The magic of Influencer Marketing for Fashion Brands

The magic of Influencer Marketing for Fashion Brands

Reading Time: 9 minutes

Influencer marketing for fashion brands is no more an optional marketing technique.

Do you know there was hardly anyone, before 5 years, who would think of a market method like an influencer marketing?

I have a proof to show you via Google Trends in the below picture.

Do you know what? Earlier, when I was a kid, I used to see celebrities on the television promoting certain brands. And, literally, I used to believe that they are promoting the brands because they are actually using it 🙂

But, when I came to know that they are being paid for what they are promoting, I realized the level of marketing that can be utilized using the element, “INFLUENCE”. And in recent years, this is evolving differently and that too, in a better way.

When it comes to Fashion Commerce, the role of fashion stylist and influencer is magical. You will find many celebrities, bloggers and stylists are having a huge number of followers online and offline. They can use this power to the benefit to your web-store.

Here we are going to discuss:

Why choose influencer marketing for fashion brands?

The process of influencer marketing for fashion brands

What the fashion brands receive if they use influencer marketing?

How to measure the ROI of the fashion influencer marketing?

What are the influencer marketing platforms for fashion brands?

Let’s get started.

Why are fashion eCommerce brands looking for influencers and fashion stylists?

Fashion influencers, especially in the eCommerce industry on social media, are trending for a few years now. Now, Nike does not need fashion stylists, rather an influencer (the most related word). But, see how the brand takes advantage through influencer marketing-

But, why? What is the need for fashion eCommerce brands to look for influencers and/or fashion stylists?

The following could be a few reasons that I have discussed here in detail:

1. Increasing competition

OH! When talking about the competition in the eCommerce industry, then it is huge. And, the more is in the fashion segment. Almost every year we see there are more and more fashion brands coming up with an eCommerce business.

In fact, you won’t believe that even the fashion stylists and influencers are coming up with their own brand and products. So, the competition is increasing to a great extent and it affects the conversions, sales, and hence, the overall business.

2. Increasing influence of fashion stylists

Well, there are almost thousands to lakhs of fashion influencers available in the market who inspire people for fashion related tips, tricks, products, and much more.

Hence, the fashion eCommerce brands need to look for fashion stylists because more and more people get inspired by their fashionable looks.

3. Increasing fashion influence through Instagram

Almost all of the fashion influencers are becoming popular through one medium- Instagram.

I believe every Instagram women user follows at least 1 fashion stylists and/or influencer on Instagram. And, those influencers do influence the purchasing decisions made by those women.

4. More trackable conversions compared to TV

How many people bought your products offline based on your TV commercials? Well, that’s not easy to track for the fashion eCommerce brands because they have millions of website visitors on each day.

But, when there are the influencer marketing campaigns, the brands know what products are targeted. Hence, when there is an increase in the visits to that particular product page and even conversions, you can easily track them.

5. Decreasing direct influence of celebrities

We completely follow the celebrities to see because they are our favorites. But, our purchasing decisions are not always influenced by their choices. We are happy seeing them in TV commercials, but we don’t actually buy whatever they promote.

We rather trust more of our fashion influencers, who are evolving fashion for a common man. They even provide guidance based on your personality type, season, geography, etc.

And, these are the reasons why we see almost every fashion eCommerce brands taking the benefit of the increasing need for influencers and fashion stylists.

How the process of influencer marketing takes place in the fashion eCommerce industry?

To understand the role of influencers and fashion stylists for the eCommerce brands, you need to know how does it take place.

1. Understand the purpose behind influencer marketing

The first and foremost step to influencer marketing is to understand the purpose behind spending.

What can be the goals for the fashion eCommerce brands behind influencer marketing?

• Brand awareness
• Social media engagement
• Content backlink for both content marketing & SEO purpose
• Sales

Based on what is the purpose, the fashion eCommerce brands need to work on researching the fashion stylists and influencers.

2. Research on the Authentic Fashion Influencers

The eCommerce brands initiate with the research on the best fashion stylists and influencers on Instagram and even the fashion blogs that are popular among the people.

They research and analyze whether the fashion influencers are sharing genuine product feedback and even how many people are engaged with their posts on Instagram and other social media pages.

As there are various accounts with fake followers, the fashion eCommerce brands put in extra efforts to find out

• Are the fashion influencers consistent? If yes, how much?
• How much active are they in terms of increasing social media engagement?
• Do they get genuine engagement or it’s just fake?
• What brands do they promote more often?
• And, much more

This research and analysis take a few months because the brands need to understand whether the influencers are worth their investment and target audience or not.

3. Shortlist the best for their eCommerce brands

Once, the research is done, the fashion eCommerce brands work on shortlisting the ones that are able to meet their analysis needs and even budget.

4. Discussing the brand products & deals with the influencers

The shortlisted fashion influencers are then considered to be contacted via sending them the email or direct message on their social media pages.

Well, it is not something that the brands will connect with the fashion influencers and the campaign will get started. This process of contacting the influencers and following up with them takes a healthy amount of time.

Even, there are calls made by the fashion eCommerce stores to help the influencers understand the products and discussing the deals between both the parties.

