In a constantly changing digital landscape, fashion brands are exploring different avenues to attract new audiences and spread the word about their product and service offerings – namely, they are turning to influencer marketing to reap the benefits on social media. While this approach has proven time and time again to be an effective way to connect with customers new and old, it’s crucial to ensure that the content they put out is authentic and relatable – only by doing this can you drive the business results you seek. In this piece, we’ll be exploring various strategies for creating engaging content with fashion influencers, including how to find the right influencers for the brand, collaboration tips, encouraging influencers to incorporate their own experiences and stories in their content, and utilizing user-generated content. Let’s begin!
The importance of authentic and engaging content for fashion brands
Making sure your content is on point is crucial for fashion brands for a whole host of reasons. Firstly, customers today are savvy and have high expectations when it comes to brands on social media. Those that create honest, authentic posts are more likely to build trust and credibility with audiences, which in turn can only benefit brand sales and performance figures.
Secondly, high-quality, interesting content has a higher chance of being liked, shared, and spread throughout social media channels, potentially reaching new audiences. This of course can help increase brand awareness and push users to visit the brand’s web pages or social media profiles.
Finally, in such a saturated market where anyone can take part, only the best content can rise to the top and stand out among the rest. The creation of fresh, unique, and compelling content will allow fashion brands to differentiate themselves from the competition and draw attention to themselves in a positive way, which hopefully in turn will convert viewers into new customers.
The fashion influencer’s role in content creation
Influencers themselves are of course vital to the process of creating quality content for fashion brands. Many influencers have garnered and fostered a loyal following on various platforms due to being genuine or relatable, and this authenticity is invaluable to brands looking to draw in new audiences.
Bringing a fresh approach and unique voice to content is also important, and influencers are the perfect way to do this. By collaborating with creators, brands can harness an influencer’s expertise and use their personal experiences to their advantage, helping them produce more specialized content.
Of course, no one knows their audience better than the influencer themselves, so they have a far better idea of what kind of content would resonate with followers most. This can help give brands insights into what kind of topics would resonate with their target audience, helping them secure better quality content with a higher likelihood to go viral across social media.
Choosing fashion influencers who align with the brand's values and messaging
When choosing influencers to work with, fashion brands need to carefully consider the criteria influencers need to meet, and whether the creator and their content aligns with the brand’s specific values and messaging. Choosing to collaborate with influencers outside of these parameters will usually be viewed negatively in the eyes of the consumer, so it’s crucial to take the time and find a good fit for your brand.
Take the following pointers into account when beginning your fashion influencer hunt:
Research the influencer's content and values: The influencer’s overall morals and values should link up with the brand’s to ensure an authentic fit.
Look for influencers who are passionate about the brand's mission: Influencers who have a genuine interest in the brand and what they are looking to achieve are more likely to be enthusiastic about a potential collaboration and may create higher-quality content as a result. Platforms such as HypeAuditor offer Influencer Discovery tools that allow you to find influencers that have mentioned a specific brand before, as well as an Influential Customers tool that shows you verified individuals who are already fans of, or have purchased, products from a specific brand.
Consider the influencer's audience: Of course, the influencers you work with should have a follower base that overlaps with the brand’s target audience to ensure the campaign reaches the right people.
Evaluating the influencer's authenticity and engagement
Fashion brands should also consider the following factors before reaching out:
Content quality: Content is at the forefront of the influencer marketing campaign, so make sure the influencer’s posts are up to scratch and genuine.
Engagement with followers: Brands should also check the influencer's engagement rate by looking at the number and quality of comments and likes on their posts.
Audience quality: With fake followers abound, you need to make sure an influencer’s follower count is genuine. HypeAuditor for example offers an Audience Quality Score check, their proprietary metric that evaluates the overall quality and authenticity of the creator’s audience.
Authenticity of the influencer's brand: Influencers range highly in quality in terms of their personal brand, so look for those who have high-quality personal brands and a firm personal image that doesn’t simply flip-flop over time.
Relevance to the brand's target audience: Brands should also check that the influencer's content is relevant to their target audience and whether or not it is likely to receive interactions from social media users.
Setting clear guidelines and expectations for the collaboration
Once you’ve found your ideal influencers to collaborate with, you’ll need to think carefully about the guidelines and expectations you have for the content that is to be produced. Influencers need some guidance to get in line with your campaign’s messaging, so upfront ‘rules’ can help avoid misunderstandings down the line and ensure that the content is on point for your target audience.
Here are a few tips and tricks for setting up clear guidelines for influencers:
Clearly define the goals of the collaboration: This may include specific metrics such as increasing brand awareness or driving sales of a particular product, among others, and should be clearly communicated to the influencer as the purpose of the content.
Establish clear guidelines for the content: Brands should also clearly indicate any specific messaging, themes, or other necessary inclusions or exclusions to be taken into account for the posts influencers will create.
Communicate deadlines: Brands should communicate any deadlines for the collaboration to the influencer and ensure that both parties are on track to meet them.
Set clear expectations for the influencer's engagement: Any additional requirements in terms of interactions should also be laid out, such as actions or other engagements with the audience that the brand would like to see.
