As an independent fashion designer, you probably didn’t start your business because you love spreadsheets. You started it because you love design — the fabric, the silhouette, the story your collection tells. But here’s the truth that separates brands that grow from brands that stall out: the designers who scale aren’t necessarily the most talented ones. They’re the ones who know their numbers.

It sounds unglamorous. It might even sound like the opposite of why you got into fashion in the first place. But when you’re running a lean operation without a marketing team, a data analyst, or a big ad budget, your numbers are the closest thing you have to a compass. They tell you exactly where your energy, time, and (very limited) money should go.

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Why “Just Post More” Isn’t a Strategy

A lot of independent designers get stuck in a cycle of posting on Instagram, running the occasional sale, and hoping traffic and sales follow. When it doesn’t work, the instinct is to post even more, or to feel like the product itself isn’t good enough. But without knowing your actual numbers, you’re guessing. You need to know whether your problem is a traffic problem, a conversion problem, or a pricing problem — and each of those requires a completely different fix.

This is where a lot of designers waste months of effort. Someone with a traffic problem doesn’t need better product photos on their existing site — they need more eyes on the site in the first place. Someone with a conversion problem might already have plenty of visitors, but something in the shopping experience (price, trust signals, checkout friction) is turning them away before they buy.

Start With the One Number Most Designers Never Check

Before you can set any kind of growth goal, you need a baseline: how many unique visitors is your website actually getting each month?

Most designers have never looked. If you have Google Analytics connected to your site, this number is sitting there waiting for you under your Acquisition reports. Go find it this week. Write it down. That single number is the foundation everything else builds on.

Three Concrete Things to Do This Week

1. Pull your current monthly website visitor count. You can’t set a meaningful traffic goal until you know where you’re starting from. If you don’t already have Google Analytics installed, that’s step zero — get it set up before you do anything else.

2. Calculate your Average Order Value (AOV). Take your total sales over the last 30 days and divide it by your number of orders in that same period. This one number will change how you think about pricing, bundling, and even which products you promote. A designer with a $250 AOV needs a completely different traffic strategy than one with a $45 AOV.

3. Set an honest monthly sales goal. Not an aspirational, pulled-out-of-thin-air number — a real one based on what you need to cover costs and grow sustainably. This becomes the anchor for every other number you’ll calculate.

Why This Matters More for Independent Designers, Not Less

If you’re a solo designer or a small team, you don’t have the luxury of throwing money at problems until something sticks. Every dollar and every hour needs to work harder.

Knowing your numbers isn’t about turning yourself into a data scientist — it’s about making sure the limited time you spend on marketing, content, and outreach is actually pointed at the thing that will move your business forward.

Once you know your visitor count, your AOV, and your sales goal, there’s a simple chain of math that tells you exactly how much traffic you need, and how many visitors a day that breaks down to.

That’s the part where a lot of designers get stuck — not because the math is hard, but because no one ever walked them through it step by step with their own numbers in front of them.

Below I take you through the entire calculation — conversion rate, monthly traffic targets, and your daily traffic goal — using your own real numbers, so you walk away with a clear, personalized target instead of a guess.

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Let’s talk about something that has genuinely changed the game for small fashion brands: virtual shopping events. And before you scroll past thinking this is some big-budget, tech-heavy thing, it’s not. Some of the most successful ones I’ve seen were run on a phone, with a ring light and a lot of determination.

So let’s get into it.

Why Virtual Shopping Events Even Matter

You don’t need an influencer with a million followers. What you do need is a direct line to your customer, and a virtual shopping event is exactly that.

It’s a live moment where you show your collection, tell the story behind it, and give people a reason to buy right now. It creates urgency, builds connection, and converts way better than a static Instagram post ever will. And it costs you almost nothing to run.

The Three Things Every Virtual Shopping Event Needs

Whether you’re hosting on Instagram Live, TikTok, YouTube, or even a Zoom link you send to your email list — every successful event has three core elements:

1. A hook people can’t ignore. This is your reason for the event. A new drop, a limited restock, an exclusive colorway, a behind-the-scenes peek at your next collection. It needs to feel like something worth showing up for. “Come shop my store” is not a hook. “I’m revealing the piece I almost didn’t make and it’s only available tonight” absolutely is.

2. A warm, real presentation. Your customers want to see you. Not a polished, over-produced commercial. They want to feel like they’re shopping with a friend who knows exactly what looks good and why. Talk about the fabric. Show how it moves. Share the story behind the design. This is your superpower as a small brand, no big retailer can replicate this.

3. A clear, easy path to buy. This one trips people up more than anything. You can have the most amazing event and lose sales because people didn’t know where to click, the link was buried, or checkout was confusing. Your buying process needs to be simple: link, pinned and repeated, with clear instructions.

Start Small, Start Now

One of the biggest mistakes I see? Waiting until everything is “ready.” The lighting isn’t perfect. The backdrop isn’t right. You haven’t figured out the tech yet.

Here’s what I want you to hear: your first event is a practice run. It will be awkward and that is completely fine. The brands that win with virtual events are the ones who do it consistently, not the ones who do it perfectly once.

Pick a date. Tell your audience it’s coming. Show up.

Before You Go Live: Your Pre-Event To-Do List

The before matters just as much as the event itself. How you build anticipation directly affects how many people actually show up — and how ready they are to buy. Here’s what you need to check off:

• Lock in your logistics first. Decide on your date, your platform, and how long you’re running it before you announce anything. You’d be surprised how many people skip this and end up scrambling. Know where people will buy (a link to your site? DMs? a form?) and make sure it’s working before you go live.

• Name your event and write your hook. Give it a real name — something that sounds like an event, not just a live video. Then write a short, punchy blurb you can use across email, social, and texts. This blurb does all your promoting for you, so get it right.

• Photograph your products before the event. Good lighting, clean background. You’ll need these for your promo graphics and to have on hand during the event when you’re referencing specific pieces. Don’t skip this step — it makes everything else easier.

• Create the event on Facebook or Instagram so people can RSVP. This sounds small but it matters. An RSVP list means you have warm leads. It also signals to the algorithm that something is happening, which helps your reach.

• Record short promo video clips for social media. You don’t need to go full production. A 15-second clip of you holding up a piece and saying “this is coming to the event” is enough. Do a few of these in the weeks leading up. Tease. Build excitement.

• Plan your incentives. What’s the reason to buy tonight instead of tomorrow? A discount? Free shipping? A free gift with purchase? A giveaway entry? You need at least one. People need a nudge, and urgency is your best friend.

• Do a practice run-through. I mean this. Run through the whole thing at least once before the real event — what you’ll say, how you’ll show the pieces, where the link will be pinned. The brands that look effortless on camera practiced. A lot.

This gets you started — but the during is where it really counts. How you present each piece, when you run your giveaways, how you handle the comments in real time — that’s what separates an event people buy from and one they just watch. That part is all below.

Ready to Go Deeper?

Below the paywall, I’m giving you the full toolkit to run this thing for real:

• 🎥 Step-by-step video walkthrough — I walk you through the whole process so you’re not just reading about it, you’re seeing it done

• 📋 The Virtual Shopping Event Planning Workbook + Timeline — a week-by-week countdown starting 4 weeks out, with every task mapped so nothing falls through the cracks (including a post-event debrief so you actually get better each time)

• 📦 Inventory Tracker spreadsheet — keep track of exactly what you’re selling, in what quantities, so you’re not fumbling during the event when someone asks if you have a size

• 🎙️ Day-Of Outline — a minute-by-minute run of show: how to open, exactly how to present each piece (including what to say about pricing, materials, and how to buy), when to run your giveaways, how to close, and the key move at the end that keeps sales coming in for two more hours after you sign off

If you’ve been wanting to try this and just needed someone to walk you through it step by step, access that below…

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The things that you need to focus on when you are working to level up your fashion business, as opposed to just starting your business, are different.

You need to zero in on the key areas of growth and go all in to make them happen.

There are five areas to focus your attention when you’re working to level up your fashion business: Mindset, Marketing, Sales, Team Building, and Systems.

So let’s jump into each of these.

