The fashion industry moves fast and doesn’t look back, which means the world of influencer marketing for fashion brands is moving even more quickly. With so many people and so many brands collaborating and innovating, it can be disorienting to try to keep up.
That’s why we’ve come up with four ways to improve your efforts when it comes to influencer marketing for your fashion brand. Whether it’s getting a lot of people involved or changing the way you think about influencer marketing altogether, we’ve got it all here for you.
1. The More the Merrier
Who says your fashion brand has to collaborate only with fashion influencers? Instead, branch out and get other influencers and niches involved to maximize your reach!
For example, major fashion brand Rent the Runway partnered with book publishing companies Penguin and Viking as well as authors and book influencers. It might seem strange – what do books have to do with fashion?
Quite a bit, actually, when the fashion matches the books! That’s why they promoted their clothing rental service through a campaign called “Books & Looks.” Rent the Runway held a giveaway on social media where they, along with their partners, offered one month of unlimited clothing rentals and a copy of each featured book to the winners.
The key to this kind of campaign is relevance. Penguin’s audience is not entirely the same as Rent the Runway’s audience. But there is overlap – Rent the Runway’s target audience is women.
So, to make sure the campaign is relevant to the right audience, Rent the Runway and their partners featured books written by women.
Why leverage just a fashion influencer’s audience when you could create a big, brilliant campaign with influencers and brands of all kinds and maximize your ROI?
At a loss for how to wrap other niches into your campaign? Just get influencers involved in the brainstorming process. They know their audience’s best, which means they know what kinds of brand and influencer collaborations will be most effective. Then, explore Perlu Packs (not just the fashion ones!) to find the best influencers for your campaign.
“As an influencer of over two years, I feel that it’s important for brands to gain the perspective of influencers when creating campaigns,” says Perlu member and influencer Brook Alyson Heath. “Essentially, influencers are the people who will be completing these campaigns. Brands should be asking for our opinions and ideas in order for these campaigns to be successful and fulfilling for both parties! By confiding in us, they can gain invaluable insight into what makes a campaign successful and will keep their influencers coming back for more.”
Britney of Seams & Sprinkles agrees.
“In my experience with other creatives, you can start a brainstorming session and naturally get a creative snowball rolling down a hill with lots of great ideas,” she says. “The best part is that even if the ideas that come are not the right fit for right now, you can still save them for a future opportunity that might fit better. It is a great way to learn and be inspired by others with different perspectives, experiences and creative influence.”
2. Throw a Party
You know how everyone at Coachella seems to dress exactly the same? That might be because every year, Revolve partners with influencers not only so they wear Revolve’s clothes, but also so they can attend the Revolve Festival – a festival within a festival, so to speak.
The Revolve Festival is an invite-only party that fashion mega influencers and even some celebrities attend. It’s become so popular and well- known that some non-influencers are offering up to $1,000 to attend. Now, Revolve runs a contest that gives two lucky non-influencer winners tickets, which garners the event even more attention than leveraging celebrities, influencers and regular people.
Say you’re a smaller brand or a local boutique – you can still do something similar by hosting a party or event. While you might not be able to get celebrities to come, you can still invite local fashion influencers and throw a party for them.
More niche brands can host a giveaway or meetup, like niche swimsuit retailer, Moana. They host meetups all over the globe, and guess what? Moana doesn’t pay attendees a cent. Every attendee, including their own influencers, pays their own way, sometimes flying across the globe to attend a party on the beach.
What does Moana get out of it? A ton of promotion from hundreds of women, tons of content for their Instagram that lasts months and increased brand loyalty.
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3. Get New Models
“Models” here meaning influencers! Tala, a sustainable activewear brand, frequently sends out casting calls in their area for models – some of which are fitness nano and micro influencers!
This goes beyond just sending free products and having influencers post about it; it gets the influencers more deeply involved with your brand, opens up doors for high ROI and long-term partnerships and gives them new product photos and social content!
You don’t need professional models when you have a slew of influencers on Perlu who would love to get involved with your fashion brand on a deeper level than simply sharing products on social media.
Tala also makes an effort to actively seek out people of all shapes, sizes, abilities and gender identities to take their influencer marketing tactic to a whole new level.
4. Or Add a New Team Member
In the world of influencer marketing, things change quickly. Marc Jacobs recently created an entirely new role called a “global artistry advisor.” Nikkie, renowned beauty vlogger from NikkieTutorials was chosen for the role. The role completely integrates her “into the brand’s product development process.”
This kind of influencer marketing doesn’t have to stay within the beauty industry, though. Do you have a fashion influencer you love who you think would not only represent your brand well but also provide valuable insight behind the scenes? If not, you’re sure to find some on Perlu.
If you’re not at the point where you could hire a new team member, don’t worry! There are plenty of ways to partner with influencers.
“I love seeing brands collaborate on an ambassadorship level,” says Perlu Advisor and fashion influencer Megan Marie. “This gives our viewers a repetitive delivery of the product which results in a trusted opinion and eventually a sale conversion.”
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People crave authenticity, which means true partnerships – in the form of ambassadors or brand reps – can lead to some serious ROI once you’ve woven your way into an influencer’s brand.
As we’ve discussed before, the most important thing to remember in your influencer marketing efforts is that influencers are not just advertising tools to pay and then forget about; they’re people who will do their best work when you take the time to build relationships with them. Perlu can help you find the right influencer for your brand for both short-term projects and long-term campaigns.
