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Selfishness-Award

02. February 2015

Look what I did! I wrote a post about awful fashion brands, which always talk about themselves on social media. These are ruthless companies, which use their online presence like a machine gun to constantly promote their apparel. Yes, I understand the opportunity to run business with it. But sorry folks, you are more like those selfish friends, the ones you don’t want to get involved with, because they only talk about themselves the whole time.

It’s not that I want to run rings around you and to be honest; I have no right to do that! But please, let me draw attention to your anti-social content as an outside individual, by praising you for trying to look good.

Therefore let me introduce the “WBDIMMMNY-Award”, which simple means Wuh-be-doo, it’s me, me, me not you. This award is aimed at self-centred social-media brands, because social media it isn’t about numbers, it’s about relationships in the end!

We like to get something shareable, such as the funny, clever, ridiculous, dramatic, informative or heart-warming stuff! Anything folks, except a dull sales pitch. So for all the nominees out there, please rethink your content strategy, or at least change the way you’re doing it right now. And again, make the best out of it and please don’t take this honour too serious.

And here we have our nominee for today with some examples:

I grew up with Jack&Jones, a brand where my mother went to buy all my clothes, because she knew that my brother also liked them. At this time I was not really into fashion. I tried different styles, but was never sure what really suited me. A few years later, more aware of my own appearance and outgrown of my old wardrobe, I scanned their website again, fully surprised that they still produce fashionable apparel. Especially from their premium collection I would pick a few items, like this blue blazer with this lovely polka-dotted inside.

Jack & Jones has a respectable following on Twitter of about 9,550 followers. After examining their account, I found everything else than shareable content. For instance, the last post shows a dull image combination with an outstanding text in it. (See yourself) It’s this kind of image that will make me scroll through, because there is no breath-taking hook. I’m not sure if someone would like to retweet this sensational post with his or her own followers and of those 9,550, only four rewetted and three liked this post. Congratulation folks, what a success! If I were the executive of the social media department, I would definitely take the stairs instead of the elevator, because I would be ashamed! But to be honest, I always take the stairs, because it keeps my body fit!

But what really strikes me is that they stick to their message! News, News, News…Such an innovative message! However, they deserve credit for using the great charming Danish model Mathias Lauridsen for the S/S 15 campaign. Fantastic decision folks, but when I click through the link that takes me to the web shop, I was a little bit unhappy, because I expected to see beautiful visuals from the campaign that attracts me to buy some of the items. But life isn’t always a bowl of cherries, I would say!

I understand that brands want to show how amazing they are, but don’t post too much of it! I’m really glad that people like the brand, but all these retweeting nice things, what people said about the brand, has no value for others and it’s incredibly boring for all followers out there. (Check yourself how many people liked or retweeted it)

Now in the end I will stop with my criticism and give a good example for a perfect sales pitch on social media. I found a post with a well-chosen image and a simple question! I also tried to figure out what I would wear. Therefore well done, because it was engaging.

To summarise, during quiet moments people love to chat about good stuff from social media platforms. Therefore it’s so important to deliver them the right hooks. If you look down your stream and you can find selfish promotions about the brand, you are likely on the wrong way! Selfishness on social media platforms is like in real life. Therefore it is vital to give to get! I know it’s not that easy! But there are some basic questions, which I would consider to create engaging content:

Is my post surprising?
Does it make my audience feel happy or excited?
Would I share the post on my own page?
Do the images trigger feelings? (Thrilling and spectacular)

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The Value of Video

05. February 2015

All the fashion brands out there! Have you already recognised that people love to watch videos for any occasion on their tiny mobile screens? Yeah!?! If not, stop producing what everybody has been doing for the past and harness the hottest trend in digital marketing right now; the power of video content!

The big picture was yesterday! Videos get more viral than every dull image before. It's the must have for 2015, because you can come up with engaging storytelling creativity that will show your apparel in an innovative way. I know the gossip about the second largest search engine, but to be honest, the advertisements on YouTube are awful! I don't want promotion videos or these 3 seconds trailers, where I have to click to continue. That's why we should pay more attention to the looping-video platform Vine! I can see the Millennials drifting there, because the limit of six seconds and the integration with Twitter encourages watching. Move on folks, it’s going to be the major platform for your fashion promotion, because users can watch your stuff anywhere, anytime, right from their smartphones. You only need the right skills to harness these tiny time-pressed six seconds.

To figure out how to use this amazing platform, I investigated thoroughly their current, because once you started to watch I would say, “Well, just one more-it’s only six seconds!” Therefore I found an example by Urban Outfitters. I guess the biggest mistake what you can share on Vine is a video of shooting an image for six straight seconds with a weird acoustic noise. That’s boring! See yourself…

Anything but dull was this version of Ryan Chua, an adorable fashion blogger who was able to take full advantage of the time limit. She implemented a natural way of showcasing her outfit with a perfect music match. It's so to the point! I still try to stop looping the video, but it's making me addicted to see her walking with the right beat!

I also like the idea for ecommerce sites to present fashion in a way that photographs are unable to. Therefore ASOS's catwalk videos are a great way to convince me buying all the spotted stuff from their page. Because once I have found an item, I always want to see someone wearing them. I guess that’s one simple secret of their success right now.

