“Fashion that doesn’t reach the streets is not fashion” - Coco Chanel.
We couldn’t agree more.
Honestly, you can create the most remarkable designs and outfits, but they wouldn't be successful if they don’t reach the public effectively. After all, the success of any fashion brand depends on staying relevant to its people.
This is where fashion email marketing becomes an absolute necessity for the success of any brand or designer.
Why email marketing, you ask?
Here are a number of reasons below that show how email marketing is the best tool to reach your customers as a fashion brand.
How can Fashion Email Marketing Result in Your Brand’s Success?
Research says that 60% of customers sign up to a brand’s email list to get promotional messages. This means that email is an ideal platform to communicate with your customers about promotions and discounts.
Another research states that 87% of marketers use email to distribute their content. So, if your competitors are doing it, you can’t miss out on this, can you? But among these, the most convincing reason is that 333.2 billion emails are sent and received each day. So if you want to reach out to a vast number of people efficiently, then email is the best channel to do so.
The fashion industry is growing bigger, better, and more competitive with every passing year. So, there are several things to keep in mind if you want to create fashion emails that stand out among the rest.
Now you might be thinking about how exactly you will create one?
For you, we did some research on the top-performing fashion emails and jotted down the common practices to create one. So, grab those (hypothetical) shoes as we will walk you through the necessary steps to create the best fashion email.
7 Steps to Create High-Performing Fashion Emails
Fashion email marketing is no walk in the park. It’s a combination of carefully planned and executed strategies. Read below to know 7 steps that can help you create one of the best fashion emails.
Step 1: Have a Clear Marketing Strategy
A smart marketer knows that whatever s/he is offering must add value to the customer’s life. Here are some questions that you must answer from the start of your campaign to make sure that it is worth it.
Who is the Target Audience?
The first thing to understand is your target audience. Who is your target audience? What is their persona, sense of style, and most importantly, what can your brand offer them?
When is the Right Time to Sell Something?
Keep yourself updated with every trend, season, and demand, so the public appreciates the product/clothes you’re offering.
Where Will You Direct Them?
Your email is designed to direct each customer to a fashion store. For each campaign, decide which stores you want to direct your customers to visit. Is it your new outlet or your e-stores? Be sure before creating an email.
What Price Range is Your Brand Offering?
Understand which campaign you intend to run. Is it a seasonal sale, a holiday discount, or a promotional offer to bag some revenue? Whatever your intention is, incorporate it into your campaign.
Make sure you have everything planned out.
Step 2: Create and Segment Your Email List
Once you have planned your campaign, the next step is to create an email list. For this, you can either create a sign-up form on your home page or use paid ads to capture some leads.
Each brand has a different style of capturing leads. Some offer a discount to users who sign up (this works like a charm btw), while others use double opt-in forms to ensure that the email list they have is authentic.
Next, you segment your email list according to the information you have collected from sign-up forms. By doing this, you can send relevant emails to your target audiences. For instance, notifying women in your subscriber list about your new collection of bridesmaid’s dresses.
Step 3: Personalize Your Emails
Psychologically, people crave customized messages and experiences - use this to your advantage.
The simplest way is to add a name or geographical location in your email. 36% of respondents of this research say that dynamic, personalized emails improve engagement. Besides this, sending trigger emails or behavior-based emails is another great way to improve engagement with subscribers. 39% of informants say that trigger emails increase the relevancy of emails.
Hence proved, personalized emails are key to successful email campaigns.
Step 4: Design an Eye-Catching Email
Visuals speak louder than words.
If you like what you see, your chances to interact with it increase. With the introduction of HTML and CSS animation, the possibilities to create remarkable designs are endless. Try to add interactive elements in your design to engage the maximum audience.
If you find designing hard and time-consuming, here is a range of exceptionally well-designed fashion email templates that you can alter easily according to your campaign. All these templates are responsive on all devices and can be personalized as well.
Start creating designs that are totally over the top!
Step 5: Write a Persuasive Email Copy
Your email copy is your brand ambassador.
