Fly-fly-petal ... or a tale about how the UX designer promoted his product on Instagram

I will make a reservation right away that the product also promoted very loudly, because Now it’s more like an experiment.



The product is my paintings. Promoted - these are attempts to understand how it all works there. Try to get subscribers without throwing big budgets and a ton of time there.

There is an interest in applying my knowledge and experience in another field, after all, social networks are not my element, slightly different laws reign there, it seems to me.

But people are the same everywhere, I thought, and decided to give it a try.

So, the profile for selling paintings on Instagram started on August 16 this year.

Little time has passed, but I managed to make some conclusions.

Under the cut is a fairy tale about how I came to this and the harsh truth of life about what steps I took and the conclusions I made.

The tale of how it all began

Once upon a time, yes, I didn’t know any troubles, designer, designer.



Like all decent people in the kingdom, she had an Instagram account ( @alisekim ), exclusively for the delight of the girl's soul.



I didn’t especially deal with it, I spread the pictures as I wanted and when I wanted. She had 400 subscribers and did not know grief. She lived and did not know that somewhere beyond the distant seas and high mountains there are unprecedented animals such as mass-licking, mass-following, prime-time posting and unsubscribing. Not life, but a fairy tale shorter.



And I had a small hobby - to paint pictures. Yes, not simple pictures, but abstract. For the lover of the fierce and rare, despite the boom of evil spirits different in contemporary art.

But I managed to give, sell, without putting in this effort. In a completely random way.



And an overseas miracle came, with strange strange thoughts. It threw a girl’s soul into the soul, an innocent girl’s soul, a mercenary thought and an evil one. They say that the girl is red, that you are rubbling garbage, but you are giving away paintings, you need to sell them, there are over the seas and over the mountains, there will be every demand for them.



The girl was foolish, yes, speaking in speech at flattering, seduced and gone to the thirtieth kingdom, where the mountains are high and the seas where there are distant. Where the monsters are different and the answer is cruel.



The red girl imagined herself, but she sensed a strong power. She straddled all knowledge, bound herself with experience and rushed to her death, but to the right.



Here and the tale the end arrived in time on time ...

Then came harsh weekdays

What I had at the entrance, i.e. at the time when I decided to engage in the open sale of my paintings on Instagram:

1. 5-8 paintings actually sold;
2. I don’t remember how many donated;
3. A certain amount of free paintings with which you can start and even make a stock of posts for the future, because I do not do drawing according to schedule, but according to emotional impulses;
4. On the basis of who bought, for what or whom he bought, he asked for a rough understanding of his target audience (hereinafter CA);
5. Professional experience that could be useful to me (I hope) for the promotion of the account;
6. The desire to try yourself in something new and at the same time a persistent unwillingness to invest a lot of money in it;
7. Understanding that in view of the limited number of hours in a day, there will be very little time to deal with your product. Accordingly, the result will be approximately the same. This is important to understand at the entrance, I think. That would not wait for a stream of stars from the Internet sky.

Learning the basics

It’s like with a new project. Want to find a boot - think like a boot)



First of all, I signed up for smm-promoters and read the basics about how to properly design a hat, ribbon, etc. I learned a new word for a content plan and calmed down on this.



That was a big mistake. If you nevertheless decided to get involved, then, be kind, spend more time on this. Think, think. You can’t start waving a saber like this without really understanding how it works there.



Thanks to my laziness, several rather rotten posts appeared with uninteresting text written not clearly where and for whom. The text, of course, can be rewritten, but the ideas are zero, because the head is already full of plans for the future.



In short, thoughtful study and strategy development is our everything.

Study of direct competitors

Everything turned out to be much more complicated than in real life.



Based on her specifics, namely the sale of abstract paintings, I was looking for artists who work in a similar style.



I watched our relatives as I plan to sell only in Russia now.



What I watched as part of my goals: how to draw up a feed, how many are subscribed to them, to whom they are subscribed.



What they write about and how they write, how often they post it, which hashtags they put, what they show on the story, which posts get the most likes.



I haven’t touched direct competitors yet. I'll get there again.

From useful

• Found several sites for free and paid placement of their work;
• Estimated the general state of affairs "in the market";
• I spied, in a piggy bank, some interesting design ideas, themes and hashtags.

Of the minuses and difficulties

The answer to my main question: who and why is buying abstract paintings did not find.



I will explain the reason, as I see it. In the real world, it’s easier to dig up information about a competitor.

