FASHION INFLUENCER MARKETING: A GUIDE FOR SMALL BUSINESSES

Fashion influencer marketing helps you boost brand awareness and sales – and it’s not just for companies with big budgets! Here’s a guide for small businesses.

Alice Fitch

Fashion influencer marketing is a smart way to create a buzz around your store and get customers clamouring to buy your latest pieces. 

Consumers turn to social media to research products and brands, and 71% say social media recommendations make them more likely to buy.

Instagram, for example, has an incredible 1.22 BILLION MONTHLY USERS. What’s more, 1 IN 2 PEOPLE have used the app to discover a new brand, and 58% OF USERS say they’d be more interested in a brand after seeing it mentioned in a story. 

While paid ads are one way to get people’s attention, influencers can be even more effective because they harness the power of social recommendations.

Worried that influencer marketing is only for huge brands? In this article, we’ll show you how even small businesses can use influencers to their advantage as part of their ECOMMERCE MARKETING strategy. 

We’ll cover all the basics here, but if you want more, our marketing course includes an influencer briefing and agreement template, as well as lots of actionable tips for a successful influencer campaign. SIGN UP HERE.

WHAT IS FASHION INFLUENCER MARKETING?

Fashion influencer marketing is when an influencer promotes your products or brand to their followers in a piece of content such as a post, story, or reel on platforms like Instagram or TikTok. Usually, the influencer includes a link to your store in the post so their followers can find and buy your products online. 

Photo by Kristina Petrick on UNSPLASH

This can be more authentic than regular advertising because influencers stake their credibility on only promoting products, brands and stores that they actually believe in.

Influencers will usually charge a fee for a sponsored post. However, sometimes you can agree on a contra collaboration, where you might offer a selection of gifted items in exchange for a review or mention. 

Through the right influencer, you can tap into a targeted group of customers that are primed to hear about your brand.

For example, let’s say your clothing store’s niche is fashion-conscious young women. You could collaborate with a 20-something fashion influencer who alerts her audience to the latest trends and how to wear them. There’s a good chance that her followers will be interested in your store, and they’ll be receptive to your brand because a face they trust is promoting it. 

WHAT TYPES OF INFLUENCERS ARE THERE?

The key to success in fashion influencer marketing is choosing the right influencers to work with. So, here’s a breakdown of the different kinds of influencers, and which ones you should be targeting as a small business owner.

• Mega-influencers: Kim Kardashian, Kylie Jenner, and Gigi Hadid are examples of celebrity mega-influencers. They have millions of followers, a broad audience, and they charge enormous fees for a single sponsored post.
• Macro-influencers: With 100,000 to 1 million followers, these influencers are typically people who earned their fame online and create content full-time. Many focus on a broad niche such as fashion or fitness.
• Micro-influencers: These influencers have 30,000 followers or less. Despite their smaller following, they often have higher engagement rates and credibility. Their social media account may be a side project, but many will have experience working with brands. Micro-influencers often create content for a specific niche, for example, vegan beauty or sustainable fashion.
• Nano-influencers: With less than 5,000 followers, these accounts may not seem like influencers. Their content is not perfectly polished, however, despite their small audience, nanos can have high engagement rates. They are likely to engage with their own audience as they grow their following and should be keen to work with brands for a small reward.

If you run a small business, reach out to nano and micro-influencers that fit your niche. These influencers have higher engagement rates, and they’re more affordable. 

INFLUENCER OR CREATOR?

When choosing an influencer to work with, it’s always good to go with those who are true creators.

Some influencers are just trying to grow their following and earn money online by any means possible. They’re not selective about what they promote, and as a result, they don’t have the same credibility and respect from their followers. They may even pay for followers and clicks, which results in low engagement rates and won’t help you increase your sales.

Creators, on the other hand, take pride in the content they produce. To them, content is a form of art and an authentic expression of ideas. This means they’ll only promote brands they believe in and create content that’s helpful to their audience.

It’s a red flag if comments on an influencer’s posts are strange, generic or contain lots of emojis. This could indicate that you’re dealing with a fake influencer who has paid for likes and followers.

HOW CAN YOUR ONLINE FASHION BUSINESS BENEFIT FROM INFLUENCER MARKETING? 

For an influencer marketing success story, look no further than fitness label GYMSHARK. 

The British brand made its name by sending fitness influencers free clothes to wear in their content. Over the years their team of social media ambassadors grew, and so did their audience and sales.

Gymshark is now worth over a billion dollars!

• Reach the right customers: An influencer whose following mirrors YOUR TYPICAL CUSTOMER is best placed to promote your products. You don’t have to build this following yourself, as you get access to the influencer’s following.
• Boost your credibility: When consumers see an influencer they trust promoting your store, that immediately gives your brand credibility. 40% OF AUSTRALIANS are more likely to purchase a product from a brand after seeing an influencer post about it.
• Organic traffic: Sponsored posts will link back to your website or social media profile, so more people can follow you.
• Effortless sales: Customers only have to click through from a sponsored post to your product page, making it easy to get them to the last step of the sales process.
• Budget-friendly: You don’t need to spend lots of money on influencer marketing. Some influencers may agree to promote your brand in exchange for free products, and fees for smaller influencers start from around $300 for a sponsored post.

Photo by Mateus Campos Felipe on UNSPLASH.

However, as well as many benefits there are some risks to bear in mind. For example, influencers who are dishonest with their followers about paid promotions can have their content removed, and this could reflect badly on your brand. 

Next, we’ll go over how to find and vet potential collaborators.

HOW TO FIND AND VET FASHION INFLUENCERS

Before you go looking for influencers, think about your CUSTOMER AVATAR. It’s vital to work with influencers whose followers are similar to the kind of people who shop in your store. Consider the age, gender and style preferences of your customers.