Write like you’re talking to someone sitting right in front of you. Don’t overuse exclamation marks or emojis and deliver your message in a comprehensive tone. Use analogies and psychological tricks to grab your subscriber’s attention.
But most importantly, add provocative Call-To-Action (CTA) buttons to get the desired actions from them. Once you've written your copy, read it out loud to check for errors and effectiveness.
Step 6: Send Emails at the Right Time
Diana Vreeland said, “Fashion is the part of the daily air, and it changes all the time, with all events.”
Make sure the campaign that you launch interests the public at that time of the year or season. I mean, it’s not cool if you start sending promotional emails that endorse skinny jeans when flare jeans are trending - that’s going to backfire.
Also, set up a frequency for each campaign. For example, your Halloween collection can last for 15 days. This includes sending emails before, on, and after the event.
Step 7: Automate and Send
Automation is pure bliss for marketers.
Just set up predefined rules for sending emails, and they will be sent collectively. This saves plenty of your time and effort.
For example, automated welcome emails are sent to customers right after they sign up. Similarly, you can send different automated emails according to the customer’s journey to make them feel special.
Now that you know how to plan, draft and send fashion emails, here are 9 types of emails that you can choose to send as a fashion brand.
9 Types of Fashion Emails That You Must Send
If you want your fashion email marketing to be noteworthy and something that people recall for a long time, then include these 9 types of emails in your campaign.
Welcome Emails
A welcome email is the first interaction from your brand to your subscribers; make sure it’s a good one.
According to statistics, welcome emails generate 320 times more revenue than other promotional emails. Also, subscribers are 33 times more likely to engage with your brand after they receive a welcome email.
Personalize and customize your welcome emails according to your brand’s choice. Keep them attractive, exciting and of course, welcoming. Try to offer an incentive, as research shows that emails with an offer boost revenue up to 30%. Just like this sweet welcome email from French Connection.
Newsletters
Do you know what's the best thing about being a fashion brand is? You have tons of stuff to talk about.
Send newsletters to your subscribers that have different types of content, some of which are discussed below.
Talk About Your Brand
How was it established, and how did it come so far. People love to hear about something they admire and often talk about it in public. Try it out.
Connect with Your Customers
Give them style tips and tell them what you offer them as a brand. People love to know what’s new in fashion, and you can become their go-to source for that.
Feature a Fashion Icon/Blogger
There are numerous fashion bloggers out there with mass popularity and fan following in today’s time. Why not use this to your advantage?
Feature fashion bloggers, and share what they like the best from your store. Many people rely on word of mouth and will buy anything endorsed by their favorite bloggers.
Invite them to a Virtual Fashion Show
Who wouldn’t love a chance to visit their favorite brands’ fashion shows?
Invite them over for an upcoming event. You can hold a contest to announce participants, but since the pandemic has struck, you can invite them for virtual participation. Your subscribers would love such an opportunity.
Promotional Emails
If you want to establish excellent bonds with your customer, then never miss out on promotional emails. People love them and look forward to receiving them**.**
Research says that people who receive promotional emails are 138 times more likely to purchase than people who don’t receive emails.
Your promotional email can include discount offers on existing items, a holiday season sale, product launches, a special discount for valued customers, or anything else. If your customer is a fashion fanatic, there’s no chance that s/he will miss out on that sale.
Have a look at this promotional email from MATCHESFASHION.
Hyper-Personalized Emails
Like we mentioned earlier, people love to read or know about anything that is exclusively for them.
By sending personalized emails, you can increase customers’ engagement and retention rates to a great deal. Look at this email from Asos. They have highlighted the subscriber’s name and provided fashion advice for the current weather.
A great way to grab customers’ attention, isn’t it?
Abandoned Cart Emails
Abandoned cart emails feel very personal. After all, they are trigger emails sent to your customers after they abandon an item that they were about to purchase.
Let’s assume your subscriber abandons his cart after being double-minded about purchasing something. So, if you offer them a certain incentive or discount, chances are their answer will change to a definite yes!
