Marketing Your African Fashion Business in 5 Easy Steps

The African fashion industry is fast growing but also becoming highly saturated with a number of key established players and a lot of emerging brands. It is not always easy to stand out especially when others are doing exactly the same thing as you with the same fabrics. However, it is possible to be unique. To stand out in a crowded market, you have to understand that it is more than just making sales. You will need to ensure that your products are connecting with the customers. In other words, your product needs to solve the customer’s problem. Here is how you can focus on marketing your African fashion business in five easy steps.

Know your ideal customer or target market audience

Marketing your African fashion business is near impossible if you do not know who your target market is. There are various types of customers out there and not all of them are the right people for your product. It is a very big mistake to think that everyone can be your customer. If you try to sell to everyone, you might end up selling to no one. So, remember that hope is not a strategy. You cannot create a product and expect everyone to buy it. Create a customer avatar to help you understand your ideal target market audience and their characteristics. Your job is to attract a particular “type” of person and a lot of that has to do with the brand you are trying to build. You need to build a brand that people cannot ignore – one that they love and trust.

Conduct the market research before launching a product

Your product always needs to communicate value at all times. Many times, the reasons that customers may not be buying from you might have to do with the fact that they do not see the value in the product you are offering and by that meaning, they do not see how it meets their needs. Therefore, it is important not to get too emotionally attached to your products and services so that you can alter them at any time to suit the exact needs of the customer. Try to give the customers what they want instead of what you personally like – this is the only way to keep them interested and coming back for more. Go through your inventory and do an audit over the last three to six months. Make a note of the products that are doing well and those that are not, then ask questions why. Figure out what needs to be done for the products that aren’t doing well so that they can start selling fast.

Create an e-commerce website where the exchange of value can occur

Imagine your website as being the face of your brand online. Most times, it is the first thing that people see when they want to know more about your business or product. Having a website is really important to being able to grow and scale your business because it automates the sale and eliminates the many back and forth conversations that could happen when using other forms of sale. Many businesses tend to use the DM feature on WhatsApp and Instragram for sales and while that seems fine at first, it might only work when the volume of orders is low and if you intend to keep it that way. As volume increases or as you get orders from different parts of the globe, it requires a great deal of human resources to handle each and every customer enquiry. This, of course is where your website becomes necessary.

Utilize the power of video marketing on social media

Video is a great way to market your product and it has absolutely dominated social media as the number one way to generate conversation and engagement from customers about your business. Once upon a time, it was just good enough to post a picture of the product. Today, people tend to prefer video content from brands. Why? They want to see how the product really looks in videos because it offers a much more interactive and authentic representation. Videos are now being integrated as the key element of a good marketing strategy. These days, all you need to produce video is a phone camera and some good lighting. You can break down the content into long and short form videos for upload across multiple channels.

Don’t forget to gather and leverage social proof

If you have a good product but are find yourself having a difficult time in selling it, then the reason might be because you do not have enough social proof. First, let’s define social proof – it is an umbrella term referring to anything that showcases success, testimonials and other positive experiences of other customers with your product. You should be leveraging social proof on your website, social media channels and any other place where customers can find you. The benefits are that it helps establish credibility when others are raving about your business. Secondly, there are so many good products and options out there that it might actually be confusing for the customer who is trying to make a purchasing decision. What social proof does for them in this scenario is become almost like that trusted friend’s recommendation they have been looking for which will persuade them to invest in your product.

Which one of these strategies will you be trying out?