According to Derek Robinson , founder and CEO of Top Notch Dezigns, digital marketing is the next step for his business because of its global reach and effectiveness.
There are several digital marketing strategies you can apply to your clothing store to maximize profitability. Any fashion brand, whether old or new, can implement a winning digital marketing strategy. If you want to promote yourself better, read on.
Digital marketing strategies for clothing brands
Retargeting visitors
Many of us visit websites or see advertisements on a daily basis. But this doesn't mean that we make a purchase at that moment. Retargeting online advertisements helps people remember the website/product/service they visited after that visit. People can easily forget on the Internet, so retargeting helps them remember us, even if the potential customer is browsing a different website.
If, for example, visitors don't revisit your website within a specific period, you can make the offer appealing by offering a good discount. On the other hand, in ecommerce , there are some people who add things to their shopping cart but then abandon it, so those people should also be retargeted, with retargeting to encourage a later purchase.
A survey conducted by Uhuru monitored the Facebook ad management of several brands. They found that, on average, the ROI on retargeting campaigns was 398%. For some, it even rose to a whopping 660%! This can be critical in selling for many fashion brands.
Product combinations
Product combinations
Seasonal promotions
If you own a clothing store or brand, a large part of your marketing efforts will be seen during the shopping seasons of the year. During each holiday season, you can send emails to your subscribers informing them of discounts on your product catalogue. For example, you can have a 10-day discount period where you give a discount on one category each day. Here, the sense of urgency can play a relevant role.
So it would be something like: on day 1 there could be a discount on jackets, on day 2 on shoes, etc. Brands like GAP often apply this type of strategy.
This way, you not only promote your products to an email subscriber base, but you can also invite them to share those unforgettable discounts with their social contacts.
You can even create a discount on combinations of products. Such as shorts and shirts or glasses and jackets. Or you could have gift schemes where there is a free item, such as a hat, for orders over a certain purchase value.
This encourages customers to spend more. Also, all these discounts and promotions should be shared on the website and all the social media platforms your brand uses, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.
style guide
Style Guide
Style guides
If your clothing brand's product offering includes a variety of clothing items, you can create style guides within your website. This way, subscribers and potential customers can view different combinations to get an idea of how different clothing items look. A style guide can be part of your online fashion marketing strategy.
You can even create multiple style gambling data malaysia guides. These could be based on special occasions like picnics or weddings or inspired by seasons like summer or winter or even themes like work or travel. You can have a special section on the website dedicated to style guides. Make sure to provide detailed descriptions of all the products/garments used in the guide.
Digital marketing for fashion: working with influencers
It's a good tactic to reach people who aren't yet in your audience. You can work with social media influencers, fashion bloggers, and vloggers who have a large following on their channels. Remember to audit influencers before starting activities with them. Influencers with a large number of followers usually enjoy a good reputation and are respected by their audiences, although it's important to consider that they agree with your brand's values. If done well, influencer marketing can increase your sales in the medium term.
Working with influencers allows you to advertise your products to a different group of potential customers. If you choose the right influencer, you can generate new customers.
The Leather Skin Shop , an online leather jacket store, used product reviews and reached out to various bloggers, vloggers, and fashion industry influencers to increase their following. Products that had solid referral traffic and generated good leads were given to influencers to create buzz and influence customers to make well-informed purchasing decisions.
Consider events throughout the year
Although the restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have impacted this sector, it is advisable not to neglect it. People no longer buy gifts only on birthdays and Christmas. Numerous other occasions have appeared or gained importance in recent years. Occasions such as Mother's Day, Father's Day, Friendship Day, baby showers, bridal showers, graduations, anniversaries and so on.
So, depending on the type of clothing store you run and the products you sell, it's a good idea to market personalized items that are relevant to specific occasions during the year that occur in the lives of your target audience.
For example, if you own a clothing brand, you could promote matching couples clothing for Valentine's Day or men's shirts for Father's Day. This is all about persuading your audience to make purchases year-round and cultivating brand loyalty.
Interact with your audience
Another way to build brand loyalty is to constantly interact with your target audience. This helps improve the perception of your brand and establishes a sense of community between buyer and seller.
The best way to make your engagement effective is to create campaigns that connect and resonate with your audience. For example, you can do this by running contests on Facebook and Instagram that highlight shared values. Or by joining relevant conversations that people really care about, such as women’s rights.
Instagram Giveaways
For your best-selling items, you can run a giveaway competition on Instagram. For example, Catparty had a giveaway competition where the winner would get a bundle of products worth $14.
Before the contest, they had about 200 followers on Instagram, but after the contest, the number increased to 340 followers, an increase of 70%. These are modest numbers, but for small clothing stores they can be important. These giveaway contests can be held every other month, or they can even be organized monthly.
One thing you need to keep in mind when it comes to contests and giveaways is to use the right hashtag. It helps users to easily keep track of the competition. Such competition will increase brand awareness and increase followers.
Bonustrack: 5 “must-haves” for a fashion e-commerce site
There are key considerations that apply to any e-commerce business. When it comes to making money with a fashion brand, there are five “must-haves” that your website should include:
1. Great photos
Good images are necessary for selling any product or service online, but they are particularly important for fashion and clothing websites. This is because buyers want to get a very close idea of what the garments will look like when they wear them. Professional photography may cost extra, but it offers great value if it leads to more purchases and fewer returns.
2. A great internal search tool
There are many different ways to categorize clothing and accessories, whether online or in a physical retail store. However, having what shoppers want isn’t enough. Customers may leave if they can’t find their preferred style, color, or size quickly enough. That’s why a great internal search engine that helps them find what they’re looking for within your fashion e-commerce site could make a huge difference to your sales figures.
3. Targeted search and social advertising
Every online store needs customers, and Google remains the most popular portal for attracting shoppers to your website. Still, social media platforms can be just as important for fashion retailers, as it's so easy to share photos, reviews, and coupons online. Social media and search advertising could be just what you need to kick-start the marketing process quickly and affordably.
4. Real Customer Reviews
Unfortunately, most of us have had the experience of buying something online and regretting it later. Through that process, we learn that we can’t always trust things like product descriptions. What we do trust, however, is real-life reviews from other customers who are similar to us. By posting buyer feedback on your fashion brand’s website and encouraging reviews, you generate more content for your pages and make it easier for customers to feel confident in their purchases.
5. Buyer safety guarantees
Speaking of trust, it can be a little disconcerting to enter your credit card number into an unfamiliar website for the first time. A good way to ease your customers’ minds and concerns is to offer money-back guarantees. You can also display—for example—a membership to the Better Business Bureau and let them know that you’ve invested in high-quality encryption and secure merchant accounts. When shoppers know they’re safe doing business with your clothing brand, it’s one less reason for them to abandon their purchase.
Now it's your turn
Nowadays, digital marketing for a fashion brand can be very broad. Tactics, techniques, tools and platforms abound to reach the eyes of potential customers. But something that is not very abundant is: the strategy to follow. Try to execute your digital marketing with a strategic sense and always keeping your main buyer persona at the center. It won't take long for you to start seeing your business grow.
