CASE STUDY: Scaling Ads for a Swimwear Brand

THE BRAND

A contemporary e-commerce retailer that specializes in selling size-inclusive women’s swimwear direct to consumer (D2C). After struggling to scale their brand’s digital ads in-house and seeing a drop in revenue due to changes in how Facebook can track and utilize data, they brought Pink Sheep Publicity on to provide digital marketing management and strategy services.

BY THE NUMBERS
Ad Spend: $26,680.00
Online Purchases: 5,200
ROAS: 5.4x
Conversion Value: $14,390.00

SOLUTIONS

Produce more compelling creatives for ad campaigns, as the brand’s current creatives were not hi-res, engaging or working to achieve their goals.
Restructure the brand’s Facebook ads funnel to optimize outreach and allocate ads budget meaningfully.
Restructure audiences to make strategic outreach via digital marketing ads more precise using existing customer data that had been collected through both organic sales and sales resulting from previous digital marketing campaigns.
Test creative & copy to determine how best to reach target audience and optimize ROI
Scale profitable ads through audience growth

STRATEGIES

Produce high quality editorial imagery for swimwear brand for usage in digital marketing campaigns as well as content marketing campaigns and public relations outreach.
Restructure Facebook Ads Funnel to better optimize usage of ads budget.
- Top of Funnel: Potential consumers who have never heard of the brand.
- Middle of the Funnel: Potential consumers that have heard of the brand, but never purchased directly from the brand before.
- Bottom of the Funnel: Consumers who love the brand and are ready to buy. This could be the first time these consumers are purchasing or could be a return customer who has made a prior purchase directly from the brand (retargeting).
Refine target audience based on funnel performance
- Add custom audience for retargeting based on existing customer data.
- Create lookalike audience for top of the funnel usage using data collected through effective, high-conversion campaigns.
- Stack lookalike audiences into one ad set to optimize performance.
Use exclusions to narrow down each audience within high-converting audiences to optimize before additional scaling.
Increase audience sizes on highest converting ads.
Fine tune ad copy & test additional creatives on high-converting ad sets in order to further optimize ROAS.
Create additional campaigns for seasonal periods using micro-targeting and highest performing, applicable audiences
- To keep seasonal campaigns engaging, ensure that creatives used are tailored to tell the story of said campaign. Using generic or subpar content that doesn’t meaningfully engage the audience can negatively impact campaigns.
Increase growth internationally using localization
- Translate campaigns into each market’s native language
- Take local culture into account to create meaningful, engaging content that speaks to the localized audience in a respectful, authentic way
- Take local culture into account when testing ads creatives. Don’t just use Google translate! Work with a native speaker and have verbiage of ads creatives checked to ensure that local colloquialisms and conversation into account.

CHALLENGES

This brand creates incredible high-quality, size-inclusive swimwear for women. However, they lacked the time and expertise to run strategic campaigns and didn’t have the resources or training to fully understand how to properly take advantage of the funnel system, create compelling campaigns, or produce compelling creatives that communicated their unique value proposition in a way that resonated with their target audience. They had an incredible product, but were leaving money on the table by not having high-converting digital ads campaigns.

BENEFITS

By fixing the brand’s creatives and restructuring their ads funnel, we were able to not only increase their revenue, but also their brand awareness and engagement across all social media platforms used. The high quality content we created for the brand’s ads campaigns not only improved ad performance, but also improved their PR and content marketing strategies, as it better showed the product and was on par with the creatives of the brand’s market competitors.

SUMMARY

Prior to working with us, the brand’s ROAS was 2.5x. Within our first two months of strategy implementation, we were able to increase their average ROAS to 4.64x. After six months, we were able to increase their average campaign ROAS for ongoing campaigns to 5.4x.

Build a Better E-Commerce Site

The global pandemic has resulted in retail brands of all sizes prioritizing digital channels for everything from customer service to commerce. In 2021, e-commerce sales accounted for approximately 20% of all retail sales worldwide. In the US alone, retail e-commerce revenue reached $767.7 billion in 2021 and is expected to surpass $1329 billion by 2025.

