Gigi Hadid recently announced a one-week hiatus from social media, and who can blame her? We’re all constantly bombarded by an overload of content in all shapes and forms when scrolling through our social feeds, and with diminishing attention spans, it takes some seriously enticing content for consumers to stop and pay attention.
Attracting online shoppers and building brand loyalty is an ever-growing challenge fashion and beauty brands are facing in an oversaturated market, which is why it’s crucial to craft a flawless content strategy to provide a seamless brand experience.
“The modern shopper’s comfort with digital channels and content has changed the consumer purchase journey from a traditional linear model, to a complex journey across online and off-line touchpoints. But regardless of touchpoint, consumers expect a consistent brand experience at all times.” as stated in the BoF and McKinsey & Company's The State of Fashion 2018 report.
To provide that consistent brand experience, brands must first know who their audience is to be able to tailor their content, find their storytelling voice and learn how to strike the balance between being informative, useful and entertaining.
Fashion & Beauty Content Marketing Examples
In order to analyze what it takes to lure the right audiences and captivate them, we’re taking a closer look at some of the best content marketing examples in the fashion and beauty industries. We’ve broken down the different content categories to see just how brands are innovating:
Creating Interactive Online Shopping Experiences
Having a user-friendly website and providing 24h customer support is no longer enough for online shoppers. Not only do they want a smooth, hiccup-free shopping experience, they now also seek an interactive journey in which they feel they can take part in the brand’s world.
Gucci teamed up with artist and Barcelona native Ignasi Monreal to create an online holiday gift shop composed solely of Monreal’s illustrations. Rather than clicking through photos of models wearing Gucci products, the online shopper scrolls through a fantasy world of paintings: from a dog-headed human wearing a Gucci graphic t-shirt, to a GIF of a cat-printed sweatshirt bouncing up and down on a trampoline; navigating the Gucci gift shop feels like a luxury experience in itself.
Making the Most of User Generated Content
Taking full advantage of user generated content is a smart and effective way – for companies big and small – to build brand awareness and loyalty. While you may not have the budget to hire a macro-influencer, sharing UGC is virtually free. Glossier foresaw how important product placement would be for the success of their brand when they launched their beauty line; they made sure their packaging was photogenic and Instagram-ready. Scroll through their insta-feed and you’ll spot several different posts by micro-influencers showing off their rosy cheeks and glossy lips.
ASOS takes it to the next level with their use of UGC, creating instagram profiles for their influencers. These influencers take advantage of their following on their personal pages to create a fan base on their ASOS profiles onto which only ASOS content is shared.
Breathing Life Back Into Printed Magazines
Engaging content isn't just limited to the digital realm – some fashion and beauty brands are still channeling marketing dollars into print. Though many traditional glossy magazines have struggled to survive in recent years, there's a notable rise in independent editorials. Stack, a subscription service which delivers a different indie magazine to your door every month, has experienced a 32% increase in turnover year on year to March 2017, proving that print is still very much alive. Then there's NET-A-PORTER and their well-known publication, PORTER, which experienced a growth of 6% year on year. PR Newswire reported on their success explaining that "PORTER's innovative use of technology enables readers to shop directly off the pages or via the brand's iPhone, iPad and Android apps in real time and experience delivery within hours. 78% of readers interact with the shoppable elements of the magazine, demonstrating PORTER's understanding of how women actually want to shop and consume media in a digital age."
Generating Engaging Videos
The rising use of video content is leading experts to claim that video is projected to account for 80% of all web traffic by 2019. Not only is video an increasingly popular format for fashion and beauty brands, but the numbers prove just how effective it is: online shoppers are 64% more likely to buy a product online after watching a video about it.
Not all brands have the internal resources to put together video campaigns, but luckily influencer marketing businesses, such as Style Coalition – who recently joined the Launchmetrics family – are able to devise engaging videos and measure the performance of the content they produce. Megan Massacre's collaboration with L'Oréal is one of several videos the cosmetics brand has used to captivate online shoppers:
Another fantastic content marketing example can be found on Matchesfashion.com. Rather than simply explaining their designer collabs via blog articles, the British luxury retailer has created the "Digital Trunk Shows" video series. The designers, most recently Giorgia Tordini and Gilda Ambrosio of Attico, are featured in short interviews explaining and showing their capsule collections, making online shoppers feel like insiders, discovering the story behind the labels.
Looking at these content marketing examples demonstrates how brands have innovated to engage consumers, and we can't help but feel excited about the future of content marketing. What other content marketing examples have you looked at or been inspired by? We'd love to see your thoughts in the comments below.
By Launchmetrics Content Team
The Launchmetrics content team is always on the lookout for new trends in the fashion and technology sector. We are geeks with style and lovers of good stories!
