Fashion magazines used to be the bible for understanding current fashion trends and what’s coming. Now, social media is the new fashion bible and it’s rapidly replacing magazines. If you are starting a new fashion brand, social media is a must. Here’s why…

Online fashion sales accounted for nearly 50% of apparel sales in 2020. Social media and online websites are driving those sales and replacing many of the traditional forms of fashion marketing and distribution with the more efficient and less costly eCommerce solutions. Social media is a huge element in taking advantage of the new online selling solutions.

Every day more than 100 million apparel images are shared on Instagram. Social media has replaced the fashion magazines as fashion inspiration for new seasonal must haves. Some estimates have cited these online images as inspiring 75% of all fashion purchases. Plus, with social media, your potential customer buying is merely an easy click away. 

Social media can be one of your brand’s most important ambassadors. It is nearly impossible to make an impression with most customers if you don’t have  a website or social media presence. Research shows over 97% of consumers research their fashion purchases online before they buy. 

In this blog, I will give you an overview of the important social media platforms that your brand needs to have a presence on, and I will explain why each one is strategically important to marketing your new line. In later blogs, I will get more specific and probe each platform. I will explain what you need to do to maximize your line’s exposure and boost your brand awareness to more consumers than you ever could have reached with traditional media.

What are the Most Important Social Media Platforms?

If you remember a social media platform called MySpace, it is easy to understand how social media sites can rise to prominence and then nearly fade out of existence. The various social media platforms will evolve in the future. Some may become more popular and others will become relics of this decade. New ones may come along and totally replace them. What I can tell you is that there are several social media platforms that are currently popular and if you are going to successfully launch a new fashion line it is essential that your new brand establishes a presence on these sites. 

Specifically, right now Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, Twitter, and Pinterest are the platforms you should focus your marketing strategy on. Each of these sites can expose your brand to a different audience and many of these potential customers may be in your target market. 

These social media sites can build your customer base of interested, potential buyers, increase your overall brand awareness, allow you to create a connection with your customers, and even drive sales and increase your revenue. It is free to create your presence on each one. They all offer paid advertising that you can use to boost your posts and expose your brand’s message to an even larger audience. A strategic combination of both paid and organic exposures can build your target audience and increase your online sales. 

I will now explain a little about each of these platforms and why it is important to be present and active on them.

Why is Instagram Essential?

 Instagram is by far the top platform for fashion, apparel, and clothing brands. It can be a powerful tool in helping you market your clothing line and even sell it directly from the Instagram platform. Surveys show that Instagram is the number one platform where people discover fashion products. 

Just imagine the power of this platform when you are launching a fashion line. Every day more than 100 million apparel images are shared on Instagram. You only need a tiny fraction of that to create an enormous target audience. 

You can monetize this amazing amount of potential exposures by combining your brand’s profile page with an Instagram Shop. This is where you can create a shopping cart to sell directly on Instagram and the buyer never has to leave the platform. 

When you combine the amazing potential audience with the ability to sell to them directly, Instagram becomes an extremely valuable marketing and sales tool to launch your new brand. Instagram is the platform you should get on first and start engaging with your audience as soon as possible.

Is Facebook still a powerful marketing tool?

Facebook has been around for several years, and there are many other competitive platforms; however, it is still enormously powerful as a marketing tool. It has 2.7 Billion active users per month, and nearly 40% of those users discover their fashion inspiration using this site. That is an enormous potential market that you simply cannot ignore. 

Facebook Groups allow you to engage and search for people interested in exactly what you are selling. There is almost no better way to directly find a targeted audience to expose your brand too. 

Since Facebook and Instagram are both owned by Meta, you can also create a Facebook shop where you can sell your merchandise directly from the Facebook Platform.  The user can buy from you and never have to leave Facebook. This is an enormous benefit to them because many of your viewers are not necessarily on the platform to shop. They may not want to jump off of Facebook to go to your online site. When they can buy directly on Facebook, this makes buying convenient and does not divert them from what they are on Facebook to do. 

