As a fashion blogger, you’ve no doubt noticed how hard it is to stand out. It’s a very competitive field, and that means being prepared to put in the work to build a more cohesive, entertaining blog. You have to be able to put together content that tells people things from a different perspective. While the world of fashion can feel like it has a billion commentators, not every idea is as clearly expressed as it could be. This is where you can come in. Yes, the fashion world can be a frustrating and difficult experience. And yes, it can be rather challenging to get yourself noticed, but it is by no means impossible. In fact, one of the best ways to work as a fashion blogger is to collaborate with brands. Naturally, brands want advertisement so if you can give them an incentive to work with you, then you can exponentially raise brand appeal and performance far higher than it is at present.
Brands are your most powerful source of advertising, of content and of brand improvement on your own right. You want to be known as a fashion blogger who has a vision, who is good at catching great ideas and is known for being able to actively translate them into new ideas. That is something that takes a hell of a lot of work, but it’s not impossible.
If you would like to collaborate with brands, then, here are some pretty decent ideas that you could use to help make yourself much more likely to reach and find the success desired.
To help you do that, here some must-use tips for any fashion blogger keen to collaborate with brands to great effect.
Becoming an influencer & utilizing influencer marketing
One of the most powerful tools that you have at your disposal as a fashion blogger stems from your ability to successfully influence people and to get them to see your point of view. That can be hard to do, but influencer marketing is, without doubt, one of the most effective ways for you to grow and improve the way that your business works.
Most people, though, will be rather put off by the idea. However, in the fashion world, everyone is an influencer in their own way. Is that not the point, after all?
You should really be looking to put things into a better perspective if you look at your entire business potential as a fashion blogger anyway. If you see yourself as merely a writer, not someone who can influence opinion and inspire, then what you are doing running a fashion blog? You are supposed to excite, entertain and inspire. If you cannot do that, then you might need to think about being involved in this industry.
At the same time, influencer marketing does not need a huge following – that is one of the most common misconceptions of the idea. You don’t need thousands of followers; you just need enough people that actually act on what you say and who trust your influence and understanding of the fashion world. So, to help you keep that on the go, you need to move towards becoming an influencer starting from today.
For example, most people worry about engagement. They see it as something they are not good at or, in a world as diverse as fashion, are scared about offending someone and hurting their budding reputation. Don’t be, though; you have nothing to fear when it comes to engaging with your audience. People obviously value your take on things if they follow you, so why would you chase away that opportunity to influence them and keep them onside?
You simply need to be ready to answer questions, to make a pleasant response to people who ask you for advice and just be open. Also, you need to have your fashion blog loaded with high-quality, SEO-rich content.
This means either writing it alone or having someone write the content with/for you. This will allow you to really make a big difference in how you work and make sure you’re influencing other people.
Getting brands’ attention
However, you need to be able to draw the attention of the companies you want to partner up. You need to focus the companies’ attention on you before you can collaborate with brands and make any meaningful impact.
To start off with, your blog has to look very stylish. Brands are unlikely to work with someone who is using a very generic look or who is using a basic WordPress design. Instead, you should look to find something that helps to shine your business in a more positive, optimistic light.
For example, Stile WordPress theme is a very sleek and stylish theme. It looks great for most forms of fashion blog and carries a very smart, sleek and impressive looking design. That being said, it’s also a blog theme that comes with a very minimalistic look; in fashion, where your content imagery is so important, that can be useful. It avoids crucial attention from being diverted away from the fashion blog itself, which can be so important. Keeping that in mind, you should find it a touch easier to put everything in place as you would have expected.
Also, when you wish to collaborate with brands, post about them on social media – about how much you like them – and then follow it up with your post that promotes something they are doing or selling. This makes it easy for the brand to pick up on what you are saying and then check out your fashion blog, which will make them more likely to interact with you themselves.
Engage with other fashion blogs, too. This can make a monumental difference to how you work; a brand can spot you on their Instagram suggestions panel or by coming across you on the comments section of another blog. Every little helps to build more attention to who you are and what you stand for, so be sure to try and capitalize on that as much as you can.