So why does it matter? If your website is not optimized and well-designed, you could be leaving money on the table. Web design is critical when creating an e-commerce website, specifically for fashion and lifestyle brands, where visual storytelling is integral to connecting with customers. If you want to build consumer trust, necessary to gaining clients and building sales, you’ll need to put serious thought into your website.

THINK LIKE A CONSUMER

Think back to your best and worst online shopping experiences. What do you love and hate about other e-commerce sites? What sites are you constantly returning to and why? Remember that you’re providing a service. Keep the processes on your website simple and the site easy to navigate. The process of using your site should be simple, straight-forward and hassle-free for visitors so they enjoy the experience of shopping with you. Make sure your product imagery is hi-res and pertinent information like product dimensions, size guides and fabric content are easy to access for each product.

PROVIDE SOCIAL PROOF

A simple way to gain consumer trust and increase conversion rates is to provide social proof on your website. Let potential buyers know what past customers think of and feel about your products. Your website header or footer should have links to your social media pages so that anyone visiting your website can easily find your accounts. If you have press tears, make sure to have a press page on your site to let visitors know what people are saying about your brand. You can also display alerts at the bottom of your page to let website visitors know when a purchase has been made on your site.

KEEP YOUR WEBSITE ON BRAND

We’ve written before about the importance of branding (see here) and that absolutely applies to your website. From your website to your socials to your ads to your product packaging, make sure that anytime a customer or potential customer comes into contact with your company, the branding is consistent and your logo, brand colors, graphic standards and tone of voice are all in line with the message you want to convey to your target audience.

BE MOBILE FRIENDLY

According to a study conducted by Google, 85% of consumers start a purchase on one device and complete it on another. Making sure your website is easy to use, easy to navigate and responsive on all devices will set you apart from the competition and make your site look and feel more professional. Bonus points for enabling Instagram & Facebook shopping, to allow further ease to purchase for consumers. Remember, the goal is to make the process simple and streamlined for your customers.

Ready to build a better e-commerce site but need assistance? Contact our talented team to discuss how we can help your brand shine online.

The Importance of Branding in Fashion

What does your brand stand for? Who are you speaking to? Why should consumers choose you over the competition? More than just a logo and a few color swatches, your branding defines the entire identity of your business and determines the personality of your company as seen by your customers. While branding has always been an integral part of business, social media and digital marketing have made strong branding integral to standing out from the competition and making a lasting impact in the digital age.

Strong branding builds trust, creates customer loyalty and improves the results of your PR and marketing efforts. When you’re advertising your business, you want every asset across the board to represent your business’s identity and values cohesively.

Before launching a major PR or digital marketing campaign, make sure that all of your branding and brand guidelines are cohesive and properly represent your business’s identity and values. The overarching goal of your PR and marketing efforts should be to communicate your brand story to the media and target consumers, so make sure that internally, your company knows what it stands for and its goals and objectives.

When synergy exists between your PR and marketing strategies, your brand gets the competitive edge it deserves. Incorporating PR and marketing tactics into one competitive, holistic strategy can take your fashion brand to the next level, ensuring that all campaigns are working together to tell your brand’s story. When those PR and marketing efforts are supported by a strong, authentic brand story, your company will be leaps ahead of the competition.

5 Ways for Fashion Brands to Improve Their Content Marketing Strategy

The fashion industry is constantly evolving, but for all the stressful challenges fashion brands are facing in the post-covid economy, the evolution of content marketing and the power brands have to take their products and their voices directly to consumers through social media stands out as one of the sparkliest of silver linings.

Social media is an especially powerful tool in the fashion sector, allowing brands the opportunity to reach billions of internet shoppers across the globe and directly marketing their wares to consumers. To make the most of this unique opportunity, fashion brands must create a competitive, meaningful content marketing strategy.