Do I need YouTube to launch my Fashion Line?

YouTube presents an enormous opportunity to major fashion brands like Chanel (2 million subscribers) and Louis Vuitton (900,000 subscribers). If these major brands find marketing on YouTube so promising, it’s a good idea to follow their lead and start your own YouTube Channel for your new brand. 

By creating organic content and advertising content, you can engage your subscribers on different levels and build their trust in you. It is always important to give them some value in your content so that they have a reason to keep coming back to you. Like the other platforms, YouTube also offers the opportunity to run paid advertising which can expose your brand to a much larger potential audience, attract subscribers, build brand recognition, and even drive potential buyers to your website.

TikTok is Getting very Popular. Why do you Need it?

TikTok is a growing platform that came into the social media world like a hurricane. It has over a billion users and it’s growing.  It may be the new kid on the block, but it has become a major fashion player for many reasons. Frequent users of TikTok are in general younger than users of Instagram and Facebook. Over 40 per cent of the TikTok user base is under 29 years old. That means you are engaging a “Gen Z”, younger, often more fashion focused, audience on TikTok.

Larger brands like Gucci are using TikTok frequently, and if you are launching a kids or young adult brand, TikTok may be your most valuable marketing tool. It uses short form content that often looks very organic, and it can make you appear authentic and trustworthy to your audience.

Another great reason to use TikTok is that its algorithm actively tries to increase your followers. It will expose your content beyond your followers and attempt to engage other potentially interested viewers that you may not be exposed to on any other platform.

What about Twitter?

Twitter gets a lot of publicity for its political discussions; however, it can be an extremely effective marketing tool if you are launching a new fashion brand. The key benefit is that it can give you immediate feedback from your followers and start actual conversations amongst your target audience. This can be very important in building a loyal community of buyers. You can create a real human connection with your customers.

Another benefit of Twitter is that people retweet and reply to your content. This can expand the reach of your tweets and extend your target audience.  

Can Pinterest be a Marketing Tool?

Pinterest may be smaller than the major social platforms, but it can be a vital player in your marketing strategy. It is a social media platform that millions of users each month go to for fashion inspirations. It is a very powerful tool to reach out to new customers. The benefit of Pinterest is that by using important keywords it can put your fashion line in front of people who are eager to shop. They are looking for ideas, and your fashion brand may be the perfect discovery for them.

The other valuable feature on Pinterest is that your pins can link right to your product’s “buy” page. That means you can sell right on the spot to motivated shoppers who are eager to buy. 

One powerful function of Pinterest is that you can put it on your website so your website viewers can actually pin the products they like right from your site. These go right onto their boards, and are available for them to see again and also any visitors they have that are reviewing their board. This can further expand your reach and brand awareness.

Is Social Media redefining Fashion Marketing?

With the proliferation of social media platforms, new fashion launches are no longer the province of the large, well-funded brands. Social media has put the power of successfully marketing a fashion line into the hands of smaller entrepreneurs, dreamers, and innovative designers. 

Social media can expose your fashion products to millions organically and through paid exposures. The cost of putting your brand in front of millions of potentially interested buyers is a fraction of what it was when you were restricted to using magazines, television, and other mass media marketing outlets. 

Using the power of the various social media platforms the smaller, start-up fashion entrepreneur can find a niche, attract a target market, sell product, and successfully launch. As a fashion entrepreneur, you now have a better chance for success at a lower cost than in the past, and that potential can lead to many more fashion success stories in the future.

Stuck on product Production? At V.Mora we can help you through the entire production process from designing, to sourcing and so on through our Production Development services. If you are in need of the following Development and Production services: 

• Sourcing 

• Technical sketches 

• Pattern Making

• Prototype making 

• Sample Making

• Fittings 

• Digitizing and Grading

• Marker Making

• Manufacturing

Please contact us at: vmorainquiry@vmora.com