Finding The Perfect Fit With A Fashion Marketing Agency, Top Tips
It’s an astonishing how many people dream of running a successful fashion brand. The cold, hard reality, however, is that very few manage to turn that dream into something concrete and successful. The industry is saturated, tough and doesn’t suffer fools gladly, of that there’s no doubt. But most people don’t even get a fighting chance to begin with. Usually this is because the marketing is poor, and sometimes even non-existent. The team here at VerriBerri, a fashion marketing agency based in Essex; have put together this compendium of free marketing tips and tricks so that you can stride through this changeable industry with a newfound swagger.
Social Media Is Your Friend
Social media often gets a bad rep, and to be fair, a lot of the time it faces valid criticisms. Platforms such as Twitter are hotbeds of hate, breeding grounds for trolls who have nothing better to do than bring people down. As well as that; it’s primarily thanks to social media that the problem of fake news circulation has become so globally widespread. That being said; social media still has its place within this world and you can definitely use it to your marketing advantage. The obvious advantage that it gives you is increased exposure, something that’s especially crucial for a fashion brand. You can easily build your brand up and all you need to do is a bit of hard work and have some simple social media knowledge. If there’s one thing this fashion marketing agency advocates when it comes to social media marketing, it’s consistency. By adopting a consistent approach, scheduling what and when you post, will maintain a sustainable growth.
This is far better than a sudden spike in followers who have seen a paid ad; who will likely only follow you for a few days before realising you didn’t have much beyond that ad. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that for such a visual medium as fashion you should be choosing an equally visual platform. So, you should be mainly targeting Instagram for your fashion brand. Following that, build up a loyal, local following first. Target those longer hashtags that are locale-specific to really drill down a solid foundation for your brand. You can’t expect to access the national and international fashion market if nobody even knows about you in your local town!
Influencers
Another new piece of the fashion puzzle is the use of influencers and collaborations within your brand’s marketing strategy. Ten years ago, the word influencer wasn’t even in the dictionary, now it’s become the dream job for some children growing up! It’s beyond surreal just how quickly the world continues to change. People are tending to see beyond the truly massive influencers now, their paid product advertising can be seen through in an instant.
What you want to be targeting as a fashion brand is the smaller, more niche influencers who would genuinely like to promote your product. Those that would happily wear your clothing regardless of whether you were supporting them financially or not. In terms of collaboration, look to work with those designers and fashion brands that really align with your own brand’s values and ethos. Don’t shoehorn in collaborations for the sake of it because this will comes across as confused and contrived as a project.
Build Up Your Connections
Network as much as is humanly possible. The barriers and confines that once would’ve prevented you from connecting with leading industry professionals simply aren’t there anymore. Platforms such as LinkedIn allow you to put yourself out there. You can mingle with the sorts of businesses that you aspire to sit beside within the industry. Attend networking events and become a brand name that people recognise. Just like with social media, there’s no substitute for hard graft in terms of brand building. Becoming a bigger brand is the cumulative result of months of continual work, years even. Accepting that this hustle is going to be a primary component of your fashion brand’s success is vital. In fact, we’d argue it’s one of the most important lessons that this fashion marketing agency can teach you.
Always Keep A Keen Eye On The Future
Given that fashion does indeed change so quickly, you need to be an expert on the industry. Read up on the latest trends; the guiding industry insights and follow those industry professionals who really know what they’re talking about. In this way, you can try to jump on the newer trends before your competitors do. We’re not saying you should abandon your brand’s hallmarks in favour of the emperor’s new clothes; but there’s certainly no harm in trying to incorporate the more solid-looking trends into your clothes in some way.
Take A Step Back
Sometimes in order to move forwards you have to stop examining all aspects of your fashion brand with a microscope, and instead look at it with bigger-picture thinking. Think of your brand as a whole and ask yourself whether you could sum up the core values or message of your brand in a couple of sentences. If you find that you can’t then you need to address this.
In our fashion marketing agency’s experience, a lot of brands fail because they don’t have a clear vision, they don’t know themselves what they stand for and this in turn leads to customers not knowing either. It’s no surprise that these are the brands that don’t survive. Even if you don’t have a niche per se; your brand should still stand for something, whether it’s values, a style of clothing, manufacturing methods. Whatever it is, find it and capitalise upon it.
Contact our Fashion Marketing Agency
The world of fashion chops and changes more than a tailor or seamstress, and stitching yourself into the industry’s lining for any extended period of time requires you to put in the work! So, if you’d like to find out more about our fashion marketing agency, then get in touch! Contact VerriBerri today on 01376 386 850. We’d love to hear more about your fashion brand and where you think you could take it.