How to use Instagram to grow your Fashion Blog

It goes without saying that Instagram is today’s powerhouse of fashion when it comes to social media. More than any other social media network, Instagram is a real shrine to fashion, attracting an increasing number of publishers, enthusiasts and professionals. In other words, if you’re in the fashion industry (especially if you are a fashion blogger) you need to be present on Instagram.

For many fashion blogs, it’s not surprising that most of their traffic comes from social channels. That’s why this is a marketing channel you simply cannot afford to ignore. Take a look at these tips on how to use Instagram to grow your fashion blog and increase your audience, both on-site and on Instagram:

Use the Power of Influencers

There is a very good reason why we are mentioning the influencer marketing strategy as the number 1 Instagram resource for fashion brands. Fashion is extremely influencer-friendly and you will have the highest chances of increasing your readership if you cooperate with some of the big names in your niche.

However, for beginner bootstrapped blogs, it can be impossible to invest thousands of dollars for influencer marketing. In this case, you should focus on cooperating with micro or nano influencers. Their campaigns are more affordable, while research has shown that they have a higher engagement rate with their audience.

Many brands overestimate the power of bigger influencers compared to micro-influencers. This stereotype is especially flawed when we look at smaller blogs that want to promote via influencer posts. As you can see, many big brands are moving to micro-influencer marketing, so if you run a one-person blog, you definitely should, too.

Visuals First

When you’re promoting to the fashion audience, words will never get you as far as the good, old visual. So, even if you want to promote a snippet from your post or a quote from one of your articles, publish a gallery post where the visual will be at the forefront.

Use noticeable colors and contrasts, so that your visuals like images and videos don’t get lost in everyone’s captivating and competitive feeds. Use one of the most popular fashion hashtags – OOTD or Outfit of the Day – to feature some of your favorite looks. OOTD is also a great way to make sure that you post regularly and consistently, so your audiences can start counting on your posts and articles.

Create Perfect Captions

Captions have become somewhat of a holy grail in the Instagram community. You can often hear people saying that they follow someone not for the content they published, but for the captions that go along with that content.

If you feel like the caption area is just a place where you can put all of your hashtags, you are dead wrong. The caption option is your chance to differentiate from other fashion insta and feature some of the snippets from your blog.

If you’re not sure how to go about it, find writing professionals who can do it for you: ClassyEssay (writers for research and captions), Fiverr (find experienced writers in any domain), TopEssayWriting (hire Instagram experts for perfect captions).

Create a juicy trailer for your most recent post, along with an interesting description of the image you posted and “link in bio” and expect a surge in social media visitors. If you did an interview with a person working in fashion, extract your favorite quote from the article and place it at the beginning of the caption post.

Consider Promoted Posts

If you have a hefty marketing budget and you want to grow your blog, next to SEO optimization and Google ads, Instagram might be the best choice when it comes to sponsored posts. These kinds of ads will allow you to target an audience with narrow interests, which will increase the chances that your content reaches only those who are really interested in your content.

This is definitely the easiest and quickest way to grow your fashion blog, but it’s not organic, which means that you might end up losing these readers and visitors in the long term. However, if your content is high-quality and attractive, you can count on returning visitors, even from those coming from promoted posts.

Use the Right Hashtags

It goes without saying that hashtags are still the best way to get found on Instagram. They’re great because they will get you a surge in traffic, likes and comments as soon as you post, but you will also land a significant amount of followers just from these hashtags.

Before you start throwing hashtags all over the place, it’s smart to do research first and discover hashtag popularity on Instagram. You can do this just as you would with search queries on Google.

There is also a limit of 30 hashtags per post, so you need to be smart about which ones you’re going to use. As you know, you can add hashtags both in your caption and in the comment section. When you add to the caption, make sure it’s on the bottom of the text, i.e. after all the “actual” words from the caption. These are the top hashtags related to fashion blogs:

Image source: Hopper HQ

It’s also recommended that you embed your Instagram hashtags naturally, like #this, as you’re #writing your caption – instead of just posting a bulk of them. Still, you should choose the approach that works best for you, because even some of the biggest fashion bloggers post captions in bulk, without embedding them into the natural flow of the text.

Add an Insta Feed to your Website

As much as Instagram can serve to promote your fashion blog, it can work the other way around when you add an Insta feed to your website. It’s something all major fashion blogs do, and it’s really simple to set up. If you’re publishing on WordPress, you can use some of the free plugins available that will connect your Insta account to your WordPress page and refresh any time you upload a new post:

Image source: Free Instagram Followers Social Proof

It’s perfect for fashion blogs because it’s highly visual, but all photos are yours, so you don’t have to ruin the aesthetic with textual credits!

Conclusion

Let your blog and your Instagram page serve as complementary marketing channels that will be different, but closely connected and entwined. Always mention your website on your Instagram profile – and always add a feed or use your own Instagram posts in articles and publications.

Fashion blogs have the biggest success and have consistent growth in the audience if their followers can have a multi-channel experience with their brand. Be one of those blogs that will be present on all major social media not as a company, but as a friend.