Influencer marketing has become the most successful strategy for lifestyle and fashion brands, involving a collaboration between the brand and the fashion influencers. Since influencers are individuals who have a substantial online following and an ability to influence purchase decisions, they can effectively impact the audience’s perception of the brand.
Due to the stellar rise of influencers and the ever-growing online usage in today’s generation, influencer marketing is lucrative. As a result, the industry is projected to grow by $16.4 billion in 2022, soaring from $.17 billion in 2016 to $13.8 billion in 2021. The growth of fashion influencers is primarily attributed to social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, and YouTube.
In this blog, we will tell you how you can create a clear strategy and work with fashion and lifestyle influencers to grow your brand online:
Decide What You Wish To Achieve Using Influencer Marketing
To create a successful influencer marketing campaign, fashion brands need to outline the exact objectives they need to achieve. These goals can be to raise awareness of the brand, promote a new product or even be as simple as promoting a new collection using a special discount.
Of course, the entire campaign’s budget, content strategy, and outcome depend on your objective, so make sure you speak with internal stakeholders and get this right.
Choose The Right Platforms For Your Campaign
Any influencer campaign and selection is dependent on the social media platforms that you choose. Brands must choose the platforms wisely as each social media platform has a different type of audience and expectation.
For example, Instagram is one of the most popular platforms for influencer marketing, given the reach, the number of users, and the popularity of videos/images on the platform.
The other top influencer marketing platforms are Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube.
However, fashion brands can also pick Twitter, Pinterest, and Snapchat for their promotion, depending on the popularity of the platform with their audience. The choice of social media platform also plays a significant role in the kind of videos or content that you will make.
We recommend creating videos specifically for each platform and using a video maker to get the video dimensions, quality, and duration right for each platform.
For example, a video for YouTube is usually horizontally shot and can be 5-10 minutes long. However, the same is not ideal for Instagram or TikTok, where your videos need to be short (2-3 minutes maximum) and shot vertically (since most users will watch them on their smartphones).
Understand Who Your Target Audience And Their Needs
In addition to the platforms, you will also need to know the target audience for your campaign.
For example, if you have chosen Instagram and TikTok as your platforms, your target audience can mostly be millennial or Gen-Z customers. However, if you are also planning to target a customer base that is between 34-50 years, Facebook is the ideal platform.
The platforms chosen also depend on other audience demographics like behavior, location, and interest.
For example, despite the popularity of other social media, Instagram is considered an essential channel by 79% of marketers
due to the type of audience, the popularity of brand videos, and post-conversion action (which is the highest at around 87%) that the platform can get.
Pick Fashion & Lifestyle Influencers Who Have A Strong Following Among Your Target Audience
The crucial part is selecting the right influencers for your influencer marketing campaign. The factors that determine the right influencer for your campaign are:
- The number of followers the influencer has
- The niche or expertise that the influencer brings
- The type of videos that the influencer is known to create
- The kind of audience that the influencer is popular with
- The platform used by the influencer
Brand managers need to consider each factor and pick a range of influencers who match the brand’s requirements. We also recommend focusing not just on the numbers or engagement but also on the type of influencers.
E.g., While fashion and lifestyle influencers are ideal, many electronic brands have recently tweaked their products to be marketed as a ‘lifestyle brand’ and worked with fashion/beauty and lifestyle influencers to get that message across.
Fashion brands can rope in bloggers, influencers, and artists who can come up with tutorials, microblogs, videos, and similar content that help promote the brand to a larger but relevant audience.
Provide Clear Objectives & List Of Products That You Want The Influencers To Promote
The main aim of any fashion brand is to reach their potential customers wherever possible, and influencer marketing is a great channel to get exposure on social media platforms. It doesn’t just help sell your product but also allows your brand to understand the audience’s sentiment and get valuable user feedback.
So when working with fashion influencers, do mention your objective and key message for the collaboration. Having open communication with the influencers creates a partnership that benefits both parties and can even be a long-term partnership if things go well.
Make Sure The Campaign Is Informative And Not Promotional
Ultimately, the essential tip to creating a successful influencer marketing campaign is to ensure that the videos are informative and value-driven and do not come across as promotional.
At the same time, the videos can focus on what makes the brand or its products excellent. The tone should be value-driven and not seem like an advertisement of the brand.
Make sure the influencers talk about experiences and outcomes of using your brand so that the video comes across as a story and not a sales-driven promotion.
Conclusion
For the fashion brand, working with influencers is not just about reaching a larger audience but also about creating a positive image of the brand using endorsements by fashion influencers and celebrities who are seen as role models by an entire generation.
As a lifestyle and fashion brand, working with fashion influencers is not just about collaborating to create content but also having a strategic vision in mind. The brand needs to understand the expected outcome and clearly communicate with the influencers to craft a successful influencer marketing campaign.