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How to Collaborate with Fashion Bloggers to Grow Your Fashion Business... an independent designer's guide. K

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Page 1: How to Collaborate with Fashion Bloggers to Grow Your ... · If the blogger is positive about your suggestion, you will most likely receive a price guide with listed options. Those

How to Collaborate withFashion Bloggers to GrowYour Fashion Business...

an independent designer's guide.K

Page 2: How to Collaborate with Fashion Bloggers to Grow Your ... · If the blogger is positive about your suggestion, you will most likely receive a price guide with listed options. Those

2© StartUp Fashion

COLLABORATING WITH BLOGGERS

BY STARTUP FASHION IN COLLABORATION WITH MODAGRID

PREPARING YOUR BUSINESS CHECKLIST

Long gone are the days when blogging was just a side hobby or a guilty pleasure.Today, it is a serious business. Fashion bloggers are prominent fixtures in everymarketing campaign and every fashion week. Bloggers have millions of devoted

followers. They collaborate with the biggest brands in the industry.

ARE YOU READY TO WORKWITH A BLOGGER?

I AM SURE MANY OF YOU CONSIDERED WORKING WITH BLOGGERS,and many already do. When done right, collaboration with fashion or

lifestyle bloggers is beneficial for your business.

It should go without saying that you should be prepared for a successful campaign that might draw attention and extra features on other social outlets.

You need to have the following in place:

☐ Your website and social media profiles should look attractive and presentable

☐ Your email sign up form should be set up and displayed prominently on your website

☐ Your online store should work flawlessly and be well stocked

☐ Your logistics should be all figured out

☐ Your email should be frequently checked and customers’ questions answered quickly

Without the above taken care of, there is no point to start the collaboration in the first place.

STEPONE

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3© StartUp Fashion

COLLABORATING WITH BLOGGERS

BY STARTUP FASHION IN COLLABORATION WITH MODAGRID

CREATE YOUR COLLABORATION GOALS

STEPTWO

Before you go any further you need to understand what is it that you want to achieve through this collaboration. Check the ones that apply:

☐ Get more online visitors

☐ Get more email subscribers

☐ Promote your brick and mortar shop

☐ Get more retailers

☐ Get more ecommerce customers

☐ Get more social media followers

☐ Promote only a certain product

☐ Open up to an international market

☐ Other:

RESEARCH BLOGGERS

With blogger collabs, it’s important to note that bigger is not necessarily better.

Most of us follow only the biggest bloggers: the Blond Salads and the Man Repellers of the blogosphere. There is an enormous spotlight on these bloggers, but it doesn’t mean they are right for your business. Collaborating with smaller, niche bloggers can be just as beneficial for your brand, and a lot easier on your budget.

Research is probably the most important step. Start your search by going through the blogs that you like, blogs that your friends read. You can even ask your customers who they follow and why. This will give you a general clue and specific names might even pop out.

STEPTHREE

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4© StartUp Fashion

COLLABORATING WITH BLOGGERS

BY STARTUP FASHION IN COLLABORATION WITH MODAGRID

What blogs do you love?

What blogs do your friends love?

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5© StartUp Fashion

COLLABORATING WITH BLOGGERS

BY STARTUP FASHION IN COLLABORATION WITH MODAGRID

What blogs do your customers love?

After that, you can dig deeper into blogger platforms such as Bloglovin. There you can discover many new blogs from around the world.

What blogs have you discovered on Bloglovin?

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6© StartUp Fashion

COLLABORATING WITH BLOGGERS

BY STARTUP FASHION IN COLLABORATION WITH MODAGRID

At this point, you can start making a draft list of potential blogs. Review your list above, of those you researched, which are the 5 that you would like to further explore?

Now that you have a bit more focus, it’s time to observe the 5 blogs you have on your list.

First– look at the blog itself:

Why do you like this blog?

What makes you come back for more?

Do you actually click on the links the blogger suggests?

Do you like the products that are featured on the blog?

Blog #1:

ANALYZE THE BLOGS

STEPFOUR

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7© StartUp Fashion

COLLABORATING WITH BLOGGERS

BY STARTUP FASHION IN COLLABORATION WITH MODAGRID

Blog #2:

Blog #3:

Blog #4:

Blog #5:

Next – blog engagement:

How involved is the readership?

What makes you come back for more?

Do you think that this blog’s readers can become your potential customers?

Do you like the products that are featured on the blog?

What is the comment section like? Usually you will find more lively discussions on blogs that are text heavy.

Blog #1:

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COLLABORATING WITH BLOGGERS

BY STARTUP FASHION IN COLLABORATION WITH MODAGRID

Blog #2:

Blog #3:

Blog #4:

Blog #5:

Next- blog reader:

It’s time to play stalker. Read the blog comments and check readers’ personal profiles. Go on Instagram, go on Facebook, see who likes and follows the blogger. Check some of the profiles. See their age, hobbies etc… if possible. It will give you at least a little bit of a clue about who reads the blog and if there is any correlation to your existing customers.

I am sure there will be many irrelevant followers and that is ok. But if you see for example that 60% of the blog readers are teenagers, and you sell high end jewelry, it’s probably not a good match.

What have you learned about the blog’s reader?

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Last- blogger process

In many cases, you will get a media kit from the blogger with some information and numbers of followers on different social media. But it doesn’t mean that your research process about the blog ends here. Some of the most important things about the blog, you will have to find out yourself. The way the blogger promotes the paid content is one of those characteristics.

Too many people copy and paste press releases with some generic images thrown into the post.

Readers learned to spot things like that easily. Also, that kind of content is just not interesting or engaging enough. Blogging should be more creative than that. And the promoted content should seem as organic as the “regular” posts. Or it should be something that is exciting and creates interest.