If the brand contacts you first, you need to act on that interaction immediately. Choose to work with the ones that have a good correlation and thematic fit with your fashion blog. The closer they are to your fundamental ideas, the more likely your branded partnership will be a success.
Contacting brands
That being said, what if the brand does not contact you first? For many fashion blogs, this can feel like a death knell. When you extend the hand of contact to a fashion brand, you expect them to get back to you. However, this is like a job interview; they might get so many replies that you can slip through the net, or they can simply forget to have a reply sent to you. First off, avoid taking it too personally; most of the time, it’s an accident or they are simply too busy to assist otherwise.
Start off by searching their website for the brand email and contact details. That is a decent starting point. Avoid trying to introduce yourself via social media, though. While it may be good for working with the brand and advertising your partnership, trying to get them to check you out via there can feel a touch informal.
Now that you have a means of contacting said brand, if you want to collaborate with brands in a professional manner, we recommend that you now take the opportunity to get in touch with them with what we would call a “pitch email” which can be a very strong and effective way to get them to pay attention to you.
Starting off with your pitch email, we recommend that you give them:
- A clear explanation of why you love their brand and why you think your fashion blog is a good fit for them.
- How you relate to the brand and the personal or professional reasons that pull you towards them.
- A clear call-to-action to feel like responding to you is going to be a worthwhile exercise and why they should consider doing so.
Give them a media kit, too. This should give them ideas about site visitation rates, performance analytics, user information about social media and anything else that you can feel makes a good sell for your business. At the very least, tell them how many unique visitors per month your fashion blog is getting; it’s a rather fine way to start making your point to those who are reading your pitch.
Give them one week to reply, and if you do not hear back from them, send them a follow-up e-mail within that week. If they still do not reply, then it might be time to move on. Some brands just won’t be interested, regardless of how natural a fit you are.
Staying connected
Alright, so now you know how to get brands to find your fashion blog indirectly or because you got in touch with them. Sounds cool, right? It’s a pretty exciting step in the right direction and should have your mind flitting through all of the possibilities that now exist for you to make the most of. That being said, staying connected is hard work, and it means that you need to be ready to work at it.
It’s like keeping in touch with friends who move away. Even if you don’t succeed in your mission to collaborate with brands, keep in contact with them. Follow brands progress and always have one eye on where you might fit in with their entire corporate structure. While it can feel time-consuming, showing that eagerness to stay in touch with them should be essential to your likely success.
At the same time, though, you need to be sending them regular emails to notify them of your new collaboration ideas. Keep them in the loop about where you are yourself – they might not be interested, but you might make them interested with a bit of professional persistence. We don’t mean sending them a new idea as soon as it pops into your head a la Alan Partridge trying to get a new TV show; we mean sticking with it when you have a solid suggestion that they seem to be a good fit for. Don’t just throw any old idea at them: take it slow, be professional and maintain a level of courtesy that you should look to keep progressing.
It takes a lot of work and effort to get the job done, but it’s one thing that shows you are interested: returning with persistence will almost certainly pay off!
Engage with them on social media, too. Don’t spam them or act like a scorned lover, liking every post and hanging around their every post. Avoid trying to interject yourself into their every move and almost certainly avoid trying to be seen as ‘one of the team’ as well.
The aim is to keep them informed of your own progress while letting them know that you are interested in where they are going as a brand. The fashion world can feel rather cold and impersonal at times, so don’t let your fashion blog fail because you get hurt by rejection. Keep at it; success will come.
Conclusion
As you can see, then, there is a fair amount that you can do as a fashion blogger to collaborate with brands and to capture their attention accordingly. Your branding work takes a lot of effort, of course, but it is by no means impossible.
If you use the four above ideas, you should find it much easier to make a positive and lasting impact on the fashion world. Visibility in your blog takes a lot of work, of course, but it is by no means an impossibility. Working with the above, you’ll be much closer to where you wish to be.
