Use these 5 social media marketing strategies for your fashion brand to stand out online
Are you struggling to make your fashion brand stand out in the crowded social media landscape? Look no further. In this article, we will unveil seven expert social media marketing strategies that will elevate your fashion brand to new heights. From maximizing engagement to boosting conversions, these tried and tested techniques will help you cut through the noise and capture the attention of your target audience. Whether you’re a startup or an established brand, these strategies will empower you to build a strong online presence and increase brand awareness.
Using data-driven research and industry insights, we’ll walk you through each strategy step-by-step, providing actionable tips and techniques along the way. You’ll learn how to leverage the power of influencer marketing, create compelling visual content, cultivate authentic customer relationships, and more. Stay tuned as we dive into the world of social media marketing and reveal the secrets to success for your fashion brand.
The fashion industry in 2023
Fashion is a $2.4 trillion industry that has always been aggressive. With many new fashion brands, social media marketing strategies emerge every so often. Given that it has over 2.77 billion users, social media is the most accessible platform for fashion brands of all sizes. It’s no wonder that we’re seeing post after post of promoted content from fashion brands and the lifestyle influencers they support. This is done in the hopes of capturing the attention of their target market, making a sale, or simply spreading brand awareness.
Social media has broad applications, especially in the fashion industry. You can monitor multiple social media accounts, create various types of content, and collaborate with multiple social media influencers.
Fashion brands thrive in the natural environment of social media. More specifically, Instagram and Pinterest are perfect for promoting a fashion brand. This is because they’re highly visual platforms that can help you target potential customers and raise brand awareness. In this way, you can build your brand image and attract potential customers who are likely to be interested in your product.
Why do fashion brands need a social media plan?
In many ways, fashion brands shape our lifestyles, and it is not uncommon for a culturally driven product to emerge. However, in order for your brand to have this kind of influence, you need to establish an active online presence on different social media platforms. Beyond this, there are other reasons why fashion brands should consider a solid social media strategy.
1) Builds brand awareness
It is critical to ask yourself, “How can we, as a brand, get customers to know and trust us so we can build brand loyalty?”
Creating brand awareness is a critical first step in this process. According to an influencer survey, 69% of marketers use social media to raise brand awareness. In addition, 52% use it to increase web traffic.
Consumers will not purchase from you if they are unaware of your product offering. Consistently establishing your presence on social media channels keeps you top of mind so that consumers are more likely to purchase your products.
2) Gets influencer support
One good strategy to get social media influencer support — organically or through a paid partnership — is to establish an online presence before you even start approaching influencers.
The more proactive your brand is about improving visibility, the easier it will be to secure strategic partnerships and increase traffic, and revenue, and grow your customer base.
As a fashion brand, you can’t afford to ignore the power of an influencer campaign. Approximately 51% of UK marketers are already working with influencers. In fact, Shein and Pretty Little Things are two of the most mentioned fashion brands by influencers on platforms such as TikTok in the United Kingdom.
3) Drives website traffic
According to a Statista survey conducted in the United Kingdom, 25.6% of industry professionals believe social media is the most effective digital marketing channel.
One of the most well-known benefits of having a solid social media strategy is having access to low-cost traffic that you would not have otherwise. Driving traffic through channels other than social media can be difficult, especially if you’re a younger brand.
For example, if you choose to use SEO in conjunction with content marketing, it can take anywhere from 6 to 12 months to see accurate results. Even if you do see results, you have less control over those results.
Designing a compelling social media strategy
The technology and algorithms that drive social media platforms appear to be improving daily. For this reason, there are ways for you to optimize your social media marketing. In this article, we’ll go over the specifics of how you can do just that.
1) Determine where your audience spends time
Once you identify the ideal target audience, you need to identify their preferred social media platform. While many social media platforms appear to have similar goals, their functions are different.
