DESIGNER TOOLBOX: 6 Killer Advice From Instagram Influencers To Small Fashion Brands

Hi Guys,
Maybe you can relate with this: all the conversations with my clients somehow end up talking about Instagram.
Instagram, the giant that according to brandwatch.com scored $2.8 billion ad revenues in 2016. Over 600 million users were counted as of April 2017. As part of the second largest industry represented on Instagram, most of the small fashion brands have an account there, hoping to be on top of the list of what influencers wear.
To increase your chances to get featured, we approached influencers to better understand what they are expecting from small fashion brands. We exchanged with two active Instagram influencers with different sizes of audience (over 18k followers) and a fashion blogger who uses Instagram to find collaborations with fashion brands. We wrapped up their feedbacks in the lessons hereafter.

#1 – Yes a small fashion brand can interest an influencer

The influencers we contacted were quite unanymous. Small fashion brands do have all their chances to get featured by influencers. As The BongFashion founder Chandrayee Chakraborty suggests, small fashion brands can do either of the two for a start:
1) a barter where brands send free products to influencers for campaigning
2) mass loop giveaways where brands pay the influencers a certain amount to run the giveaways on their Instagram account.

#2 – Have a strong brand DNA and contact an influencer with a similar style

If you have been following our news, you may know by now that the fashion brand DNA is the number one ingredient you need to work on from the start. At any step of the life of your brand, you will need to go back to the core of your DNA. This rule also applies to partnerships and collaborations you build with bloggers and Instagram influencers. So work on making your Instagram account look cohesive.
Besides, like her peers, Germany-based Instagram influencer Malia Keana emphasizes the importance of the fit between the brand and the influencer. In order for influencers to wear your product, it has to blend in with their lifestyle. Hence make sure to contact the influencers with a similar style. As fashion blogger Lily Angelova said: “When the style is identical, the collaboration is really effortless and does not appear like advertisement.”

#3 – Size matters

Lily Angelova is positive. The size of the influencers’ audience matters. “As an entrepreneur as well as a blogger I have been in both situations: a brand looking to work with bloggers and a blogger who is offered a collaboration. Unless they have a big budget for advertising I would suggest to look for influencers who have a similar or a bit larger audience. Influencers with following around 5,000 are a great start.”

#4 – Measure the influencers’ influence

There is the size of the influencers’ audience on one side and their actual influence on another. Here’s a great tool to help small fashion brands evaluate an influencer on Instagram. It enables to measure the costs and the estimated return on investment for each Instagram user.

#5 – Be authentic: create a connection with the influencer

“Generic template-like emails are obvious. They are not the best way to start a relationship. The best collaboration will be the one where both parties are excited to work with one another and love and value each others work.”, says Lily Angelova.

#6 – Be clear on what you should expect from each other

In order to avoid misunderstandings, Beauty and the nature blogger Lily Angelova reminded how important it is to have “very clear conditions stated prior to the collaboration, so both parties would know what to expect and what they have to do.”

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Download our Instagram quick checklist for small fashion brands

What to put in bio to make it compelling, what you should do before posting and a nice app to keep your content nice and cohesive