How to start a fashion label: Marketing 102
Your guide on how to build a sustainable and profitable fashion business if you’re not a nepo baby.
Welcome to another episode of the “Things I wish I knew before launching a clothing label” where I talk more in depth on how to start a successful international fashion business from the comfort zone of your computer. Today I’ll be covering the second part of the broad scope of marketing. The first part of this article can be found in the marketing section dedicated to successful marketing strategies I implemented which you could explore as an independent fashion designer.
As I mentioned in part 1 of this article, which you can read here, this is the part I enjoy working on the most. Most of the things I write about here are specifically tailored for an ecommerce fashion label and could be applicable in case you want to transition from a physical retail to online.
CONTENT MARKETING
When you’re launcing an online label, it’s essential to have a content marketing strategy in place. An effective content executed over a period of time is crucial to generate good, high quality traffic on your website. Think of it this way, if you run a small physical shop not located in a central shopping area, chances are very slim for you to turn it into a successful business. In that case, the way you build traffic around it is through word of mouth mostly, loyal customers reffering their friends.
When you’re starting online, it’s the same thing. You have high traffic areas, usually occupied by the H&M’s and Zara’s of this world where you have to battle these giants for attention, because while their location is central, yours is on the outskirts of the city, burried under the avalanche of their ads. This is where content marketing steps in, as a clever way to outsmart the big guys. Or what is known in the marketing industry as a growth hacking technique.
And here is where the element of storytelling comes into play. Crafting an engaging story should be considered an art form. It’s crucial for anything in life really. The better storyteller you become, chances are everything around you will be better, from how you connect with people all the way to how it will reflect on the success of your business. Back in the day when I was starting out all of the fashion websites contained blogs dedicated to styling tips in an effort to compete for the desired keywords and they always revolved around “10 Best Summer Dresses” or the likes. I on the other hand took a different approach, because I’m a firm believer in seperating yourself from the herd. It’s been both a blessing and a curse, but that’s a story for another time. Back to the topic in question, since I didn’t have a budget for a marketing or a PR agency that could potentially open doors for me, I needed to think of a way how to open those doors myself or at least crack a window. So I started working on developing the content around impressive life stories of editors and writers working at fashion publications, people who at that point were more in the backend and were not receiving the credit they deserved. This is how our series “Cool Faces of Bastet Noir” was born and the support we’ve received was and still is overwhelming. We’ve covered the stories of some of the most impressive women working in fashion. These women connected to the authenticity of our brand story and our efforts to create financial autonomy for vaulnarable group of women and wanted to support our cause which ultimately helped us with press coverage as well.
Another approach to create engaging content was crafting Behind The Scenes series where we share the journey behind every new collection. The idea behind this was to keep our customers and potential clients informed and educate them on where we source the fabrics from, who makes their clothes and document the process from sketch to finished item. After a while though, we noticed that customers preferred consuming this type of content by watching videos rather then reading about it so we switched the format from written content to creating videos instead.
The moral of this story is that content marketing, if done right, will help you attract high quality traffic which will in return help your SEO and how you rank on search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing etc.
AFFILIATE MARKETING
Affiliate marketing is a marketing arrangement by which an online retailer (in this case you) pays commission to an external website for traffic or sales generated from its referrals. (total disclosure: this definition is courtesy of chatGPT)
If you’re running a fashion label, in the vast sea of affiliate marketing platforms, there are two that stand out. Number one is LTK followed by ShopMy. Some of the biggest fashion influencers use these two. There are some set up costs that apply of course. These include integrating their system with yours, but be aware that even though this cost is a one time fee, you’ll also need to have a budget set aside for the influencers. Even if some of them accept to work with you on a commission basis, most of them also charge for the content they’ll be creating for your label.
If your aim is to make your label purely online investing in either of these will do wonders for your business. My only advice before you do decide to invest is to have a group of at least 10 influencers who you’re certain will support you there purely on commission basis, because otherwise you’re looking at an investment of tens of thousands of dollars per month with no way of getting them back which will definately put a strain on you if you’re just starting out and don’t have a steady income.
PARTNERSHIPS
While building your socials, one thing to consider is partnerships with brands complementary to yours. What this means is if you’re a clothing label, you could look into brands which sell jewelry, shoes, bags and even beauty products to tap into their audience. Usually this is done through collaborative giveaways or even joint pop-up shop events. The way I did it is by creating a list of 50 complementary small lifestyle businesses, selling in our targeted location US and UK, with which we share similar aesthetic and approched each manualy to collaborate on a joint giveaway. This strategy works best when used on Instagram or as part of you email marketing strategy.
Highly engaged audience can be reached via fashion mobile apps used for styling. The biggest fashion mobile app is Covet Fashion, currently owned by EA (Electronic Arts), creator of some of the best video games in the world among which The Sims. We joined this app during the pandemic back in 2020 in an attempt to digitalise our inventory and the outpour of support we received from their players has just been unparalleled. Prior to joining, my impression was that games like this one are only interesting to younger audience ages 18 to maybe 24, but boy was I pleasantly surprised when seeing the analytics and reading the monthly report. It turned out that it was just the audience we were targeting, 25 - 35 years old women, located all across the world, but with the highest engagement in the USA. Highly recommend joining this app. Their team is just above amazing and will work together with you to create the most realistic renderings of your pieces, as well as guide you throughout the entire process.
Drest is geared towards the luxury market and works with labels like Prada, Valentino and Cartier. However they do also partnerships with brands, so if this is the market you’re targeting, it’s worth it to consider partnering with them.
Another platform worth mentioning is Lyst, but this one is more like a shopping platform than a fashion game. It started out as a listing engine to provide insight data to luxury fashion labels, but as it grew it became one of the biggest dropshopping platforms for both established and emerging designers. The platform is highly curated though and depending on your price points, the aesthetic of your label and the volume of sales, you might not be selected to sell there. However, you can find their app on Shopify App Store and try integrating it with your store. Who knows, you just might get lucky and join their rooster.
SMS MARKETING
And lastly, there’s SMS marketing.
To be honest, we’ve never seen the desired results with SMS marketing platforms, but I think it’s worth mentioning, just so you’re aware of the types of marketing involved in running a fashion label. This type of marketing involves sending SMS text messages to customers who have subscribed and it’s a convenient way to reach them since it’s more likely to open a text message rather than an email.
We’ve only worked with one and the only reason why I wanted to test it and try it out was because one of the investors connected to it was Rocky Barnes, the influencer. The platform’s name is Qatch. I’m linking it here, but in all honesty I’m not entirely sure if they’re still doing SMS marketing. One thing I noticed though while we were using it was that their audience was mostly low income women located in mid America attracted to flashy sales and discounts. So if this is your audience, I would say, have at it.
I hope this was usefull for all of you young aspiring fashion designers out there. Another part of this series is coming out next Sunday. Until then, because sharing is caring, if you know someone who is an independent fashion designer and will find this helpful please share it with them. I know I would have been grateful if I could find this stuff when I was beginning. It would have saved me a lot of time and money.
I know time these days is a precious currency, so thank you for reading.
Hasta la vista lovelies from my Salad Brain.