So, to wrap it up. I'm one of the Millennials currently out there, using the smartphone on the train, lectures, gym, in bed … nearly in every situation were I have nothing to do! Videos are a great opportunity to get your message across and market your apparel! So let’s jump on the bandwagon.

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Human to Human

09. February 2015

Listen up! It doesn’t matter how much money you spend on digital marketing, if in the end your message will not get across. Your mass-market cyber-bulling data-driven strategies are awful and hopefully don’t deliver you the hoped results, which are mostly: getting more and more profit!

We Millennials are still human and by getting a banner ad by ASOS during my Spotify session, showcasing women’s apparel, I would say, it’s simply money down the drain. I would never click-through, because I’m not really interested in a flowered dress and furthermore, I’d like to raise my voice now for the Millennials out there: We hate being bombarded with your marketing ads for weeks! It feels like we are being stalked.

Same with pointless mass marketing e-mails. They are already annoying! If you wont us to open and read the content, the subject has to be enticing and useful. Look at the example by Pull & Bear. Why should we read the message?!?

Then on YouTube we have to endure adverts before the main video starts. Congratulations folks! I swear most of the people will associate your brand with a bad experience and next time, if they have to decide between your brand and a competitor, they will remember you!

Everyone is told to integrate data-driven marketing tools to understand the insights of costumers. So why are you not able to evaluate this data more meaningful and use them effectively? Again, we cannot stand it when we come across all of this cookie garbage, while we browse through the web. Therefore, to get our attention, I’d like to recommend you to get ride of these emotionless analytic-tools and speak to your audience in real life.

During my internship at Stylight we invited selected participants to run some usability tests. They had to interact with the product and think aloud while they worked. By asking them some specific questions, we saw how users react, identified potential problems and got direct feedback from our target audience.

Yeah, it was time-consuming, but it was worth it! Not only to hear what a potential user said, also to trace all these important emotional statements. Because exactly these human expressions let you know, if you have an emotional connection to engage with your audience, or not!

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Traffic acquisition

12. February 2015

I guess it’s obvious for fashion brands to focus on conversion rates, when they have to think about their online marketing strategies. There are so many competitors waiting online and therefore it’s important keep one thing in mind: “How should we raise our brand awareness?”

Therefore brands have to look for prospects to increase the volume of their site traffics. Because in the end it’s the same situation like in a physical store. If you bring your customer to get one step into your store, it’s up to you to excite, trigger and lead them to the cash desk. Can you hear what I hear?!? Ka-Ching…

A hugely successful global multi-million online fashion web store with exceptional sales growth is ASOS. A leader within its field, gets over eight million visitors to their online presence on a regular basis. If we can learn something from them, then it’s their way to stand out enough to grab consumers’ attention and convince users to click on the referrals, which I think is actually the foundation for increasing a conversion rate.

So let’s start by typing the main URL of ASOS into my favourite online research tool SimilarWeb. Here we can simple discover the most important traffic insights and furthermore identify ASOS channels to get a high click-through rate.

The bar chart illustrates that almost forty percent of their users came direct to the website. And to be honest this information really hits me, because I know how often I use Google, even though I know the address. However, they’re easy to remember. Do you know what the abbreviation originally means?!? I guess most of us don’t! That’s why you should prick up your ears now: As Seen on Screen.

Almost thirty percent of their desktop traffic in the last three months came from referrals. Top referring sites were among others social shopping communities like: Polyvore, Hotukdeals and Shopstyle. However, a site, which showed most created inbound links, was Rstyle.me. Curious as I am and always aware of new marketing trends, I spend some time investigating this platform.

Rstyle.me or Rewardstyle.com helps companies and small bloggers to receive a commission when a reader purchases an item they post. Similarly, companies that sign up there can increase traffic and in the end raise their conversion rate. That’s why more and more people start showcasing their fashion on a daily basis, because it really sounds for me like a win - win situation!

Search engine optimisation is nowadays a great way to lead traffic to websites. Furthermore, the advantage of this approach is that organic and paid search results give users brand credibility. More than 25 percent of total ASOS desktop traffic came through search and one of the most used search engine was of course: Google.

A really interesting fact is that only five percent of total ASOS traffic came from social media channels. Therefore I ask myself: “What is with the undeniable power of social media?” Honestly, I thought it’s already the most important channel to get traffic nowadays! I guess there are so many customers out there, who use their social platforms to talk about ASOS and their favourite items. So, where are all the inbound links to get traffic?!? Highest traffic source is still Facebook. And between us Millennials; this site is already squeezed and at the end of his tether, because there is nothing exiting anymore! However, the masses are still there and that’s why the most traffic came by a click-through.

Ok, now that we have investigated the main traffic sources, I like to wrap it up now and conclude with one sentence. Obviously it’s not social media that brings ASOS most traffic, no, it’s their easy- cheesy URL, referrals and the one and only: Google!

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Zalando?

