Quarantine and fashion business: What to do now in your fashion business?

a little Aren’t you guys sick of coronavirus news everywhere and quarantine mode? 

Yup, it’s scary and totally unexpected…

What is really sad about quarantine is, it affected a lot of fashion businesses especially physical stores and e-commerce stores.

Launches delayed, events canceled, fashion shows canceled and we don’t even know how long it’s gonna take to have control in our lives…

A recent article from businessoffashion says, they canceled fashion shows.

I have seen so many small fashion businesses shutting down and fashion designers are panicking and questioning quarantine like “What to do next?”. 

While there are other breeds of heart-centered fashion designers just like you, who want to take a stand and do something to grow your fashion business. Probably this is why you find this post right? Finding solutions?

You are in the right place…

First of all, if you have any questions or fears going inside your mind, Just STOP them… There is no need for panic.

Come on… The hardest thing ever is to start a fashion business in the first place and You did it… Everything else, You can totally nail it…

Yes, it’s totally not cool to ask people for sale at this time or push some sales campaign. But still, there is an option to grow your fashion business like never before. 

People are stuck in homes and they are on social media and online most of the time…. 

What does that mean to you? 

As a fashion business owner, it’s your time to get in front of those people and attract them to your brand and build your audience. 

I’m not talking vanity numbers like getting 10k followers, all you need is just 100 people that buy from you again and again. That was your ultimate goal in your business… 

Now is your opportunity to build that 100 people. 

You should be able to know these people by name just like your best friends. 

And this is exactly what I’m gonna show you today. And I made a couple of worksheets for you which you can download. 

I’m calling all action takers. If you are someone who just read things and forget about it. It’s not either useful to you or me. I’m here to support you, I can give you the candy that you always dream of but it was on you to put that inside your mouth… 

My point is to take action!!! 

So let’s get started. 

4 Steps to grow your fashion business in the quarantine mode:

(Quarantine Action Plan) Step 1: Set up an email platform if you haven’t yet…

My guess is, you already have email marketing software but if you haven’t, why not? This is how you capture your audience and follow up with them with conversations and sell your products. Yes, people buy from emails.

After trying a handful of software, I use mailerlite. It was so easy even for non-techy people and the support was excellent. You can get started for free. (They might not approve the account the first time but if you send them an email, they unlock it for you)

(Quarantine Action Plan) Step 2: Get clear on who do you want as your 100 people

Who is your customer? If you tell everyone, this is the time you pause in your business and get clear on that question. Everyone is not your audience…

Think of it like you are in a big stadium and you start yelling like “Hey… Clothes for everyone… Come buy from me” How many people will notice you? Not at all right? Even if they notice, they get mad that you are trying to sell them and they don’t really care about you.

Instead, think of you went to a small crowd in that stadium and said “ Hey new mama, are you losing your confidence because your body changes after you have your kid? I totally get you… I cannot make you slim but my clothes can make you look pretty than ever… Do you wanna try?”

Now, how many people notice you? Most of them right?  And that’s the power of selling a group vs trying to sell for everyone.

So now, I want you to get clear on who you want to serve?

Few tips to choose your person:

• Dig into your past customers and look at who you enjoyed working with most? Note all the qualities that you like from them so you can attract that kind of person.
• Don’t choose broke people who have no money to spend. Make sure you select people that have money and are willing to spend it.
• They should be super easy to sell.

If you need more help, Join Fashion marketing Bootcamp ( Free Course)  go check it out here… It’s free for a limited time.

(Quarantine Action Plan) Step 3: Create a freebie to attract that person. 

The big world right? How long does it take you to go find every single person that is interested in your products? Forever maybe?

This is where you create something to give away for free to attract your people.

Here’s the bird’s eye view:

• You create a freebie related to your product.
• People search for that product on Pinterest or google
• They find your freebie and exchange their email address to take that freebie.
• Voila, You got your people into your email list and it’s your chance to build relationships and convert them to sales.

You might be thinking… “But what should be that freebie?”

To be clear, this is not a discount coupon. Coupons ask for the sale in return and people don’t really buy from you unless they are familiar with you.

People like to buy from the people they like.

If your product is jeans, your freebie can be

• 10 ways to wear jeans
• 10 ways to make your jeans trendy
• Which jeans suits you
• 10 things to look at before buying jeans
• How to care for your jeans
• 10 ways to remove stains on jeans

I can go on and on but you get the point right? Giving advice on styling or tips that attract jeans lovers… and can deliver these in any format like a video, or audio, or ebook.