Mindset

Whether you’re starting up your fashion business or leveling up your fashion business, you need to get your head in the right place. This means you need to work to identify the areas that are holding you back.

• Is fear keeping you from doing what needs to be done? For example, are you scared to spend the money needed to level up a fashion business?

• Are you lacking the confidence that you’re capable of growing this business?

• Do you worry about outcomes before taking the first steps to try something?

• Do you have limiting beliefs?

If you’re answering yes to some or all of these questions, it’s time to work on your mindset. Because it will have a major impact on your ability to grow this business that you worked so hard to start.

Marketing

Marketing needs to be thoughtful and strategic with a process in place that helps you build on the effective and adjust the flops.

The first thing you need to do is create your marketing funnel. Do you have one?

The point of a marketing funnel is to understand what marketing you will do to build awareness, what marketing you will do to create connection, and what marketing you will do to make the sale.

It’s clarity in this area that helps to make your marketing efforts not only more effective but also more fun.

You start to celebrate the wins because you learn that not everything you do to market your business is meant to lead to a sale. And that realization is such a freaking relief! It becomes clear that there’s a process, a build-up, and a strategy.

The next thing you realize about marketing once you’re working to level up your fashion business is that you need to think about your efforts as “campaigns” with objectives, measurable goals, a strong message, and a call to action. You’re marketing your business in a way that will not only help you accomplish something but will also help you learn something.

You’re not simply “posting on Instagram” or “sending out a newsletter.” That’s kid’s stuff. You’re a CEO. You need to be strategic, thoughtful, and impactful.

And finally, it’s time to get into the habit of marketing debriefs and monthly funnel reviews.

If you’re not debriefing after your marketing campaigns and reviewing your marketing funnel every month, you’re missing the point. There’s no way to make a decision about future marketing campaigns if you’re not thoughtfully reviewing the ones you’ve tried after you try them.

Ask yourself the tough questions, scrutinize the campaign, assess your funnel, and make your marketing even more amazing next time.

Sales

So of course you’re working on making sales. Otherwise, you’re not in business. Just like with marketing, when it comes to making sales, you need a plan.

But before you can create your plan, it’s important to understand where you are in your business.

Ask yourself, how many visitors does my website receive? Is it a few thousand every month? Or is it less?

If you consistently have a few thousand monthly visitors to your website, then in order to make sales, you will focus on increasing your conversion rate and average order value. But if you have less than that, in order to make more sales, you need to increase your brand awareness and reach more people.

So take the time to analyze where you need to focus your efforts for making more sales, based on your answer to that question.

Now, that is for e-commerce sales.

If you have a business with various revenue streams (wholesale, drop-shipping, additional services, etc.) then your next step is to make sure that you have a sales and distribution plan. You should be able to answer:

• Which sales avenues will you focus on?

• How much of your revenue do you want to acquire from each avenue?

• What is your marketing funnel for each avenue?

• What marketing campaigns will you launch for each avenue?

You’ll stop saying things like “I need to make more sales” and you’ll start saying things like “I need to increase our web traffic by 10% and up our conversion rate from 1.5% to 3% if I want to hit my sales goal this quarter.”

Thinking this way is how you level up your fashion business.

Team Building

You cannot continue to do everything yourself if you want to level up your fashion business. It’s time to accept that you need to plan for growing your team.

Even if you’re not ready to hire help just yet, you will be soon. And you need to prepare for that.

You have to start identifying the roles that you need to fill. Fill roles that remove busywork from your to-do list. A bookkeeper and a virtual assistant for admin work are two biggies.

You need to start documenting your processes now so that when you hire people, you can direct them to instructions for how to do the things you hired them for.

You also need to start budgeting. What are the going pay rates for the people you want to bring on board and can you afford that now? If not, what revenue goals do you need to implement to get you to that point?

Team building is not something you don’t think about until you’re ready to hire. It’s something you start planning for now so that you make sure you can hire people when you do need them.

Systems

Oh, systems! So important, so often ignored. Leveling up any business requires systems to be in place. You can’t keep going with things all over the place and no systematic approach to the various areas of your business. I promise you will feel burnt out and anxious and that is no way to live (or run a business).

So where do you need to apply systems? A lot of places. But here are some big ones that will have a huge impact on your ability to grow your fashion business:

• Set up regular reviews of your finances. This should be done at least monthly and you should be looking at where the money is coming from, where it’s going, and then using this information to make decisions about growth (new product offerings, new marketing ideas, new team members, etc.)

• Implement tools that simplify and organize. It’s time for a project management system. No more excuses.

• Set up automation. Invest resources (money and time) into setting up automation in your business so that you’re not spending precious hours doing the same things over and over. Automating your emails and your social media are two places where you’ll experience a huge relief.

As you can see, once you’ve launched your fashion business, you need to get focused on growing it.

It’s easy to fall into a place of splitting your time and focus, all while doing things that don’t actually matter in long run. Instead, shift your attention to these five areas and I promise you’ll start to see the growth you’re after.

Below I share a step-by-step deep dive into how to set up systems in your fashion business so you can start to see the growth you’ve been after…

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Creating your vision statement for your business is an important step because it’s a snapshot into the future of your company. It’s not something to stress over, it should be fun—you’re dreaming!

This is where you take into account what you want your life to look like and create a vision for your future, as it applies to your business.

Think of it like looking into a magical crystal ball to see the future of your brand.

It is essential for making decisions in your business and to grow it to your “vision” of success.

The vision statement is part of the core of your business plan. It helps you look ahead.

Without a vision for the future, how can you act in the present?

The thing about a vision statement is that once it is written, it trickles down into every business planning decision you will make in the future—you’ll probably wonder how you made it all this time without one.

Writing a vision statement will clearly outline your goals for your business; on a personal level, it will help you be able to grow your fashion business in the way you truly want and publicly, it will help customers, buyers, and investors see your true intentions with creating your brand.

There are a series of questions you want to ask yourself before writing your statement.

1. In a few sentences, sum up your “business goal” for 3 to 5 years. (number of employees, some points about product dev (# of collections per year where you want to produce, your location, revenue). It doesn’t have to be too involved; you can even just jot down words. The point here is to start getting some of the thoughts in your head onto paper.

2. How do you define “success” in your business? Be descriptive. This is different for everyone. For some it’s tied into revenue, for others it’s about freedom and control, or even the feeling you have from day to day. It can be some of this, all of this, or more!

3. What types of products will you sell? List the things you offer now and the things you see your brand offering in the future.

4. How many employees would you like to have and what positions will they fill? Or will you remain a one/two person operation or do you want a marketing department as part of your team?

5. Will you be in an office building? A Studio? Working from home? Have a remote team? Jot down some details here to describe what the chosen location looks and feels like.

6. Who are the key partners you will need to help you? (Non-employees) Production team, lawyers, accountants, publicist, etc.

7. Where will you sell? (Online, in stores, your own store, markets and popups and trunk shows) Be detailed: kinds of stores, number of stores direct to consumer or drop ship, types of markets and popups, etc.)

8. Who will be wearing your work? This is an exercise in itself but just write a few sentences about who this person is. You don’t have to get too bogged down with detail here.

9. Do you want to be on the cover of big magazines? Do you want your brand to be known for something in particular? Do you want a quiet, handmade approach to your business? Write a bit here about any extras you want to cover; share anything that is an important part of the overall business.

Alright, now that you’ve got yourself thinking and writing, it’s time to take what you started with the above questions and turn it into your vision statement. Watch my step-by-step video below and use the workbook I provide to create your fashion business vision statement…

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As an independent fashion brand, you are likely running your fashion business on a shoestring budget and working to keep down expenses as much as possible. Knowing how profitable your fashion business is will help you grow and make smarter business decisions. And knowing your average order value is a big part of that.

Let’s imagine you sell 15 dresses this month, ranging in price, some customers may buy three dresses while others buy only one. How can you know what your profit is on an order or how much money is really coming into your pocket?

In other words, what’s your profitability?

The answer lies in a simple number called the Average Order Value (AOV). Stick with me, this is really helpful info, promise.

Your AOV is a number that represents the value of an average amount of orders in a chosen period of time. This number is important for the viability of your business.

