Dubai is populated with fashion-conscious locals and style-addicted ex-pats. There’s certainly no shortage of great fashion brands in this cosmopolitan city! Whether you’re thinking about opening your own store or you want to modernize your existing one, we’re here to help.
Businesses across industries are leveraging digital marketing techniques to achieve their goals and succeed. The fashion world is no exception.
You might know how to sew, stitch, and knit your way to a beautiful garment, but if you don’t know how to market your products online — you’re going to miss out on a huge audience of digital consumers.
In this article, we’re sharing our top 10 digital marketing techniques for fashion brands and luxury haute couture labels in Dubai. Get the inside scoop on this season’s (digital marketing) trends with YourTarget!
10 digital marketing tips for fashion brands and haute couture labels in Dubai from YourTarget
1. Build an incredible, user-friendly website (and accompanying mobile app!)
Your website is kind of like your virtual shop window.
It’s where your customers will go to buy your products or find out more about your business, so you want it to make an exceptional impression. This requires you to build a user-friendly, eye-catching website that allows visitors to browse your products, add them to their cart, and check out easily.
Make sure your website features your contact details, updated links, and easy access to customer support. Along with attractive imagery, your website should be filled with great copy and effective CTAs to encourage visitors to convert into paying customers.
If you’re just starting out, you might choose to build your website yourself with a tool like WordPress or SquareSpace.
These website building platforms offer a range of customizable templates and e-commerce functionality, so you can get started right away. If, on the other hand, you’re looking to overhaul your existing website with a fresh new look and have the budget for it, consider hiring an experienced web developer to take your website to the next level.
In the UAE, 60.5% of web traffic in 2021 came from smartphones, moreover, 73% of consumers are mobile shoppers.
So, even if you’ve got a kick-ass website, you’re not going to achieve your full potential without a fully-responsive mobile app. Additionally, the mobile app should allow for a seamless shopping experience across devices. That means someone should be able to start their shopping journey with your brand on a desktop and continue it to checkout with mobile.
2. Know your audience
Just like any business, marketing a fashion brand or haute couture label in Dubai requires you to know your audience. Create buyer personas that represent your ideal customer. To do this, you’ll need to ask questions about your audience.
Are they made up of mostly men or women? Older or younger consumers? Are they looking for budget deals or high-end steals? Do they mainly shop on desktop or mobile devices? Once you know who your audience is made up of, you can better target your marketing campaigns to appeal to their needs.
Hint: You can get started with our buyer persona template.
3. Tell your brand’s story
Consumers are subject to hundreds of impersonal adverts and soulless marketing campaigns every day — whether we’re scrolling through our phones, watching TV, or reading the newspapers, they’re everywhere!
Telling your brand’s story and imbuing it with a sense of personality makes it much more likely that your audience will identify and make a purchase. In fact, people are 55% more likely to buy a product if they like a brand’s story. So how do you help people get to know your real brand?
Think carefully about your brand’s philosophy. Why do you do what you do? What do you want people to know about your fashion brand? What values does it represent? When you tell your audience your story with honesty and integrity, it adds authenticity to your brand and encourages consumers to trust you.
In the fashion world, telling a story that stands out can be challenging. One great example of brand storytelling is Dubai-based second-hand retailer Retold. The great marketing team behind Retold hone in on their values, which revolve around building a more sustainable future by recycling clothes and boycotting fast fashion. In doing this, they’ve amassed an audience of environmentally responsible consumers. Moreover, they give shoppers the chance to get more involved by donating and reselling their clothes for a profit.
4. Use photos and videos to promote your products
Make sure your website and social media profiles are filled with breathtaking images and videos that show off your products. Don’t just opt for the run-of-the-mill images common on big e-commerce platforms like Amazon. Hire a professional or coerce a friend into playing the role of photographer for the day. If you want to go it alone, Shopify shares some great tips in this article.
Try different angles and lighting techniques. Use different models to give your audience a good idea of how your products will look on different body shapes. Be creative to capture your audience’s attention! Also, consider using video to your advantage. 86% of businesses use video as a marketing tool — so what are you waiting for?
5. Establish a kick-ass social media strategy
Promoting your fashion brand on social media isn’t an option in today’s hyper-connected world — it’s essential. Social media is no longer a place for people to share their holiday snaps or photos of their fancy-looking brunch.