This one is successful, because he has A, B and D. He does this, this and this is some more of that. But this one is so-so, and the site (application) is not convenient and the button is some kind of strange color. And here the idea is nothing, but the implementation let us down. Take a note, let's see how it goes.

In the course of the interview, again, nothing prevents asking the user about the competitor: how he found, why he stayed or left, what he buys, how often, for what, what he likes, what he doesn't like. A bunch of information for analysis and conclusions.



In Instagram, mass-following flourishes in a double color (subscribing to everyone and everything. It is done for the purpose of a reciprocal subscription) and all sorts of like times and mass-likes (each likes and receives likes), and the promoters do not doze off, bringing customers. Therefore, it’s hard for me personally to calculate how real a citizen’s situation is with a thousand and ten thousand subscribers, for example.



Which of the signed ones really buys or is interested, and which just signed up.

Of the set likes, who really likes and who just poked.



It may turn out that the benefits of a thousand subscribers are much more than ten thousand.

You can, of course, get confused, and go through each subscriber to understand who he is and how he breathes, but it's just a lot of time.



Or begin to climb into the direct with questions, but in our world of progressive paranoia, it’s not long to get into the virtual face.



So far, I have decided to rely on my own hypotheses and test the invented solutions.

Target Audience and Texts

To begin, I’ll tell you what I knew about my alleged off-line audience.

Men

• Of the men I knew, almost no one liked the paintings, maybe just a couple of pieces from the whole set;
• At the same time, it was men who bought or took as a gift paintings for women (mother, daughter, wife, girlfriend, lover);
• There was, if I’m not mistaken, one man who took a present for himself, “because it’s cool” (quote)

The main motives:

• Piece copy;
• The energy of the artist was important;
• I wanted to impress and / or surprise;
• The woman asked herself. By the way, with “asked myself” was an interesting case. The son bought a certain painting for her mother, at her request, because the painting reminded her of her beloved but dead cat. Now there are a cat and a picture. What are similar, I do not know, but most importantly, my mother is happy.

Women

From familiar women, everyone liked the paintings. I don’t know, maybe they lied ...



At the same time, women bought or took them as a gift to themselves.



The main motives:

• Piece copy;
• The energy of the artist is important;
• Make the house more attractive, comfortable;
• Attract the attention of guests and boast good taste. Women mentally tried on each picture in their interior, thought with what it is possible or impossible to combine, where it will be best to look, etc. Men did not even remember such “trifles”. The future location of the paintings were most often the living room and the nursery. A smaller percentage got into the kitchen and hallway.

Based on the foregoing, a hypothesis was put forward on such segments of CA.

Basic (I’m focusing on it right now)

Mom, wife, age 25 to 34 (approximately). She takes care of her family, home. Trying to make the house cozy, she carefully selects all the elements of the decor, thinks how they will be combined with each other. Fairly modern and educated. In addition to home comfort, she will be pleased if guests pay attention to interesting details of the interior, ask where they bought it.



To take care of her child, she does not care how the nursery will look and what it will be filled with.



I add that for the sake of interest and to test the hypothesis that the main target audience is women, I paid for a 3-day promotion of one post. Transition statistics: women - 67%, men - 33%.



The most active age is 25-44 years.



I conclude that the hypotheses about CA are confirmed so far.



Where to looking for?



Perhaps in accounts such as:

• Interior design and related topics;
• Cooking
• Children;
• Fashion & Style;

I chose the most obvious. About narrower did not think yet



How to attract?



At the moment I am experimenting with texts, as I noticed more than once that in the comments they thanked me for an interesting text.



Yes, and I myself in the main account for the most part are subscribed to those from whom I receive interesting information.



So about the lyrics. Now in the content plan I have posts broken into two categories.

The first category is entertaining and interesting information. About color so far. There is, for example, a post titled “What color should a man be fed” or “Why is the green dollar”

The second category is selling (no matter how ambiguous it sounds). I would like not to go out under each post “Ah, look, well, is it not miraculously wonderful,” but to give useful information and at the same time try to sell. Ready themes about the interior of the nursery and how to entertain the child with the help of paintings.



Now there is such preliminary statistics: post photo + text on how color helps reduce appetite, scored 27 likes.



A post with a picture and my thoughts on abstraction (pathetic attempts to spread the author’s energy) - 18.



For myself, I concluded that for now I will experiment with useful tips and interesting facts. I will postpone the spread of energy until better times.

Secondary

Men of creative professions, such as photographer, designer.



Age from 20 to 30 (approximately). They like to fill their space with unusual things or those objects that will look good in the frame (with or without it).



