Marketing Series: Why Fashion Influencers are Worth Investing in
Influencer Marketing… It’s new. It works, and if you’re a fashion brand they might just be your secret formula. In this blog, I will show you the number one reason you need to know about influencer marketing.
Just when you think you understand your marketing options and the media and platforms it takes to build a brand, attract and appeal to your target audience, and grow your fashion business, something new comes along. It’s called influencer marketing. It is the form of marketing where a brand aligns itself with a celebrity, successful blogger, or another social media opinion leader with a sizable following and an interesting niche.
What Is Influencer Marketing?
It really is not new. Influencer marketing is a type of social media marketing that uses endorsements and product mentions from influencers. These are people who have a loyal social following and are viewed as experts within their niche. They have won the trust of their audience and a recommendation from these people can create “social proof” to your brand’s potential customers.
Fashion marketers have been using celebrity and expert endorsements for many years. When a major dress designer outfits an Oscar nominee in their gown, that is a form of influencer marketing. The proliferation of social media and its emerging dominance over how people consume content has transformed the people who create that content and have many followers into experts and social media celebrities. They have the power to influence purchasing decisions. These “influencers” or “brand ambassadors” have become more influential and useful to marketers and especially fashion marketers.
When Katy Perry posts a reel on Instagram of her riding a Harley motorcycle with a distinctive leather biker jacket, she is being an influencer and brand ambassador not only for Harley Davidson, but also for that brand of leather jacket. That is an example of a high profile celebrity with an enormous audience of followers who is an influencer; however, for a smaller brand, there are also smaller, more accessible yet powerful influencers and even “micro-influencers” that can represent your brand at a very efficient cost. Some micro-influencers will even showcase your brand simply for a product sample. That can result in thousands of exposures for almost no expense.
Does Influencer Marketing Work For Fashion?
If your fashion brand is not being seen by people on social media, it will be hard to achieve consistent sales. Millions of people follow fashion influencers and taking advantage of their audience is an efficient way to get in front of interested people. Right now, 78% of fashion brands are working with fashion influencers. On social media, consumers want authenticity, and influencers are considered friends or experts they can trust.
Influencers can also provide ideas and information regarding your brand and niche. When the influencer puts on your item, those followers can envision themselves wearing it and be influenced into considering how well it can look on them. The influencer shows what your brand can look like and it’s coming from someone the followers trust.
Influencer marketing does have its pros and cons. On the positive side, you are getting instant trust. If you identify the right influencers you are efficiently reaching your target audience, and that can make it easy to build and grow your brand’s audience, followers, and consumers.
On the other hand, the emerging popularity of influencer marketing can make it difficult to contact, finalize a deal, and implement an influencer program with some of the more famous ones. This can affect and delay marketing plans and the costs to implement that strategy. Do your homework. Since your brand is tied to an influencer you are working with, it is associated with them. If they have a public misstep it can impact the perception of your brand, so it is important to do your research on the influencers and micro-influencers you reach out to.
The bottom line on influencer marketing looks positive. Some studies show that brands earn as much as $5.20 for every dollar spent on influencer marketing. That equates to a Media Efficiency Ratio (MER) of 5.2. A 5.2 is an exceptional MER across any media type so the potential of influencer marketing should never be ignored. It can work, and it can be very cost efficient.
How Can You Get Started With Influencer Marketing?
The first step in getting started with influencer marketing is to set specific goals so that you can measure your campaign’s success. You may choose to increase brand awareness, improve your website ranking, increase followers, or generate sales. Whatever goals you set should have a metric that you can measure against your cost of achieving that goal.
Next, it is essential to identify your ideal influencer. It’s important to look for people with a niche that is compatible with yours, an authentic voice, and engaged followers. A huge follower count is not everything. A person with a lot of followers yet low engagement metrics is not necessarily a compelling influencer. It is more important to find someone who may have less followers but they are engaged. You can tell this by looking at the likes and comments on each post. If those are high, the followers are engaged.
Another important secret to identifying a valuable influencer is to find out who your competition uses. Don’t automatically reject an influencer because they work with your competition. That means they have the exact target audience of followers that you are trying to reach, and most influencers do not have “exclusive” arrangements with their brands. In fact, the more good brands they work with, even if competitors, the more they are seen as honest and trustworthy. This can build their authenticity and trust.
You can also find potential influencers by searching relevant hashtags for your brand. This can take time and be tedious. There are tools; however, that can help you in your search. Traackr and Buzzsumo are examples of apps that help you identify influencers.
Begin to create a list of influencers who might be right for your brand and then initiate the conversation. Look for a contact email on their social media profiles or website. If you cannot find an email, go to their social media profile and send them a Direct Message (DM). Then after you introduce yourself and your brand, ask for their email address.
There are also agencies who specialize in contacting and identifying influencers and even micro-influencers. They can even negotiate the final deal. These come with a cost but the savings in time and effort can be well worth it.
Once you start a negotiation with an influencer, present the details of your goals. Be clear about how you want your brand promoted, specify if you will participate in the content created and have approval, how long the posts will live on social media, and ask what the influencer would expect in return. If you don’t have a large budget there may be other incentives you can offer such as free products, cross promotion, or an affiliate link.
Once you reach an agreement, create a contract between you and the influencer. It is important to be clear on expectations and compensation and get that agreement in writing.
Keep in touch with the influencer so that once your content becomes live, you can promote it on your social media platforms. Then track its success. Whatever metrics you identified as your goals, monitor and analyze them to see if that influencer is having a positive impact on them and how much that is.
The largest number of people affected by influencer marketing are the Gen Z users. They are individuals from 10-25 years-old, and they represent over 2 Billion people globally. Even if your product is not targeted to that age group, Millennials, aged 26-41, and Gen X’ers, aged 42-57, are also compelled and influenced by social media and influencer marketing.
Influencer marketing has emerged as a critical marketing strategy for most fashion brands. It may not be a traditional form of media; however, it is becoming a cost effective and efficient way to generate trust, brand loyalty, and authenticity among your target audience. The results and demographics are clear. If you are launching or maintaining a fashion brand, you should definitely consider influencer marketing as a key element in your marketing mix. It can help you reach an entirely fresh audience of consumers that you may not be able to reach in other promotions, and that can help establish your brand and grow your business.
Not sure how to go about your marketing plan? The V.Mora team can create social media content and manage your social media plan with one of our Marketing Packages. For inquiries please contact: vmorainquiry@vmora.com
Have a Marketing plan already, but need help with producing your line? V.Mora can help you take your brand voice and turn it into products. We will help each step of the way to design, develop patterns, and connect with the right vendors for your project through our Production Development and Management service. Please contact us if you are in need of the Production Development and Management Services below:
Sourcing
Technical sketches
Pattern Making
Prototype making
Sample Making
Fittings
Digitizing and Grading
Marker Making
Manufacturing
Please contact us at: vmorainquiry@vmora.com