16. February 2015

Online shopping is one of my favourite topics to discuss with others. The reason for that is quiet simply, cause’ I like to hear other experiences. For me as a digital marketer it’s always important to hear different opinions of why people love to do their shopping online. These days I often mentioned Zalando during my chitchat and to summarise the most common reaction, I like to use their own words:
”Who the hell is Zalando?”

Back in Austria I can remember the awareness of the brand. The effective marketing mix they used was enormous. I was confronted online and offline with their advertisings. And to be honest, I really liked their TV-commercials. Every time a parcel arrived at our house, my mother tried to copy the well-known “Schrei vor Glück” scream. Even the postman was been joking about it.

Outside of the UK Zalando has already become the biggest E-commerce website in Europe and transformed from a footwear commerce page to a wide range fashion clothing giant. I always enjoyed the user experience during my browsing through all the trendy apparel. I also like that a lot of thought has gone into the details of the page, like all the creative visuals, their easy-cheesy navigation or the filtering system. Well-done guys, altogether an engaging approach for an E-commerce platform. However, despite the fact that the UK is the most advanced market in terms of percentage of online shoppers, they never had a big rush here. So therefore I like to ask the brand: “What is with a more powerful push into the UK market?!?”

Your big advantage is your strategy of expanding your partners to get an enormous marketplace in the end. The site already includes successful UK retailers such as New Look or River Island and now also attracts local suppliers to sell through the website. This brilliant idea provides customers much more variety. For me it seems it could be the next big Amazon, but specialised on apparel. However, the most effective advantage comes along the ordering process, cause’ you don’t have to sign up on different platforms to get your items shipped.

Again folks, I’m bored to explain what Zalando stands for. Therefore it’s time to convince the Queen and beyond that the British nation.

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Greedy fashion blogger

19. February 2015

Honestly, I’m a little bit worried about all the fashion-related bloggers out there. Marketers and brands come, finding ways to work fashion bloggers into their content marketing strategies and afterwards?!? Mostly because of them, the golden age of fashion blogging is over, cause’ those days where fashion blogging was a hobby for oneself, to meet like-minded people, who like to share their passion, turned into a homogenous and full-blown business with many greedy concerns. The biggest: ”How do I get more revenue?

The main income for them comes through their advertisings. Mostly because of that I think the blogger-sphere has changed. Bloggers are to focused on clicks and affiliate links, which has become blogging as a business greedy for money. Does there still someone exist without having any kind of deals with brands, displays or affiliate items that link to something?

Marketers made it to a crowded place where only rarely high value or engaging content is more to find. Essentially, anyone with Internet access and a little bit of taste has access to blog. Lots of them take a picture, publish them on their websites, which they made in five minutes with terrible existing templates and afterwards, they wait to get followers to turn the content into sales. Everyone believes they could get the next big fashion blogger, who sits together with Anna Wintour, editors and celebrities in the front row or get gifted with handbags, shoes and sponsored travels. But honestly, those who have success nowadays started their blogs before having a blog were the big thing in fashion.

Brands only use successful bloggers out there to create authentic content, cause’ this seems more like someone tangible drew attention to something. People already recognized that most published content has ulterior motives. That’s why I think that fashion blogging will soon have an end. And you know why?!? Cause’ marketers ruined it!

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Call-to-Action

23. February 2015

Ok, let’s take a step back for those fashion marketer who don’t know what Call-to-Action originally means. Therefore we have to visualise a fancy image post that occurs during your daily social media browsing. But wait a second, don’t think of 50 shades of Grey, when they enter the playroom…
No, awful! I mean something like that:

So, this example by Rad prompts the customer to take action and click-through to their online store. It’s like a “call” to take an “action” and much more than a single button. When people are moving through the stream, they will find an image that captures their active imagination and together with the short copy in an appropriate audience slang, the whole package engage users to click-through. Actually it also has been triggered me to choose this post, cause’ it was like a fishhook, which cached my attention.

We as marketer have to know some of the key elements to create something that people like to click on. Therefore save your time to investigate your competitors and continue reading my easy-cheesy checklist for the essential parts of a high-quality Call-to-Action post. So, think about these simple ingredients the next time you want to create something extraordinary and I promise you: your return of investment will be enormous.

First you have to think about who your influencers actually are. Get in their fashionable heads and think what kind of dreams they have, what they usually wear or what hobbies, hopes and aspirations they have. The better you know them, the more you can cater to their wants and needs.

By talking too much about yourself, you bore your audience. Make your post about the visitor and showcase what you can do for them and how you can improve their lovely lives.

You like to stand out? Then make your brand more interesting than a sales person, who likes to get on somebody’s nerves. Humour makes your brand more like a friend, I mean more authentic and light-hearted.

Don’t investigate what other do and simple copy that! If we all would do that, we would simply end like those boring fashion bloggers, who take pictures of their daily outfit, hoping that they get a sit at the front row of the next Primark show. I’m kidding, I don’t like to misjudge this brand and their customers. Therefore be yourself and then I’m sure they will like you!

Of course, before you can publish your Call-to-Action posts, you should thoroughly research the platform and understand what works there. Think about some aspects like the posting style (#, @,…), different sizes (See below the wrong image size example by Mr Porter) and extremely important the right time. I don’t know if you ever heard of the Digital Marketing slang?!? Which goes like this: GIF’s on Tumblr, infographics on Pinterest and trendy stuff on Twitter.

