What if you could turn a hobby you love into a thriving business? South Van Der Lee took her passion for knitwear and après ski fashion to grow GOGO Sweaters into the successful brand it is today. As president and designer, South works with a team of knitters in Calgary, Canada, to create handmade luxury designs.
Today, you can find GOGO Sweaters in stores like Free People, Revolve, and Holt Renfrew, thanks to international demand for the brand. One of the biggest levers of growth for GOGO Sweaters is its Instagram account. Over the years, South has put together a successful recipe to help her create engaging posts that drive engagement and increase sales.
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4 tips for creating social media content that converts
Ahead, South shares her four tips for creating Instagram content that will help you attract new customers.
1. Stick to a theme
South wants most of her products shot in the snow in Canada so viewers can get an authentic feel for what the brand is all about. These images depict a consistent aspirational lifestyle that attracts an audience of winter sport lovers.
“Skiing will always be the anchoring point, and when I decided that, that’s when things really started taking off [on Instagram],” South says. People like familiarity on social media. It will make your brand easier to remember, and identifiable characteristics can help a brand travel faster to the right audiences by word of mouth.
2. Capture a lifestyle
“It’s really hard to sell someone on a flat image, especially in the luxury business. You have to sell a fantasy too,” South says.
When capturing photos of your products, include lifestyle shots to give social media users an idea of what life would be like if they too owned the item. “It’s really important to have photos that the shopper can put themselves into,” South says.
With so many shopping options, potential customers need to be able to picture themselves in your products to justify the purchase.
3. Think outside the box
To catch people’s attention on social media, standing out from the competition should be your goal. “You want to get people thinking about how they would want to wear your product, your brand,” South says.
One example she shares is posting daily to her Instagram Stories, showing different ways she wears her GOGO sweater to work. Some of them are less traditional than others. “I want people to re-envision how they wear their clothes, so I’m trying to train people to wear sweaters over things instead of under,” South says.
This approach helps draw people in, piques their interest in the brand, and makes the Instagram page an enjoyable follow for users.
4. Set up shop
South has found that most customers are shopping on their phones, so she makes sure to shoot and post content with this perspective in mind.
To make things easier on her followers, South connects her Shopify store to the product images on Instagram. When her site is working with Instagram Shop it makes each of the photos shoppable and speeds up the checkout process all together. “This was a big moment of change for our sales,”South says.
While growing your Instagram following will take time, these four steps can help you simultaneously grow an audience and convert them into loyal customers.
To hear more of South’s social media marketing tips and discover her best strategy for negotiating with retailers, tune in to the full Shopify Masters episode.
