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[MUSIC PLAYING] I have noticed that having several different accounts, maybe, does that help your Instagram following grow, like having to be able to cross-platform or cross-promote? Yeah, well, rather than being, like, three different accounts for your one brand, creating vertical accounts within your niche. So rather than Toronto the account shouting out your account, using Toronto the account to shout out another account that you've made that's similar to the Toronto account, and you'll see, like, those followers will follow across there a lot more than they would toward a branded account.
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So you'd take those followers across to that account, and if you can grow that account to, you know, like, 10,000 followers, then you can use those 10,000 followers to leverage your brand as much as you like, because it's your own kind of account to then grow your account. It's kind of like a funnel. Right. And then using that, especially in Stories now, are a really good way to subtly advertise a product without having to have it on the feed, so that when people go there, they're not put off following the account.
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[MUSIC PLAYING] One last thing I'd say is because you do have, like, quite an engaged following as well, with 4,700 followers right now, I would say that things like trying to convert your followers from Instagram into your email subscribers to then sell to-- do you do a lot of email marketing or a little bit?
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Yeah. A lot of my sales come from my email marketing ads. Yeah. Same. We have a really huge email list. Yeah. Great. The only thing is just because I'm not at 10,000 followers, I can't do the swipe up thing. Of course. So it complicates things a little bit, in terms of directing people from let's say, your post or your story to oh, click the link in the bio. People don't usually like doing that. I think that the way to get them to click that link is through an incentive.
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So it still has worked really well, like, with The 5th for example, my watch company. When we started that, there was no such thing, like, even though we're above 10,000 followers, you still couldn't do the linking directly to a post. And still, we grew the majority, in fact, almost all of our email list through our Instagram presence. And it was just in terms of-- with The 5th, it was a call-to-action to do with our whitelist and the ability to kind of jump the queue to definitely have access to that product.
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Like, what I was going to suggest to convert a bit, like, more of the Instagram traffic into your email subscribers would be to even-- you know how you have five products in the box, have, like, one extra, where if you've signed up through a certain-- like, if you've signed up in a certain way or maybe if you've subscribed before the box launched, so that could be a good way to get more sign-ups through Instagram.
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But yeah, it sounds like everything's converting really well at the moment, if you're selling out and like, selling-- Well, I still feel like because the brands-- because we co-share, myself and the brands, we co-share the costs of the product, they like to see a lot of engagement on social media, as well as an opportunity for them to be promoted through social media.
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Not that they particularly need it, but it's just something great for them to have, right? Yeah. So I feel like I have-- the number of subscribers I have it doesn't reflect on my Instagram engagement, and that's something-- it reflects on Facebook, because there's actually, like, a Tribe Beauty Box group. That's a good problem to have, though, because that means that rather than incentivizing people across to maybe email for example, you should be doing it the opposite way around, and incentivizing email subscribers to follow you on Instagram.
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Oh, that's true. I didn't actually-- yeah. So maybe doing, like, a giveaway or something really, like, exciting and collaborative with your email subscribers, so that they're able to interact more as well. Or, yeah, things like encouraging more user-generated content to be taken, like, you already have a great branded hashtag, except at the same time, you could kind of be encouraging, like, with a pick of the day or something. Like, we were discussing featuring, which is a free thing that you can do, and you can easily incorporate today.
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Yeah. Exactly. [MUSIC PLAYING] What type of, I would say, giveaways would you say is the most beneficial for your Instagram page, specifically? I would definitely say, there's two kinds that would come to mind for you guys. So a tag-to-win competition, which utilizes the people that are already following your page, and asks them to kind of refer your product to a friend in a way.
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So it's just tag to win, so basically, you tag a friend on the post. You both win box each. OK. Awesome. So that's really easy, and so that's a really good one because it's kind of, you know, it's turning your followers into your brand advocates, or referrers, which you're already doing a great job of with your ambassadors as well. Like, your people that have like an affiliate kind of discount. Correct.