Don’t post a simple writing! Cause’ in the end it’s all about the shiny, bright and eye-catching image, video or if it works, the moving GIF! It has to be something that engages and establishes an impression that remains positive. Never use pictures from Getty, iStock or Fotolia. To be honest, those are awful! I’m one of those Millennials who love to be entertained. Therefore try to show us your apparel in an unusual way, something what we don’t expect. And if it’s unique, your audience will love it.

Your customers like to hear their own slang and I guess they hate it, when there is too much text to read. Therefore to grab their attention and lure the potential shopper to your platform, keep your characters short.

It’s time to wrap it up guys! Therefore I like to congratulate you, cause’ by implementing these key elements, I’m totally sure that your next post will be an eye-catcher with all ingredients to get more return of investment than usually.

Don't forget to follow me on Twitter to get notified of my upcoming innovation posts, or get inspired by Pinterest and YouTube.

Awful Newsletter

26. February 2015

I guess we all know those moments in life, where we try to avoid checking our physical mailbox, cause’ we know that there is something frightening waiting like bills or awful advertising brochures. Nowadays it’s the same with our e-mail inboxes. Imagine you get up in the morning and all what you expect to see on your phone display is an over spammed inbox with useless content, which immediately get forwarded into the trash folder. Mostly cause’ of that I often hear other blogs discussing that email marketing will soon have come to an end. But honestly guys, there is still no better tool out there for increasing your conversation rate. Trust me, it works! Email remains a significantly more effective way to acquire users than social media ever did. The only thing you have to keep in mind is to use the power of email marketing more effective and not as an awful mass-market service.

That’s why I’m a little bit worried about some fashion brands. Zara for instance should personalize the content more. In other words, please don’t send me a Lookbook of womenswear. As always the visuals were great, but it makes no sense! I also signed up for a Pull&Bear newsletter two weeks ago, in the hope that I will receive something. However, until today I never got any single notice from them! And then with some brands like ASOS, which I think a little bit overdo with their frequency.

That’s why Millennials are becoming increasingly wary of handing over their email addresses, cause’ all those things are failures. Therefore guys, offer us rich value and beyond that show us why we should provide you our contacts. What can we expect from it? If we can see the true value in it, we will request you to send us some emails. Honestly, brands should feel honoured for every single person that signs up on their list.

Therefore to treat every user on your list as an asset, I thought about some tips for brands to deliver your customers the most possible value and furthermore to trigger a click-trough. Really helpful to create my easy-cheesy checklist for crafting your perfect-triggered email to drive conversions, was the article
by Claire Chapman (The Marketing Practice).

Provoke your customers with an effective subject line to open your message. Best are those ones, which appeal to your customers needs. Keep them short and only use 10 – 30 Characters.

Keep in mind that you have to make sure to take your customers after reading the subject line on a journey with valuable content. Therefore try to segment and personalise them. Use high quality images and videos to get their attention. Writings should be short paragraphs and beyond that use an engaging target slang to make your message easier to read. The overall design should be simple and clear without to many requests to do something. And most important be aware that everything should be responsive, cause’ we know that we constantly check our mails on the go.

Primary to trigger your costumers to click-through, the call to action button is an essential part of your message. Therefore don’t irritate your customers with more than one or two. Keep in mind that your buttons are bright and stand out from the rest of your content. Never forget to keep your call to actions touch-friendly, cause’ the new mouse is our finger!

If you focus your emails the next time on these three bullet points, I’m sure your new messages will bring more outcome and hopefully leads more fashionable users to your web shop. Ka-ching!

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Physical store

02. March 2015

Online-pure players like Net-a-Porter, Zalando or Otto should be aware that we Millennials still live in a real world, which simply means we love to have an emotional connection and we want a knowledgeable and attentive service when we buy our apparel. Yeah, I know that most of us are addicted online shopper, but today consumers still make the majority of their purchases in a physical store.

We want to try things on, touch them in real life and beyond that by getting a friendly wink from a sales assistant, I’m sure that all Millennials out there are more likely to purchase their apparel after having these engaging experiences. Therefore I guess it’s necessary for e-tailers, who want to become unstoppable in the future, to have an offline store to provide an external manifestation.

And with external manifestation, I simply mean an in-store destination to aim your archetype of customer. Cause’ if you know their thinking of aesthetic, then it’s easy to grab them into your store. Beyond that, if they have a social experience, which means shopping together with friends, combined with new digital technologies, then I’m sure your cash machine will surely not stop screaming “Ka-Ching!”

Physical stores will create awareness for your brand and if you are not located on any high street in the future, then it’s like having no account on social media to engage with your audience. Your store will add convenience for us Millennials and currently we can find already some good stuff implemented in cross-channel retailing, like buying products online and afterwards picking them up in store. But I’m sure that we can go on with it and create much more experience to interact with us. Therefore try to integrate more effective digital technologies into the buying process to get in touch with us.

