If you're going to promote your fashion brand via social media, it can't simply be a hit and miss affair. What's more, twitter, facebook and instagram are not the only useful promotional tools in the box.

Fashion brand

If you're going to promote your fashion brand effectively, sometimes a ruthless approach is essential.  It doesn't matter what you're selling, from underwear to eveningwear, a memorable campaign is the be all and end all in order to boost your brand.

Read on to see how to:

*Make your fashion brand visible.

*Build Trust

*Use social media to promote your fashion brand

*Combine the old with the new promotional methods

Read on and arm yourself with the knowledge and skills to take the initiative and get more and more people looking at (and talking about) your brand.

1. A fashion brand website is a must

Your own website where you can build your fashion brand image is essential.  It sounds like we're stating the glaringly obvious, right? But you'd be surprised how many brands think that selling on a marketplace is enough. Trust us, it isn't.

If you've already got a presence on a marketplace, then chances are you're already moving some product, creating traffic and building a following. This means some of the groundwork has already been done and that's great news. However, if you truly want to up the ante for your fashion brand, you've got to create your own independent web store. This is the true character of the brand, its home and where visitors can really get to know the brand and develop a relationship with you. This multichannel selling, as it is known, is the most efficient and effective method of reaching as many people as possible.

2. Do social media

Being active on social media does not mean promoting yourself. You're not doing anybody any favours by using social media just to sell your products. Nobody is going to follow your fashion brand if that's how you plan to operate. Don't forget, social media is what it says on the tin: social! 

Social media is a great tool for, amongst others, getting your brand seen by more people. Being seen by more people means your following grows. If this growing following sees interesting content, they will trust. Once that trust develops, they will visit your site. If they like what they see on your site, they will buy.

One way to grow your social media following is to use discount codes and giveaways. One effective method of doing giveaways is to team up with similar brands and do a giveaway through your social channels. Help each other grow your followings by promoting it. Not only will your followers increase, but they will be engaged followers. This means that they are interested in your brand. 

Having increased your following, make sure your content is exciting and engaging and, above all, relevant. If not, it won't be long before you see your followers making a quick exit, stage left!

3. Give your fashion brand personality

You don't have long to grab someone's attention when they arrive at your eshop.  In fact it's only a matter of seconds so you have to really bear this in mind if you want to see more sales. The key is to make your brand memorable even after only ten seconds:

* A sense of humour

Your content consists solely of imagery and the written word. You know that your pictures have to be perfect and this also applies to your writing.  Making it funny is engaging and memorable too - everybody enjoys a laugh. Reflect your uniquely witty tone in your descriptions as well - it will define your brand.

* Unique Packaging

Unique packaging, apart from making your fashion brand memorable, will create a talking point for your buyers. There's even the possibility that customers will share photos of your wrapping and boxing style on their social media accounts. This would then enable you to reuse this content on your own web page thus providing ‘social proof' of your popularity.

Another advantage of unique packaging is the all important first impression.  When your customer receives their first purchase, this is their first impression of your brand so it better be good! Make sure your packaging reflects your branding. It's the make or break moment. So make it unique and make it memorable!

* Perfect Pics

As we've already mentioned, top quality photographs are essential. In fact, if they're not perfect, you would be better off without. Your photos wholly represent your fashion brand and you must pull out all the stops to make sure they are just right.

* About Us

Don't be dull! Tell your story and what your future goals might be. On another page, talk about your team and what makes them tick. Make it interesting and engaging and, don't forget, a dose of humour never goes amiss.

* 404-page errors

This is something that should be avoided. However, if people are accidentally going to get there, use a striking visual or friendly interactive experience to make it memorable for them.

4. Blogging

You're reading a Fabrago blog right now. The aim of a blog is to build a relationship of trust with the reader. This is done by providing informative and relevant information. Enough trust in the brand means sales. Blogging can go further than creating an emotional relationship and assist in technical areas too. Blogs boost the online presence of any website by making it easier to be found on Google. By posting well-written blog posts, your organic SEO will increase. By adding keyword research in to find hot topics - you can really supercharge your traffic for the exact type of people you want.

5. Look-book

Although your product photos play an important role in visually representing your goods, it's the look-book which truly showcases your brand. It's the look-book that does the talking. Showing off your product in a realistic day to day environment results in sales.

Exploit your imagery:

One way of improving traffic to your website, is by allowing other sites with news or blog content to use your website's photos thus acquiring links from these sites.

6. Email Campaigns

Marketing via email is an efficient method of contacting directly people who have shown an interest in your brand.  However, brash advertising has proven to be counterproductive.  So be careful. Create a relationship with your customers and personalize their customer experience based on their needs. 

To build your email list, try offering 10% off their first purchase in exchange for their email thus potentially getting a sale as well as an email address.

7. Follow your data

OK, let's talk about numbers……not your favourite subject? You're not alone.  All the same it's a necessary evil.  Data and statistic are crucial for your growth and development. Data and statistics gauge your performance - what's effective and what's not.

How well you're performing cannot simply be based on instinct - you need some sort of metric to optimize the way your business operates based on evidence. Using Google Analytics and Facebook's Audience's data you can really gain an insight to your visitors' likes and dislikes. As a result, you can make your business particularly attractive to them.

Using the data is key in helping you plan for your brand. You can see where you are most successful and you can also see whether you are meeting your Key Performance Indicators.

What to look out for in Google Analytics:

* Content: Where did you have the most traffic?

* Source: What is the origin of the traffic? Social media, an external blog, Google?

* Medium: If from social media, was it perhaps a tweet, a direct message or a post? What was the search term if it was via Google?

* Country: Depending on where most of your traffic is coming from in the world, is there a need to translate content into other languages?

By looking at the data, you will be able to work out where to concentrate your energy. Having said that, your instincts play a role too. Rely on the numbers but, equally, do not ignore your business instincts.

8. Media and Promotion

Work out what blogs and magazines your ideal customers read, which social media networks they use.

As well as that, work out what your Unique Selling Point (USP) is. This is what makes people choose your fashion brand rather than your competitors.

Now you can go about pitching your product effectively. When you know who your customer is and your brand's selling point, you will be able to target the readership of the specific magazines or blogs. This pitch should be no longer than 400 words, with 5-7 benefit-based bullet points, a short bio and a link to your look-book.

If you promote your brand well enough it can lead to more traffic, email subscribers and sales.

9. Patience is a virtue

Start small. If you expect too much from the outset, you are setting yourself up for disappointment. You'll be more successful if you start with more attainable goals and you're more likely to achieve them. This will set in motion the natural evolution of your business. Then it won't be long before renowned writers are beginning to start asking questions about and recognizing your fashion brand!