How one of Australia’s fastest growing brands used Instagram to reach international success
We examine how Anna Ross of Kester Black has harnessed Instagram to grow a global audience, unpacking her influencer, content and campaign strategies.
Instagram entrepreneurs are perpetually discovering new methods to gain exposure to more customers.
The founder of ethical beauty brand Kester Black, Anna Ross, uses the platform for marketing and brand recognition, using it to gain the attention of international stockists and industry heavyweights Liberty London, Audi, and Disney.
From launching in 2009, Kester Black now reaches an audience of 145k between Instagram, email, and Facebook, pulling in 30,000 orders per year.
“I don’t know how big stores would find a small, niche brand from another country if it wasn’t on Instagram,” Ross says.
The photo and video sharing platform has a global reach of 1 billion monthly active users, according to Statistica. And, in 2014, Instagram launched its business accounts, which now offer a range of tools from Instagram insights to paid ads and Instagram Shopping. Each month, 130 million users click on shopping posts to view products, Instagram says.
After closing down its wholesale arm of the business due to COVID, some 96% of Kestor Black’s sales are online, demonstrating the value of building an engaged audience through Instagram.
Content guided by pillars
One piece of advice Ross has for businesses rethinking their content strategy is to first decide what the brand pillars are before creating any images or video. Kester Black has six pillars: product, campaign activity, tutorial content, education, inspiration and product reviews. Each pillar has a corresponding post frequency which is either weekly, fortnightly or as required. By producing content in line with these pillars, Ross streamlines her marketing strategy because she knows exactly what theme each post should fit within.
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Kester Black, which is renowned for its sustainable ethos, is B Corporation, halal, vegan and cruelty-free and carbon neutral certified. And it is these core values of sustainability and cruelty free that guide the beauty brand’s content. ‘Inspiration content’ is content that is not necessarily created by Kester Black but is inspirational in its colour or meaning. “If we’re posting about animals, it is generally about vegan or cruelty free, and if we’re posting landscapes it’s about sustainability,” Ross says.
Inspirational content both creates a good feeling towards your brand from your customers, and is more likely to drive sales. In 2015, Yahoo’s then VP of marketing, Patrick Albano, said the company’s research demonstrated that the number one driver of purchase intent was content that inspires people.
Additionally, for those on a tight budget, Ross recommends using inspiration content because it allows businesses to use pre-existing images rather than pay for professional photoshoots of their products. However, she does warn businesses to be mindful of copyright. Ross says when she finds uncredited images on Pinterest, she then searches for it with Google’s reverse image tool to find out where it first appeared.
Building brand recognition
Since its inception in 2009, Kester Black has won a stream of accolades from best micro business in Telstra’s 2017 Business Awards to the Australian Non-Toxic Awards in 2020. Both are good indicators of strong brand recognition.
The business is well known for its ethical nail polish and lipstick, uses Instagram to display its products and inspire consumers with images that align with the brand, and its penchant for pastel colours. Ross says her Instagram marketing objective is to showcase her brand and its core values, rather than make direct sales via the app. “We use Instagram for brand recognition for large stores like Liberty London and Dover Street Market, which both found us on Instagram,” she explains.
London-based luxury department stores Liberty London and Dover Street Market are the largest wholesalers of Kester Black products. The UK, Germany, Denmark, Italy and the Netherlands, are the company’s largest markets outside of Australia and New Zealand, and largely because of Instagram.
“We don’t do any other active marketing in any of those markets,” Ross notes.
Ross also attributes her partnerships with industry heavyweights to Instagram. Since 2009, Kester Black has partnered with Audi, Virgin Australia, Pantone, Go-To and Disney. This included a nail art campaign with Disney, celebrating the 100th birthday of Mickey Mouse. In most cases, the businesses reached out to Kester Black on Instagram’s messaging service.
Working with influencers
Striking the right influencer marketing strategy can become a costly endeavour, and for Ross, it has been a process of trial and error to find out whether paid posts are worthwhile. Often, it hasn’t been, with Ross noting that most do not generate a return on investment. When it does work, she focuses on nurturing those relationships.
In 2020, Kester Black paid Not So Mumsie (261k followers) to feature product placements in posts and stories during the launch of new nail stickers.
“We did this collaboration with her and paid her about $4,000, but we just didn’t see $4,000 worth of sales,” Ross says. For those sorts of paid posts, Ross has found it beneficial to stick with an influencer over a sustained period to see a return on investment.
Ross regularly works with about 10 influencers, and while she rarely pays them, she does send them complimentary products to feature in their posts. Among Kester Black’s most prominent influencers are DJ Tiger Lilly (578k followers), Rebecca Jud (833k followers) and Danni Duncan (13k followers).
In praise of ‘organic growth’
From competitions and advertising to building a community, there are many strategies businesses employ to boost their Instagram following. Ross says she sees many brands engage different tactics to drive rapid growth, including posting at 3am to attract the attention of consumers in the United States. But Ross is not looking for fast growth.
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“We’re looking for slow, continued brand-building growth so that we become a legacy brand, rather than a rise to fame and then disappear kind of brand,” she says.
Ross’ preference for organic growth is influenced by a negative experience she had with an online service that she paid to generate comments. After an initial flurry of comments, she says Instagram restricted the reach of her posts, and warns that businesses should be weary of doing anything that jeopardises organic growth. Rest assured that the algorithm will catch you sooner or later.
Getting organised
Creating compelling content that reflects your brand’s ethos to drive organic growth is Ross’ mantra. And putting that mantra into practice using campaigns and a scheduling platform makes streamlining Instagram marketing that much easier.
Kester Black does one mini-campaign per week made up of a story and an e-newsletter alongside a daily post from Monday to Friday. For new product launches, Ross ramps up the campaigns to include extra posts and video content. She also organises her posts in the scheduling platform Later up to three months in advance. “It can be a real drag if you’re posting every day,” Ross says. “The way that we do it is we pull together our pillars, and then create a schedule.”
To track the success of her marketing strategy, Ross uses analytics supplied by Later, and Iconosquare. From unboxing videos, to animal photos and stories about her as a founder, analytics have allowed Ross to identify trends. “When we get our statistics back, we go through them and have noticed that pictures of animals get a much higher engagement than colour inspiration posts, landscapes or our own products,” she says.
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Kester Black’s Instagram strategy at a glance:
Outline the pillars of your content strategy.
Create an Instagram calendar: for example one post per day from Monday to Friday.
Match each day with one pillar.
Produce images, video and captions for posts and stories that correspond to the designated pillar.
Use a scheduling service to plan content up to three months in advance.
The do’s and don’ts
Do
- Engage with trends like unboxing videos and animal content.
- Use a scheduling tool so you can plan in advance.
- Post inspirational images that reflect your brand values.
- Analyse what is working with your audience, and adjust your tactics accordingly.
Don’t
- Compromise organic growth by buying followers or comments.
- Pay influencers unless you see a return on investment.
- Feel the need to post every day or even twice daily.