Please guys don’t ignore these words! Cause’ right now there are only few e-tailers out there, who implemented these strategy. It’s always the same. If you like to be on top, then be one of the first. This will make you well known and unforgettable for us Millennials.

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Building a relationship

02. March 2015

The Sun is shining and you know what, it’s time to get a new pair of bright-colour shining trousers to welcome the warm feeling of spring. Now for most of us it’s hard to decide where to go! There are to many brands, who offer a wide range of various collections, with different categories (casual, smart, skinny, ultra skinny, etc.) and beyond that we all know how hard it is to pick something that looks good, works well with other stuff and feels comfortable on our wonderful bodies.

It sounds like a massive decision, yeah? Not for me! When it comes to trousers, I know where I have to go: Topman. They suit me well! I’m aware that there are several brands out there, which would also offer me a perfect pair. However, Topman has convinced me to stay loyal.

So, how did they build this kind of lasting relationship with me?

A quick side story to illustrate the answer: At University I see my awesome colleague Rhi every day. Therefore she sticks in my positive recurring thoughts. Similarly to that Topman is always in my subconscious mind, because I’m constantly confronted with them through various channels.

I see them deliver engaging content on all my social media platforms, I get Emails from them (Which are relevant), I love to read their wonderfully designed magazines (That always have great images) and their creative flair in creating wonderful window displays, which invite me inside to visit them at least once in a week.

Let’s face it! All those personal interactions builds up trust and actively maintains the relationship I have with them. Whether digital or physical, they are involved in my world and keep me entertained in an enjoyable way. This takes time! Don’t expect to build trust overnight. You don’t like to marry someone that you met at your first date. Or?!?

To wrap it up, it’s a marketing mix of relevant content, thoughtful communications and consistent value that brought Topman to this stage. For me they become more than a supplier, which are mostly focused on sales transactions. I mean of course it’s all strategy, but they know how it works to build more lasting and profitable customer relationships. Without being disruptive, they got me to like them! Therefore congratulations guys, I will support your efforts by purchasing my next pair of trousers at your store.

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How to stand out?

12. March 2015

Dear Marketer, get your thoughtful heads on and don’t be surprised about the fact that for us Millennials fashion plays a significant role in our lives. Clothes are everywhere; even if I’m sitting at university, actually busy with writing my thesis. I’m surrounded by all these attractive online content that keeps me away from my actual work. And by that I don’t mean posts with purposeless half-hearted placed clothes! No, I mean something different that stands out and shows creativity, cause’ the best instance come due to the element of surprise.

I have the experience that posts from fashion brands, which took a different approach to their main area of business, got more attention, than those, which offered the same stuff that everybody else was showing. Therefore I think it’s important to show that you are capable of thinking outside of your ordinary box and deliver fresh and eye-catching content that offers something different than the rest are doing.

So to be sure that Millennials take notice of your stunning posts and click-through, I would firstly suggest spending some time to see across other brands in your niche and use the outcome to start thinking, how can I be different among the rest.

Secondly, create some posts that stick in your audiences’ mind. Therefore try to be creative and create something to catch their eyes. Cause’ creativity relies on little things that matters. Therefore look at this example:

Of course, in an unexpected moment pay attention that your logo is placed somewhere! Again, get rid of all the dull posts, where you simply present your clothes in a selfish image. By taking a different path, you are able to catch your audiences’ of guard. Make them wonder about what you are creating and surprise them with something they never saw before. Therefore it’s time now to set your creativity free!

Help yourself and text me on Twitter, if you need an eager thought or get inspired by Pinterest and YouTube.

The Role Of Influencer

16. March 2015

There’s so much going on in the online marketing arena nowadays! I guess we as marketers are sometimes struggling to keep up with all the new trends, innovations and emerging social media platforms on a daily basis. So, where is it all going?

In my opinion, back to the old roots of offline word-of-mouth!

The last few days I have often recognised how often actually offline recommendations happen. Friends, colleges and family members often ask me in person, where to go to purchase new apparel, because they know that I’m a fashionable and trend conscious person. They love the way I express my love for trendy cloths and therefore they often get influenced through my recommendations of brands. To be honest, I like to give help to provide suggestions for new clothes, because it gives me the feeling of an expert and leader in my area. Furthermore, they trust me and show respect when I give them my opinion.

It gives me the feeling of those celebrity spokespeople, who get a lot of money for their posing work. I guess we all know already that most of them were well chosen to present the apparel to influence us. Therefore I’m sure that my source is more trusted than those recommendations, because I love what I’m doing.

I would say I‘m an influencer in my field of interest, which can convince other people to buy a product. Furthermore, being encouraged and reassured by a charming and trusted person like myself, has more value than any other sort of monotonous celebrity collaboration. Therefore I would suggest my favourite fashion brands, which are those who I always tweet and mention here on my blog, should listen up!

Find your long-lasting influencer, flatter them and afterwards they will do your actual work through word-of-mouth! Trust me folks, this influencer-driven strategy will bring you greater return on investments, than every other social media activity before. Because reaching specific people is much more effective than reaching a lot of consumers.