Because if you are not profitable, you can’t stay in business.

Therefore, this number should be important to you and you should be looking at it often.

If you can calculate the price at which you can sell a dress (factoring in fabric, trim, labels, and labor costs), then calculating your average order value is simple.

The reason why this is a key calculation in measuring your profitability is because it shows how much money you are making per order.

This calculation could be used to increase your income, even when your website traffic may be fluctuating.

It can help you determine if customers are spending on your more pricey or your less pricey items. In addition, it can show you the relationship of transactions costs vs. the transaction itself.

You just need three things (in this post let’s assume you want to calculate your average order value PER MONTH):

1. Your total sales revenue number for the last 30 days

2. Number of orders for the last 30 days

3. A calculator

To calculate your AOV you simply need to take your total sales revenue and divide by your total number of orders. Easy, right?

For example, if you have a total sales of $1200 dollars for the month which was accumulated from 12 orders. You would take your 1200 value and divide that by your 12 order for the month and your AOV is $100.

The END Result: Your AOV — a number that shows you the exact amount of how much you’re making per order in a monthly period.

This is a great tool to budget your expenses, your costs per product, and future investments. And remember, you want to have a high AOV, the higher your AOV, the better.

Here is how to increase your AOV…

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If there is one thing that all business owners need to get really clear on, it's who exactly are you serving with your products? Who ideally will buy your stuff?

I italicize “ideally” because startup fashion business owners get stuck on this a lot— there is a tendency to have the exact answer for will buy your products. Considering that you are either not yet selling, or are in the early years of your business and have only sold a small amount, there is no way to know for sure exactly who your customer is.

However, if you create a profile of your “ideal” customer, you can then tailor your content (imagery, language, etc.) to that ideal person.

If you’ve already launched your business, you likely already have done the work of deciding who your ideal customer is. And if you’re actively selling, you may also have data to help you confirm or adjust that customer profile.

BUT, I have found that many brands have skated over this work and it’s so very important for making more sales in your business. So we’re going to do a review.

Even if you feel confident that you have created your ideal customer profile, , you still may find this helpful because a review and refresh is usually a great thing in business.

YOUR IDEAL CUSTOMER

Nothing you do to market your business is going to matter if you’re not connecting with the right people.

You have to figure out who your ideal customer is and by default, isn’t. Meaning, you cannot be broad here.

Please don’t say my ideal customer is 25 to 50, female, who values quality. That is meaningless. You need to develop this person a lot more deeply than that. You need to be able to picture them clearly in your mind so that every bit of marketing you do is speaking directly to this ideal person.

As you’re developing this person, think about things like:

• The gender spectrum

• The age range (within 10 years, but honestly, pick one specific age)

• Their values

• Their hobbies

• Their struggles

• A community that they fit into (parent, plus size, petite, entrepreneurs, dancers, work from home people, brides, whatever!)

You will use this information to create a highly specific sentence that describes your ideal customer.

Once you have this highly specific sentence created, you then need to review your brand values and make sure you zero in on what overlaps with your ideal customer.

So let’s talk about that more…

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Your fashion business marketing strategy is almost like a living, breathing thing that is tweaked regularly based on a lot of different factors. But, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t aspects of your marketing that remain consistent.

These consistent aspects are foundational to your marketing and shouldn’t be skipped.

Let’s talk about three of these aspects of your fashion business marketing strategy that remain consistent and, if done properly, can absolutely skyrocket your marketing efforts.

Look at your numbers often

Your data is something you should be referring back to a lot.

You goal should be to create weekly reports with your brand’s key metrics. And then look at this report on a schedule so that the data and information you collect can be used to make your marketing efforts the next week even more powerful.

To figure out what goes in your specific weekly report , ask yourself “What metrics impact the money goals that I have for my business?”

These metrics could be email open rates, email click rates, email sign ups, website traffic, average order value, conversion rate, and more.

You don’t need to monitor all of these. You just need to decide which ones are most relevant to how you’re marketing and how you’re selling and therefore impacts the revenue goals you have in place.

When you make this a habit in your business, it will do amazing things for you marketing because you’re learning from your efforts and becoming a more strategic marketer.

Create “events” in your marketing

When you’re planning a marketing campaign of any kind — whether a sale, a giveaway, an Instagram Live, or the launch of a new collection — for your brand, you need to create build up, excitement, and intrigue. make it an “event”.

Now, I know you may already think this way when it comes to things like launching a new collection but really, any marketing campaign should be treated this way.

Think about something like a giveaway. If you treat this like an “event”, you would be doing some or all of these things:

• talking about it on Instagram a week or more before it goes live

• sending emails that talk about something exciting that is coming their way

• have a landing page with a waiting list

• going live on social the day the giveaway launches

• sending a series of emails after that giveaway is complete thanking people for participating and offering them a small discount for the product that they didn’t win in the giveaway

See how this is something special?

Whatever the marketing campaign, it will be so much more successful if you treat it like an event.

Identify Your Blocks

This is an important mindset exercise. Blocks are any thoughts or limiting beliefs that hold you back and keep you from making progress towards your goals.

There is so much going on when you’re running a business that blocks will inevitably pop up and keep you from making the amount of progress you know you can make.

And that’s because blocks are crafty little rascals that make you second guess everything about your decisions and are often disguised as “truths”.

But you can’t listen!

Instead, whenever you have a goal to do something but haven’t managed to get it done, ask yourself “What got in my way?” Then, once you answer that, ask yourself “Why?”.

And then here’s the trick — keep asking yourself “Why?” until you get at the root of the issue. What you are doing during this exercise is digging deep to find your blocks. This process is always powerful and really brings to light what is holding you back.

Figuring out what your blocks are is absolutely game changing for your marketing.

And while each of these three things is great individually, when you do all three is when you start to see your marketing reach new levels!

Member Resource: Identifying Your Blocks Video + Workbook

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If you’re looking for ways to grow your audience and increase your sales numbers, collaboration is a key strategy.

Collaboration is an amplification of your already existing marketing strategy. If you’re already working on marketing your business, why wouldn’t you want to finds way to amplify your efforts, reach more people, and grow your fashion business?

So what exactly constitutes collaboration? It’s often a barter, rather than a paid partnership, and it works as a way to increase brand awareness and reach new markets by finding fun and creative ways to shine a spotlight on all the businesses involved.

Collaboration is a way to tap into the audiences of your fellow brands who share similar values and the same target customer.

Collaboration on its own can work just fine but it’s always best when paired with something you’ve already got going. Hence, the idea of amplification. So complementing your marketing strategy with strategic partnerships is a big part of the success of your collaboration strategy.

Looking at your marketing strategy and finding ways to bring in partners to make that strategy even stronger, is at the heart of a powerful collaboration.

Fashion brings a lot of opportunity to collaborate. If you think creatively about the lifestyle of your customer and what services they use or activities they take part in, what products they love, and what matters to them, then developing a collaboration strategy becomes so much easier and more naturally and authentically grows your business.

For your collaboration strategy to be successful, it’s important for you to focus on customer research and to have a give and take mentality.

Here are 4 important tips for creating a powerful collaboration strategy…

Get Very Clear on Your Audience Profile

It’s very important to get really clear on who your customer is and collect all the information you know about them. The more you know about the life of this person, the easier it will be to find collaborators and create something they are excited to hear about. Otherwise, you’re just sort of winging it and that’s not only a waste of time and money but will most likely crumble the possibility of an ongoing relationship with your collaborators.

Here are some questions to ask yourself about your audience:

• Let’s think about your average customer, and their week- what are they doing all week long?

• Tap into the lifestyle of your audience, what other products and services do they use in their lives?

• What are the touch points where you can hit your customer? i.e. is there a newsletter you think they probably love?

When you take some time to answer these questions, you are so much closer to launching successful collaborations!

Apply Collaboration to Your Business Goals

It’s super important that you get clear on your goals. You need to know why you even want to collaborate with other businesses in the first place. If you understand what you’re hoping to accomplish, you can better communicate your needs to your partners and find ways to collaborate that will have a real impact on your business.