-
Facebook
Facebook is a classic social media platform that is appropriate for all users. Through continuous improvements, Facebook has optimized its features to be more business-friendly and cater to more business-related transactions. If there’s one thing Facebook is good at, it’s recommending businesses in your area. It also displays ads you might be interested in based on your most-liked posts, liked pages, posted comments, and posts you have interacted with. You can use this approach to your advantage. It’s especially effective if you want to give your brand a more in-depth look. Using a VPN for Facebook can help you prevent your Facebook account from being hacked.
-
Twitter
Twitter frequently provides live news, quick updates, juicy gossip, and memes. It’s the place to get insights and random thoughts from your favorite authors, celebrities, public figures, and social circle. If there are fashion-related ads, they are usually brief, concise, and accompanied by photos that best represent the brand.
-
Instagram
Instagram is one of the best places to be if you want to see the best in the fashion industry. There is not a moment that goes by when a celebrity isn’t promoting a piece from a well-known fashion brand by chance. When you expand on the caption or tap on the photo, you’ll see the options. This is how fashion companies try to get you to visit their Instagram page or the landing page of their website. Once there, you’ll be able to see their products at a stunning 30% off with free shipping. There is a myriad of strategies that you can use to market your products on Instagram, including a single post, a sponsored ad, and even Instagram stories.
There is no denying that Instagram is the platform of choice for marketing fashion brands. After all, it is the most photo-focused social media platform. That means you can show off your garments to their fullest potential. Moreover, you can do this in a setting where your target market can imagine themselves wearing and incorporating your products into their daily lives.
-
YouTube
Smaller eCommerce brands are typically better off running Facebook ads (especially if they have a limited budget). On the other hand, more prominent fashion brands like Chanel, with over 1.9 million subscribers, and Louis Vuitton, with 909,000 subscribers, are huge YouTube players.
Rather than relying solely on paid advertisements, each luxury fashion brand dominates the space by creating organic content on its YouTube channel.
Even if you go the YouTube advertising route, Strike Social found that the average cost per view on YouTube is $0.026, with a view rate of 31.9%.
-
Snapchat
Snapchat’s Snap Ads and Story Ads are ideal for selling stories. While only 14% of Snapchat users use the social media platform to discover new products, more than a quarter of them buy a product when they see something they like.
In terms of content formats, Snap Inc. claims that Discover content commercials increase ad awareness by up to 65%, pointing to the platform’s effectiveness with video ads.
-
TikTok
In many ways, TikTok is the new kid on the block. Nevertheless, you should not overlook this platform as a potential source of income. If you’re going to use this platform, your fashion brand may need to take a more native approach to video ad creation. However, the time investment is worthwhile. After all, the platform has over 1 billion active users.
-
Pinterest
Pinterest is defined as a visual social media platform where users can “Pin” items to digital boards. Native shopping pins can be saved to Pinterest from a website. These pins provide a new avenue for knowledgeable brands and companies to get their products in front of new eyes on the platform.
What’s the best part? According to Pinterest data, 70% of users discover new products on this platform. Furthermore, a whopping 90% reveal that Pinterest helps them decide what to buy, and up to 66% of its users purchase something after seeing a brand’s pins.
2) Create a consistent posting schedule
Many brands struggle with consistency, especially when it comes to gaining traction. It doesn’t matter whether you’re interested in creating Instagram stories, IGTV videos, TikToks, or Instagram posts. Consistency is a necessary component of a practical approach to a sound social strategy.
Fashion brands that posted 0.96 posts per day on Instagram received a 0.68% engagement rate per post, higher than the engagement rate on Facebook or Twitter.
Along with consistency, it’s important to decide on what to post beforehand. When sharing fashion content on social media, use a combination of these four content types:
- Promotional content: With direct response content and strong CTAs, this content promotes your product. The ultimate goal is for someone to buy your clothing. Pretty Little Things uses this content strategy effectively with its Shop Instagram highlight reel.
- Educational content: Educational content instructs social media users on your product and demonstrates the “why” behind your brand. In other words, why does your brand exist? Is it because people have merely accepted the existence of your brand? Or do people actually enjoy engaging with your brand? A good example of branded educational content is Missguided’s Instagram post that teaches people how to make their own Halloween costumes.