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Storytelling

23. March 2015

Ok folks, today I like to start with a quick side story that leads us smartly to the main topic. I guess we all know those television formats, where normal people can get casted and after they god chosen by a jury, they have to prove themselves week after week in front of a large audience. Reality shows like this are more focused on character narratives rather than on actual talents. They exist simply cause’ audience interests should follow specific characters and their dramatic lives. So, if you are intelligent enough to get far ahead, you only have to know how those formats works. Therefore don’t worry about your miserable talent, cause’ what really counts nowadays is more the ability to tell a story that grabs the attention of the audience.

So, what can we learn out of it! Fashion brands also have to realise that their main products should be taking a backseat. Therefore by creating a story around your clothes, showing what you can do or achieve with them, you are more able to get potential costumers.

The idea is to connect with them through stories, which are related to them. They love to listen to things that could feed their imagination and grabs their emotions. I’m sure that they are more moved by a story within a short video than a simple image or writing.

A brand that already understands how it works to target their specific audience through storytelling is Ted Baker. By sharing a humorous video, called “T for Tall” for gents with a head for heights, they built trust for their customers and beyond that strengthens existing connections. See yourself…

I’m sure that it sticks in their audience subconscious mind and pops out, the next time when they have to find a larger size. Therefore listen up! You have to realise how important it is to include storytelling in your digital marketing strategy. It’s a competitive market out there. So again, today’s people like to hear emotional and humours stories, which are relevant to them. So share an exciting story to build a trusted network of costumers!

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Mobile optimization

30. March 2015

For us Millennials the summer shopping season has started. That’s why I hope all the fashion retailers out there have their sales channels prepared to showcase us the best looks, trends and inspirational picks for summer 2015.

Increasingly more important than the more traditional desktop webstore, is a mobile-optimised experience. We use our smartphones to search as well as shop on the go. This happens more often than ever before.

So listen up! This should be a sign for those of you that still have some issues with adopting mobile commerce. Trust me, for us Millennials clothing and accessories are among the most popular mobile purchases. I mean what else should we buy during our gym sessions for instance? I see others running in their perfect Nike shoes in front of me and I think to myself that I would like to have the same. So I grab my mobile to go for it.

That’s why I’m worried about Hugo Boss, which has a stunning, elegant and breath taking website. (Don’t hesitate to forward my sweet-talk to those who are responsible!) But providing a separate application with no opportunity to purchase chosen items, is a big bug. Sorry guys! I’m sure there are some nice features on it, but without the chance to buy something, it’s like missing the flour for preparing my favourite milk-chocolate cookies. Millennials like me want a seamless shopping experience! So, what’s the point of having an application, if customers can’t purchase their finger-picked favourite items?

Don’t plumb down into your confortable chair, cause’ you have a wonderful “traditional” e-commerce website. Purchases made on desktop and laptop devices are slowly dying. Therefore ride the wave right now and create a stunning application, instead of having to play catch-up later on! I’m convinced that your future revenue comes through M-commerce and if your application is unfriendly, you will definitely drive your potential customers away!

Help yourself and text me on Twitter, if you need an eager thought or get inspired by Pinterest and YouTube.

Online fashion cycle

06. April 2015

I recognised these days that I often have the same routine, when it comes to my online shopping behaviour. I would simply describe it as my online fashion cycle, which always attracts me over and over with new and fresh inspired stuff that leads me in the end through the stage of buying new things. Therefore well done marketer, cause’ creating content that continuously engage, until I grab my credit card and buy your fancy clothes, is not that easy!

I mean; there are so many fashion brands out there, which almost focuses their content on only one stage of the cycle. I see hundreds of posts showing new apparel with these typical click-through headlines. But where is the other content?

I thought about my behaviour content cycle and tried to condense it down into 3 stages to help all those marketers, who still have to improve their content strategy!

Having a blog that delivers fresh writing or collaboration with popular fashion blogger is an ideal opportunity to create content for unknown prospects. Users will read the content and realise that they have a need for your clothes. Of course they have to be targeted and stunning that people get inspired. However, they will find your content on their own way, which I’m convinced, takes them to the next stage of my cycle.

Prospects have identified and interests exist. Therefore users will try to find more about your items or brand. They will look for information on search engines, where it’s now up to you, how good your optimisation has been done. Cause’ if you did it right (Mobile optimised, Meta tags, keywords, etc.), then you will get a good ranking position and a final lead to your web store.

Finally we arrived at your amazing web store and if you can provide the last detailed information, high-resolution images or a stunning catwalk video with the fancy chosen item, I’m sure some orders will be done very quickly. “Ka-Ching!”

Conclusion time! I can speak from a looooooot of experience. I’m a professional eshopper, already done hundreds of orders. I would simply recommend you guys: Get your content out there! I think there are thousands of Millennials, who have the same behaviour cycle just like me. Therefore I would simply recommend to create a content roadmap, not just some front end posts on social media, cause’ you need to engage with your audiences throughout my descripted three stages.

Front page experience

05. May 2015

Firstly a quick side note before I start with my topic today. During my research about different e-tailers front pages, I thought about a lecturer given by Mrs. Reiter (8 years ago!) when she told us that an Austrian television commentator did this awful mistake, saying “Homepage” instead of “Website” to a stranger web presence. Cause’ in her opinion a “Homepage” was the landing page of a website and not the whole online presence. To be honest, I’m still not convinced if she is right with her aspect? But if someone reads my post and knows a proper explanation, please don’t hesitate to tweet me!