You need to be able to answer the following about your business:

• What are your business goals for the next 3 to 6 months?

• Look at your marketing plan—are you focused on increasing email subscribers, connecting with your customer more offline, or maybe entering a new market? What’s happening?

• Based on the business goals you listed above, in what ways do you see collaboration supporting them? Just jot down ideas like “A sweepstakes can help me increase our subscribers.” Or “co-producing an event can help me connect with my audience more offline.”

Once you’ve answered the questions above, use those responses to create a menu of 5 to 10 ways in which your company partners with other companies so that you’re not reinventing the wheel with every collaboration.

Then start making a list of companies you’d love to collaborate with and why.

Prepare Partner-Specific Ideas

Once you come up with a list of possible collaborators, even though you have not yet spoken to any of the companies, you should come up with a few possible ideas that will support your business goals (cross-promotion, content creation, event production, etc.) for each possible partner. Keep the ideas general but attach types of collaborations with each potential partner.

I’d love to partner with Company A on an event.

I’d love to partner with company B on content creation.

I’d love to partner with company C on a sweepstakes or giveaway.

These ideas will evolve and become more detailed once you better understand the other company’s goals. But it’s important to have some initial ideas ready to share if they ask.

It’s about finding a balance between having a few ideas ready for your phone call and being open to hearing their goals so you can meet them where they are.

Flesh Out Your Ideas

Once you start having those initial collaboration calls with companies you’d love to partner with, you’ll need to use those conversations to create more detailed ideas, figure out who would be responsible for what, and create goals and metrics.

Once you’ve talked to them, it’s time to take into account both your business goals and their business goals and refine the initial ideas you created before your call.

It can sometimes be challenging to come up with creative ideas for collaborations. But don’t overthink it. Start with the most low-hanging fruit, those ideas that seem like they could work well and don’t require a massive commitment and undertaking.

When working on your ideas:

• Go low pressure, start simple with an Instagram live or co-produced content

• Think about what kind of thing you would want to attend or experience

• Think about the collaborations have you click on, what sparked your interest

Here’s a little example for you…

Let’s say you’re a vegan handbag brand. And you want to collaborate with Jane Smith Botanicals natural skincare. You’re initial thought was that you’d love to co-host an event because one of your business goals is to do more things offline. During your call you learn that Jane Smith Botanicals is well acquainted with hosting live events, they do one almost monthly, and that they really want to focus on upping their online content game in the next 6 months.

So a compromise to meet both your goals might turn into co-hosting the vegan lifestyle panel, live streaming it to Jane Smith Botanicals’ FB page, and you writing a guest post event recap for their blog. They get live stream video content and solid blog post content out of the deal, and you get an opportunity to connect with your audience in real life.

The point with collaboration is to find ways that benefit all partners involved by helping everyone get closer to reaching the business goals they have in place. And to have fun doing it!

Below I breakdown exactly how to set up your fashion business collaboration strategy, I include a step-by-step video, copy and paste email outreach scripts, and easy-to-use templates and spreadsheets…

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The world of fashion is constantly evolving. As a fashion business owner looking to expand your brand, you need to keep up with this constant change to be impactful. One crucial way to remain relevant in an uber-competitive world is by creating various revenue streams for your fashion business.

Multiple revenue streams not only help you to diversify but also provide a measure of financial security which is otherwise not possible. It is all about heeding the age-old adage- Don’t put your eggs in one basket. It is simple but smart business advice.

So let’s take a look at 8 ways to add more fashion revenue streams. Some of these are ongoing efforts while others are a bit more seasonal.

1. Online Styling Services

An easy yet coveted service that can add to your revenue stream is providing online styling advice. Many people nowadays are turning to the virtual world for getting styling tips and ideas. As a designer, you can help your customers by setting up an online consultation service through your existing website. Bonus points if you can tailor your services to the needs of your clients.

When providing styling advice, knowing and successfully defining your target audience will benefit you greatly in growing your revenue.

2. Trunk Shows and Pop-Up Stores

Trunk shows and pop-up stores have been around for quite some time in the fashion industry. If you are not already doing these, then you should definitely consider them now. Worried about how your pop-up store will perform? You can test the waters and start small by inviting a group of your favorite clientele to an intimate setting for an evening trunk show. This will allow you to set the stage and gauge the reaction for the future.

Once you have a fair idea about the preferences of your customers, you can plan for regular pop-up stores across multiple locations. You can even curate your collections according to various themes to add your unique flair to the shops.

3. Fashion-Related Products

The modern world of business is all about being innovative and fashion is no different. Think outside the box and offer fashion-related products for sale to your customers. Some ideas can be as follows-

• Downloadable PDFs and printables that allow users to plan their weekly outfits. Think of a weekly planner, but for your clothes. This one will be quite popular with people who are busy or who like to plan things in advance.

• A styling guide in a soft copy format.

• If you are comfortable with a camera, then you can also offer a styling class. Your clients will appreciate the knowledge sharing and will be willing to pay for the service.

While these are merely some suggestions, remember that the sky is the limit when planning new products.

4. Wholesale Offerings

Setting up a wholesale option is a tried and tested revenue generation stream. It is common for buyers to pay upfront to receive their wholesale shipment. You can take advantage of this model and develop capabilities to deliver your products in bulk to buyers.

Wholesale can sound intimidating, especially if you are new to it. However, it can offer certain advantages like-

• You get bulk orders that are independent of your usual retail chain. Hence, wholesale orders can help you tide by any selling slump that you encounter at your storefront.

• You can sell your products in other stores. This creates a customer base where you do not have to worry about marketing investments.

5. Brand Collaborations

Brand collaborations are an effective way to diversify your revenue channels. Like-minded companies will often pay you to feature their products. This will get you extra income along with brand recognition.

If you are just starting, then look for companies and brands that resonate with your style and approach them with a value proposition. You will be surprised at how effective sometimes cold pitching can be. Once you find your niche, you can also organize exclusive events with brands to attract more customers and up your sales.

6. Social Media Presence

Needless to say, a strong social media presence is crucial to business success today. But it is not only for marketing purposes. Social media can also earn money for your fashion brand.

Affiliate marketing is one effective way to benefit from social media marketing. Alternatively, companies will also pay you to feature their products and services on your social media handles. In addition, you can try selling directly from your social media pages.

7. Exclusive Memberships

People love exclusivity. That’s why businesses often offer their customers membership deals with access to special products. You can create such a membership program for a fee for your customer base.

Memberships can also include access to seasonal collections before they are made available to the general clientele. You can also include some one-on-one styling time and special discounts for purchases over a certain value.

A quarterly or yearly subscription-based membership model can create a passive revenue channel for your fashion brand.

The Bottom Line

Part of fashion business success depends on how well you can divide up the proverbial eggs when it comes to revenue generation. These are some of the ways in which you can diversify revenue streams while maintaining cohesiveness in your fashion brand. Having multiple revenue streams reduces business risks, especially during times of market uncertainty.

After all, fashion is about being creative. Below I’m sharing a video lesson and workbook that break down how to plan and implement new revenue streams, in particular recurring income streams (yes!) as a fashion brand…

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A trunk show is a great way to get your brand directly in front of the customers who are most likely to fall in love with your designs.

Here are some ideas you can try to make the most out of your trunk shows as an independent fashion brand:

1. Choose the right location for your trunk show.

Traditionally, trunk shows–which, luckily, are no longer held out of the trunk of your car, at least most of the time!–are held in boutiques or stores. However, depending on your unique brand and your target audience, you can choose to hold a trunk show almost anywhere that will attract your target consumer.

Are you a maternity brand? You might want to consider setting up at a local pregnancy aerobics class. Do you have an activewear brand? Consider setting up at a local yoga studio, gym, or even dance studio, depending on the type of products you offer. Do you have a line focused entirely on kids? You may want to set up at local Mommy and Me events, or even set out your brand at a local daycare. Get creative and choose a location that works well for your brand. Approach those businesses directly–you don’t have to wait for them to contact you!

2. Don’t underestimate the possibilities offered by a virtual trunk show.

As the last six years have shown us, if nothing else, that many of the events that we thought could only take place in person could be hosted virtually, too–and trunk shows are no exception. Advertise your trunk show in places where you know you can find your target audience and then take it online.

