How to attract customers on Instagram when I'm a small creator?
Today, I've prepared an article for you on a topic that is very close to my heart. I started as a small creator about 5 years ago with my mom, whom I wanted to help build a small income. She wanted to sew for children, so I, on maternity leave, agreed that we would do it together and I would help her. At that time, I was working with websites :-) Sewing was quite foreign to me. Nevertheless, in a relatively short time, I figured out how to find customers and have enough work and earn a living through sewing.
In this article, I have 5 tips for you on how to attract customers on Instagram if you are a small creator and want to make a living from sewing.
My first piece of advice might sound strange when we're talking about success on Instagram, but it's advice number one. Among the readers, there are certainly those who might have a Facebook group but no Instagram account at all. So, that's why. First, you need to set up an Instagram account. So that you can even apply my advice.
I recommend switching it to a professional account immediately so that you have access to advanced tools such as statistics and the ability to link your account to an e-shop and tag your products. These are powerful tools that are worth having.
The second step is to make your profile PUBLIC. You won't achieve much with a hidden private account because no one will find you. The third step is to fill in your BIO attractively and interestingly (the profile allows you to create a short introduction in your profile header), upload a logo or your photo to the prepared "circle" in the header, and start creating posts.
What kind of posts should you create and what should you do to make them effective?
1. Focus on your customer
My first big piece of advice is to focus on your customer. When a creator asks me for advice on how to sell their products, the first thing I do is look at their profile and then their website. I often see one fundamental mistake, and that is that the profile targets EVERYONE and actually NO ONE.
Note: Targeting: - Is a concept that describes which specific people your products and promotion should appeal to. Who is the customer?
If I see crocheted balloons on a seamstress's profile, a few posts later painted mugs, and then softshell clothing again, it's a mess that customers also see. I dare say you won't find a single person who is interested in softshell clothing, crocheted balloons, and painted mugs at the same time.
Correct targeting is key. You simply have to ask yourself, what do I want to focus on. Is it the mugs? Or the yarn? Or is it the softshell items? You can't have everything. Even if your logic says otherwise. The logic of an uninformed person says that if I have as much and as diverse an offer as possible, then everyone who passes by might buy something. But the catch is that on social media, people don't just "pass by" as they used to, when our great-grandmothers stood at markets shouting "hides, skins, knitted socks, sweaters...".
This is not how people behave on social media. People spend time on social media not because they want to choose from a diverse stall, but because they want to BE ENTERTAINED when they are bored. Instagram is not a sales channel. It is not a shop window or a stall.
To get someone to follow you, that is, to click the FOLLOW button, you have to do much more work than just displaying everything you can currently make.
You need to choose what has the greatest potential for you. If it's sewing and not crocheting, okay. Stop posting all the other clutter and dedicate yourself to that specific thing.
But be careful. The work isn't over. In fact, a huge amount of work is just beginning, and it will be difficult and demanding. But that's what entrepreneurship is, and anyone who says it isn't is lying. In the next step, you need to clarify who the person is who ideally should follow you and buy from you. Create a DETAILED PROFILE of your ideal customer. And not just any profile, but a very, very specific one. This profile will help you clarify who you are offering to and can also help you with questions like pricing and product availability.
Maybe you've read this somewhere before and thought it was unnecessary, that it's just about a few pairs of sewn trousers. But it's a big mistake to think that. I myself have a well-structured customer profile that I constantly keep in mind. And as soon as something doesn't go according to plan, I immediately refer back to it.
2. Don't make your feed a photo album of memories
I often see creators' profiles as a photo album or a memory book and a bragging space all in one. Each post is a product photo and a memory of who ordered this product from you in the past. I also often see information in the post that this pattern, fabric, piece is no longer available because you no longer have the material. And how much you thank your mom for purchasing it.
You mean well. You show everything you can do. But at the same time, you're informing people that you can't sew anything else. It's like having an old flyer at the checkout in a store and people asking the sales assistants about sale items. But the sales assistants always tell them they no longer have it. That would probably annoy people quite a bit.
As a customer, that would probably put me off. Why are they showing me what they don't have? Your customers think this way too. Don't display what you don't have.
How to do it better?
Focus on what you have. Don't reinvent the wheel. Show what you have and don't constantly try to find new and new things. Try to get the most out of what you have.
Create posts, carousels where you will show what you have in stock from different angles /recycle one theme/ or you can sell and sew. If you make one post with one fabric and then jump to another and another, you probably won't sell the first one again. You have to repeat the good stuff over and over until it gains its audience and you sell out the fabric. But then stop, and once it's sold out, don't mention that item again.
A common phenomenon among creators is that they order fabric or materials in small quantities for stock, and then it is very easy to sell out such materials. The creator sews one piece, manages to photograph it, and before they make a post, the fabric is gone, and lo and behold, a customer is looking for it. You tell them you don't have it and show them others. Maybe they'll choose, but 90% of the time they're in love with that one and will be disappointed.
This needs to be addressed at the outset by creating a sales and turnover system that will help you not lose customers like on a conveyor belt, and on the contrary, help you gain them eagerly awaiting their order.
3. Create impressions and appeal to emotions
It has always been and always will be true that when it comes to buying non-essential items, people primarily act on the basis of primitive, shortcut processes. There's nothing wrong with that. Our brains are so extremely busy that using shortcuts in decision-making is simply advantageous for us as a species.
