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Whether you are starting a new business or hoping to expand your existing company into the luxury market, the question on your mind is certainly how to attract the high end consumer? The secret: confidence!

You craft or curate products of the highest value; they are beautifully made; each has a story and holds a promise of a rare lifestyle. Have confidence in your ability to meet the needs of luxury clients. You may have to take risks; you may have to turn down contracts or wholesale offers because they dilute your brand; you may have to overcome the fear of not living up to “luxury.” Dare to stand above.

With the right mindset in place, you can begin taking the steps necessary for effective luxury goods marketing. Here are six tips to help get you started.

6 Tips for Attracting High End Consumers

1. Know Your Customer

Build a profile of your target client. Who are they (age, income, profession, gender, geographic region, etc.)? What do they want? What type of service do they expect? What do they care about (e.g., values, beliefs, interests)? With what types of businesses do they want to interact?

Develop a client persona that is as detailed as possible; you can glean insights from current customers and as well as market research. Doing so does take a bit of time, but the resulting profiles will give you a more accurate road map in terms of marketing to this type of client.

2. Know Your luxury website Design trends

Luxury businesses will need to stay up to date with the latest developments and trends in luxury websites if they want to stay ahead of the competition. User experience and improved marketing techniques can boost sales if you are using innovative solutions.

AI and AR will increase in the luxury space. With chatbots to gather more data around consumer behavior and to give the customers a better quality experience, AI will be a key driver in deeper connections. Videos and AR are becoming a norm in today’s world. Brands such as Sephora allow for customers to apply makeup digitally to see what it looks like before purchasing, while The North Face used IBM's Watson to help create an interface to assist customers in making ideal purchasing decisions:

It is also important to understand art direction and photography. As Instagram continues to grow, the rise of visual content will continue. The use of filters and effects along with the easy ability to create high quality photographs will be expected from luxury brands.

Storytelling on luxury websites will continue to grow and expand. As companies look to build trust with their website, they will provide their customers with rich history of their brand. There will be more emphasis on a brand’s history and individuals to engage at a deeper level with their audience.

A minimalist brand with subtle elegant typography will complement the high-quality photographs of products. The minimalist design will improve page loading times, making for a better user experience. The use of simple color palettes seen by top luxury brands like Rolex are becoming a staple to luxury images.

3. Develop Your Marketing Strategy

The high end consumer does not make decisions based on practicality. Strictly speaking, no one needs $12,000 shoes or a $25,000 watch. They want them. They are driven by emotion. Your luxury goods marketing strategy should not focus on the features of your luxury products but rather on their benefits. That is, how do they contribute to the lifestyle that your target customer wants to enjoy? How will it enhance their self-image - and their image among their peers?

These are the triggers that will result in purchases. Customers do want to know the technical details (how many carats in a diamond, the grade of platinum in a band, etc.) but after they have been captivated by the benefits your marketing articulates.

4. Establish Your Authority and Credibility

Customers and clients are far more likely to engage and support brands they trust. This is perhaps even more true in the luxury market. The stakes, and the price points, are higher. To establish trust, establish your authority in your space. How?

Content. While a great deal of the luxury purchase process involves the tactile feeling of looking at, handling, and trying on pieces in person, most clients research online before visiting a store, especially if they are looking for a new, exciting brand with which to engage. Many others visit a physical location and then go back online to look deeper into the business.

Leverage this by creating high-quality content that addresses your target audience’s needs. What questions are they likely to have? What concerns? What potential objections? What do they want to know about you? What stories do they need to hear? Present solutions with blogs, articles, guides, videos, and other content - and make sure they are highly visual.

Be sure to host this information on your website, as well as targeted social media channels. Instagram, for example, is a very visual platform, and it is a natural fit for luxury goods marketing. Go back to your client profile and determine what social networks they use most and what type of content they expect to find there.

5. Get Strategic with Your Pricing

Luxury clients expect to pay higher prices. Low price, to this audience, equates with low quality - and, worse, being common. Again, have confidence in your brand. You are delivering goods of uncommon quality and exclusivity: price accordingly.

Conduct some product research and see how your competitors are pricing. Are you in line?

6. Use the Personal Touch

Personalize every step of the luxury client’s experience. From your website and social media presence to your in-store displays and service, you need to make clients feel like… more. They need to feel special and valued.

One way to do this is to follow up conversation with a handwritten thank you note (on cards specially designed and printed for your brand as an added touch!). When a high end consumer decides to enter into a relationship with you, send a small welcome gift. Keep yourself top of mind by keeping your clients top of mind.

Luxury goods marketing is about more than the goods: it is about understanding your target clientele and emphasizing the exclusivity, the story, and the lifestyle that your brand offers. If you are entering the luxury market, contact the experts at THAT Agency; we can help you develop an effective strategy that will delight clients and help you build lasting, profitable, relationships. Give us a call today at 561.832.6262.

Editor's Note: This post was originally published in March 2019 and has been updated for freshness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.