Complete guide to influencer marketing for fashion brands

We’ve come a long way since fashion brands had to buy air time on TV or invest heavily in billboards, and radio commercials in order to reach their audience. 

Today, social media and influencer marketing have made advertising easier, immediate, and affordable. Influencer marketing has become so popular that the market doubled in size between 2019-2023 to $21.1 billion. 

Influencer marketing can be a real powerhouse when it comes to boosting your brand’s visibility and reach. In 2021, U.S. businesses spent close to $4 billion on influencer marketing. 

Here we cover everything you need to know about influencer marketing for fashion brands, whether you’re just starting out or looking to boost your social media metrics. 

What’s influencer marketing?

In the simplest terms, influencer marketing is leveraging individual content creators to promote your brand online. This may come in many different forms, like product promotions, affiliate marketing, and partnering with influencers during live streams and events. 

Fashion brands are uniquely positioned to benefit from influencer marketing as the products they sell can often be tied to people’s personal identities and values. For example, consumers can use beauty and fashion to make bold statements about various aspects of their lives such as getting a new job, a change in relationship status, or a new style and perspective. 

Fashion influencer marketing stats

Fashion is one of the biggest categories in influencer marketing. Estimated to be worth $4.54 billion in 2023, the market is expected to reach $14.82 billion by 2027. Unlike niche industries which speak to a very narrow audience, beauty and fashion brands have the power to appeal to a wide demographic and, therefore, stand to benefit the most from engaging with influencers. Whether it’s beauty tips, a wardrobe overhaul, or advice on how to dress for your body type, fashion brands have a plethora of topics to explore in their influencer marketing. 

Here are some interesting stats to begin with:

• A 2020 survey found that Instagram was the platform of choice for 89% of marketers
• TikTok is experiencing a massive explosion in influencer marketing. In 2018 there were only 16.4 thousand influencers on the platform, however, by 2020 this number has grown to 106 thousand
• In 2019, beauty and cosmetics dominated the market with a revenue share of 38%
• North America is the biggest market for fashion influencer marketing, making 35% of the total market share

How can influencer marketing help fashion brands?

Influencer marketing can be incredibly beneficial for growing your followers, having successful product launches or building brand awareness. However, before you begin your influencer campaign, you need to have a clear idea of what you’re looking to achieve. Embedding your influencer marketing into your wider social media strategy will help define the  social media analytics needed and what type of collaboration you should choose. 

To get you started, here are some ideas on how you can leverage influencer marketing. 

Product promotions

One of the great perks of influencer marketing is using the already existing relationship influencers have with their followers. While people may not know your product, they know their influencers and trust what they say. This can help you make your products more accessible and appealing to a larger group of people. 

If you have a new product coming onto the market, influencers can help elevate your Instagram advertising efforts or showcase your product in a YouTube tutorial. Make sure you send influencers a free product well in advance so that they have time to plan and execute their content.

Product reviews

Similar to product promotions, product reviews allow influencers to try out your products and share their experience with their followers. This is a great opportunity to highlight any unique features, outline who the product’s tailored to, and how to make best use of it.

Influencers can use product reviews to share do’s and don’ts and come across as more authentic and transparent than standard ads. You can also provide influencers with affiliate links. This gives them commission from every sale, which should in turn, encourage them to drive sales as much as they can. 

Exclusive product discounts

If your goal is to drive sales and you have the leeway to sacrifice some of the revenue, offering special discounts through influencer marketing is a great device. Influencers like this as it helps them add value for their audience. It also encourages people to buy immediately as the product is discounted for a limited period only. You can generate unique discount codes and links for each influencer which will enable you to track what they contributed to sales.

Social media takeover

If you’re collaborating with a celebrity or a mega influencer, you could hand them the reins of your social media accounts for a day or two. Allow them to get creative and post videos, photos, and stories for the entire day. Their prolonged engagement with your brand means that more of their followers will get to see your content (for instance, if they come from different time zones), which can help increase exposure. 

What are the specific challenges for fashion influencer marketing?

Influencer marketing can be challenging as there are many elements to a successful influencer marketing strategy. First, you need to define your marketing goals and decide what metrics to track, i.e. sales, website visits, new followers, etc. 

Next, you’ll need to identify the influencers that can help you achieve these goals – you can do this using Vamp, a platform that will match you with genuine, relevant influencers.

You also need to consider the logistics of campaign delivery. If influencers are located in a different country, make sure you have regional distribution channels to send them free items. Likewise, before the posts go live, give yourself plenty of time to set up your affiliate links, any hashtags you’d like them to use, and discount codes.

How to find and work with relevant influencers

Don’t be fooled into thinking that only influencers with a large following will be a good fit for your brand. Those with smaller followings often have highly engaged audiences and can be perceived to be more genuine than mega or celebrity influencers. 

Things that you should consider when choosing your influencers are:

• Are their followers your target audience?
• Where are the followers located geographically? Can they purchase your product in their country? If not, could you ship internationally? 
• Do the influencer’s image and values align with your brand? Are there any controversies surrounding them?
• What’s their audience engagement rate?
• Are they affordable?
• Do they work with brands similar to yours?
• What’s the quality of their content like? 

Once you have these parameters defined, one way to find influencers is to look at relevant keywords and hashtags on your platform of choice and select the content with the most engagement.

Another more targeted approach, would be to use an influencer marketing tool which can do the research for you. For example, Vamp offers a creator sampling tool where you can use filters to narrow down your search and see at a glance the top influencers by followers, engagement rate, location, etc.

How to build a strategy for fashion influencer marketing 

Your influencer marketing campaign needs to feature within your larger marketing strategy. Here’s what you need to consider when building your strategy.

• Your objectives – how would you know your strategy has been successful? Do you want to increase revenue, get more followers on a specific platform or drive visitors to your online shop?
• Your target audience – it’s not uncommon for fashion brands to cater to a different sub-group of customers. For instance, they can have women’s and men’s collections as a more obvious distinction, but they may also serve plus size customers or people sensitive to specific fabrics. You need to be clear about the audiences you’d be targeting.
• Budget – your budget will help define the scope of your work and the type of influencers you can engage with. For example, nano-influencers (fewer than 1,000 followers) would cost much less than a mega influencer with over one million followers.

Define terms and content strategy – engaging influencers is a business transaction. From the very beginning, both sides have to be clear on expectations and specific content requirements. Define clear objectives, deadlines, and posting schedules which you can keep track of and measure. 

Moving ahead

Fashion trends may be moving fast, but that doesn’t mean you should rush into your influencer campaign. Take your time and ensure that every step you take brings you closer to your goal. Invest a good amount of time in planning and research as this will pay dividends later on. 

If influencer marketing features prominently in your strategy, take a look at influencer marketing software tools such as Vamp to help you find, plan, and execute all of your influencer marketing activities from a single place. 

Unsure of how to get started? Our team at Vamp can help you talk through your objectives and deliver influencer marketing campaigns that will blow your numbers off the chart! Get your quote here.