5. Agreeing upon the terms & conditions

Once, the discussions are done with the influencers, the online fashion store surely has the terms and conditions. So as the influencers.

So, it needs both the parties to agree to the terms and conditions applied by both of them.

6. Finalizing the ones that seem more profitable

So, the ones that meet the brands’ requirements and even the terms & conditions, they finalize the influencers for their campaign.

7. Sending them the free samples

Once, the campaign has been started, the online fashion brands send out the free product samples to fashion stylists for a review.

8. Time for the Product Review

Once, the samples are received by the influencers or fashion stylists, they start using the product.

The influencers get the look of the products received by the online fashion stores and get the high-quality pictures clicked.

The fashion stylists start sharing product reviews on their blogs, YouTube channels, and social media profiles. This may take a few days to weeks.

9. Paying them for the product feedback

Once the review is published, the digital fashion store releases the payment.

Well, not always, the influencers charge some amount for the product review. But, the well-known ones surely do.

But, there is no price range for this. Any fashion stylists can charge anything.

10. Tracking the ROI

The next task for the fashion eCommerce brands is to measure the results received from the influencer marketing.

The influencer marketing takes place for certain events such as product launch, store launch, etc.

So, it is the most important step for the brands to see how much traffic visits and conversions are there due to the investment in the influencer marketing campaigns.

11. Enjoying the fruits or learning the lessons

Almost after a month or so, the fashion eCommerce brands come to know whether they have seen an improved ROI on influencer marketing or not.

If yes, it is time to celebrate and consider the same influencer for their next similar influencer marketing campaigns.

But if not, then the lesson needs to be learned based on the mistakes happened.

What is the outcome of these influencer marketing campaigns for the fashion eCommerce brands?

This is what the fashion eCommerce brands can expect at the end of the influencer marketing campaigns:

• Improved brand reputation and recall
• Increased social media engagement
• Increased conversion of the site (increase in sales)
• Strengthened revenue

All these or any few of these are achieved only if the influencer marketing strategy has worked great.

How to measure the results of influencer marketing campaigns for the fashion eCommerce brands?

How can a fashion eCommerce brand measure the results?

[Tweet “Until & unless you understand how much have you earned on your investment, you don’t spend more on the same.”]

This is the same case for the fashion eCommerce brands as well.

So, here are the KPIs to track the results of the influencer marketing for the fashion eCommerce brands:

• Creating a specialized landing page
• Using the UTM parameters to track the measures effectively
• Spikes on number of store visits
• Number of store visits from social media
• Increase in conversions
• Amount of social media engagement and their quality
• Document everything that to have a picture-perfect idea of what took place and how

This is how can you measure the ROI on influencer marketing.

What are the platforms to find the right fashion influencers?

If you are thinking of where to find the right influencers, then definitely Instagram is one common answer. But, it is quite tedious and time-consuming task.

The platforms that help connect the brand with the industry influencers are commonly called, “the influencer marketplace”.

Earlier, Polyvore (now SSense) was a big name in the influencer marketing industry. It allowed people and brands to upload the products on a board and create a complete look. And, then the users can choose products from those boards and buy them from the brands. But, after-acquired by SSense, it is purely an eCommerce brand.

Here, I share a few popular influencer marketplaces where the brands search for their right influencer. The same is the case for the fashion influencers as well.

1. TribeGroup

Tribe Group is one such influencer marketplace where you will find almost every top-notch enterprise coming on this platform for their influencer marketing campaigns. The Tribe is for content creators, social media lovers, and creative professionals.

The concept here is that the brands come up on Tribe and posts their requirements that they expect from the influencers. Then, the influencers come up with amazing content based on the brand’s products. The brands will only buy those content pieces from the influencers which they have found interesting, relevant, and excellent.

2. AspireIQ

AspireIQ (formerly Revfluence) is another influencer marketplace where marketers can find the right influencers based on their industry and requirements. Once, they find them, they can easily start working with them.

AspireIQ is an application that helps all the marketers to manage the multiple influencer marketing campaigns.

3. FameBit by YouTube

Famebit is an influencer marketplace by YouTube. This influencer marketing platform is to connect YouTubers that works with brands to endorse their products.

Famebit works on a similar concept like Tribe where brands posts their expectations from the influencers and then influencers send out their entries with curated video content. The ones that the brands feel the best are then invited to join the branded influencer marketing campaigns. You will find various well-known brands on this platform.

4. BeautyClout

BeautyClout is a fashion influencer marketing platform to connect fashion brands with the fashion stylists and influencers. This platform works on exactly the same process that we had explained to you above on what is the process of influencer marketing that the fashion brands can utilize.

The only difference between this platform with the above one is that this is specific to your fashion industry.

Conclusion

I have tried to cover everything that might be helpful for a fashion brand to work with influencers and fashion stylists.

Do you have anything that takes place within the influencer marketing for online fashion brands? Do send us that insider’s tips on [email protected] We would feature your tips or insights here if we found it interesting.

Don’t forget to share this on social media if you found anything interesting or worth sharing.