10 Jan A Lesson In Selling Luxury Through Instagram (While Making Millions)
This is an article mostly for those who are in possession of or have access to rare and fine luxury items. It’s also for those aspiring to sell more through social media and grow their brand’s sales funnel. A recent article on Bloomberg about a supercar broker from Miami has sold millions by Instagram thanks to his passion for automobiles and social following.
I want to talk a bit how this works and how you can hone in on this marketing strategy to reach a UHNW audience using only Instagram. Keep in mind that it works best when you have access to luxury products, and in our case today that rare luxury product is supercars.
The article is focused on Brett David who owns Prestige Imports out in Miami. Mr David is no stranger to being the topic of an article so do look him up. The topic of the day is, however, how Instagram alone can get your product in front of millions with just a few swipes. Not only that, but if you’re creative enough there’s opportunity beyond this social stream.
Reaching UHNW Clients
The Bloomberg article linked above has a few juicy tidbits that should really inspire you to think seriously about this content marketing avenue. 10 years ago it was much more difficult to reach affluent customers online, but now it’s easier than you think.
Let’s set the tone.
Brett David’s company Prestige Import’s has the largest exotic inventory in America. It doesn’t hurt that they’re the parent company of Lamborghini, Lotus, Pagani, Karma, VanDutch & Tecnomar EVO Miami. Most importantly, their team creates stunning video and photos that drive mad shares and exposure to their inventory.
“I can’t even begin to tell you how important Instagram is to these guys—it’s scary,” said David, who says he has sold $1 billion worth of Lamborghini cars since 2007.
Now if you have access to rare and awe-inspiring luxury products like supercars here’s how you go about making sales. Even better, already have a large social following? We’ll look at a few strategies used by Brett and others use to get their product in front of millions each month. Mr. David estimated that last year he had between $5 and $10 million worth of sales generated from social media…wow!
Prestige Imports and all its company Instagram accounts total over 700,000 followers so that gives them the audience to get mass reach. We’ll assume you have at least 30,000 followers but if not, some of the techniques discussed below can be used to grow your follower base accordingly. Keep in mind the more targeted followers you get, the cheaper your marketing costs get over time. Do you know how much it costs to buy a sponsored post on a large Instagram account? Sometimes costs can easily be more tan $15,000 for a single post, so let’s aim to get that for free with the following strategies.
Instagram Marketing Strategies That Work
It all comes down to the content and if it’s good your followers will not only like it, they’ll share it. This leads you down a path of exposure as well as relationship building. It’s not uncommon for an Instagram like to turn into an email, and then to a customer… sometimes for life.
Regrams For Growth And Exposure
Lucky for you, there are thousands of luxury based accounts that rely mostly on other content and they regram your work. This is what you want because this is where massive influx of new followers can come from without you having to spend money on paid Instagram ads.
Take, for example, the following regram their @LamborghiniMiami account received. This photo was liked by over 19,000 people, has hundreds of comments from an account with over 3.3 million Instagram followers.
Building & Fostering Relationships
This is the most valuable aspect of the process and the goal here is to get the email or phone number of the UHNW customer. Real buyers will be excited when they see the product they want and as with any medium, Instagram is a great way to build your client list.
The holy grail if you will.
Going back to the Bloomberg article on Mr. David, he mentions how just one customer through Instagram lead to over half a dozen six and seven figure car deals over the course of the relationship. While sending messages in Instagram is possible, make sure your email and phone number are on that profile description.
Utilize Influencers
Whenever an influencer of any kind comes in to buy a car, take a video or get an oil change you have to capitalize on it. Most of the time you don’t even have to ask the person to tag and share, but if you spot an influencer, make your presence known.
As you can see above, Magnus Walker stopped on by and his 440,000+ Instagram followers are huge Porsche lovers. You can bet 3-5% of his followers have the money for the cars Prestige Imports sells and I dare say one of those people will buy a car from them at one point in the future. On top of all that, how many supercar accounts regram the photo above bringing the total views to their brand into the millions.
Just think that this kind of reach can all be achieved before noon. What a time to be alive!
Growing Your Reach Beyond Instagram
If you’re getting into your content creation groove and are finding yourself in a marketing position to work with influencers, buy extra visibility with ads and already have a substantial follower base, then listen up. Creating special content solely for Instagram can lead to outside response that provides value in areas like SEO and PR.
I cannot tell you how many times we’ve done a viral promotion launched from Instagram and that was enough to get news sites, bloggers and forums talking about the client and better yet – linking to them. Whenever Prestige Imports sells a really unique car or modifies one, they get noticed in automotive media – a lot of the time without any effort. Reach out to journalists, submit your project or sale to sites like Auto Blog or MotorTrend and chances that you’ll get picked up are not too bad.
Events With Influencers
If you’re trying to bring in affluent local customers as well as a community that loves what you have, there’s no better method than hosting an event attended by influencers. Sharing that experience with them only does good for all and at the end of the day it’s all about having fun. Events are still one of the best ways to network with local UHNW clients and get them locked into your sales system. Give them a business card, get them to signup to the event via iPad on site or before they come and whatever else you can do while we have them in your reach.
Don’t Doubt Instagram’s Sales Ability
Cracking sales through Instagram isn’t an easy task and it takes persistence, hard work and of course great products people are going to want, badly. You stand a chance to build a relationship for a lifetime here so keep that in mind while you have your head down grinding away. That also means you have to show genuine interest in this person, take note of what they like before they’re even a client and be more than just a sales person to them. Never before could you connect so easily with true UHNW clients without having to buy very expensive advertising.
Good riddance to the days of spray and pray luxury marketing!
