7 Influencer Marketing Best Practices that All Fashion Brands Need to Know
Picture this. Your best friend shows up to your lunch date in a new pair of boots. They rave all about how great the quality is and how comfortable the shoes are, and maybe even justifies the price they paid for it. Before you know it, you’re pulling up the brand’s site and purchasing the same pair of boots on the spot.
Sound familiar? Whether it’s a pair of shoes or a matching loungewear set, we’ve all been influenced to buy certain fashion items by those around us — including the creators we don’t personally know, but frequently see online. More often than not, consumers today make their purchasing decisions based on the feedback of other shoppers online, who post try-on hauls, reviews, and #OOTD content. That’s why influencer marketing is a no-brainer for fashion brands.
As the market gets increasingly competitive, it’s essential to integrate creators into your overarching marketing strategy to reach consumers where they are and supercharge sales. In this 2-part series, we’re exploring influencer marketing strategies tailored to fashion brands. The series will break down:
- Part 1: Influencer Marketing Best Practices that All Fashion Brands Need to Know
- Part 2: Examples of Fashion Brands with Killer Influencer Marketing Campaigns
In Part 1, let’s walk through 7 influencer marketing best practices that all fashion brands need to know.
1. Diversify your influencer pool.
By now, companies of all kinds should be prioritizing diversity and inclusion. Besides the fact that being inclusive is the moral thing to do, celebrating diversity in ads has the potential to generate tangible returns. In fact, studies show that inclusive ads generate twice the level of purchase intent and 59% of consumers prefer to buy from brands that stand for diversity and inclusion in online advertising.
Particularly in the business of fashion, diversity is crucial for growth. Remember that everyone wants to see people like them represented in ads from brands they love. But this is especially true for brands in the fashion industry, because consumers want to see how clothes will fit on real people with a variety of body types, or how certain colors will look on different skin tones.
So, what does all of this mean for your fashion brand? Ensure that you work with a wide variety of creators, who not only look different, but also are from all walks of life. The more diverse your influencer pool is, the bigger the chance that you’ll satisfy a variety of demographically diverse customer needs and interests.
Take note from SKIMS, who always works with creators of all kinds.
2. Lean into short-form video content — especially on TikTok.
40% of marketers today say short-form video has the highest return on investment when compared to other types of content. As consumers focus more on authenticity, we’re seeing a return to "lo-fi," short form video content that makes you feel like you’re on FaceTime with a friend. For fashion brands, this entails try-on hauls, #GRWM (Get Ready With Me) videos, unboxings, and the like.
In recent years, TikTok has proven to be the best platform for driving urgency and immediate sales, especially for fashion brands. Businesses in this industry typically have a short customer journey because clothing and accessories — as opposed to products like couches or laptops — are usually sold at a lower price point. This perfectly positions fashion brands to drive direct, trackable sales through influencers — which brings us to our next tip.
3. Activate affiliate links and promo codes.
To easily drive sales from your influencer marketing initiatives, give each of your creators a unique promo code or link to share with their audiences whenever they post content around your brand, and offer commission to creators in exchange. For instance, this creator posted a try-on haul video featuring her new Edikted pieces and provided her audience with her discount code.
This strategy is a win-win for all parties involved. Brands get increased awareness, engagement, and sales, while creators can offer their followers discounts and have the additional incentive of revenue sharing with their favorite brands.
By implementing affiliate links and codes, you can streamline the path to purchase for the creator’s followers and seamlessly create a new revenue stream for your business. And the best part is that influencer-affiliate campaigns are easy to track. Through unique codes and links, you can easily determine your top performing creators (and re-invest in them) and measure the impact of your influencer program to your overall business.
4. Take influencer co-creation to the next level to drive your brand message.
Today’s leading brands don’t just collect influencer feedback and call it co-creation. Instead, they literally co-create with influencers by building entire product lines together and promoting the brand together. For fashion brands, launching a co-branded collection with an influencer can be extremely fruitful — especially if it’s in tandem with a brand initiative or message you want to support, whether it’s sustainable fashion or size inclusivity.
