With an estimated global size of US$752.5 billion in 2020, the fashion eCommerce market is expected to grow and reach a market size of US1.164 billion by the end of 2025, according to Statista. With so many brands launching every day, the fashion industry is becoming even more cutthroat, with only very few standing out in the B2C market.
Do you know how many times a consumer has to see a post or ad before they decide to purchase? For example, you love buying high heels, and it doesn’t matter how many you already have; if it’s your style, you’ll buy it. How many brands do you trust and buy from, and how many times did you have to see them on social media before you made the purchase?
Do you remember the last time you saw a post or an ad for the first time, and you immediately went to the store or the website and made a purchase? Yep, you probably took some action like you followed the account or liked the post, but it’ll take more than that to get you to buy, right? It’s just like dating; you flirt with them a little bit, stalk their socials and see what brand they are like before deciding if it’s worth pursuing. If the brand successfully gets your attention with content that you enjoy, you slowly open up to them, and boom, out goes your wallet, and you finally make a purchase.
So how much content and posts does a business need to create and share to stand out? The marketing rule of 7’s states that a customer must see a message at least seven times before being provoked to make a decision and take action. I don’t totally agree with this, as every business is different, and this rule was during those Jurassic times where social media did not exist yet. People saw ads on their giant boxy televisions, billboards, newspapers, and magazines.
Nowadays, we live in a digital era where consumers are flooded with a lot of content and information. There are a lot of distractions for them, and they toggle between Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Tiktok, etc. Social media made it easy for brands to post left and right about their products and offers. This also means that consumers have many options, and there is more competition between brands.
With all these said, brands have to work even harder in order to thrive in the competitive fashion industry. If a brand needs so much content to reach its target audience, and not every brand has the substantial marketing budgets of other global brands, how does a small fashion and beauty business compete and thrive?
Influencer Marketing is one way for a startup brand to get tons of content and increase visibility by working with influencers/content creators. According to Hubspot, 58% of marketers found influencer marketing the most effective marketing trend in 2021, and 89% said it works the same or even better than other marketing channels.
“71% of marketers say the quality of customers and traffic from influencer marketing is better than other sources.” – Hubspot.
If you’re wondering how influencer marketing can help you gain traction and visibility for your business, get your handy dandy pen and paper and start taking notes on how Daniel Wellington is nailing their influencer marketing strategy.
Here we go!
Daniel Wellington – this Swedish watch brand was launched in 2011 and in 5 short years grew to a $200 million business in 2015, according to Bloomberg. Remember when this Swedish watchmaker was all over Instagram? They even dominated South East Asia by partnering with influencers in that region and leveraging their content for maximum visibility. You can notice these influencers using their branded hashtag and even promoting any deals and promo sales of the brand.
If you go through their branded hashtag #danielwellington, it’ll yield a whooping 2.4+ million search results.
Here are some posts from their branded hashtag:
Based in Australia, lifestyle influencer @alisha.aitkenradburn talks about how she loves the idea of gifting Daniel Wellington watches and even mentions that they can be personalized and engraved. This type of content is an excellent example of how influencers can help you highlight any special features of your products. When you collaborate with an influencer, it’s essential to highlight any perks or value-added services your products have.
Let’s face it, no matter how great your products are, if no one knows about them, and customers don’t get “why” and “what” makes them so unique, they won’t have a reason to get interested in your business. The good thing, though, is that people LOVE TO BUY. You just need to let them know the “why” and the “what.”
Photo by @alisha.aitkenradburn from Instagram
With over 1.3M Instagram followers, fashion and beauty influencer @palaktiwarii promotes Daniel Wellington’s holiday sale and her discount code. If you get to see her page, you’ll see how this particular post is different from her high fashion and sultry modeling posts. Her post for the Swedish watch brand is more in line with the brand’s image and branding.
Finding the right influencer that fits your brand is crucial to ensuring your audience resonates with them. If your brand caters to moms, of course, it makes sense not to get single male teenage influencers, right? Getting your demographics right and really understanding what type of influencers your target audience can relate to, is vital to make sure you’re reaching the right people and giving them content they love.
Photo by @palaktiwarii from Instagram
Daniel Wellington works with all types of influencers. In fact, according to Business Insider, one strategy they implemented was to collaborate with influencers to showcase their watches. Lifestyle content is a compelling post, it doesn’t necessarily hard sell to your customers, but it’s more relatable content showing everyday life.
“A sweeping majority of consumers have had some part of their buying journey impacted by influencer content. 82% have either purchased, researched or considered purchasing a product or service after seeing friends, family or influencers post about it.” –Business Wire
The photo below shows fashion micro-influencer and Youtuber @millie_windebank out and about, enjoying a cup of coffee (or maybe that’s hot choco? 🙂 ) while still promoting the brand in a not-so sales-ey way.
Photo by @millie_windebank from Instagram
Besides the fact that they’re going global, notice anything in these two photos below? The same caption! Their influencers/ambassadors from Thailand have a branded hashtag #DWthailand. If you search it on Instagram, you’ll see that most of these influencers have the same caption promoting the brand’s holiday sales and promotions. (some are in their local language) now that’s a smart strategy to do when you have a plethora of brand ambassadors posting and talking about your brand.
Photo by @fiin_fm from Instagram
Wondering what paid partnership Instagram posts are? These types of posts mean that the influencer is in collaboration with the brand, and in some way, is compensated for the post. It provides transparency for the audience. Once they are tagged as a business partner, the brands can see direct insights into how well the influencer’s post performs.
Doing branded content with the influencers you collaborate with can help you determine which influencers have the most impact on your brand. Which ones get more engagements? What type of post did well? These things are helpful to make the right decisions and who and what kind of influencers get you the most results.
Here are examples of branded content posts from influencers @chloeleslie and @doka998
Photo by @chloeleslie_ from Instagram
Photo by @doka998 from Instagram
If you own a fashion or beauty brand/business, Influencer marketing is an invaluable asset for you. It helps your brand have more user-generated content and traffic to your account. For a smaller company that doesn’t have a massive budget for ads and has very little time creating content, giving away your product and collaborating with content creators helps you hit so many birds with just one stone.
P.S.
Thanks for making it here and taking the time to read my blog! You made one lady really happy. Feel free to lurk around my website and let’s be IG friends, I promise to follow back. 🙂 My IG is @chicmarketinglife and if you already followed me and you have some questions or just want to talk, send a DM, I don’t bite. 🙂 Thanks friend!
I hope you’re having a day that you love.
XOXO
Wanda