Want to find influencers to help your fashion brand promote itself on social media? Well, the good news is that there are plenty of content creators out there waiting to collaborate with fashion brands.
However, there are also some things brands need to know about working with fashion influencers if they want to run successful influencer marketing campaigns.
Define Your Campaign To Orient Your Influencer Search
The first step of any influencer campaign, and one of the most important, is to define your goals. Know what you want to achieve with your campaign, so that you can map out how to work towards your objectives.
In addition to your goals, think a bit about what type of campaign you want to run. Consider questions like:
- What niche does your brand and its products fit into, if any?
- Do you want to show off specific products, or is the campaign more general?
- Which geographical area are you targeting – worldwide, a specific country or city?
- How long will the campaign run, and is it centered around any important dates?
- How much can you pay influencers, both in free products and fees?
- What values does your company promote?
The answers to these questions will help guide your influencer search. For example, fashion is an extremely general term. But if your brand fits into a more specific niche, like slow fashion or hand-knit wool sweaters, you could start by looking for some influencers who also work in that niche. Or, imagine your brand makes a point to promote racial diversity and inclusivity. Reflect those values in the selection of influencers.
Choose Your Social Network Wisely
Another thing to establish early on is your target audience. Consider the demographics of the people you want to reach, like their age, gender, location, interests and spoken language.
Based on this, you can decide which social network will best connect you to your target. For example, if you want to reach people located in China, Instagram wouldn’t be the best option, as that network is banned in that country.
That being said, fashion is an extremely visual category, so it’s best to go with a visual platform. Twitter might not be your best choice, as you can better show off your clothing and accessories with the more visual types of media found on Instagram, YouTube or TikTok.
Reconcile the habits of your target audience with the type of content you want to create, and choose the social network that best helps you do both.
Discuss Different Media Formats And Content Ideas
After you choose your campaign’s social network, brainstorm what types of media formats you plan to use. For example, on Instagram alone you have various options: static posts, ephemeral stories, IGTV’s long-form video, Reels’ short-form video, livestreams and even now live rooms.
Next, come up with some content ideas you can use in your campaign, like:
- A giveaway of your products, hosted by an influencer
- A digital lookbook or art video that uses your products to tell a story
- A takeover, in which an influencer posts directly from your account
- Behind-the-scenes content at fashion shows, conferences and other events
- Q&As with influencers about how your products fit and wear
- Guides about how to style certain products, how to care for your products, the best products for a specific season, etc.
Gift guides are another good idea for fashion companies working with influencers, as seen here in this collaboration between Everlane (@everlane) and Olivia Sui (@oliviasui).
Finally, ask the influencer! Influencers are the experts when it comes to content creation, so they may have an idea that never occured to you. Or, they may be able to offer a unique perspective on what you’ve already done in the past.
Send Influencers Products They’re Excited About
Some of these content ideas directly rely on an influencer’s first impressions and spontaneous reactions to your clothing or accessories. Naturally, if the influencer is truly excited about your product, that’s more likely to show through in their content. And authentically engaging content will come across better to followers.
This depends on if your campaign is promoting a specific product, or just your brand in general. If it’s the latter, and you have an e-commerce website, send influencers a voucher to redeem online. This means they get to choose the products they like most and which complement their unique style.
When promoting a specific product, find out which variation an influencer prefers. Imagine your campaign is promoting the company’s newest pair of sneakers to hit the market. Well, what color does the influencer want? Do they want high-top or low-cut? Find out what most speaks to them so that your product makes the best first impression possible.
Finally, give influencers creative freedom when creating their content. They know how to best communicate with their audience, so let them! If you micro-manage influencer work, you risk making the content come across as inauthentic and forced, which will cause followers to be less engaged.
If You’re An E-commerce, Use Influencer Discount Codes And Shopping Integrations
Most fashion brands nowadays have some e-commerce component to their business. And when working with influencers, sync up your campaign and your e-commerce as much as possible.
First of all, if the social network you’re using has any type of shopping integration, set it up. Instagram, for example, allows you to tag products in content, which users can then click to navigate directly to the product’s shopping page. Further, brands can now designate Instagram influencers as “business partners”, giving them permission to tag the brand’s products in their own content.
Next, if you haven’t already, use influencer discount codes. These are coupons, created uniquely for each influencer, which offer followers a special discount when shopping on your site. These codes can incentivize sales, or at the very least get curious bargain hunters looking at your products and understanding what your brand is all about.
Nano influencer Shae Memmott (@shaemakes) promoting her discount code for fashion brand Liam & Co. (@liamandcompany).
Conclusion
Fashion is one of the categories best-suited to influencer marketing. It is highly visual, and it’s relatively easy to ship clothing and accessories to influencers. Further, there are so many different niches within the fashion industry, so you can find influencers who help you target your exact niche.
Just always remember to define your campaign thoroughly beforehand, and guide your influencer search with your campaign objectives. Send influencers products they’re excited to get, and connect them as much as possible with your e-commerce platform.
Also Read: Top SERP Checker, SpySERP.com Is A Real Deal!
- Zero-Waste Grocery Shopping Guide: Small Steps to a Greener Cart - August 1, 2024
- Top 5 Google Workspace Backup Tools [Latest Guide - December 14, 2023
- The Top 12 PC Games of All Time: From Solitaire to Modern Masterpieces - December 3, 2023