Every fashion designer dreams of their fashion show attracting a buyer or driving hundreds of potential customers to their website after their show. The reality is that most designers and brands do not actually prepare their website or create marketing that will successfully achieve those goals. The result is a high on your fashion show day and then a huge let down when you start to access what you actually got from all the money you spent to showcase your collection on the runway.
Getting your fashion brand’s website and social media channels ready before a fashion show is crucial for post-event sales and engagement. It is good to have apparel software to manage the business operations and run the campaign successfully. Starting preparations at least three months in advance is the minimum required time to ensure everything is set for successful sales following your show.
Follow these steps to increase your chance for sales after your fashion show:
1. Build Your Team:
- Production: Are you offering custom clothing or do you need inventory, or both? Make sure your supply chain and manufacturing is set well in advance so you can fulfill your orders.
- Media Team: Unless you’re a really great photographer and video editor… you’re going to need to hire someone to provide quality photos and videos to build your social media and website content. Don’t skimp on this! Great pictures and videos sell. So make sure they are professional quality.
- Website Team: Unless you’re a techie, you’ll need a professional to get your website ready for sales. But don’t assume every web designer knows what that means. Find a website team that can handle the tech but also understands SEO, email marketing, and e-commerce.
- Social Media Team: Creating social media schedules and content is a huge time drain for a business owner, so hire someone who is a professional to help you create a strategy and find interns who can execute on the content creation, posting and engagement.
- Hiring Resources: Search for professionals in our Fashion Directory. Members can post jobs, internships, and opportunities in our Career Portal.
2. Build Anticipation:
- Teasers: Create teaser posts or videos on social media platforms to generate excitement about your upcoming fashion show. Use behind-the-scenes footage, sneak peeks of new collections, or interviews with designers to engage your audience.
- Countdowns: Implement countdowns on your website and social media pages to create a sense of urgency and anticipation among your followers.
- Hashtags: Create a list of hashtags that will help your niche audience discover you. Are you trying to drive local business? Do you serve a specific audience? What is unique about your collection that users might search for?
- LinkedIn: Don’t forget to promote yourself as a professional designer on LinkedIn. Share your business growth milestones to better attract professionals who are looking for unique apparel and not fast fashion. Review your profile to make sure it highlights your achievements.
- Fashion Mingle Support: VIP members can promote their fashion show pre and post show on our social media, newsletter, and on our website.
3. Optimize Website:
- Mobile-Friendly Design: Ensure your website is mobile-friendly as your social media audience will access it while on their phones and may actually go to your website during the show. A responsive design enhances user experience and will lead to higher conversion rates.
- Fast Loading Speed: Optimize your website’s loading speed to prevent users from leaving due to slow performance. Your website should load in 2 seconds or less adn that can be hard for a website with images of your collection.
- Clear Navigation: Make sure your website is easy to navigate. Users should quickly find information about the fashion show, new collections, and how to make purchases.
- Collect Emails: You need a plan to capture emails of every person that comes to your website. Most people don’t purchase the first time they go to your website, so have an email capture form where can send promotions on a regular basis and track who ends up returning to your website and makes a purchase.
- E-commerce: Have your e-commerce setup and new collection ready for sales the moment your show is live. This means you must have your lookbook shoot in advance and posted to your e-commerce before the show. Schedule it to go live as soon as your show starts.
- Technology Services: Our team can provide strategy and tech support for anything you need to get your website ready for sales.
4. Social Media Strategy:
- Incorporate Social Selling: Use your social media channels to connect with prospects, create leads, and sell directly from your social media channels. This can be challenging to setup, so get a professional to help. Fashion Mingle’s tech team can handle all your setup and training.
- High-Quality Photos and Videos: Your social media feed must look professional! Upload professional images and videos on your website and social media for the best impression of your brand. Showcase key looks and highlight the intricate details of your designs after the show.
- Live Coverage: Use social media platforms to provide live coverage of the fashion show. Post live videos, behind-the-scenes moments, and interviews with designers or models to engage your audience in real-time.
- Influencer Partnerships: Collaborate with fashion influencers or bloggers who align with your brand. They can help generate buzz and reach a wider audience and negotiating a fee and signing a contract in advance of your show will insure a fast promotion immediately during or after your fashion show.
- Strategy Planning: If you need help getting organized, Fashion Mingle can do a strategy session with you and provide a comprehensive plan for how to increase followers and engagement on your social media.
5. Post-Event Content:
- Customer Testimonials: Share reviews from your customers, and consider hiring well-known personalities or influencers to attend your show and provide a testimonial. Positive feedback adds credibility to your brand.
- Limited-Time Offers: Create a sense of urgency by offering exclusive discounts or limited-time promotions on the showcased items. Clearly communicate the offer duration to encourage immediate purchases on your social media and website.
- Email Marketing: Send out follow-up emails to your subscribers, including highlights from the fashion show, links to featured products, and special offers. Personalize these emails to enhance customer engagement. Plan to send a monthly email to your list with your latest collections and promotions. If you need help setting up your email marketing campaigns, Fashion Mingle can do the hard part and train you on the easy part!
6. Engage with Your Audience:
- Have a team in place: Hire a social media manager or get an intern and have them trained well before your show. Get your entire team to regularly engage on your social media to help pump up your viral exposure. Use the Fashion Mingle platform to find the professionals you need.
- Respond to Comments: Engage with users who comment on your social media posts or website. Responding promptly shows that you value your customers and their opinions.
- User-Generated Content: Encourage customers to share photos or videos of themselves wearing your designs. Repost this user-generated content on your social media channels to create a sense of community and belonging.
7. Analyze and Learn:
- Determine your pricing strategy: There are several pricing strategies to consider when finding the right product market fit. Test prices, analyze results, and adjust as needed.
- Track Performance: Use website analytics and social media insights to measure the impact of your pre-event and post-event strategies. Identify which platforms and content types generated the most engagement and sales.
- Feedback: Collect feedback from customers who made purchases after the fashion show. Understanding their preferences and experiences can help you refine your future marketing strategies.
- Tech support: If you need Google Analytics installed or need to understand how to analyze your traffic, Fashion Mingle can train you to manage and understand your analytics to help guide your sales strategy.
By implementing these strategies, your fashion brand can create a buzz around the fashion show, engage your audience effectively, and convert the excitement into sales after the event. Fashion Mingle offers web and marketing services and can help you with strategy and technology issues. Learn more about Fashion Mingle marketing and technology services and contact us for a free consultation.
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