Do you ever stop to wonder what life would look like if we didn’t have fashion? If trends didn’t exist or all of us just wore the same type of clothing. Boring, right?

What this means is you’ve got a huge potential to stand out in one of the most competitive spaces.

The trick? Combine online and offline strategies to meet your customers’ desires.

Here are 7 different ways that you can market your fashion brand

Build a community

One of the best ways to generate word-of-mouth marketing, whether online or offline, is through building a community. 

As humans, we’re instinctively herd animals who are naturally drawn to communities.

The real question that you should think about is, what is the purpose of my brand? Are you focussed on recommerce, or helping customers to find their identity through fashion? 

Creating a tribe of people who share a connection with your brand values can go a long way when marketing your products.

Retargeting  ads

Staying front of mind with visitors who have previously interacted with your pages or website is a great way to increase your reach. 

Retargeting offers an opportunity to go narrow and serve specific audience interests, especially if you offer several products.

It also serves to reinforce memory structures, and works exceptionally well with word-of-mouth amplification. Here’s an example: 

Elena visits your website and explores your product range. That same week, her friend Isaak tells her that he’s recently bought your product and loved the experience. Elena then sees your retargeting ad, which strengthens the memory of both her original website visit and Isaak’s recommendation. She is much more likely to purchase. 

Here’s a guide on how to get started with retargeting ads in 2023.

Test. Test. Test.

Nothing is set in stone when it comes to marketing and that’s why testing is important. 

You need to be intentional with your marketing efforts and analyse each part of your strategy, including ad performance, website analytics and email engagement. 

A/B testing helps remove guesswork from your marketing and directly unlock revenue optimization.

Here’s a case study of an apparel company that saw a 63% increase in conversion rate after doing split tests on their emails.

Work with micro-influencers

You may not have a huge budget for influencers who have thousands or millions of followers but who said you can’t work with micro-influencers?

One advantage that micro-influencers have is an element of relatability and authenticity.

Combine these two ingredients and you’re on the right path to creating a cult tribe.

Localised influencer selection can also be incredibly powerful. Work with creators who are influential in certain areas where your brand has strong word-of-mouth (we can help with that).

The local micro-influencer acts both as a seed of word-of-mouth and a catalyst to speed up sales in those areas. 

Optimize Google Shopping Free listings

Google Shopping is a comparison shopping engine provided by Google that allows consumers to research, compare and purchase products from a broad range of online vendors.

Products listed on Google Shopping appear as ads within regular Google Search results, usually inside a carousel at the top of the results page.

Combine it with PPC ads to gain better exposure to users with a high purchasing intent.

Create an illusion of urgency and scarcity

Yes, using words like 50% off, or putting a countdown timer, triggers fear of missing out, but that’s not all that prompts customers to buy.

You can go a step further by creating limited edition campaigns where you only sell specific products.

Zara, for example, designs and distributes its collection within two weeks.

This means they have little inventory, lower storage costs and fewer discounts.

This strategy works best if you already have a fan base so invest in building an audience.

Tips on launching limited edition pieces.

• Combine it with email marketing as an email subscription tool for early updates.
• Create hype both online and offline to generate word of mouth.
• Ensure the pieces align with your brand values and image. You don’t want to make people ask, “what in the world is this?

Post-purchase email flows

The money is in your email list and you should optimize all your workflows.

Even after you’ve closed a sale, there’s still a need for you to nurture a continuing relationship with your customer.

One way to increase your lifetime value is by syncing your post-purchase flows with your customer buying process.

Examples of post purchase emails include:

• Order confirmation
• Shipping details
• Up-sell and cross-sell 
• User generated email to encourage customers to share their product reviews
• Reward and surprise. This should be  exclusive for your loyal customers.

This post by Fuel made has examples of post-purchase emails examples that you can use to inspire your own.

Conclusion

Scaling a fashion brand is challenging but with the above strategies you can get a huge share of this ever-changing niche. Remember, being consistent and authentic is key to   winning your customers’ loyalty.