Abandoned cart email emails have an open rate of almost 44%. Hence, they are pretty beneficial to your subscribers**.**
Have a look at this email from Timberland. Isn’t it catchy enough to convince you to complete that purchase? Sure it is!
Post-Purchase Emails
Your post-purchase emails may ask your subscribers about their reviews about a product they just purchased or any kind of feedback in general.
You can ask for their referral or to share their views on social media. Most importantly, thank them for purchasing at your store. It will give them a feeling that you acknowledge their participation and create a very positive impression of your brand.
Look at how H&M asks for their customer’s feedback, showing that they value their opinions.
Client Diaries
We just mentioned earlier that positive word of mouth from bloggers greatly influences people, but when it comes from one of the customers, the influence doubles.
You can highlight and feature one of your clients flaunting your product. It gives an excellent impression of your brand.
Holiday Special Emails
Never miss out on a chance to reach your customers during a holiday season.
Use this opportunity to bag some extra revenue. Give them special discounts for each holiday season or even on your brand’s anniversary.
Sending such promotional emails at different times of the year establishes a sense of familiarity amongst your customers. They might look forward to your brand’s emails for special discount offers. Here’s one such email from Revolve.
Exclusive Emails
The surreal feeling of being on your favorite brand’s VIP list - I know we all wish for that.
Make your subscribers experience this great feeling. Give them something special that all customers don’t receive. This will improve your relationship with your customers.
Look at how Dolce & Gabbana fashionably invited some of its subscribers to avail of an exclusive offer. Take notes!
Top 5 Fashion Emails That Leave Subscribers Awestruck
Now that you’re prepped up with your campaign ideas, here are five of the most outstanding fashion emails that we have come across. Have a look!
Kate Spade
This isn’t a fancy advertisement but a simple picture that features a trendy product from their new collection, followed by an enticing call to action button that motivates the reader to purchase**.**
Calvin Klein
Light summer colors to show a summer sale, a clear promotional discount, and the necessary CTA button, this email has it all.
Brooks Brothers
We previously talked about giving fashion tips; look at how the Brooks Brothers have nailed this in their below email.
Tommy Hilfiger
Here’s a well-designed welcome email from Tommy Hilfiger. Look how they have added a captivating picture with limited text and created an eye-catching design.
Prada
Here is a simple yet provocative email from Prada. They have simply shared some pictures of their collection to excite their audience.
Best Practices to Create the Chic-est Fashion Emails
Now that you are aware of the basics of creating and sending emails, it's time to read the best practices of fashion email marketing to make your campaign a head-turner just like your designs.
Customer-Centered Campaigns
This is indeed a very successful strategy. All you have to do is plan out your campaign according to your customers’ needs, demands, and desires. This increases relevancy to your emails and encourages the subscribers to make a purchase.
Never Miss an Opportunity
Why miss out on an opportunity to be successful?
Whether it is your brand’s anniversary or a widely celebrated holiday, never skip the chance to run a successful campaign.
Experiment
Fashion and experimentation are like maple syrup and pancakes; they complement each other. Leave no stones unturned to do the same with your fashion email marketing. Experiment with your campaign ideas because you never know what results in the campaign’s success.
The Best Software for Fashion Email Marketing - Unlayer
Creating fashion emails is no child’s play. It requires remarkable design skills and a great amount of time and effort.
But guess what? You can create the most amazing fashion emails without investing your time and money!
Yep, that’s right.
Unlayer provides a range of beautifully designed fashion email templates that can be modified according to your campaign with an easy-to-use drag and drop editor. All these fashion templates are designed by professional designers and are responsive to every device.
Plus, you can add merge tags on these templates to personalize your email and also save custom blocks to use later.
A software that offers convenience with plenty of aesthetically designed templates, what else are you looking for?
Conclusion
We can gladly say that this article has informed you about everything you should know about fashion email marketing, from steps to creating a fashion email to its best practices. We have also highlighted some inspirational sources for you.
Now that you’re all set, start designing your fashion email campaign.
Au Revoir!