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Yeah. Yeah, which is awesome. [MUSIC PLAYING] How can I encourage engagement to then post on my Instagram? Yeah, yeah, definitely. There's a few different ways. And if your customer's, like, in that kind of old demographic and may not find you always directly through social, a good way can be including, like, even-- it can be handwritten or you can get it printed out, like, thank you card that encourages them to post.
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Right. And maybe shows a few examples of, like, if you do do maybe a branded hashtag where you feature those customers from that hashtag, you could show on the card a few examples of some of your favorite posts from those, and say, like, that you re-post your favorite ones to your feed. Right. Or that they could go in the draw to win, like, a certain product like a pair of earrings, or, you know, one of the lower-cost products can be really a good way, like, saying like, once a month, we give away a pair of earrings to our photo of the month kind of thing.
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OK. So you can run, like-- you can-- it's just basically incentivizing them. And whether that incentive is through exposure, so by being featured on your Instagram page, or whether that's through discount for example, like everybody that posts gets, like, a 10% off their next order or something, can be a really easy way to do it. They, like, post and then DM you the post or something, and you send back the discount code can work quite well.
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OK. Right. Just encouraging your email subscribers to then follow you on Instagram with an incentive. Not all the time, of course, but just like, when it's relevant. Like, or doing a campaign to do that, like, do you have an email database? I do. Yeah. And I've had it since the beginning, and it's quite-- I would say it's maybe more powerful sometimes for me, because it's that type of client that would engage and read a newsletter more, maybe, than like, an Instagram post.
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You know what I mean? In that age group, where they're used to this type of marketing, maybe? Yeah. Yeah, of course. Yeah, that makes complete sense. Yeah. They-- yeah. Like, it's great to follow you across different channels as well. If they are more inclined to read even a newsletter, then that kind of compressed content style of Instagram can actually be sometimes quite appealing to them. So I think that you'd be surprised how many people within that demographic are quite active on Instagram.
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And the great thing is within that older demographic, rather than, like, millennial sort of demographic that are used to mass following, they're following a lot less accounts. So the fact that they're following you means a lot more than just when they're following, like, 3,000 people. They'll see your post more, they're engaged with those posts more, so they're actually, like, a lot of a higher quality follower. So my struggle comes from that client that maybe hasn't met me, or seen me, or talked to me, and bringing them into the fold, I guess.
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Exactly. So I think that, like, the step in the funnel that you're probably maybe not focusing on as much might be that referral step. Right. So if you have a really strong following, and they do kind of trust you and know you, they're even more likely, to like-- you're even more likely to be able to leverage that relationship a little bit. Sure.
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And that doesn't, you know, it doesn't have to be a one-way street at all. Like, you can incentivize that in some ways with maybe, like a repeat, like, small discount again. Or through Instagram, you can do things like tag to win competitions, where they tag a friend of theirs to win a product for even maybe for that friend. Because if they've already bought the product in the past, it might be a nice thing to be, like, tag your friend and you're putting them in the chance to win.
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And you just-- you add as an extra element that that friend and them both need to be following your account. So every time they tag someone, they see your account, and they see the requirements for entry, they'll join as well. Or just, sorry, outside of user-generated content, them tagging or sharing your posts with friends can work really well. Like, creating, like, nice little text-based posts or stories that are able to be shared really easily, or like, via email, like, things that are able to be shared to their social media more easily.
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And having a particular hashtag for that so that you can track it and like, say thank you, or send them a discount code, or whatever else, can be, like, a really nice way to leverage that. That you can still be really genuine and authentic in getting your customers to work for you, it doesn't necessarily-- I completely understand. And I think I'm so used to my brands not necessarily always functioning within that space that I forget that so many people are wary of things like asking their, like, customers to do things for them.
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But it's the basic principle of reciprocity, where, like, you give something, you get something. Sure. So if they're willing to give you something, like, just if you give them something back in return, it's a really authentic relationship. And that's the same with engagement groups as well. Like, you're engaging mutually with each other's content. It's not necessarily-- so it's for those accounts that are interested in maybe growing their, like, reach as well.
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So if they're interested in that, and they're growing with you, then it's a really great way to do that. [MUSIC PLAYING]