- Inspirational content: Use your brand’s personality and mission to elicit emotions, tell stories, and connect with your ideal customers. Motivate them with content that is relevant to them. TopShop does this expertly by sharing seasonal content that tells a story about its clothing.
- Entertaining content: Associate your brand with fun by creating entertaining content. Draw in your audience with creative content that isn’t a hard sell.
Specific platforms are better suited to certain types of content. Educational videos are ideal for YouTube, while promotional content is ideal for a fashion brand’s Instagram feed. Once you’ve determined the type of content you’ll need to produce, the next question is how many pieces of content you need to produce.
The most effective content for each platform
If you’re creating content for TikTok, keep in mind that the most successful content on the platform is content that follows trends. For example, the UK influencers with the highest TikTok engagement rates, @hollyh, and @abbyroberts, create content that isn’t too serious. Most importantly, this content isn’t directly selling anything.
If you take any cues from these creators, you should avoid aggressive promotion in favor of 40% inspirational content, 20% educational content, and approximately 40% entertainment content. When you notice that a particular type of content performs exceptionally well, you should double down on what’s already working.
If you need help with promoting your social media content, you should consider partnering with a PR agency. Pressfarm is one such agency that works with individuals and businesses of all sizes to create newsworthy and appealing content. This content can be published on the company’s owned channels and sent to journalists.
Once you sign up, the Pressfarm public relations team will gather information and create content that will help you gain media attention. By writing and distributing email pitches, press releases, and guest posts and creating eye-catching press kits, Pressfarm can help you capture attention and drive traffic to your social media platforms. Furthermore, their Account Executive will create a customized media list from their database of over a million contacts. With these media lists, you can begin developing relationships with the best media professionals in your niche.
3) Collaborate with social media influencers and bloggers
Influencer marketing will continue to exist for a long time. In fact, it’s a requirement if you want to succeed in the fashion industry because it’s the most efficient way to promote your fashion products. Instagram is the most popular platform among the vast majority of fashion bloggers and influencers. The same is true for your company’s brand. If you’re in the fashion industry, you need to develop an active profile on Instagram. Beyond that, you must post four times per day on social media, respond to comments, create stories, and like and comment on posts from other brands.
Hashtags serve as the foundation for finding content that aligns with your interests. You can search for trending hashtags and discover a plethora of influencers and fashion marketers. Once you’ve identified some good influencers, scroll through their profiles to see whom they’ve previously collaborated with, decide if their style is a good fit for your brand, and start a private message with them to collaborate.
Regardless of how popular each influencer on your shortlist is, keep in mind that follower count isn’t the most crucial metric. Ideally, you should be looking for influencers with high engagement rates on their content, as well as an audience whose interests overlap with your target customers.
4) Repost user-generated content
User-generated content (UGC) is an effective tool for getting your product in front of potential customers and increasing engagement more naturally. Instead of creating content, your fashion brand can encourage existing customers to post photos and videos of themselves wearing your clothing. You can then repost these photos on your profile.
This social media content is effective because 73% of shoppers say UGC boosts their purchasing confidence. Furthermore, in the same consumer study, approximately 61% of shoppers stated that UGC encourages them to interact with brands.
Consider that fashion brands have a nearly 5% higher average star rating than other industry players. When consumers see your reviews on your product pages, you already have something to work with as you build consumer trust and start generating sales.
5) Use fashion-related hashtags
Are you trying to increase the number of followers on your fashion brand’s social media accounts? Common sense dictates that the more followers you have, the more likely it is that you will convert social media users into customers.
That is true, but there are other ways to get your content in front of non-followers, such as hashtags.
Social media platforms such as Instagram and even TikTok allow users to follow hashtags and view branded content without following your company’s account. As a result, if you use hashtags that your target audience is following, your organic content will reach them even if they don’t follow your account.
Conclusion
Every social media platform has a plethora of tools for creating engaging posts and reaching out to new audiences. Neglecting these tips is one of the most common mistakes that you can make as a brand. Social media is about more than just designing targeted advertisements and posts. You are responsible for determining which fashion brand social media marketing strategies work best for your brand and audience and then putting them into action.