Take clear photos, write out great product descriptions and information, and make sure you’ve put together a great lineup that will be sure to pull people in. It may surprise you just how much attention a virtual trunk show can attract–and how much it can increase your sales, since guests may have more time to browse.

3. Include special event pricing for your guests.

Nothing attracts customers like the idea that they’re getting something special. Special pricing for a trunk show can help push shoppers to make purchases that they might otherwise put off. After all, they’re better off getting those products while they’re on sale!

Consider what incentive you can afford to offer. Keep in mind that if you’re hosting your trunk sale in a business, you may already be losing some of your profits to the store–often 40-50% of your sales. You don’t want to undercut your profits, but you do want to offer the kind of incentive that will encourage buyers to come check out your products and buy more in the future.

4. Tailor your event to the location, the season, or a special theme.

In order to make the most of your trunk sale, try specifically tailoring your event to your current audience.

Is there a special event or holiday coming up?

If you’re holding your trunk show at a dance studio that has an upcoming recital, for example, you might want to highlight backstage wear or leotards–or special outfits that the dancers might like to wear as they slip out from backstage after the event.

If you know there’s a holiday coming soon, from Halloween to Christmas, Valentine’s Day, and more, target that holiday in your marketing and your designs. Don’t forget about important upcoming days, like back to school season or the beginning of summer!

Focus on the upcoming season.

It’s tempting, when you hold a trunk show, to bring out everything. However, you may find that it’s much more effective–both in terms of space and in terms of sales–to focus on the upcoming season and the clothing your buyers are most likely to need then.

Someone who is torn between two outfits might choose to purchase both, but someone who is torn between three or four might put back all but one–or even decide to take longer to think about it. Furthermore, for a trunk show, you have a limited amount of space in which to display your designs. You want to make sure each one has its chance to shine, so focus on what’s coming.

Don’t be afraid to try out a special theme.

Is there a theme that’s been making its way through your designs lately, from a specific piece of literature that’s acting as an inspiration to a specific color that you’re using more often? Consider bringing it to your trunk show and highlighting it. Your buyers might just have as much interest in your theme as you do.

5. Connect with a local charity or cause to help increase your reach.

Connecting with local non-profits is a great way to improve your standing in the local community and show consumers exactly what you have to offer–and why they should trust your brand. Consider donating a portion of your profits, or a certain type of sales, to a non-profit that fits the ideals of your business.

Connecting with a local charity is a great way to let them know that you care about many of the same causes they do. Highlighting that organization as part of your event is also a great way to help draw some attention to it.

Trunk shows are an amazing way to help expand your reach and get in front of clients who might not have had other opportunities to check out your brand. With these ideas, you can expand your trunk show and make the most of it.

An upgraded subscription gets you:

💻Access to the monthly live lessons and the recordings to re-watch as often as you need.

📑Library of 30+ recorded video workshops covering business planning, manufacturing, marketing, and sales.

🔨Templates, workbooks, guidelines, and additional tools to help you save time and money starting and growing your business.

🙋‍♀️Chat Room access to get my personal feedback on your business and answer any questions you have about how to launch and grow.

Email marketing is such a crucial part of every retail business, particularly because it’s cost-effective and a direct channel to your customers that you own. Once you have a customer’s email, you have the opportunity to re-market to them in a number of different ways to drive acquisition and retention.

However, we all know that there are so many different things to manage as a fashion startup founder, and email can be an easy one to overlook.

Where do you start building an email list? How do you make sure you’re sending the right emails at the right times? We’re going to give you a few tips here for best practices to tackle email marketing as a whole, so you can keep things simple and focused.

Make Use of Every Email You Send

There are at least three or four emails you’ll have the opportunity to send to your customers, which gives you so many opportunities to deliver great marketing messages.

First, subscribers will get a welcome email when they first subscribe or make a purchase. Use this opportunity to establish and introduce your brand– it should be short and sweet, but give your audience an idea of what to expect from you in future emails. If you have the ability to customize your welcome email, you should also think about using the reader’s name, and perhaps including a note to reference how you got their email. Security is a big deal these days, and everyone appreciates a little reminder of how you found them.

Your customers will also get a series of transactional emails, like a purchase confirmation and a shipping confirmation. These are consistently the emails with the highest open rate and click through rate, because they have valuable information. Make use of these top-performing emails by making the transactional emails a part of your brand as well. Make sure they’re well-designed, rewrite the default copy to make it more friendly, and add in other marketing messages like a referral program, links to new products, or links to your social channels to keep your customers engaged. These emails shouldn’t just feel robotic, especially because they’re telling your customer something delightful: they’ve just made a great choice in purchasing from you, or even better, their new purchase is about to show up on their doorstep! Make it fun and friendly.

Finally, your email newsletters are your most rich, content-heavy opportunity to reach your audience and really tell your story. You don’t need to be sending a daily, or even weekly email newsletter if you don’t have quality content or messaging to be sending, but it’s good to build a regular cadence. Use the frequency of your email newsletters to test different messaging, types of offers, blog content, send times, and other calls to action. Just don’t forget to always have a good call to action (and probably not more than two or three calls to action, it’ll just overwhelm your readers).

Build Your Email List Organically

Never buy lists. Purchased lists might be (occasionally) useful for sales teams, but if you’re trying to reach a consumer audience to sell your products online, you need to build your list organically.

The better quality you start with, the better each email will perform, and the better quality of your email list growth. This is a really important factor to keep in mind. The better your open rates, the more likely your emails will continue to get into people’s inboxes instead of getting filtered out as spam. You’re only hurting yourself by buying a giant list of emails that nobody opens, and that is a negative impact that will be hard to dig yourself out of.

This doesn’t mean that you can’t use paid advertising, sponsored content, or paid influencer campaigns to drive people to sign up for your email list. It’s OK to pay to acquire new emails, but only if it’s from a channel where your potential customers can opt-in to your email list.

So, what are some great ways that you can acquire emails?

First and foremost, make sure to have an email capture form on your website. At minimum, you can have a simple subscription form in your header or footer (most email marketing platforms have simple snippets of code that you can insert onto your website, or integrate with platforms like Shopify directly).

You can also add a pop-up on your site that asks an audience to subscribe to your newsletter, in exchange for a promo code or exclusive access to new products. This is a great way to test different messaging and offers to determine what your audience responds best to!

As mentioned earlier, you can also acquire emails through paid channels like Facebook ads and influencer posts, giveaways, and events (event RSVPs make great additions to your email list!)

Expert tip: use the “Source” field in your email marketing platform to note where you acquired your email from. This will help you in the future so you can segment your email list and customize your messaging based on where your subscribers came from. For example, if someone subscribed from an influencer giveaway, it might be helpful to reference that giveaway or use a photo from the same influencer in your email to that group of subscribers. They’ll recognize the reference and be more likely to open and click through!

Write Thoughtful Emails

You only have so much opportunity to capture someone’s attention in an overwhelmingly busy inbox these days. Be thoughtful about every piece of the email you’re sending: the subject line, the preview text, even the unsubscribe language in your footer. It’s easy to overlook one of these pieces, and doing so will make you look like every other email in your inbox.

The key is to stand out with messaging that is unique to you and your brand.

You want your emails to sound like they’re coming from a real human, not a machine, and it’s important to treat your audience like they’re human too–don’t use three words when one will do, and don’t spam your readers with one discount promotion after another if they’re not responding.

An upgraded subscription gets you:

💻Access to the monthly live lessons and the recordings to re-watch as often as you need.

📑Library of 30+ recorded video workshops covering business planning, manufacturing, marketing, and sales.

🔨Templates, workbooks, guidelines, and additional tools to help you save time and money starting and growing your business.

🙋‍♀️Chat Room access to get my personal feedback on your business and answer any questions you have about how to launch and grow.

I also share a Photo Shoot Prep List with you.

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Hey designers!

I’m hosting another Live session here on Substack. This month’s live session is all about planning a successful photo shoot. I know this can seem straightforward but honestly, it’s not. A lot of time and money is spent on a photo shoot and I want to make sure that you’re thinking through the entire process so that you get the results that you want!