Then, find out what social media platforms your customers use. Instagram is a safe bet, but if your customer base is young, consider TikTok as well. Of more than 2.5 MILLION AUSTRALIANS using the site, 60% are female, and over 70% belong to Generation Z or Alpha, meaning they were born in the mid-90s or later.

Always work with influencers who share your brand values, aesthetics and beliefs. Have a look at the posts they’ve done for brands in the past. Do they get plenty of likes and comments?

Also, check the ratio of organic to sponsored posts. It’s a good sign if there are more organic posts, as this shows they create authentic content for their audience and are selective about which brands they work with.

You could reach out by sending a direct message or following any contact instructions in their social media bio.

One way to find influencers is to search for hashtags that are relevant to your business. If you’re finding it time-consuming and difficult to identify influencers, there are some platforms that can help.

#PAID

#PAID is a platform that helps match brands with influencers. You can design your campaign within the platform, set a budget, goals and create a project brief. 

Then, #Paid will match you with 10 creators who fit the bill and are willing to work with you. You can compare each influencer until you find the right ones, launch your campaign and track the results.

Though currently focused on the USA and Canada, #Paid is quickly expanding into other markets.

BILLO

With BILLO, eCommerce brands can team up with video creators to create video ads, testimonials, 360° videos, and more. 

You create a task, and video creators can bid on the job. When you’ve accepted a bid, you ship your products and the creator makes the video, which will be shareable on all your social channels.

HOW TO COME UP WITH A BUDGET FOR YOUR FASHION INFLUENCER MARKETING CAMPAIGN 

Setting a budget will keep your spending on track and help you measure the success of your campaign.

You can start by calculating how much you currently spend on other online marketing campaigns. If you work out the cost per click and cost per acquisition for your ads you can use this as a guide to how much to spend on influencer campaigns. 

Before you decide to invest in an influencer, make sure you find out details such as:

• How long will it take them to create content?
• How many followers do they have, and what their engagement rates are like? 3% is considered a good engagement rate for an Instagram influencer.
• How many revisions will be included in the price?
• How valuable is the influencer’s audience for your brand? Are they likely to have a positive influence on your target audience?

When setting your budget, remember that influencer marketing can save you time and production costs. The influencer will handle the photography, editing, and writing that go into creating a piece of content for social media.

Influencer fees vary, but to give you a rough idea, an influencer who has 20-100k followers will charge around $300-600 for a post. Larger influencers with 200-500k followers may charge from $800-1,200.

Photo by Mike Von on UNSPLASH

HOW TO SET GOALS FOR INFLUENCER MARKETING CAMPAIGNS (AND MEASURE SUCCESS)

You won’t know if your fashion influencer marketing campaign has been successful unless you set goals.

It’s always good to set SMART goals. Here’s what that acronym stands for:

• Specific: Saying you want to “increase sales” is vague. Instead, aim to “increase sales by 20%” or “gain 500 new followers”
• Measurable: Do you have a way to measure your achievements? Make sure you’re tracking the results that come from the influencer marketing campaign, so you know exactly how many sales came from the sponsored post.
• Attainable: You have to be realistic. Look at the follower counts and engagement rates of your influencers to get an idea of what you can expect to achieve.
• Relevant: Are your campaign goals relevant to your overall business goals? Are you hoping this campaign will drive brand awareness, or just increase sales?
• Timebound: Give yourself a definite time frame in which to achieve the goal.

An example of a SMART goal for your store’s influencer marketing campaign could be:

Increase online sales by 20% by the end of Q2

Or;

Gain 500 new Instagram followers and 10% increase in engagement by the end of January

Compare the success of your influencer campaign to the rest of your marketing efforts. Once you know the ROI of influencer marketing, you’ll be able to judge the value of working with influencers, and set a budget for the next campaign!

FOLLOW OUR FASHION INFLUENCER MARKETING BEST PRACTICES FOR SUCCES

We hope that this article has given you the confidence to look into influencer marketing for your clothing store.

To sum up, here are some of our best practices for a successful influencer marketing campaign:

• Choose your influencers wisely. Creators should align with your brand and have a positive effect on your image. Also factor in audience size, engagement rates and price.
• Agree on everything upfront. This will help to avoid confusion about responsibilities and expectations. Will you provide the wording, or does the influencer need to do that? Are you ok with other brands being mentioned alongside yours? How much will the influencer get paid, will they get to keep gifted items? Iron out all these details in a contract.
• Provide clear and detailed briefs. Include hashtags or wording that you want the influencer to include. 
• Set your budget and goals before you begin. Make sure these are SMART goals that you can track as you go.

Most importantly, learn from each campaign what works and what doesn’t so you can improve next time.

Influencer marketing is just one aspect of your marketing strategy. Our marketing guide for online clothing stores will help you create a complete marketing plan for your business.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT FASHION INFLUENCER MARKETING

CAN A SMALL BUSINESS DO INFLUENCER MARKETING? 

Yes! There are influencers to suit all budgets and in fact, you’ll probably have better results with micro or nano influencers that have small but highly engaged followings. 

WHAT DOES A FASHION INFLUENCER DO?

Fashion influencers create helpful and interesting content about fashion for their followers. Through this content, they promote products or brands that they think their followers would like. You can use fashion influencers to reach your ideal customers and promote your brand in an authentic and non-pushy way.

HOW CAN I FIND FASHION INFLUENCERS IN AUSTRALIA? 

On your desired social media platform, search for relevant hashtags or search for accounts by location. You can also use tools like PAID and Billo to find an ideal match for your brand.

Want more help getting your influencer marketing campaign off the ground? Our marketing course includes an influencer briefing and agreement template, as well as lots of actionable tips for a successful influencer campaign. SIGN UP HERE.