However, back to the roots of this topic; Guys, it’s time to pay attention! Cause’ if you’re not reading what I’ve been writing down, then you’re behind on one of the biggest points that will affect your revenue in the end. You know that I’m enthusiastic when it comes to my favourite topic online shopping. And for me one of the most important points of an e-tailers website is what my lovely lecturer Mrs. Reiter would declare as a “Homepage”.

A homepage or front page is the beginning of an inspiring storytelling, which can be seen as a gateway to the actual boarding gate on an airport. It should be the first taste of what your site offers and engage throughout the end of your costumers order. Visitors may leave in seconds, if they’re not impressed or cannot find what they expect. I would suggest to check your “Bounce rate” on Google Analytic, to figure out if your front page is inspired enough, or drives your customers away!

A company, which know the way it works, is River Island. In my opinion there front page has dozens of ingredients that leads me to click-through to buy the latest trends in fashion. There is so much that I like to experience when I visit their page, cause’ they created something that shows more than a collection of dull images. I observed their changing front pages for a while and to summarise my experience, I would say: “Wow, they are genius!” They know how social stigma and real-time data works! Cause’ if the sun pops out, they have my white and blue summer shirts ready. Furthermore, their visuals elements are condensed down to the most essential pieces. I immediately understand where to click to get to my shirts.

Compared to the good example above, I also found these examples by Otto and Universal. I mean, where is here the simplicity within these templates? They tried to get everything on the front page, but I would say they failed to meet the exact needs of their users. I mean, who clicks on “Top brands” or reads these SEO writings?

Make your front page for your users, not for these greedy search engines. Be aware that your front page should astonish your customers. Therefore create a few images that inspires, cause’ they are more worth than thousands words and a mix of 20 items.

Help yourself and text me on Twitter, if you need an eager thought or get inspired by Pinterest and YouTube.

Jump on the Blogwagon!

08. July 2015

Seriously guys, I love what I’m doing here. I mean, I’m pleased to condense my thoughts and opinions down here on my blog and to be honest, I know already through my analytics that there are a people out there, who follow my writings. To recognise that is a beneficial for me and keeps me going on. Cause’ regardless of how busy I am with writing my thesis for my Masters, I take my time to share my passion.

Nowadays there is a tremendous amount of blogs and hopefully all of them found already their niche that they prove Google to be an expert. But we “normal” bloggers are not alone anymore! Cause’ I recognised that even more fashion e-tailers get on the “Blogwagon”, including magazines on their official websites.

Why do you think are they so obsessed with emerging a magazine?

Easy answer guys! Because in the end it’s a brilliant move to lead traffic on their page. I mean, all the keywords, headlines and engaging comments will bring a high raking on Google. Therefore whenever fashionistas like me do a particular search, they will get most likely the magazine as a result, click-trough, read the content and beyond that get influenced and buy all prospects that have been identified before.

Therefore I have to give my favourite online shopping community Stylight props, who also updated their page with a magazine. Smart move guys, cause’ spiders will crawl through your magazine and rank all key phrases or topics that are critical to you. Again, well done! But to be honest, I’m a little bit worried about the overall feeling, cause’ there is too much misleading content, which absolutely needs a clearer direction. The general rule is: Quality before quantity!

Help yourself and text me on Twitter, if you need an eager thought or get inspired by Pinterest and YouTube.

Keyword selection

13. September 2015

Fashion e-retailers listen up! Search engines are getting more and more sophisticated. Google Panda for instance tries to figure out why users like your page or more significantly, why not. Therefore if your page doesn’t evoke some positive feelings (Hopefully I’m not the only one, who gets them when I shop at my favourite e-retailers), your page will subsequently get a lower ranking result.

Those days where simple keywords meant everything for your onsite optimisation are long gone. Therefore your search visibility success has become much harder. I mean, keywords still make the Internet go around, but nowadays you need to make much more considerations to get a good SERP.

Today, the opportunity to get some keyword-specific traffic information on Google Analytics is getting restricted by them. In my opinion it was the right move to no longer offer those facts, cause’ there are too many greedy companies out there, which overdue their keyword-optimisation, instead of focusing on user experience or other quality factors. It’s not Google, who pulls out a wallet in the end! No, it’s one of your potential fashionistas out there.

Therefore every single human comes first! Because if users will click on your link on a search engines result page, but they didn’t like what they see, they will abruptly leave your page. Congrats, cause’ then your “Bounce rate” will show Google that users don’t like to engage with your content and beyond that, you will definitely not receive any rewards for it. Certainly not by Google or any customer!

I write those thoughts down, cause’ in my opinion keywords are still really important. The bottom line really is this: You have to decide much smarter, which words you like to use to show your e-shoppers great value. See what your fashionistas are searching for. (Onsite and through Google) Crosscheck those results, prioritise them and build a list that provides authority. Afterwards you can use them and put one keyword per site into the title, description and body content. I’m sure this will lead potential users on your site and let human feelings flourishing.

