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Creating an Influencer Marketing Strategy for Your Fashion Brand
Aug
An effective influencer marketing strategy utilizes the power of word of mouth! This marketing approach targets social media influencers/bloggers to drive brand awareness to a specific consumer market. Put more simply, the influencer acts as a brand ambassador while helping you expand your online reach.
Why is an influencer marketing strategy necessary?
- Grow an organic online tribe of potential customers
- Exponentially increase your online following and reach people that you’d otherwise have no access to with your company page alone
- Gain trust from your growing following (as customers will believe another’s testimony more than they’d believe you)
- Increase SEO and website traffic by generating backlinks to your website (backlink= an incoming hyperlink from one website that leads to another website).
- Generate more SALES and click-throughs on your e-commerce website
In the digital age, online presence is everything. As a fashion business owner, you’re already wearing multiple hats. By partnering with influencers, you can achieve the following metrics of growth (without taking time away from running your business) :
While influencer marketing is effective, it’s not necessarily simple. After all you’re dealing with humans- not algorithms or Facebook Ads. But just like any other form of marketing, this strategy can be immensely effective with the right amount of planning, breadth, and consistency.
Consistency and breadth are key because the only way you’ll make a dent in the online market is by running campaigns consistently with a range of influencers. Without consistency and breadth, it’ll be harder to determine the overall impact of your efforts.
Here are 3 crucial components of developing a WINNING influencer marketing campaign!
Set goals! What EXACTLY do you want from the campaign?
The more narrow and focused your goals are, the more measurable they are. In order to make your ROI more quantifiable, choose 1-2 goals per campaign. Your goals can be any of the following examples:
- Grow your number of followers
- Get more referral traffic and increase SEO
- Gather more testimonials so you can gain trust and credibility
- Increase online sales
- Promote your brand launch or a new product launch
- Get more subscribers / email sign-ups
QUANTIFY Your Goals and Your Time Frame
Now that you’ve established your marketing goals, don’t stop there! Add numbers and time frames.
- For example, how many new emails do you want to gain and by what date?
- How much do you want to earn in sales?
- How many testimonials or backlinks do you want?
- # of Likes/Comments?
- # of Impressions?
- # of Email addresses obtained from giveaways?
- # of New followers
Quantifying your goal is also helpful when it’s time to execute the campaign. You’ll have a better gauge of how many campaigns you need to run in a given time period and you’ll know exactly how many influencers you need to contact and partner with throughout the year.
Map Out Your Budget (Money & Time)
- How much money can you allocate to influencers on a monthly/yearly basis?
- How much inventory can you barter away per month/season?
- How much inventory can you distribute for giveaways?
- How much time can you dedicate to finding and forging relationships with influencers?
- Do you need to hire an agency to do this work for you?
Asking yourself these questions will help you pinpoint which influencers and agencies you can work with and what kind of campaign you have the money/time to execute effectively. For example, smaller micro-influencers might accept free product for pay, while a more established influencer may require an additional fee.
Determine Who’s Right For You
In order to choose the best fit, you must have a firm grasp of your own brand! Knowing your niche and your target audience automatically help you decipher which influencers align best with your vision. Here are some helpful questions to consider when looking for the right influencer:
- Does the influencer’s audience include my target customer?
- Do their followers’ demographics match your target customer demographics?
- Does the influencer actively engage with their following?
- Is their brand aesthetic a good complement to yours?
- Is the influencer posting content that’s relevant to your ideal audience?
- What is their niche and is it the same as yours? (Ex. Vintage, Minimalist, Eco-friendly, Street, Bargain)
- Where is most of their reach? Which platforms do they use?
- Are they using the same platforms as your target customer?
- How influential are they? Do people share and engage with their content?
- Are their followers real?
- Are they a micro or macro influencer?
Pro-tip– It’s been proven that micro influencers have more of a targeted following and receive 13x the engagement of macro influencers. Also since they have a tighter following, people are more likely to believe their endorsements. This results in a higher ROI and can lower the amount of money spent on the campaign.
Fashion Angel Warrior
Where to Find Influencers
- Hashtags- Searching hashtags on your platform of choice is one of the most comprehensive forms of research. When searching hashtags, use prominent keywords that you use for your own website and profiles. Since the search is so vast, this is a great way to find up-an-coming influencers with great market potential.
- Google- Google will always be the king of search queries. Substitute the hashtags and search “instagram sustainable fashion bloggers” or “instagram la fashion blogger” and you’ll get a TON of results!
- Influencer Platforms- Some popular influencer platforms are Famebit, Grapevine, and Upfluence.
- Hire an Agency- Working with an agency can take a lot of the burden off of your back. Not only does an agency already have contacts across multiple niches, they also know WHAT to look for when they’re on-boarding new candidates. They already know the target demographics, they understand how to read the engagement analytics, and they can easily sniff out the ones with fake followers. Knowing how to read the analytics is a key part of building a successful influencer marketing strategy.
Setting quantifiable goals, creating a budget, and targeting the right influencers creates a solid foundation for an effective influencer marketing strategy. Although the planning is straightforward; it’s also very time-consuming for solopreneurs. If you’re interested in hiring an agent to connect you with kindred influencers, email us at [email protected] so we can help you!
What was your biggest takeaway from these tips? Did you learn something new about influencer marketing? Comment below!
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