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Marketing trends if you’re working in fashion

Smartphone use is on the rise. Whether they’re keeping up-to-date on social networks, searching online, watching videos, or making purchases, users increasingly prefer to use a smartphone. This has resulted in a change in buyer–seller mentality that is better adapted to new behaviors smartphone technology has set in motion.

Social networks and widespread purchasing from mobile devices have been key factors in this behavioral change. And while social marketing and m-commerce are the latest trends in the online world right now, these concepts are even more prevalent in the fashion world, one of the top sectors in e-commerce.

In fact, the fashion sector is among the most advanced in terms of marketing techniques on social networks and mobile devices. If this is your sector, here are some of the trends you can incorporate into your marketing strategy, as well as some basic errors to avoid.

Create a communication channel between social networks and your brand

There are quite a few fashion names obsessed with forming a big community on social networks. But when they finally have one, they often don’t use it for the one main goal of any e-commerce, which is selling products. Sure, we’ll all make this error once or twice: post something on social networks, use the perfect hashtags and finally, forget to add a link to the product page.

It should be remembered that most users of any social network are on their phone, and product searches from a smartphone are not as simple as from a computer. So make things easy! What’s the point of having a big community if no followers actually visit your store?

Yes, it’s true that several social networks such as Instagram don’t make this easy, but other options are available that do, so choose wisely. Be mindful that to avoid lengthy URLs, you can use either a URL shortener or preview content offered by sites like Facebook.

Choose the right image size

Image size is another common mistake, both in terms of responsive design as well as on social networks. Sure, if you make any changes to an online store or a social networking page, you most likely do it from a computer. Just be sure to think about the device a consumer might view the content on.

For responsive design, observe how your template displays images on a mobile device screen and adapt your images accordingly. As for posts on social networks, note the image size they use, then simply take images from your website and adapt them to correctly match the metrics of each social network. In fashion, images are a fundamental part of sales, so make sure they’re impeccable!

Humanize your brand

One of the biggest mistakes brands make is turning their social networking pages into a self-promotion channel. The page ends up looking like an infomercial, and it’s no secret how low expectations are for call-in TV shopping…

For example, if you are selling for your own brand, tell customers about who you are and how you work. Teach them about your history, your team, the people behind your products. Let your page be a window for consumers to the inner workings of your team.

Try out the latest social networks

(Almost) all fashion stores have accepted that social networks are an essential part of the online world, but most prefer to keep things simple and just use Facebook.

These stores haven’t caught on yet that new social networking services are a boon for online fashion stores. Since these new services are very visual in nature, they’re perfect for sectors like fashion where “image” is everything. Instagram, Snapchat, and the not-so-new YouTube are definitely alternatives to be considered if your e-commerce is connected to the fashion sector.

What’s more, they make fantastic channels for humanizing brands or reaching out to potential customers who are just within reach, particularly those seeking less text and more image.

Give video a shot

For several years now, online fashion stores have been realizing that sales go up when garments are shown both on a model and before a background. Nowadays, it’s safe to say using a picture and a video is sure to turn some heads.

First of all, it’s because seeing a garment in a still image is nothing like seeing it in motion. The drape and cut of clothing or its color during lighting changes are aspects it wasn’t possible to depict in a still image. Videos have changed that. They’re a nice way around the biggest obstacle in online commerce: not being able to touch the things you buy. Videos have an effect on customers that no other audiovisual format can provide.

Second of all, they’re the perfect content to share on social networks. This is true because they increase the visibility of posts (and, in turn, of products too). Think about your own behavior on social networks: you probably hit play yourself when you see a video, right? Lastly, it’s easy for videos to go viral. Just ask the guys working on recipes at Tasty!

Source: Prestashop Blog