If you want to promote your clothing store, you have to go where people spend their time. In 2022, most people (literally) spend their time on social media. In fact, almost three-quarters of all American adults use some type of social media!
However, because there are so many people on social media, there’s a ton of content you’ll have to compete with for attention. To help you stand out from the pack, here are six out-of-the-box social media ideas to promote your clothing store online.
1. Manage an online giveaway campaign
Giveaways are great to help grow your online reach and get your clothing store in front of more eyes than ever. If that wasn’t good enough, they’ll also help engage with your existing followers to make them more interested in your brand.
With a giveaway campaign, you simply ask your followers to do something (post a picture wearing your clothes, follow your page, comment on a post, etc.), and they’ll be entered to win a prize. The prize can be anything from a free article of clothing, a gift card to a local company, or anything else you want to make it.
The better the prize, the more participants you’ll get! If the prize is super good, your followers will share your posts with their friends and family to help you grow your online following and extend your reach. Just remember to launch the giveaway campaign with some great social media graphics to really catch your followers’ eyes and entice them to participate.
2. Challenge your followers
Challenges are another great way to extend your online reach, gain new followers, and generate content for future social media promotions.
All you have to do for a social media challenge is to challenge your followers to complete a task. It can be to come up with the most creative post using your brand’s clothing, design their own clothes, or any other fun task you can think of.
Once your followers complete the task, they should post it to their own social media feeds and tag your company in the post.
With all your followers completing the challenge on their own timelines, all their friends and followers will see your challenge, and maybe they’ll want to get in on the action as well! This will help extend your reach beyond just your followers and help you get more exposure online.
You can even combine the giveaways with the challenges for even more social media promotional power! Offer a prize to whoever completes the challenge best, first, etc., and watch the posts roll in. You can then reshare the challenge posts to your brand’s feed for inexpensive, yet effective, user-generated content.
3. Design creative flyers
The obvious use for social media is to post pictures of your clothes. But that’s not the only thing you have to post. Sometimes, switching it up with a creative poster or flyer is a great way to keep content fresh and provide additional information to your followers.
If you’re too busy managing your clothing store to spend time designing flyers, that’s okay. There are plenty of small business templates available that make it easy to design high-quality flyers and graphics in just a few minutes.
4. Show behind-the-scenes footage
Customers tend to be more loyal to brands they think are friendly or engaging. To help reduce some of that “boring corporate” image, post some behind-the-scenes-footage of your company.
Videos or photos of your employees having fun at work, making silly faces, or helping in the community puts a face on your brand and makes you seem more approachable to customers. And according to research, emotionally engaged customers spend up to two times more on brands they feel loyal to.
Of course, it doesn’t have to be silly posts. Whatever social media posts you create, make sure they’re in line with your brand voice. For example, if your business prides itself on creating eco-friendly clothing, show your employees helping the environment by planting trees or tending to gardens.
Just because you manage a clothing store doesn’t mean your social posts always have to be about clothes! The more friendly you seem on social media, the more engaged and loyal your followers will be.
5. Work with a partner
When it comes to marketing, it might not sound like a good idea to work with another business. After all, they’re your competition! But it doesn’t always have to be that way.
One of the best ways to nearly double your online reach is to work with a marketing partner. You create mutually beneficial posts and marketing campaigns together, then you both reap the rewards!
These are just a few of the most common marketing partners used by businesses around the world:
- Another business in a related field
- Social media influencers
- Community groups and organizations
- Brand ambassadors
For example, you might run a clothing store that specializes in prom dresses and high-end gowns. If you partner with the store down the street that sells dress shoes, you both can work together to extend your marketing reach. You’ll have access to the shoe store’s customers, and they’ll have access to yours.
Since you don’t sell shoes, you’re not really giving up business, but you’re getting more promotional power by partnering with the other store.
Influencers and brand ambassadors are other ways you can promote your clothing store on social media. Find other content creators online — preferably ones who are known for their fashion sense — and ask them to wear your clothes and promote your brand. Sometimes, this could involve a payment or discount, but it could be worth it if they have a lot of loyal followers.
6. Offer social-only discounts
Everyone likes to get a discount. Why not use that knowledge to promote your clothing store on social media?
By offering discounts to your social media followers, you encourage more people to follow your brand online. For example, you can post a flyer near the cash register that says something like, “Follow us on social media for exclusive discounts.” Naturally, anyone who sees the sign will want the discount, so they’ll head over to social media and give you a follow. Now, more and more people will see your future marketing posts, helping you better promote your store.
Even better, your existing social media followers will feel special, since they’re getting such exclusive discounts. By offering social media-only discounts, you can engage with your existing customers and help gain new followers online. That’s a win, win in any book!
Build your clothing empire with social media
Social media is a powerful marketing force in today’s world. With billions of active users, it’s a great way to reach nearly everyone in your area to promote your clothing brand.
If you want to stand out from the pack, be sure to use creative social media marketing strategies like giveaways and challenges, design creative flyers, show behind the scenes, work with a marketing partner, and offer social-only discounts. With all your social media strategies in full effect, you’ll be able to get your clothing brand in front of more fashion-minded customers than ever before.