Sometimes, even though we’d be horrified to realize it, we could be sabotaging our businesses without even knowing it. We are working really hard to make things happen and, though our intentions are great, we are unknowingly doing something that is keeping us from making real progress or seeing real growth.
There is one marketing mistake that has the potential to end our fashion businesses before they even really start. And that’s…
Making assumptions.
And I’m not talking about when you project the blame to outside forces like: I don’t have the money for Facebook ads or I don’t have time to do it all and it’s impossible to find a good intern who will work for free.
I’m talking about looking at what you currently have at your disposal, what you’ve done in the past, and what you’re capable doing yourself in the near future. Marketing is not just about the budget you have and the team you work with, it’s about your own willingness to try things and you’re ability to not make assumptions about your efforts.
Remember this, marketing is about a few things:
- experimenting
- listening
- learning
- re-trying
- ignoring the little voice that says something will never work
When you are marketing your business, and honestly are you ever not marketing your business?, you have to be very careful that you’re not making too many assumptions. Making assumptions keeps you from being open to all the things I listed above– the experiments that might not work, listening to your community, learning from successes and mistakes, getting out of what feels comfortable in order to make an impact.
What do I mean by making assumptions with your marketing? I’m talking about looking at all your current assets, your branding, the messages you put out there, the collaborations you go after, and so much more.
Your Photography
“Our photos are gorgeous! They really show how amazing our pieces are.“ Do they? Were your photos professionally taken? Is the post-production work professional looking? Do they show all aspects of the item? Do they convey your branding and at the same time speak to the style of your target customer? Is your model good? How about the photo styling, hair, and makeup? Do they reflect your target customer?
Your photo shoots need to begin well before that actual day of taking photos. They begin with research– what look resonates with your target market and what scenario communicates your brand values. These questions need to be thought out before you cough up the cash for a shoot.
Your Written Copy
Oh, this is a big one. It hurts my heart how many designers I see completely ignoring the need for thoughtful copy in all their brand’s communication. So many assume that it’s not all that important. But it really, really is. How you speak to your customers has a direct impact on how much they feel understood. And feeling understood is what creates long-lasting relationships.
Who is this customer of yours? How does she speak? What words, phrases, emojis, and inflections resonate with her? What is your brand personality? How would you brand speak to a friend, rather than someone it’s trying to sell to? If you don’t know that answers to these questions, you need to start there. If you do know the answers to these questions, you need to practices writing copy that reflects all of that.
For a step-by-step workbook and a library of helpful resources for absolutely killing it with your copy, join us in the StartUp FASHION Community.
Your Website Design
There is no need for a super expensive, bells and whistles website for your fashion brand. There is however the need for a professional, well designed website that reflects your brand while at the same time makes your potential customers feel as though they’ve come to the right place.
“Good enough” is a mindset that can be detrimental when it comes to your site. Again, this doesn’t mean fancy, it just means attractive and functional.
I know it’s difficult but you need to look at your website as though it’s not your website and be completely and totally honest with yourself about how it looks and works. If this weren’t your site, would you want to spend time on it? Send an anonymous survey to friends and family. But don’t assume that your site is great, confirm that it’s great with someone, many someones actually, besides yourself.
For a step-by-step workbook and a library of helpful resources for creating a beautifully branded and money-making website, join us in the StartUp FASHION Community.
Your Social Media Vibes
Blurry or poor quality Instagram pictures, quickly written captions, lack of strong calls to action, posting inconsistently…we’ve all been guilty of these things from time to time. But when we continue to do them, while simultaneously declaring that “social media is a waste of time.”, then we are sabotaging our marketing efforts.
Of course it’s not working if these habits are part of your efforts. I think sometimes it’s easier to just allow ourselves to feel like we put out what we thought were quality posts and then feel exasperated that it’s not working. But if we stop assuming that this is all that can be done as a one-person show, and instead spend real time crafting quality posts, then we’ll start to see the results we’re after.
For a step-by-step workbook and a library of helpful resources for creating a thoughtful and effective social media strategy, join us in the StartUp FASHION Community.
This blog post is not meant to make you feel bad. Honestly, it’s not! It’s meant to open your eyes. It’s meant to help you realize that being overwhelmed can sometimes cause us to not put in the time and effort that each task requires. And when we do that, we start to feel like we’re failing.
You’re not failing. You just need to re-assess where to spend your time, and stop making assumptions about your business and become a better business person.
I know that you know how important all of these things are but where I see it all becoming a problem is when we’re not honest with ourselves about the quality of what we’re putting out there. There’s a fine balance between waiting for everything to be “perfect” before moving forward and making sure that what you’re putting out there is actually helping your business grow. That’s why reviewing and assessing is so important.
In all areas of business there is nothing better that you can do than to review, assess, acknowledge, update, and keep going. As long as you don’t allow assumptions to to keep you from doing that, you’ll be great!
P.S. Today we opened up membership to the StartUp FASHION Community for one week only. We’ll be closing membership on January 25th at 11:59pm. If you’d like to join us and start off the year strong in your business, click image below and we’ll see you in there!