If you need more help, Join Fashion marketing Bootcamp ( Free Course)  go check it out here… It’s free for a limited time.

You might be thinking: But how do I know if people want my freebie?

This is where our good Ol friend Google comes in. It literally tells you what people are searching for.

Just head over to google and type your product and see what google suggests?

And scroll down to the bottom of the search and see the related searches:

And then the Amazon… This is where thousands of people come every single day to purchase the products. These are potential buyers. People may look for information on google but here, people are coming to actually BUY.

Go type your product and see what it suggests.

Based on this data, you can create freebies that have proven that people are actually looking for it.

Now how do you deliver that freebie?

Most email service providers offer landing pages. Go see if your email software allows you to create a landing page…

I use mailerlite. It has built-in landing pages and is super easy to use even if you are so bad at tech. You can get started for free here.

Here’s how it works…

• You set up a landing page for people to sign up
• After they submit their email address, it takes you to thank you page
• They receive an email with a link to download.

There are tons of tutorials inside mailerlite to help you with this and they have excellent support that guides you if you are stuck.

Once you setup your freebie system, It’s time for your visibility campaign

P.S. for more help Join Fashion Marketing Bootcamp ( Free Training) to increase revenue in your fashion brand.

(Quarantine Action Plan) Step 4: Start your 10 days Visibility campaign 

For the next 10 days, I want you to pick 2-3 activities from the list below and implement and watch your visibility grow. All it takes is 30 minutes a day. Make sure to leave a link to your landing page in each of these tasks.

1. Visit quora, this is where people are asking questions. Use the search bar and type your product and see what questions pop up. Answer 3 questions a day. Make sure to open a word document and keep a note of questions
2. Just like the above step, search Facebook posts using the search bar and find any questions or conversations to take part in. Answer or comment on 3-5 posts.
3. Create Instagram posts about your freebie and post.
4. Create Instagram stories inviting people to signup for your freebie
5. Look at your friends, family, past customers and pick anyone that you love working with, and invite them to sign up for freebies.
6. Instagram manual engage. So many big brands do that. Find out the competitors that are selling similar products like yours. Check out their followers and these are the people who are your potential customers. Go to 5 of their profiles and like 3 images and comment on 1 post. Make sure you update your Instagram bio with a link to sign up to the landing page plus tell them in your bio to sign up for the freebie that you offer. The point is, When people check out your profile, they should click on that link and sign up for your freebie.
7. Just like the above, go to Facebook pages of competitors and join the conversation and visit 5 people profiles and like 2 and comment 1.
8. Facebook Groups. Find and join groups that have potential customers. DO NOT join some random groups or fashion designer groups that have people like you that are not buyers but sellers. Don’t do that. Just go to local groups and styling groups where your people hang out and join the conversations and look at the member’s list and visit their profiles and like 2 and comment 1.
9. Make friends with indirect competitors. Meaning these are the people who sell complementary products. Like if I sell jeans, I could make friends with people who sell badges for jeans or accessories for jeans. These people have a potential audience. They can direct their buyers to you. So make this a priority to build relationships and make friends. Do not pitch them for publicity. Just make real connections like you do with friends so they naturally help you when needed.
10. Start blogging. This might sound a little boring but hear me out… try a successful website that doesn’t have a blog… Because blogs work like really crazy. This can be youtube, podcast, or writing. This is the easy way to get found online and be an expert in your industry. If you blog once a week for the next 6 months, you will see unexpected growth in your fashion business. But what do you write about? Remember the questions from Quora above? Just talk about them. You don’t need a fancy blog, Just go with medium.com or Youtube to publish your content. 

Other Helpful Resources:

• Free Course: Fashion Marketing Bootcamp
• Free Fashion Marketing Planner
• 2 Step Growth plan to increase revenue
• Fashion Marketing 101
• 8 Questions for fool-proof Marketing

Remember, it’s not really useful unless you do it. Just take action and implement the process. Yes, you might hear all those negative thoughts and self-doubts along the process but just ignore them and do it anyway. It’s totally worth a try. Quarantine is the best time to pause and take action.

Action steps:

1. First I want you to leave a comment and let me know if this is helpful or share your biggest takeaway. This is the only way that I know if it really helped and make more tutorials like this.
2. Join Free Fashion Marketing Bootcamp
3. Stop feeling stressed about quarantine… You got this…!
4. Set up your email marketing software or sign up for mailerlite for free.
5. Decide Who do you want to serve
6. Create a freebie that attracts your people
7. Create a freebie system to deliver that freebie and collect the email address
8. Pick 2-3 tasks from the list and implement it for the next 10 days.