There’s no wonder a highly visual industry such as fashion does amazingly well on a highly visual platform such as Instagram. But just in case you were wondering, a recent Social Bakers study, reveals just how well fashion industries are doing compared to other brands and their Instagram strategies. The staggering differences in Instagram performance between the two reveal a valuable lesson for other brands looking to use Instagram as an effective marketing tool.

According to the study, fashion brands have higher interaction and engagement numbers than any other industry including followers, likes, and comments. On average, “other brands” receive 500,000 page interactions, while fashion boasts over 1.5 million interactions. Fashion brands also have an average of almost 500k audience size, while other brands have only 150k.

@lululemon

What are they doing right?

Search for your favorite retailer or fashion brand and you will notice their page is full of exclusive eye-catching content, equally as appealing as their commercial ads. There aren’t any word-heavy posts, and the look is so consistent it resembles a fashion catalog.

Other brands, however, have a harder time generating relevant content and at times depend heavily on words to produce informative posts.

@anthro_northparkcenter

Informative isn’t bad, visual is just better

Captivating content is the key for Instagram engagement, whether it be video or photo. According to the same study, fashion brands receive more interactions on videos, but the disparity when compared to images is negligible.

So don’t get hung up on perfecting the video and photo ratio.

Instead, focus on strategizing your Instagram brand similar to fashion brands without sacrificing your company’s integrity. Experiment with different types of photos and videos, and most importantly, listen to your followers. With likes, comments and followers at your fingertips, it is rather easy to read your audience. Pay attention to what they like and give them more of it.

@forever21

Use a visual-first approach and see how it works for your brand!

#Instagram