Instagram Marketing Strategy for DM Sellers in the Pet Fashion

Over the years, social media have become one of the most reliable methods to disseminate information of various products including pet goods. Many individuals have used social media as a business platform to sell pet products in that pet fashion is still underdeveloped in the western market. The goal of the study is to understand what strategies can be applied to develop a quality business page for Direct Message (DM) sellers on Instagram (IG) in the pet fashion. To achieve this goal, three objectives were developed: 1) to conduct market research to identify the substantive IG strategies that can be used to build a business page for DM sellers, 2) to develop an IG DM business page based on findings of the market research, 3) to evaluate the developed IG page. Twenty-two potential IG strategies were identified. However, only 14 were applied to the final IG page because some of the strategies cannot be achieved until certain prerequisite conditions were met. Lastly, a questionnaire with 15 questions were developed for the project evaluation, and three reviewers were invited to examine the project IG page and provide feedback. The results showed that except for following the strategies identified, it is important to present high quality visual content, such as ensuring that the products (pet clothes) look tidy and clean in the pictures, including more dog models, and improving the lighting of the pictures. In addition, it is suggested to update the IG content more frequently.