If you’re a fashion brand looking for new marketing tactics to boost your growth, there’s one answer—texting. The Community text marketing platform gives you a number you can use to have authentic two-way conversations with your audience members. 

Connecting personally with your customers is especially important for companies in the fashion industry since there are hundreds of brands consumers can choose. Text with your audience members as a way for them to get to know your unique brand; they’ll have a reason to choose you over your competitors. 

Let’s get into a more in-depth discussion of marketing tactics for fashion brands and how using SMS is the key.

‍

Engagement is the Key to Brand Loyalty

Consumers of the fashion industry are inundated with choices when it comes to buying their clothes. Even though the fashion market is saturated with competing brands, a few important marketing tactics can help you stand out and grow your business. 

Attract new business and retain the customers you already have by cultivating engagement with your audience, which will, in turn, lead to brand loyalty. Consumers will choose your fashion brand over others if they feel especially seen by and connected with your business. 

One recent study on personalization statistics showed 72% of consumers would only engage with a company if their messages are customized to their specific interests. Social media and email marketing allow you to guess what the best messages are, but you’re still guessing. You have to test constantly to pinpoint what works, losing valuable time and budget.

With the Community app, it’s easy to customize the messages you send based on the specific interests of your audience Members. Through the app, you can have personal conversations with them at scale, allowing you to learn their individual style preferences.

Have you ever wanted to ask your customers point-blank about the types of styles or colorways they’d like to see from you? Wanna know what’s trending on the streets of a certain city right now? Send out a text rather than posting on social and hoping for comments. 

Then use the Clustering feature to send an update on new styles or colors that appeal to each of your fan’s personal styles. This way, you’re engaging with them personally, but at scale — building and driving their brand loyalty.

‍

Segment Your Audience for Your Different Fashion Lines

Community gives you two ways to segment and sort your contacts. One is by categorizing people into Communities which are subgroups of your larger audience. These can be divided and customized however you see fit. 

An additional way to sort your audience is through the Filters feature. By segmenting your audience, you can send personalized messages to groups of any size. Here are more ways to segment your audience to help grow your fashion brand.

‍

By Interest

Keywords are a feature in the Community app that automatically categorizes your audience members into the appropriate subgroup that you designate. 

For fashion companies, you can ask your members about their interests and make it easy for them to respond with simple Keywords like Fitness, Children, Men’s, or whatever you deem relevant. Keywords can even be set as emojis so that your members can reply to you quickly and conveniently. 

Use subgroup Communities sorted by interest to send the corresponding notifications to that specific group, encouraging retention and engagement by avoiding notifying people of products they’re not interested in.

‍

By Gender

The Filters feature of Community lets you send text messages at scale to groups of your audience. As a fashion brand, you can filter your contacts by gender to send notifications about your men's, women’s, or non-binary apparel lines to the corresponding audience. 

By sending personalized content, you’ll ensure your customers stay subscribed.

‍

By Age

Age is another option in the Filter feature of Community. If your fashion brand produces several apparel lines for various ages, it’s easy to keep your SMS campaigns organized within your Community app. Keep your text messages for tweens and young adults separate from your older generations with age filters.

‍

By Location

For a fashion brand, communicating with your audience by location can be a game-changing marketing tactic. Quickly send messages to any size segment with the Location Filter function in your Community app. Send notifications about your heavier winter clothes to your East Coast audience segment, knowing that members in warmer western climates won’t find them as relevant. Grow brand loyalty with your customers by keeping them engaged and intrigued with their personalized SMS notifications.

‍

By Join Date

The Join Date Filter is an excellent option for fashion brands who want to communicate with members that joined after a specific sale, event, or another significant date. 

For example, perhaps your brand experiences an influx in audience members joining your Community after your end-of-season sale. You can send them texts filtered by Join Date and share your next season’s styles with them. Easily organize your audience, no matter how much it grows with the Filters feature.

‍

Flash Sales

An SMS marketing tactic that fashion brands can take advantage of is having a flash sale. Text your audience members to notify them instantly of the details for your flash sale. By texting them close to or even at the start of the sale, you create a sense of urgency while connecting in a uniquely personal way—like you’re their best friend texting to let them know about a great deal you’ve just found.

Research on flash sales found that businesses had an overall increase of 35% in transactions during a flash sale, with three hours being the time frame that recorded the highest number of transactions. Texting your audience at scale is the perfect marketing tool to use to hold your next flash sale.

‍

Refer a Friend Program With Keywords

There is a psychological aspect to why friends often dress alike. As a fashion brand, incorporate this into your marketing tactic by creating a Refer a Friend program. With Community, you can easily manage and segment your audience members that come as referrals from current customers. 

Designate a Keyword for current SMS subscribers to have their friends text back. This Keyword will automatically sort your referred prospects into their subgroup within your Community audience, so you can engage with them in whatever manner you see fit. Provide a promotional code via SMS that both friends can use for participating in the referral program. Now watch your audience grow as they spread their love of your brand for you.

‍

Send Anything a Regular Text Can

With your Community account, you can send anything in a text message, and your SMS messages are authentic texts to your audience members. You can send photos of your latest fashion line, behind-the-scenes videos of how you made a piece, and links to your website. You can even incorporate emojis and GIFs to add a personal touch. 

‍

Stay in Contact

An important marketing tactic, especially for a fashion brand, is to stay in contact through the entire buyer’s journey and purchasing process—even after the sale is complete. If you want to retain your customers, hold honest conversations with them via text through your Community account. 

Ask them how they like your products and what ways they’ve worn them, or send a link to a website where they can leave you a positive review. Staying in touch will keep you at the top of your customer’s minds when they need their next clothing item.

‍

Use Audience Input to Design Your Next Line

As a fashion brand, you can use your Community phone number to ask questions and have 1:1 conversations with your audience. With Community, you can:

• Text quick polls or longer surveys to your audience. 
• Ask them their input to help create your next season's design or new line. 
• Get their opinions on what’s working and what improvements they’d like to see in your apparel. 

Be sure that your following line will succeed by going straight to the source and speaking with your members directly over SMS.

‍

Advantages of Fashion Marketing

The advantage of marketing a fashion brand is that fashion is always relevant, even if you’re a specific type of apparel brand like swimwear—your pieces are always in season somewhere.

Community allows you to get in front of the appropriate segment of your audience and easily interact with them on a personal level. Again, you’ll stay top of mind for your customers and keep them loyal to your brand by asking for their direct input, sending them personalized promotions, and showing them you care about their experience with your company.

‍

Summary

A Community phone number can help your fashion brand amp up your marketing tactics. Personalize your outreach by speaking directly to your audience and providing them a convenient way to connect. 

By segmenting your audience within your Community app, you can keep everyone in your Community organized and send custom notifications they’ll want to receive. Stay connected with your members, at scale, every season — and you’ll be on your way to growing your fashion brand all year round.

‍

Sources:

26 Essential Personalization Stats for 2020 | Smarterhq.com 

Daily Deals and Flash Sales: All the Stats You Need to Know | Socialmarketingfella.com

Do our friends influence what we wear? | Harpersbazaar.com

Photo by Abe Camacho on Unsplash