Marketing finds a place in every industry as an essential part of building a brand and earning profits. In the fashion industry, it is no different. But, fashion marketing does take on some additional needs. The industry is constantly changing, so marketing teams for fashion have to constantly be on their toes. So, what are the best ways to do marketing work in fashion?
This article will discuss what it means to be in marketing and in fashion, the benefits of marketing in the fashion industry, and the benefits of SEO for the fashion industry. There is no singular way to be successful in marketing, but this article is here to give you some ideas and guide you along the path to success.
The Benefits of Marketing
Before we talk about fashion marketing as a more specific subject, let’s talk briefly about marketing in general. What does it mean? Why is it important? What are some different forms of marketing that are commonly used for small businesses?
What is Marketing?
In the simplest of terms, marketing is the act and process of creating, communicating, and delivering valuable products and services to the public. Through different techniques like social media, radio advertisements, commercials, and more, marketing is what connects brands and products to their target audiences.
If you are just getting started in your chosen industry, and are looking for marketing techniques best suited for small businesses, there is no need to worry! There are a lot of excellent marketing strategies used by small businesses that can help build your brand. One of the best ways is through digital marketing.
Digital Marketing
One specific type of marketing that is often seen as a part of marketing for the fashion industry and many others is digital marketing. Digital marketing is exactly what it sounds like: advertising your brand and products through digital means. It is also known as “online marketing”.
Some of the most common types of digital marketing are:
- SEO – SEO is an essential part of any marketing strategy. We will discuss it in-depth.
- Social Media – Advertising through Instagram, Facebook, and other social media sites is a great way to attract customers, especially from a younger demographic.
- Email Marketing – Email marketing is a great way to market yourself to customers who have bought from you before. Update them about new products where they are sure to see them.
- PPC – PPC stands for Pay-Per-Click advertising. This is a great way to advertise your website without breaking the budget.
There are a lot of benefits to digital marketing. It is a great way to retain your customer base by continuing to connect with them. Plus, it can help you accurately target your ideal audiences. It also increases brand awareness overall.
What Is Fashion Marketing?
So, now that we’ve discussed the overall benefits of marketing for small businesses and beyond, let’s talk about what marketing looks like in the fashion industry.
Fashion marketing is a subsection of the marketing industry that focuses on promoting fashion brands and retailers, and selling different items like shoes, accessories, and clothing lines. It is just like other types of marketing in that it focuses on sales, profitability, and creating a strong brand. There are a lot of different roles within the marketing sphere, such as content creators, market analysts, and more.
Marketing Vs. Merchandising
Another commonly seen job within the fashion industry is fashion merchandising. Fashion merchandising and marketing have some overlap, but are different jobs that serve different purposes. Both jobs, however, involve finding the needs of a brand’s target audience.
Fashion merchandising is all about buying and sourcing products. Merchandisers are trying to get ahead of the trends by researching the industry, certain demographics, and more.
Marketers, on the other hand, are trying to sell the products that the merchandisers are putting together. The two positions work as a team to sell the best products for their company; merchandisers find the best products to sell, and the marketing team advertises them.
Skills
What are some necessary skills for someone who is working in the fashion market? Here are just a couple of indications of what makes a good marketer for fashion:
- Knowledge of Trends – Even though fashion merchandising covers fashion trends, marketing is all about knowing how to continue catching your
- Social Media Knowledge – A lot of marketing is done over social media, especially for fashion brands.
- Tech-Savvy – Marketing is more than just social media, though. As previously mentioned, digital marketing in many sectors is essential for any brand’s success.
- Collaboration – Working in tandem with your marketing team, merchandisers, and more is all essential to creating a quality marketing campaign.
Marketing for the Fashion Industry
After learning a little bit about fashion marketing and some good marketing techniques overall, let’s combine the two and talk about some of the best ways that you can incorporate marketing into your fashion-focused business.
Fashion is always changing. Every season brings new trends, colors, styles, and more. Marketing is the same way, especially on a digital scale. Online trends and conversations are always in flux, so pairing fashion and marketing means always being ahead of every trend possible. Done well, it can bring you more customers, more profits, and an overall competitive edge.
Creating a Blog
Creating a blog is one of the best ways to market your fashion business to the public. It even combines marketing with SEO for the fashion industry, which we will discuss in depth shortly. Your blogs can be about different topics within the industry; you can write a blog about your predictions for upcoming summer trends, or you can write about the benefits of different shoe styles. A blog is a great way to constantly update your website, which makes it appeal more to search engines. It also diversifies your content, which is appealing to your customers. It builds your credibility and keeps your content fresh.
Fashion Advertising
Fashion advertising can take a lot of different forms. Emails and texts are one great way to get in content with your consumers. When you are having a sale or dropping new clothing items, shoot an email or a text to your customers to let them know what’s new! You can also collaborate with other companies in order to gain some extra exposure. Especially as a smaller brand, this is a great way to get new customers. Try to focus your advertising techniques to appeal to your target demographics. For example, younger demographics (16-25 year olds) are more likely to use Instagram’s shop function. Try incorporating that element into your social media campaign.
SEO for the Fashion Industry
Now, after talking about different elements of fashion marketing, it is important to touch on the other essential part of any marketing campaign: SEO. SEO is one of the best ways to push your business to the next level in terms of consumers, traffic, and profits.
What is SEO?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. In its simplest form, it is the act of pushing your website to the top of the SERPs, or Search Engine Results Pages. The majority of people will never click past the first page of search results, which means that the websites on that front page are getting significantly more traffic than any other websites on the long list of pages. When you optimize your website for SEO, you can push yourself to that front page and get more site traffic.
Keywords
Keywords are able to offer you some of the biggest benefits of marketing in the fashion industry and beyond. Keywords are the words and phrases that people type into their search engine in order to gain results. If you incorporate different keywords throughout your blog posts and additional website content, you can boost your SEO significantly. Getting the help of an analyst is a great way to stay on top of the constantly evolving list of keywords that you can use.
Local SEO
If you have a physical storefront for your fashion company, one of the best things marketing techniques you can use is maximizing your local SEO. Most people online are searching for services and products “near me”. If you can push yourself as a premium fashion brand in your area, you can get a lot more local traffic to your storefront and online shop.
Finding the Best Fashion Marketing and SEO Team
Marketing for the fashion industry does not have to be complicated. When you have the right team of SEO and marketing specialists on your side, you can build the perfect e-commerce website and fashion brand. At SEO Design Chicago, we have a team of SEO and marketing professionals with years of experience in fashion marketing and more. We have skilled content writers who can keep your blogs updated and fresh, and analysts to help you boost your keyword usage.
Join us at SEO Design Chicago today and give your website and your business a style upgrade worthy of the fashion industry.
Contact Us today!