The Top 5 Mistakes I see KBB Retailers Make

I can’t help but pull my hair out when I see these mistakes retailers make on socials,

Some of them are so blatantly obvious to me that it seems insane that people are still making them.

I call it “Skin-On Banana” marketing.

If you saw someone eating a banana with the skin on you’d think they’d lost the plot.

However, if they had never seen a banana or never been told you had to peel it first, their action of eating it with the skin on doesn’t seem so mental.

We can’t expect everyone to utilise social platforms the same way we do having done it for 7+ years and grown multiple accounts to over 100k followers.

So here are the top 5 mistakes I see retailers making.

Read and understand these and it will be like peeling the proverbial banana before you eat it!

1. Boosting posts

Boosting Posts on Instagram is worse than flushing money down the toilet. Yes you’ll get lots of views/likes/followers but the quality of that traffic is TERRIBLE.

Boosting is an easy way for META to take your money and make you feel good about the fact you’ve got lots of engagement but it does nothing for your business. You want conversions not likes and views. You’ll have no data, no visibility no understanding of what it’s done.

On top of this, you’re training the META algorithm that these “cheap” audiences are your potential customers (spoiler alert - they’re not) so that when you do go to run ads to get people to book design consultations the ads will tank.

We’ve seen it so many times in the past that when we start running ads for a new client and they don’t perform initially we look back and find a load of boosted posts. The first thing we do is start a new account from scratch.

2. No clear CTA

You need to re-frame how you think about your Instagram profile. It’s like your website’s home page.

Any good CRO (Conversion Rate Optimisation) specialist would tell you on your website you need to have one clear call to action (marketing speak for an action you desire the customer to take) and this needs to be clearly signposted for them.

Take away the friction - only give people one option.

There’s a reason Amazon haven’t updated their layout in 10+ years - it’s because it converts incredibly well due to its simplicity.

So what’s the action we want people to take when they hit your profile?

In most cases it’s going to be booking a design consultation - most retailers need more leads so that's the only option we’re going to give them.

Have one “link in bio” that links to a form where they have to fill in their details like name, email, number postcode etc.

Pro Tip - we use Typeform to build our forms that we then integrate across all platforms. You can duplicate the forms and label them for each platform so you’ll know that when a lead comes in it was from Instagram or YouTube or Tik Tok etc.

Eliminate friction and see your lead flow improve.

3. Not posting videos

I can’t wrap my head around why retailers still aren’t posting short form video.

Let me make it clear.

Still images (which is what the majority of retailers post) get no visibility outside of your existing audience. Short form video (Reels on Instagram) will get pushed to new audiences who have never heard of you so it’s incredible for brand awareness.

Reels have discoverability built in, Still images don’t.

Yes, it’s more effort to post videos and yes, most people aren’t good at doing video but either you need to get good at making them or hire someone who is because this is where the world is going. If you don’t adapt you’re going to get left behind.

I’m not saying don’t post photos.

I see still images as almost a portfolio of your work that, once people find out who you are (through reels) they’ll come to your page and want to look through your work.

This is where the stills come in. Like a “greatest hits” of your work. But make no mistake, the videos are how new people find out about you.

4. Still images that look like ads with 50% off

This one absolutely kills me. It reminds me of those telesales adverts in the 70’s in the US. “Come on down and grab your 70% off mattress”

It’s so salesy that it hurts.

We live in a world where people are tuning out.

They don’t want to be sold to and can sniff it out a mile away.

This is why highly polished content does not perform as well on socials. People want authentic, relatable, shot on iPhone content.

If someone is in your face trying to “sell” you anything you’ll look the other way. The only difference on Instagram is that scrolling past something that looks like an ad is far easier.

If you have offers, great - advertise them to people who you know have shown an interest in your offering but perhaps weren’t at the right stage of the buying cycle i.e. your email list.

I can guarantee you that someone wanting to purchase a £40,000 kitchen in the next 6 months isn’t going to commit early just because they’re saving £300 on a Neff oven.

5. Watermarks on photos

You’re not a wedding photographer scared that someone is going to download the content instead of paying for it.

The more logos and watermarks you put on content the worse it will perform. Similar to point 4 above, it feels “salesy” and like you’re rubbing who you are in people’s faces.

If people want to find out who you are trust me, it’s one click to your profile they can do that by themselves.

You want them to discover it by themselves. It’s subtle branding not “in your face” branding.

If you’re making one or more of these mistakes and don’t want the headache of dealing with it yourself anymore - call in the experts.