We’ll talk about:

• how to prepare for the shoot (budget, hiring, location, shot list, prep list, etc.)

• how to run the shoot (making sure you get all the shots you need, etc.)

• how to leverage all the content you create during your shoot.

I’ll also share a photo shoot checklist with you!

📅When: Tuesday, September 23rd || 9 AM PST / 12 PM EST / 5 PM CET
📌Where: Substack Live on the app or desktop. Enable notifications so you can get an alert.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• This Substack Live is for paid StartUp FASHION Substack subscribers.

• Recording will be available for StartUp FASHION paid Substack subscribers.

• To attend this session (or watch the replay), upgrade your subscription below.

For any fashion label looking to stay relevant, the marketing to-do list keeps growing longer. Content takes many different forms. Even the platforms for sharing messages and products are multiplying at lightning speed. Without a fashion digital marketing strategy, the demands placed on a growing brand can be daunting.

However, not every platform and content format will be a great fit for your brand. Creating and streamlining your fashion digital marketing strategy ultimately saves you time and money. Here are a few steps to keep in mind:

Know Your Audience

The first step should be to create a clear picture of your current brand audience or the intended brand audience. Every brand has a distinct target audience. Your messages, content style, and even choice of marketing platforms should reflect the audience’s desires and needs.

Gather the data found in your current marketing platforms if you are unsure who your audience is currently. This might be your Instagram business account, Facebook business page, and Google Analytics. It’s imperative to craft your marketing messages toward the demographics of your intended audience. This is simply a more efficient and effective use of your resources.

If you know your audience, you’ll be able to craft more focused messages. You’ll also be able to narrow down the number of platforms to the ones where your ideal customer is active.

Know Your Goals

Once you know these external audience factors, it’s time to look inward at your own goals. Inside the general scope of marketing, there are a number of potential goals you may have for your fashion business. Your number one goal may be to bring exposure to your brand’s name. Another goal could be to drive sales and boost revenue. Additionally, you could be looking for funding as you work to scale up your business.

Clarifying these goals will actually help you determine what you should be marketing, how to perfect your marketing message, and how to track if your marketing efforts are helping move your brand closer toward your goal.

For instance, if your goal is to drive traffic to your shop, you should focus on an SEO campaign. You may also consider running a paid ad campaign either on Google or on a high-traffic social media platform like Instagram or Facebook.

On the other hand, if you want to boost sales and gain exposure, consider a strategic Pinterest campaign or an influencer marketing program. Once you know your goals, you can use them to narrow your marketing focus and work to achieve goal-based success.

Understand What Digital Content Means

Digital content is so much more than just text on a website or social media. Nowadays, digital content takes the form of ads, long-form copy, videos, emails, and meta content. Now that you have your audience and goals in place, it’s time to determine what your marketing content should look like.

• Ads come in many different forms. Google Ads has the tremendous power to boost your visibility in search results – so long as you’re willing to pay for the exposure. Social media ads communicate to a pre-defined audience with creative visuals and engaging headlines. Both types of ads have their place in a marketing strategy. Simply focus on the ads that match your audience needs and your goals.

• Long form copy is most commonly used in blog posts. Many SEO strategists suggest adding industry-relevant blogs onto websites. If you can prove that you and your brand are experts in your field, your target audience is much more likely to find your website and return for new content and additional visits. A blog is an ideal place to show your audience how to style your pieces, prove the transparency of your fashion label, and communicate your brand values.

• Videos are popular on social media and websites but may not be relevant for every brand. Video content often helps a user make a purchasing decision but at the end of the day, it may not help drive people to your website.

• Emails are another digital platform that creates a sense of community and loyalty around your brand. From product launches to styling tips, email marketing is a strategic way to keep customers interested and invested in your business.

• Meta content is an SEO term that relates to how well optimized your website is. The meta-data found on your website affects your search engine ranking as well as how your website performs for organic traffic. You can hire an expert to set this up for you, or learn to update your metadata yourself.

Determine How to Improve

Just because there is a wide variety of content that can be created does not mean that every piece of content should be created for your brand. Perfecting every type of content for every platform is a huge use of time and resources. Unless you’re willing to hire an entire team of people to create your content, that strategy is often not feasible.

If you have already created marketing content, go ahead and run a mini content audit and look at it through the data of your audience and your goals. If it all matches up, then keep up the great work! On the other hand, if there are areas you’re just not sure fit your brand and your audience then rethink how that content could be utilized.

After the mini audit, take out a piece of paper or a digital document and create a content marketing plan for the next three months. Because we’re approaching the holiday season, it’s safe to say that your marketing efforts this time of the year are going to be very valuable. Plan out what platforms you want to focus on, your main 3-4 messages for the upcoming months, and how you’re going to visually represent your brand (i.e. photos, videos, etc.) Using an editorial calendar is a great way to stay on track.

From there you will be able to plan out how you will produce and release that content to your audience. This should make creating a fashion digital marketing plan quite a bit less daunting.

Create Content in Batches

Once you have your plan in place, the last piece of advice is to create your content in batches. This simply means that you should sit down for a designated period of time – whether that is 4 hours one day per month, or 30 minutes one day a week – and create your marketing content.

If you have to take product shots, take them all in one day. If you are writing ad copy or social media captions, sit down and write them all at once. Once you get into the content, you will find the message is clearer, the brand voice is more prominent, your goals are evident, and the style is consistent. Not to mention you’ll actually save yourself time in the process.

Marketing is a beautiful thing but it’s only truly useful if you understand the heartbeat behind the strategy and understand the minds of your audience. Creating successful content for your fashion business is definitely achievable if you follow a few simple steps. Simply setting aside the time to refine and create a strategic plan is a great place to start.

An upgraded subscription gets you:

💻Access to the monthly live lessons and the recordings to re-watch as often as you need.

📑Library of 30+ recorded video workshops covering business planning, manufacturing, marketing, and sales.

🔨Templates, workbooks, guidelines, and additional tools to help you save time and money starting and growing your business.

🙋‍♀️Chat Room access to get my personal feedback on your business and answer any questions you have about how to launch and grow.

How do you get sales on day one of your product launch (and every day after that)? You do it by making an effort to build buzz for your fashion business before you launch. This way, you’re launching to an excited audience.

Ideally, you want to launch to an audience who already has a sense of your brand and value propositions. But when you don’t have a product to sell yet, it can be tricky to come up with creative ideas for how to market yourself and build excitement. Tricky, but not impossible!

We’ve pulled together a few of our favorite ways to build buzz for your fashion business while you’re still in the pre-launch phase. These will teach potential customers who you are, get them intrigued about your designs, and strengthen your relationship with them. Come launch day, they’ll be eager to be one of your first customers.

Run a pre-sale

By taking pre-orders, you can build buzz for your designs ahead of time, and (bonus!) gauge demand for your sales prior to launch. Pre-sales are definitely a lot of work — in fact, they’re practically a new product launch by themselves. However, the benefits are often worth the extra effort.

With a pre-sale, you can do a test run of your marketing. Test different channels and messages to understand where your customers are and what messages resonate with them. Test pricing and product styles and colors. Find out what kinds of questions your customers are asking before they’re ready to purchase, so that you can be fully prepared to answer them at launch.

Share teasers of the product and behind-the-scenes content

It’s often easy to want to keep everything to yourself before launch. You’re afraid of showing your mistakes or lack of experience, and that’s OK. But keep in mind that when it comes to small and emerging brands, your founder story and your journey can be a powerful asset too.

Bring your community into your startup journey by sharing the steps along the way. Social media, your blog, or your email newsletter are each a great way to share this kind of content.

Tell stories about you and your team in the design process, choosing materials, and working with vendors. Don’t be afraid to include both the ups and the downs of the journey: when you get a big wholesale order, or when you have to change manufacturers at the last minute. Sharing your decisions and experiences helps make for a richer brand that connects with your community.

You can keep things fresh with different mediums, like blog posts, photos, and videos. Or you can develop a consistent series that shows a day in the life of your company. For even more transparency, consider occasional Q&As where you can engage directly with your community and get them excited about your launch.

