to, that they're connected to back because they feel like, 'Oh, my God, I made a story, put it up here and they tagged me.' They get that link. That little feeling of now I'm extra special. They recognized me and you have a customer for life for my brand. We are Light, a light for beauty professionals, and it does require assembly. So for us, we nurture the customer the whole way through the user manual. We hit them right when they get their light together with tag us. We want to see your space and we want to see your studio. They have this beautiful light. They want to show it off in the room. It looks great. They take a video, they tag us, that gives us the notification that we get to write back and go. Congratulations on your purchase. We are so excited to light up your workspace for you and welcome to the Cosmoglow family. Instantly they feel connected to the brand and I just got in front of all of their following, which usually is like-minded people that are also possible customers of mine. And the great thing about that is it removes a barrier, I don't want to ask the brand, this question. But I'm going to ask my friend, did it ship fast? Was it worth the price point? Do you love it? Was it bright enough? And then their friend gets to say, Oh my God, I'm getting so much attention. I love this. Yes, it's bright enough. I love it. It's the best light I've ever used in my life. And that person says, great, I'm going to buy one. And so using all of these tools, it's going to give your brand lifetime value off the platform and start to nurture a community. And on top of being all of that being amazing. It also goes to. If you ever want to. Exit your brand, having all of these platforms built, which we'll just focus on Instagram today. So having platforms like this that are built and they connect with your audience is bringing up the perceived value of your brand when you go to exit. So thank you so much. My name is Mary Harcourt. You can find me on Instagram at Mary_Harcourt with an underscore, and I wish you the best in setting up your Instagram for your business.