In the trend and on the wave, so to speak. Perhaps capable of spontaneous purchases. Now it seems that they will be interested in buying a picture that will provoke an emotional reaction in them or someone will say that there are very interesting and unusual things in that profile. I don’t know how much I’m right, so far approximately.



Which accounts should I look for?

• Their own. Search by hashtags;
• Tattoo;
• Clubs
• Barbershops;
• Self-development;
• Psychology;

Again, while focusing on the main and obvious, as it seems to me.



How to attract?



This is a dark forest, because, to be honest, I have no idea. There are preliminary thoughts to write about the meaning of color, something about astrology (for example, color and the zodiac sign), again, about the influence of color, but move away from the feminine theme of men and weight loss.

Mysterious

Those people who I can’t say anything about here have got here, but they also buy abstract paintings.



By chance, as a gift, to yourself, to others. A lot of options.



Where to looking for?



I work clumsily: I go to the profile of an artist with a similar style, I look at subscribers and likes attract attention. The logic is simple: if you signed up, maybe a person likes it.



So far I can conclude, based on the revised profiles, that it can be anyone. From a serious lawyer or a harsh pitching, to a gardening grandmother.



How to attract?



Until I even thought, everything is too blurry and unsteady. In order not to spray, I focused on the main segment. Along the way, I think that to write for segment number two. So far, as casting a fishing rod: it will come in / not in.



To summarize this section , the main focus and thoughts are deep about what value my “product” can bring in order to keep old and attract new subscribers.



By “value” I now mean not just pictures, but interesting and useful posts.



There are still thoughts to draw pictures for each zodiac sign. There are texts, but there are no pictures yet. At the moment, I consider this a good idea, since the question “What to give?” Is being removed.



Astrology, by the way, is carried away by both men and women. Sometimes it seems to me that men are even bigger. Therefore, it turns out a fairly universal thing.



I think now, can I write quotes? People love quotes. But this is somehow trite, or something.



Continue experimenting with texts and keep track of which ones get the most likes. While I have no other guidelines.



Without extra squats, it’s clear that I want to make money and unwind. But “Thank you, I make enough money” (c) to do this for the soul. Although from a business point of view, the strategy is so-so.

Visual design

FUUU. This is the last point. So too much has happened.

I will try to be brief.



In Instagram, the appearance of the tape is very important, so you should bother with this.



This was not a revelation for me, because the rule works not only on Instagram.

Initially, I set myself the task, so that it was clear, informative, and moderately lively.



How to solve the problem with understanding:



Immediately accustom people to the fact that a post with a picture is useful advice and sale, and a post with a photo is some kind of fun. The first posts went lumpy, as I already wrote, but now I'm leveling out.



Informatively:

• The first photo is a full-length picture on the wall. The second is a large photo of the picture. The ideas of creative demonstration in pieces, overlappings, one painting smeared into several posts swept away at once;
• Immediately I write prices. Straight infuriates this here: price on request!
• No pockmarked backgrounds that distract from the product;
• Placing on a white wall. This is perceived better and again not distracting. In placement on a white background, there is another plus: among bright photos on Instagram, the white background attracts more attention.

Perky:



Experimenting with the placement of the visual, reluctantly, I decided to place it on a colored background, too. Bright stuffing makes the tape more dynamic, and so boring it turns out.



It would be ideal to find an application with interiors. To show the product in context, so to speak, but I still have problems with this. I did not find the application. You may have to do it on a computer, but so far you don’t really want to.



At the moment, I am satisfied with the planned visuals. The main thing is to try to stick to it.







What I am having obvious problems with is permanent posting to the story.

I frankly do not know what to spread. I looked at how others are doing - it did not help.

Attributing myself to introverts dusted with dust, who learned to communicate with people, I can’t force myself to post posts demonstrating myself and my life.

While I spread the nature, flowers, sprouts and other garbage.

findings

What can I say? While this is not an easy matter to pull a hippopotamus from a swamp.

Interesting, but not easy.



A significant part of the time that I do not have to devote to my product. This is a problem number one.



I described the remaining problems in the previous sections.



The plans are experiments with text, pictures, engagement.



Dig deeper into the Internet, forums, acquaintances to clarify the question of who and why is buying abstract paintings.



She left a lot of things behind the scenes of this article, because it turned out so long enough. I didn’t expect it myself.



If it was interesting and useful, let me know if I write about the rest or continue to write, as I get the conclusions.



Or there are questions that I would like to receive more detailed answers to.



And finally, the sponsor of this post @alisekim_art is my long-suffering account.