At its best, original content engages, educates and entertains current and potential consumers in an authentic way that not only increases brand awareness and generates buzz but can also increase sales. Here are a few of our best tips and tricks for brands wanting to create or improve their content marketing strategies with a clear and effective messaging campaign.

1. Be Consistent

“Success doesn’t come from what you do occasionally, it comes from what you do consistently.”

Consistency is key. Too often brands get excited but then lose steam or get overwhelmed with other tasks and don’t keep posting or engaging with their audience on socials. The best thing you can do for your brand is to keep showing up. Post regularly and frequently to keep your audience engaged and your brand on their minds. If you can’t post daily, that’s ok, but you still should find a schedule that works for you and stick to it!

When you do post, make sure that all of your content is working together to tell your brand story. The look, feel and tone of voice used in your content should be consistent across all channels, so that the content you post on your social media channels conveys the same message as the imagery and copy on your website, PR and marketing materials and wholesale materials.

2. Don’t Just Tell a Story. Tell your Brand’s Story

A good brand story allows you to build an authentic connection with customers. What that requires of you is to be honest and open and share your experiences. Customers want to get to know the people behind their favorite brands. Why did you start your brand? What makes you excited about the products you’ve designed for your label?

If your brand is new, don’t feel like your story has to be fully written in stone. Your brand story can and should evolve with the brand as it grows. As your brand’s story does change, share that with your audience so they can come along on your brand’s journey. What should remain the same from day one are your brand’s values and mission, so customers know they can trust your company and rely on you to deliver consistently.

3. Provide Value & Information

It may sound counterintuitive, but don’t make selling the call to action of every post your brand creates. Delivering value to your target audience will build trust, make your content more shareable, and help more people discover your brand. Motivational messages and quotes, collaborations with influencers, user-generated content (UGC) that offers a look into how current customers are enjoying your best pieces, how-to videos and tutorials that offer style advice incorporating your products, BTS looks at how your brand runs, and giveaways provide value to your audience and will help build consumer trust.

Adding value to your content requires you to know what your target audience wants and needs, so don’t be afraid to course correct as you determine which types of posts are most meaningful to your audience. Remember, content should educate, engage, and excite your target audience so you can best serve them, their needs and interests. As you learn more about your target audience, you can better serve their needs and provide content that will resonate with them.

4. Be Where Your Target Audience Already Is

There’s no question that e-commerce, web content, and social media are integral for fashion brands in today’s economy. Sometimes it feels like to be successful, a brand has to be everywhere to keep up, but it’s better to work smarter and not harder when it comes to content marketing. When determining which networks to use for your brand, you need to understand each platform’s purpose, how it relates to the content you will be sharing, and which platforms on which your current customers and target audience are most active.

The key to content marketing for fashion brands isn’t to be everywhere, but rather to find the perfect platforms and partnerships that can best share your brand message to your target audience. After you launch and create valuable content, make sure that you’re sharing it to the platforms where your target audience is already turning for content. As new social media channels or trends develop, don’t feel compelled to immediately jump on the bandwagon, but rather stay attuned to what’s going on and determine what changes or updates will best serve your customers.

5. Share Compelling Creatives

Fashion-savvy consumers will look at your content to understand your brand. What does blurry, out of focus, heavily filtered imagery say about your brand? What does crisp, clear imagery that showcases your product accurately in a flattering layout say about your brand? Creating content that describes your product and solves user queries starts with having crisp, clear image and video files that can be used to create your content and tell your brand’s story. Making sure that all the content you share helps and doesn’t hinder your strategy is a must!

From magazine-worthy product posts of your latest pieces to shots of today’s hottest talent wearing your best sellers to compelling reels that entertain, giving your audience a clear look at what you’re selling must be integral to your content marketing strategy. No matter what the angle of your content, make sure you’re telling your story with high-resolution, visually compelling imagery and video to improve click-thru rates and stand out from the competition.

A polished content strategy can make all the difference for fashion brands. Not sure where to start? Look at your comments section and the questions your brand is most frequently being asked by your customer base and start by answering the questions current and potential customers are already asking.