Among the shortcuts that lead to a purchase are definitely the feelings that a given item evokes in us. Specifically, whether it triggers a reaction in us that we recognize and find pleasant. In short, if what we see seems interesting, beautiful, attractive, or familiar enough, we are more likely to buy it.
Everyone then draws on their own experiences and what they consider beautiful, right, and attractive in the context of life. A different color, a different light, a different texture will leave the necessary impression on everyone.
Therefore, it is important to show people posts where your products create some impression. A story. Something that will evoke in all your customers a feeling of "wanting to be there and be a part of it". You must enable the customer to identify with and want to create similar impressions with your product.
How to create impressions and emotions?
It's not that hard. You can create impressions by, for example, taking a series of lifestyle photographs with children in your clothing. You often don't even have to pay for it, because they can be your own children. You don't even have to tell anyone they are yours. Just take the photos and start showing them regularly. You don't need to write long texts for such photos. If the photo captures what you want to show well, a kilometer-long description is not necessary.
If you're not planning a new collection launch, as I did, where people waited for the first info and read the descriptions, then don't bother people with softshell parameters and other technicalities.
Stick to the principle: Unless the item being sold is very expensive and serves a very specific purpose, there is no need to mention its parameters in Instagram posts at all. People aren't interested anyway. They buy with a completely different hemisphere than the one you are trying to appeal to with such a description. And that's why your efforts will be in vain.
Take your time selecting photos, and if you don't have a professional photographer, edit them to fit the feed.
What works in photos and activates the right center in our brain?
- Close-ups - these are shots capturing a certain detail
- Faces - faces are important, they help us identify
- Smile - just like faces, smiles work a lot and well
- Activity - capturing movement, but beware of blurry photos
- Different nationalities - it works great, try it and don't be afraid
4. No 'we', but 'I'
This is very important. People like to follow people. People don't really like to follow companies. Make your profile a human's profile, and you'll have one of the biggest trump cards in your pocket: authenticity.
Once you start being authentic, you stop being a stranger and start building a name and trust with people.
I often see a company with an anonymous "WE". Everything you see on the profile is always done by We. You'll find it on our e-shop. We'll do it right away. Our offer. We offer, we sew locally...
All terribly inauthentic talk and no action.
How to be authentic?
First, you have to start talking to people as a person, not as a company. Delete "We" and replace it with "I". And ideally with an address. I am Ivana and I sew wedding clothes for you. I am Dana and I can dress children for bad weather... I am Mirka and I can sew things that will make children's eyes light up.
Don't you think that sounds better than: "Our offer of great and high-quality fabrics with GOTS blah blah blah..."?
Start telling people who you are, sign your posts. Show your face. Your own. Not your children's. Of course, you can show them too, if appropriate, but believe me, people are more interested in what you do and create than in what your children did at the sandbox today. Once you stop using MY-TITLES, you get closer to people and can even involve them in your creative process. Show them how you do it. What you are working on. Use Reels and Stories.
5. Do what's trending
Yes, you'll hear it from me too, it's necessary to use trends like REELS, STORIES, CAROUSELS and try to get the most out of them for yourself and your business.
You won't help anyone, and I mean anyone, by boycotting the use of Reels, posting carousels, or using Stories.
These are the three most powerful tools for bringing in an audience, and if you say: "I won't do that, I won't pose anywhere," or "I'm scared, I'm useless, this isn't for me..." then you're only hurting yourself. Because it truly has potential, and you know it.
Comparison of a post and Reels
One regular post on my profile averages 1280 views and maybe 10 - 40 likes, zero comments, and zero saves.
An average Reel (I'm not counting the mega successful ones) has 4700 views, 53 likes, and maybe 10 comments and 25 saves.
All of this helps a lot. It helps your profile be discovered by more followers, and they can become buyers.
How to be trendy?
Start watching what trendy accounts in your niche are doing with Reels. What they use. What types of videos they use and save interesting songs and original sounds to your storage for later. Just stalk. Find out what works for others. What works for others will work for you too. It doesn't matter if you don't film it well the first time or don't have enough light. Enough of this and that. It's the same old story. You just have to start.
Animate the picture
Sometimes, to start, it's enough to start filming instead of photographing. Do you want to photograph a new piece? Rather, turn on the video and film it. You'll see the difference.
Don't forget. Where you speak, there must be captions. Subtitles. You can insert them directly when editing the video in the IG app, or you can make them in another app and then upload the finished video to IG. That's what I do.
Stories
Stay in touch with your followers. Inspire them. Show them what you're doing and what you're working on. Take them through the workshop, the process. Really start showing what interests them. Authenticity.
Believe that 99% of your followers will respond better to stories about your craft than to stories where you show your kids on a trip.
Who I am
Helena Lachowiczová
I am a creative soul, a pattern designer, I love sewing and marketing. And I love being able to do them together. Several years ago, I founded the Šibabi brand and sewed beautiful collections of children's clothing for customers. Now I'm a bit further along and mainly create for others. Patterns for home sewers and guiding women on their sewing journey and beginnings in sewing. I also focus on small business owners, showing them how to truly earn and do what they love.