Ask for input

Make your potential customers feel like a part of the team by asking them for input. This can be something simple, like putting out a poll for which colors they want of a piece of clothing, or running a contest to name one of your designs. Instagram Stories is a great channel for asking for input, with their customizable Stories stickers that let you ask questions or put things up for a vote.

Or if you’re truly trying to make a difficult decision like where to get your fabrics, or where to get your designs manufactured, consider bringing your community into the discussion to understand what’s important to them.

Once they’ve had input, they’ll feel more involved with you as a brand, and therefore more likely to help you spread the word when you launch!

Build buzz via influencers

Creating a great influencer strategy (and executing it well) is a lot of work. But when you do it well, you’ll see that it’s an incredibly powerful tool to drive buzz for your fashion startup pre-launch.

Especially if you’re targeting a niche audience to start, reaching the right influencers in that market means having your brand amplified to all of their followers and friends, and being associated with a trusted source. It can help jumpstart your brand when you launch, but will definitely require some pre-launch preparation and relationship-building.

There are a lot of creative ways to build this word-of-mouth before you launch. You could host an event with other brands and invite influencers that are a fit for all of your styles. You could send out samples to a number of influencers before you officially launch, so that they’re ready to post and share about your designs right away (or even before you launch, as a teaser).

Whatever you do, the key is to make sure that the influencers you work with have a very clear, solid understanding of your brand and messaging. Send them sample images, sample copy, and key messages so that they can get inspired to create content that’s a fit for you.

——

How is your pre-launch planning going for your fashion startup? Have you tried any of these tactics, and what’s worked best for you? We’d love to hear your ideas on other ways to build buzz for your business pre-launch.

An upgraded subscription gets you:

💻Access to the monthly live lessons and the recordings to re-watch as often as you need.

📑Library of 30+ recorded video workshops covering business planning, manufacturing, marketing, and sales.

🔨Templates, workbooks, guidelines, and additional tools to help you save time and money starting and growing your business.

🙋‍♀️Chat Room access to get my personal feedback on your business and answer any questions you have about how to launch and grow.

Launching your fashion brand is a big step. You’re ready to take your brand to the market and see just how successful you can be.

As you get ready to launch your brand, however, there are several steps you can take to increase your overall odds of success. Here are our top pre-launch marketing tips for fashion brands:

1. Make sure you have a solid understanding of your target audience

Chances are, you had a specific target audience in mind when you started thinking about your brand. Your designs are likely based around that target audience. Now, it’s time to get to know them even better: not their taste in clothing and fashion, but their overall preferences. You need to ask questions like:

• Where does your target audience spend time online?

• What incentives will your target audience need to try out a new brand?

• What information can you offer your target audience to show them the overall quality of your brand and convince them to try out what you have to offer?

The better you know your target audience, the more you can shape your launch to those specific needs–and the better the odds that you can expand your overall reach, even in the initial days of your launch. In those early days, marketing quality matters. You want to make sure you’re directing your marketing materials to the right location and designing them the right way to reach your target audience more effectively.

2. Get in touch with influencers

Influencers are a powerful marketing tool for fashion brands. Chances are, you’re already familiar with a number of the influencers within your niche. Now is the time to get in touch with them! Consider how you can create a working relationship with influencers who are able to reach out to your preferred target audience. What benefits can your brand offer them?

Make sure you’re choosing influencers that are most likely to reach your specific, niche market. Sometimes, it’s tempting to connect with influencers who have a large following. If that following isn’t similar to your target market, however, those individuals will be less likely to try out your brand. Looking for an influencer with a smaller, tight-knit following can be much more lucrative.

3. Start building brand awareness before you’re ready to launch

Brand awareness is a critical part of your fashion brand’s success. You want your target audience to know who you are–and your pre-launch efforts are critical to your success at launch. If you wait until you’re fully ready to launch your fashion brand to start raising awareness, it can take much longer to start seeing that vital return on your investment–and you may even find yourself wondering if your efforts will ultimately prove successful.

Take to social media. Have your influencers start talking up your brand and even modeling your designs well before your launch. Do a pre-launch countdown that will help generate excitement.

Building excitement in the days before that initial launch can go a long way toward helping your success when you’re actually ready to launch your product. Buzz is everything in the fashion world–and the more people are talking about your designs, the greater the likelihood is that they’ll be eager to jump in and buy once it’s actually available.

4. Make your launch a major event

As you prepare for your launch, carefully consider how you can turn it into an event–whether you want that event to be online or in person. You want people to be interested in your brand. Making your launch into an event can help encourage them to be there, see everything that you have to offer, and get caught up in the excitement.

Launch your products with a full event on social media, complete with giveaways and audience participation. Invite people to come to a fashion show or trunk show where they can check out your brand. Partner with a local business to encourage people to come in and touch, try on, and see your designs in person. If you want to see interest in your clothing grow, make it exciting!

5. Take pre-orders

Before you’re ready to formally launch your brand, consider taking pre-orders from customers who want to be first in line to try out your product–especially if your product is something exciting or revolutionary.

If you’re offering something unique and exciting, customers won’t be able to wait to try it out–and they’ll be excited to be at the top of the list as your sales actually start rolling out. Consider taking pre-orders and getting them in the hands of your first customers as soon as possible. In many cases, your customers will become a walking advertisement for your brand.

6. Keep adapting your marketing to the needs of your customers

During this pre-launch period, you have a unique opportunity to test your ads and marketing efforts. You can get closer to your target audience, get to know them better, and get a better idea of how they will respond to specific types of advertising. How are they responding to specific materials? Which ads are most likely to bring them to your website–or, even better, generate pre-orders? Keep testing your marketing so that once you launch your brand, you’ll know that you’re already in line with your target audience.

7. Build suspense

Think about how many major brands handle new releases in their lines, whether it’s a new product just for a specific season or a seasonal line that will generate interest throughout the season: they start hyping it up early. Offer teasers. Show hints. Suspense is enticing–and as you get ready for your initial launch, you’re in the ideal position to take advantage of it.

While you can’t draw out the suspense indefinitely, you can continue generating interest and awareness–and as that suspense builds, you’ll often find that your potential customers are more eager to see what you’ll do next.

An upgraded subscription gets you:

💻Access to the monthly live lessons and the recordings to re-watch as often as you need.

📑Library of 30+ recorded video workshops covering business planning, manufacturing, marketing, and sales.

🔨Templates, workbooks, guidelines, and additional tools to help you save time and money starting and growing your business.

🙋‍♀️Chat Room access to get my personal feedback on your business and answer any questions you have about how to launch and grow.

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Hey fashion business owners!

This month’s live session is all about how to figure out your inventory for launch when you have no historical data to help you figure it out.

I’ll talk you through what to do so that you don’t waste a lot of time and money when you’re lunching your business.

📅When: Wednesday, August 6th || 9 AM PST / 12 PM EST / 5 PM CET
📌Where: Substack Live on the app or desktop. Enable notifications so you can get an alert.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• This Substack Live is for paid StartUp FASHION Substack subscribers.

• Recording will be available for StartUp FASHION paid Substack subscribers.

• To attend this session, upgrade your subscription below.

Before you launch your fashion brand, there’s a lot to take care of: sourcing and creating your products, launching a website, setting up business operations, and a lot more. All of these things require cash flow. Unfortunately, you may have a limited amount of funding actually coming into your business before you launch your brand. So how can you manage cash flow when you’re still a new fashion designer?

Tip #1: Focus on efficiency

As a fashion entrepreneur, it’s easy to get caught up in the activities you enjoy (designing your items, for example) and ignore the ones that you want to focus on less (let’s say, for example, putting together that spreadsheet that shows your profits and losses). In the early days of your startup, you’ll have to take care of a lot on your own. Do not let those less-desirable tasks get lost in the shuffle! Instead, focus on efficiency. Prioritize the tasks that need to be done most, then get them done quickly and effectively, rather than leaving them for the last minute.