Help yourself and text me on Twitter, if you need an eager thought or get inspired by Pinterest and YouTube.

Rising in popularity

28. October 2015

Marketers trust me, it is more than just Facebook! Once young millennials went to the platform to satisfy their thrill of excitement, silver surfers are on their way to take over this place. The number of older users has increased dramatically over the past years and when I see my grandmother using her profile to get in touch with me, I ask myself: Is it time for me to swap the channel? Or should I wait until I see my grandparents posting selfies and getting excited about their likes?

As marketers, you have to know where your customers are to engage with them. You have to recognize that many millennials are shifting toward other social media channels, cause’ we are looking for something exciting and fresh to differentiate ourselves from the rest. So what is trending right now and what is blowing up on the social media scene after Facebook and Instagram?

I guess you all recognise these insane pictures with facial recognition, where rainbows coming out of your mouth or many other creative filters that makes every selfie time interesting again. You probably already know, but in case you don’t, I shall introduce you to Snapchat. It has certainly enjoyed a relatively fast rise to prominence and their growth is abnormal. If you looking to reach us shopping addicted demographics, then Snapchat is definitely an app that you should embrace.

Through last week Snapchat’s Stories feature, millennials were able to see engaging content that has shown runway pictures, backstage shots and front-row experiences. By using Snapchat fashion brands were able to be authentic and unpolished. Therefore it is perfect to show that there is a human behind your brand and by offering them exclusive deals for loyal customers, they will definitely come more than once to check your stories.

So here are my thoughts, how you could integrate Snapchat into your social media strategy:

Sneak previews of your new products.
Show your fans what you are all about through your staff.
Ask questions and you will get immediate feedback.
Offer rewards and coupons.
Make some competitions.

Help yourself and text me on Twitter, if you need an eager thought or get inspired by Pinterest and YouTube.

SEO facing CONTENT

15. November 2015

Listen up folks! I was asked an interesting question in an interview last week, if I would spend my money either on SEO or Content Marketing. I hopefully impressed the manager by telling him my thought-provoking and entertaining way to generate new leads and sales. So here we are, hoping that I can declare my opinion clearly enough that you guys can be in complete agreement and banish your SEO guys from your office. No, I am joking! They still need a good position, if your ad budget is large enough.

However, if you are looking for a modern much more influential way to get your brand message out there, you can use Content Marketing! Let’s imagine you have a small ecommerce fashion Startup like a friend of mine in Birmingham. He sells under his fashion line PROVIDE these wonderful designed clothes with the idea that people get paid a fair wage for their production.
Everything else than Swedish retailer's! 🙈

Here I would suggest that those companies with smaller budgets never benefit from SEO. If we Millennials desperately wanted your products right from the start, we would look for your ad. But most of the times we don’t. Content Marketing works because we Millennials want to solve an issue. We need something helpful. Therefore it’s better to invest in content that hits us Millennials brains. Your content is the ad without being an ad! You will get your signals on Google when your content is spread throughout the Internet and many people are sharing it, talking about it and linking back to it. So it combines several Digital Marketing areas such as SEO and Social Media Marketing.

You might be stuck, but useful content is essentially the basis of how the Internet works nowadays. If we consumers are looking for answers, we ask our aunt Miss Google. She answers our needs! Therefore to get us Millennials to discuss and pass along your content, you need high quality, interactive and supporting content based on your target groups needs.

Help yourself and text me on Twitter, if you need an eager thought or get inspired by Pinterest and YouTube.

Conversions by emotions

21. December 2015

Hearing Christmas songs from my ITunes playlist gets me in a special mood, feeling empowered to buy little gifts for all necessary family members. And honestly, it’s not that easy, cause’ promising each other every year that nobody will spend more than the budget limit (which seems to be rising every year), makes it not feasible for everyone. However, let’s go back to the main reason for this blog post, which is: Fashion Ecommerce players, who knows how Millenials psychology let them dip into their purses. Ka-Ching!!!

So here I am, sitting with my laptop on the cosy couch with a cup full of wonderful hot chocolate with cream on top and a little bit of pressure, cause’ there are only four days left until Christmas!!! But thanks to the help of every parcel delivery service, I will get my purchases right on time. Great work guys! (Hope they will recognize my link and therefore get me some traffic and a higher ranking position.)

My behaviour is now ultimately driven by the Christmas spirit. Therefore, all Ecommerce players who have their page beautiful prepared with some “Holly Jolly Christmas“ visuals, will definitely increase their conversion rate in the end of my emotional and sometimes not logical decisions trip.

For this reason here is one example, which brought my behaviour to react and order something. Topshop! Fancy, open & bright designs. Moving imagery and perfect created CTA’s.

So let’s face it marketers! We Millenials are driven by behavioural emotions, when it comes towards to our online shopping behaviour. Therefore, try to catch our subconscious mind, by creating positive visceral reactions through right to the topic prepared pages.

Little side comment:
I wish you all a wonderful Christmas time and an amazing start for an incredible new year and please don't forget to text me on Twitter, if you need an eager thought or get inspired by Pinterest and YouTube.