For example, in an effort to become more size inclusive, fashion powerhouse Revolve launched the REMI x REVOLVE collection with Remi Bader, a TikTok creator (2.3 million followers) and curve model, who consulted with the brand after getting feedback from her audience. Its first extended-size collection comes after years of consumers — including Remi herself — calling out the brand for neglecting plus-sized women and women of color in its fashion campaigns. The REMI x REVOLVE collection was so successful that the brand launched a second collection with the content creator.
5. Host a memorable in-person experience for creators.
Influencer trips, lavish events, and gifting suites are popular for a reason. For fashion brands, these types of memorable in-person experiences are a great opportunity to:
- Source branded content: Invite fashion-focused creators to your event, trip, or gifting suite and have them pick a few of their favorite pieces from your collection. Ensure you a few Instagrammable activations so that you can add a camera-ready backdrop to their already amazing content creation process — making it easy for creators to pose in your clothes and post them across their socials.
- Boost brand awareness: With a schedule jam-packed with fun activities, exciting excursions, and five-star meals, influencer trips and events can yield some of your brand’s most viewed and talked about content — which undoubtedly will boost your brand awareness. Particularly with the rise of TikTok, content from these events are getting millions of eyeballs as influencers constantly live-document the trip and give plenty of exposure to the brand before, during, and after the event. Typically, all of these posts are complete with signature branded hashtags, driving even more engagement.
- Create deeper relationships with creators: Who wouldn’t want to be invited to an extravagant brand trip or an exclusive VIP event? These special experiences not only build positive brand sentiment, but also allow for creators to meet those behind the brand — ultimately deepening your relationships with creators.
Not sure where to start? Enlist Aspire’s Agency Services team to source an invite list for your event, contract any paid influencers, and coordinate all attendance on your behalf. If you need additional support for event management, our partners can work with us to run the event from start to finish to create a seamless, memorable experience for your creators. Contact us to learn more.
6. Repurpose influencer content across all branded channels.
Influencer-generated content (IGC) is a powerful tool that can benefit brands in many different ways. Not only is IGC diverse, relatable, and high-performing, it also provides the volume and velocity of content needed to fuel all of your branded channels. So, take advantage of your content goldmine and repurpose them across:
- Organic social: Because IGC is already designed for social media, it seamlessly blends in with other content on users’ feeds, making it extremely effective for organic social channels.
- Paid social: Leverage Instagram Partnership Ads to seamlessly turn branded influencer content into paid ads. By doing so, you can enjoy 82% probability to win for purchase outcomes, 3.9% lower cost per purchase, and 2.4x conversion lift!
- Websites: Humanize your website with IGC and create a socially-optimized web experience throughout your site. By doing so, you can give potential customers real-life examples of how your product will look on real people and ultimately improve conversion rates.
- Email: Since IGC is diverse in many different ways, you can keep your email assets relevant to all the different segments you’re targeting. Add IGC to newsletters and abandoned cart emails to boost click-through rates.
The possibilities are endless. Leveraging IGC for all of your branded channels can increase ROI, lower customer acquisition costs, and take your business to the next level.
7. Implement a comprehensive cross-channel strategy.
If you have the budget, activate multiple influencer campaigns targeting different stages of the purchasing funnel, namely by leveraging each platform’s purpose. Many creators have substantial followings across Instagram, TikTok, Youtube, and more, which means you can activate a cross-platform campaign to create multiple touchpoints with your audience everywhere they go.
Since each platform supports different content types, have influencers create content optimized to each channel. For instance, a creator can post a few different outfit inspiration pictures in an Instagram carousel, as well as a try-on haul video on TikTok. Remember to experiment with different channels as well. For example, consumers frequently go to Pinterest to search for outfit inspiration and styling ideas, so don’t neglect creators on this channel.
By activating a cross-channel, full-funnel strategy, you can maximize the impact of your influencer program across the entire buyer’s journey.
Check out Part 2 of this series, where we’ll give you examples of fashion brands killing the influencer marketing game.