Tip #2: Do your research

As a new fashion brand, there are plenty of opportunities to overspend. You might end up with a supplier that charges far more than necessary for the work you want done or the materials you want to use. You might start marketing, only to discover that you chose the wrong channels. In order to maintain your cash flow and keep your finances in order, make sure you do your research before you start spending! Carefully evaluate:

Your potential suppliers. Will the supplier you’re considering offer good value for the money you’re spending? Can you expect them to deliver? It’s well worth asking for samples before making a commitment to a specific supplier, especially if you’re struggling to decide between two suppliers who may have dramatically different financial expectations.

Your marketing channels. Do your research and learn which channels are the most effective for marketing to your target market. For example, if you’ve created a brand for children, you want to find their parents. Know which channels they can be found on. Is Facebook a solid marketing tool for your brand? Can you find people who are interested in your fashion items on Instagram?

What about magazines and other print media? Do the research that will tell you how much value those specific platforms can offer. Many fashion brands lose a lot of money on ineffective marketing–and especially in the early days, you can’t afford that loss.

Photoshoots and modeling opportunities. Good photographers may cost more, but they are also well worth the expense. You also don’t want to waste money on an ineffective photographer or a model that fails to represent your target audience.

Tip #3: Carefully evaluate how much stock you need

You may struggle to predict how much stock you need for each season. That prediction, however, can make a big difference in your overall cash flow. Managing your inventory effectively can be the difference between a successful launch and a flop–not to mention a number of problems with cash flow. Many entrepreneurs over-stock in their first few years. Excess stock can end up being a waste, which you end up selling off at a loss in order to make way for new items.

Tip #4: Pay your debts in a timely manner

You need to keep up with the funds you have going out. When you have payments due, pay them promptly. If they get lost in the shuffle, you can end up owing more than intended as you pay late fees. Worse, you may end up with strained relationships with suppliers. This can make it more difficult to get the items you need in the future. Prioritize paying invoices before they’re due to help ensure that you don’t accidentally miss a payment.

Tip #5: Consider where your funds are coming from

A lot of brands will need some outside source of funding in those early years. If you have investors, you will need to show them how you’re working to generate a profit. On the other hand, if you’ve taken out a bank loan, you will need to repay that investment and manage your funds carefully. Make sure you’re aware of where your funds are coming from and how that will continue to impact your business.

Tip #6: Reinvest as many of your profits as possible during the early years

It’s tempting to start pulling funds out as soon as you start generating a profit. Instead, reinvest profits as they start to roll in. You’ll find that by establishing this habit early, you can make it easier to handle your finances in the future.

Financial management is just as important as the creativity and passion that led you to get involved in fashion design in the first place. By carefully managing your cash flow in these early days, you will set your business up for success in a way that will last.

An upgraded subscription gets you:

💻Access to the monthly live lessons and the recordings to re-watch as often as you need.

📑Library of 30+ recorded video workshops covering business planning, manufacturing, marketing, and sales.

🔨Templates, workbooks, guidelines, and additional tools to help you save time and money starting and growing your business.

🙋‍♀️Chat Room access to get my personal feedback on your business and answer any questions you have about how to launch and grow.

In the highly competitive fashion industry, each loyal customer is extremely valuable. With 80% of future profits coming from 20% of existing clients, nurturing brand loyalty is on top of each entrepreneur’s list.

How do you make your brand appealing enough for the clients to stick around while promoting it to others? Let’s take a closer look at establishing strong brand loyalty as a fashion entrepreneur.

1. Change the Focus from “What” to “Why”

Let’s be honest. Most likely, there at least a dozen companies out there offering a similar product.

Building brand loyalty in such a competitive environment is impossible if you focus solely on what you sell. Your stellar product may bring the customer back, but building loyalty is a completely different story.

When marketing your brand, focus on “why” you do it instead of “what” you are offering. People (especially millennials) love authenticity. If you can create a powerful and authentic story behind your products, you are much more likely to nurture a loyal relationship with a client.

When people are buying a product with a story behind it, they start to relate to it. That’s exactly what you need to keep them passionate about your brand. The deep understanding of your offering turns these clients into excellent brand advocates.

2. Think Your Loyalty Program Through

Studies show that CLV (customer lifetime value) of clients with an emotional connection to your brand is four times higher than of those without it.

Rewarding your customers for doing something they already are (buying from your brand) is a huge step toward establishing that connection. To make your loyalty program stand out:

• Give it a deeper meaning. Customers shouldn’t feel like you are paying them to stay with the brand. Get creative and come up with a “why” story.

• Reward them for things other than buying. It could be small rewards for following your blog, watching product videos, or sharing social media content.

• Diversify your reward offering. For example, you can allow clients to exchange loyalty points for tickets, e-books, or subscriptions. This will drive home the idea that you aren’t in it just for the money.

• Be spontaneous. By offering your loyalty program members a reward when they least expect it strengthens your relationship dramatically.

Bonus: Members of loyalty programs generally spend about 12% – 18% more on products than non-members.

3. Reward Brand Ambassadors

Impulsive buying is highly popular in the fashion industry. That’s why spending thousands of dollars on appealing ads (unless they are pay-per-click) may not be the perfect marketing strategy. Instead, consider shifting your focus to encouraging word-of-mouth promotion.

More than 90% of consumers trust recommendations from friends and family more than they do any type of advertising. That’s why incentivizing your clients to become brand ambassadors can pay off tremendously.

Offer your brand ambassadors something a regular client can’t get. It could be:

• Early access to products not yet available for sale.

• An exclusive invitation to an event (for example, free tickets to the next fashion show in town).

• A personalized garment (even if it’s just a t-shirt with a special print).

The point is to make these people feel privileged. In the long run, these efforts have a huge ROI.

4. Explore UGC

Your clients are your best brand ambassadors. They can help you build brand loyalty without any rewards. By keeping up with them on social media, you can harvest a variety of UGC (user-generated content) to help with word-of-mouth marketing.

What do you think builds brand loyalty better?

• A professional video ad with beautiful models wearing your designer dresses on a beach

Or

• An amateur photo of a real person wearing your dress at a local party?

You guessed it. In the 21st century, authenticity is as good as gold. That’s why it’s important to focus on your social media presence to get access to such photos and videos.

Another important form of UGC is reviews. By using your customers’ reviews for marketing, you don’t just attract new clients, you are making your existing audience feel special. This, in turn, strengthens their loyalty.

5. Make Yourself Available

No matter how great of a campaign you create, it’s bland without personal involvement. Whether you are a fashion business newbie or a seasoned entrepreneur, you need to find ways to help clients when they need you.

Consider creating a multi-channel customer service system. It involves making yourself available across different channels, from your website to social media.

Making it easy for the client to contact you in case they have a question is half the job. You must be readily available to solve problems shortly.

Eliminating the frustration factor when customers need support could go a long way toward making them stick with your brand.

6. Give Your Client the Reins

Allowing your clients to get involved with what you do can cement their loyalty. If your product allows, give the clients an opportunity to customize it.

For example, Ray-Ban reports that their customized sunglasses feature brings 40% of their online revenue. They simply let the clients to do their job for them. With the power of personalization growing across all marketing channels, customization allows you to take full advantage of it.

7. Show Your Expertise

You are an expert in your niche. Don’t hesitate to flaunt your experience and knowledge. By establishing yourself as an expert in the industry, you are giving your clients a reason to respect your brand. This, in turn, powers brand loyalty.

Focus on creating high-quality content for your website and social media accounts. Valuable information doesn’t just strengthen the customers’ desire to continue buying, it can do wonders for the rest of your marketing efforts.

The Takeaway

To build brand loyalty, focus on telling a good story, streamlining a stellar customer experience, exploring UGC opportunities, and designing a unique rewards program.

All the above is possible if you are passionate about your brand and ready to go the extra mile sharing that passion!

An upgraded subscription gets you:

💻Access to the monthly live lessons and the recordings to re-watch as often as you need.

📑Library of 30+ recorded video workshops covering business planning, manufacturing, marketing, and sales.

🔨Templates, workbooks, guidelines, and additional tools to help you save time and money starting and growing your business.

🙋‍♀️Chat Room access to get my personal feedback on your business and answer any questions you have about how to launch and grow.