If you see that the way the blogger promotes the content is not interesting enough, move on. Or try to communicate and work on an exciting story together. Collaborating, in the truest sense of the word, will get the best results.

It is important to mention a disclosure issue here. As a reader, you would want to know which content was promoted, so it is only fair that others know about it as well. Fashion bloggers get so many gifts that only a gifted clothing item might not get that kind of mention, though many do that as well. But if you are working on a post together, the right thing to do is to make sure that audience is aware of your collaboration.

Where is the blogger located? This is important in certain cases, for instance, if you want to promote your store in NYC, a local blogger will be much more successful in doing so than, let’s say, a blogger from Amsterdam.

Do you see your brand fit into the blogger’s posts visually?

Who does the blogger usually collaborate with? Is it big companies or small brands?

What do the collaborations look like? Specific examples: Personal style bloggers are good in promoting certain gar-ments when styling them in an outfit. People tend to copy their outfits and seek out the clothes that they wear. Photogra-phy rich blogs are good in creating inspiring stories and promoting a brand image.

Blog #1:

COLLABORATING WITH BLOGGERS

BY STARTUP FASHION IN COLLABORATION WITH MODAGRID

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COLLABORATING WITH BLOGGERS

BY STARTUP FASHION IN COLLABORATION WITH MODAGRID

Blog #2:

Blog #3:

Blog #4:

Blog #5:

Your list might be long or might be a handful of names only. If this is the first time you are collaborating with a blogger, I suggest contacting more than just a few. This way you get the general

idea of what each one offers and how they usually work..

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COLLABORATING WITH BLOGGERS

BY STARTUP FASHION IN COLLABORATION WITH MODAGRID

CONTACT THE BLOGGERS

As I said earlier, blogging is a serious business, hence just gifting and hoping for the best usually won’t work. This is especially true when it comes to professional bloggers who work hard to create inspiring stories and visuals with the brands they work with.

The best way to approach a blogger would be writing why you like their work and that you would love to explore possible ways to collaborate, along with some information about your brand and your goals.

If the blogger is positive about your suggestion, you will most likely receive a price guide with listed options. Those will usually include a banner, story on the blog, social media features, or several combinations of both.

Needless to say you have to provide a product or samples for the blogger to work with. It is a good idea to have a discussion with a blogger and keep an open mind. Together you can create a unique and successful story.

Here’s more detail on what to say when emailing a blogger…

Your email should start with why you appreciate the blog. Let the blogger know that you are familiar with the content and understand what their blog is about.

Then you can expand a little bit about your brand and why you see a potential collaboration as a good fit. This is especially true for collaborations with bigger blogs, as there are a lot of people who want to collaborate with them.

Your general marketing goals should be in this email as well. This is important because it allows the blogger to assess the amount of work and come up with options based on previous experience.

I suggest that you leave the creative ideas for later. Later on you will be able to tell what you had in mind, brainstorm and agree on the right way to go in terms of strategy and creative direction.

Write an outline of your email script here:

Remember, you’ll tweak it for each individual blogger in order to personalize.

STEPFIVE

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COLLABORATING WITH BLOGGERS

BY STARTUP FASHION IN COLLABORATION WITH MODAGRID

REVIEW YOUR BUDGET

STEPSIX

Here we go, back to money. Working with a very popular blogger will probably take a huge chunk of your marketing and PR budget if not all of it.

For a small scale brand, one season of misguided marketing strategy might be very harmful. So if it is your first time collaboration, don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Start smaller, be focused. You don’t have to work with just one blogger. You can find several smaller blogs that will get you similar result for less and with a more focused and devoted readership.

What are the results of your budget analysis?

WORKING WITH A BLOGGER

Be clear about everything: each tag, hashtag, mention you expect to come with this collaboration, each link, and referral. It is better to have it all confirmed and supervised, in order to avoid unpleasant surprises later on.

Time frame: when is the collaboration going to be published? And if there are several segments or social media mentions, then you need to determine the time frame for those as well.

Sponsored content: It is important to make sure that the blogger discloses the collaboration. You wouldn’t want to be fed a sponsored content without knowing it, right? There are legal ramifications if the blogger does not disclose that they have been compensated.

Payment and payment terms: also should be discussed as in any other business deal. How much, when, and how (paypal, check, ship date for product-based payment, etc).

STEPSEVEN

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COLLABORATING WITH BLOGGERS

BY STARTUP FASHION IN COLLABORATION WITH MODAGRID

MEASURE RESULTS AND MAKE CONCLUSIONS

The most wanted outcome for any collaboration would be driving sales. One of the most certain outcomes however, will be the number of visitors and followers on your social media and website.

Once the collaboration is out there for the entire world to see, make sure to use that attention to promote your business even further. Offer a discount, for the readers who came through the blog (you should arrange that with the blogger of course), create a contest or a giveaway that will excite the readers and bring you even more exposure.

This is a great time to become more active on your social media channels. Throw in a giveaway or a contest shortly after, to encourage the new visitors. Basically, you should exploit the attention and “ride the wave” to its’ fullest potential!

Make sure to measure and follow the results of the collaboration.

☐ Did you get more visitors or followers?

☐ What percentage?

☐ Did you see an increase in sales?

☐ Did it bring interesting business proposals your way?

Of course you measure that through analytics tools but also in more traditional ways, like asking the person how they found you and your brand.

Blogger collaborations are a great marketing tool, as long as you use them wisely. Set the right goals, do your research, have a certain amount of control in the collaboration, and use the attention you get to the fullest.

STEPEIGHT