Giving influencers creative control while ensuring that the content aligns with the brand's messaging
While it's important for fashion brands to set clear guidelines and expectations when collaborating with influencers, it's also important to give influencers some creative control. This will keep content unique and help make sure it resonates with their following, rather than alienating them. This approach is particularly important when it comes to micro- and nano-influencers, as they tend to have far more personalized relationships with their audiences.
For example, by allowing influencers to decide on the format of their content (i.e. blog posts, YouTube videos, Instagram posts, stories, etc.) and allowing them to add a personal twist or perspective, you might end up with far more interesting content that attracts better engagement.
Giving influencers creative control also helps build trust and credibility with the influencer's audience, as it allows the influencer to share their personality and values with their followers. This can help build a stronger connection between the influencer and their audience.
Creative control can help make the content more memorable and distinct, which is especially important in a crowded and competitive market. By allowing fashion influencers to add their own unique perspective and voice to the content, brands can create unique and compelling content that stands out and resonates with the influencer's audience.
Brands shouldn’t get carried away with giving influencers full creative control, however, as the content still needs to align with the campaign and appear somewhat linked or homogenous in its messaging or hashtags at the minimum. This is where guidelines can help steer the content in the right direction.
The power of personal storytelling in creating authentic content
Personal storytelling is a powerful method of creating authentic content and drawing a more emotional response from audiences, which typically leads to higher engagement too.
Encouraging fashion influencers to incorporate anecdotes or personal references in their posts can lead to the content being perceived as more relatable, and can also foster a stronger connection between influencers and their followers, which further cements the trust and loyalty that these followers may place in the influencer.
Of course, personal stories make content much more memorable and distinct, which is vital on oversaturated platforms such as TikTok and Instagram. Users see a high volume of posts per day, so creating unique or compelling content is likely to see higher success
Ways to encourage fashion influencers to share their own experiences and stories
There are a few ways that brands can influence creators to share their stories in their content:
Give influencers creative control: Building on the above, influencers will feel more encouraged to share their personal experiences if they can do it in a format they are most comfortable with. Some fashion influencers may prefer videos, some might prefer simple images with longer captions – so allowing them to choose will make the entire post more authentic.
Utilize user-generated content: UGC is another method that can garner personal stories in content – for example, brands could ask influencers to share photos or videos of themselves trying out or using the brand’s product or service, and in doing so, they can share their own perspective of this experience.
Encourage influencers to be authentic and genuine: As always, authenticity is best, so brands reassuring creators that their content can be genuine and not adhere to very strict guidelines will be best for instilling a sense of creative freedom.
The benefits of featuring user-generated content in influencer marketing campaigns
User-generated content (UGC) can offer a multitude of benefits in influencer marketing campaigns. Some of the main benefits include:
Authenticity: Featuring UGC in brand campaigns offers an additional layer of personalization to the content, as it allows customers or influencers to share their own experiences and perspectives with audiences. This can help generate more engaging responses from users, thanks to this content being more relatable.
Social proof: Content that shows that other people are using and enjoying the brand's products or services helps to further influence user behavior and encourage actions on their part. This is especially true in the fashion industry, as consumers typically look to their peers for inspiration when making new purchases.
Increased reach: UGC has the potential to go viral on various social media platforms, as customers are far more likely to interact with content featuring people more similar to themselves. This in turn boosts brand awareness and can help drive traffic to a brand’s product page, social media channels, or other online pages.
Strategies for curating and featuring user-generated content
There are a few ways to incorporate UGC in influencer marketing campaigns:
Use hashtags: Thanks to their easy searchability, hashtags are a valuable asset for brands to use in their social media campaigns. Including a campaign-specific hashtag can encourage consumers to include it in their own takes or creations, and it can then be easily found by the brand later on. Hashtags also help boost the reach of the content they are attached to as anyone can browse the content affiliated with it.
Repost user-generated content: One of the benefits of UGC is that reposting is commonly-accepted behavior, provided the customer’s explicit permission is given and that they are credited. Generally, this is mutually beneficial behavior, as the content can bring awareness to the brand, but also boosts the reach of the creator featured. It can also help aid the social proof aspect.
Feature user-generated content in influencer marketing campaigns: Fashion brands can also include UGC separately in future campaigns by incorporating it into the campaign’s content, or by featuring it on an influencer’s social media channel. This helps further the idea that the brand is genuine, and can help increase the reach of the content.
Conclusion
Brands are able to create high-quality, engaging, and authentic content with the fashion influencers they work with by following industry best practices. This includes establishing clear parameters for the collaboration and granting influencers creative control over what they post while simultaneously ensuring that the content all lines up nicely with the brand or campaign’s message. This approach can help to improve the perception of the brand, especially when creators incorporate their own unique twist or personal stories in the content, and can strengthen relationships with audiences to secure loyalty further down the line.
Of course, good collaborations start with a good selection of influencers, so this should always be a priority for brands when setting out to launch a new campaign. By adopting a solid approach and incorporating these into your influencer marketing strategy, you can help create more meaningful working relationships with influencers and help better secure successful outcomes for your future fashion-oriented influencer marketing campaigns.
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