Fashion forward: Planning your brands influencer marketing strategy

Influencer marketing in the fashion industry is done by people with large followings promoting an item of clothing as requested by the fashion brand.

This route of advertising offers a totally new channel of marketing to fashion companies, who might’ve previously relied on TV or other means of conventional advertising.

Whether it’s on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, or somewhere else, the idea remains the same: exposure of an item and a label to a mass market.

If a post goes “viral”, meaning it has been shared so many times that a huge number of people see it, this can be a big win for a fashion company.

Organisations like Bark Social can help fashion brands with the process of stepping into the influencer marketing world.

Methods of communicating through social media

There are a number of routes to take to increase your exposure on social media. Here are just a select few.

Promoting your product – this is an extremely effective way of getting your product out into mainstream viewing. By simply gifting the influencer the item of clothing, they will model it on social media and usually attach a link to the fashion brand’s social media account or website for the customer to investigate further.

Discount codes from an influencer – harvesting the ways in which your customers, particularly new ones, found you is incredibly valuable to a fashion outlet. If you know for a fact that a purchaser used code “ALEX10”, for example, you know which influencer it was who successfully attracted this sale. Regardless, it’s a sale, which is the sort of thing that’ll appeal to new customers.

Share influencer testimony on your page – of course, there is your own company social media page to run, but why not use positive statements made about your range by those influencers yourself? This gives you control of when the post goes out and is a secondary channel to broaden your reach.

Advice on how to work with influencers when marketing

Be selective – this might be the most important aspect of stepping into the world of influencer marketing. You need somebody the public can trust and is not an overly controversial figure – the last thing you want is to be associated with somebody who will harm your brand’s image. Also, it depends how you want your message to be spread. You might decide that one influencer is more articulate than another and will highlight the advantages of your product better, or somebody else simply might have more followers which will, therefore, increase your exposure.

Ascertain who the influencer’s audience is – the biggest companies around all conduct stakeholder analyses because they want to reach a specific type of clientele. This again points to the type of influencer you should collaborate with, but the ultimate aim is to reach the mass audience, so try to decipher exactly who watches their output online to as close a degree as you can.

Consider hiring an influencer agency – influencer agencies are the “middle-man” between company and influencer. If a fashion brand doesn’t keep abreast of social media trends, they can hire an agency like this to do it for them and subsequently partner with a suitable influencer at the optimal time. Influencer agencies will likely know the best ways to communicate with influencers too, taking away another potential grey area for them. Bark Social are an expert name in influencer marketing with a dedicated and experienced team.  

The bottom line

Now that you’re aware of some of the fundamentals of influencer marketing strategising, you’re in a position to launch your product through social media with the influencer that suits your brand and needs.

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