Platforms like Facebook and Instagram have evolved to offer built-in e-commerce functionality as well as a range of branding and advertising tools to boost visibility and engagement. Establish profiles on all social media platforms, and develop strategies for each.
Remember to segment your audience based on their social media behavior. For instance, LinkedIn will attract a different audience to Instagram or TikTok.
You’ll want to create a consistent, creative, and engaging brand image on social media. Here are some tips for how to use social media to grow your fashion brand in Dubai:
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- Encourage shoppers to take photos wearing your products and accompany them with a hashtag
- Advertise new products
- Enable consumers to purchase directly on Instagram and Facebook
- Use social media to provide omnichannel customer service
- Go live and show viewers behind the scenes look at events/new products
- Collaborate with social media influencers and fashion bloggers
6. Use influencer marketing
Carrying on from the last point, influencer marketing is a niche that deserves its very own point. Use influencer marketing to get your clothes seen on and by the right people. This can be a great way to attract more leads and boost sales.
Whether you’re running a large fashion brand or a small boutique, reach out to local influencers and propose a collaboration. You might provide them with a new product in return for a photo and a tag linking to your website. Or ask if they’ll do a video review of your product.
Remember to think carefully about the kind of influencers you want to engage with, as they’ll be associated with your brand. Does their style align with your brand? Do they share your vision and values? Answer these questions before reaching out.
7. Create a content marketing strategy
Content marketing is a great way to boost your fashion brand’s visibility and encourage engagement. As a fashion brand in Dubai, you’ll want to create a content strategy that engages a local and global audience while establishing your business as an industry leader.
There are lots of different types of content you might choose to create including blog articles, infographics, and even podcasts. Whichever form your content takes, you’ll need to ensure it’s valuable and relevant to your audience. In the fashion world, people love to hear about the latest trends and how to stay stylish. Here are some ideas:
- Create fashion gift guides for holiday events
- Share news that relates to your brand’s values and philosophy
- Write about current and future fashion trends your audience should look out for
- Expand on your brand’s story with interviews with key members of your team
- Create how-to guides about how to wear and accessorize various products
Remember to include links to products in your content, so visitors can read and shop effortlessly.
8. Focus on events
It’s no secret that the fashion industry in Dubai has gone global, but that doesn’t mean the real world is completely irrelevant!
Dubai’s largely ex-pat population means that there’s still a lot of scope for holiday shopping, western-world style. People buy gifts for all kinds of occasions, including (but not limited to) Christmas, birthdays, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Valentines Day, graduations, and anniversaries.
Make sure you up your digital marketing game around these occasions. You might offer custom apparel items for specific events, or host targeted campaigns to encourage people to share photos of themselves during these celebrations.
Make sure your editorial calendar encompasses all of these holiday occasions so you can leverage your audience’s celebrations to your full potential!
9. Use email marketing and retargeting
Develop an email marketing strategy to keep in touch with your audience. You might send them a monthly newsletter with updates about new products or special deals for “members”.
Moreover, you can use email to send visitors shopping cart reminders. The global shopping cart abandonment rate is a whopping 81.08%. Many people start shopping on their smartphones, get distracted, and leave their items sitting in the cart without starting the checkout process. Sending a gentle reminder to customers is a great way to quickly trigger their desire for a particular product again.
10. Run giveaways on Instagram
For your most popular products, consider conducting giveaway competitions on Instagram. People love free things — so this is a great way to boost engagement and your online visibility.
Create a post announcing the giveaway and ask your followers to tag their friends and share the post to their story to be in with a chance of winning. It’s a quick and easy way to give your fashion brand a quick boost!
Ready to test out these marketing tips for yourself?
Developing a digital marketing strategy to market your fashion brand or haute couture boutique in Dubai is the key to your success. In a digital world, there’s no escaping an online presence and the social media world.
Once you understand who your audience is and how to best capture their attention with digital marketing tactics, you’ll find yourself attracting customers left, right, and center. Remember, in a competitive market, you need your fashion business to stand out. That means keeping your brand’s missions and values at the heart of everything you do.
Are you ready to start building a digital marketing strategy to take your Dubai fashion business above and beyond? Book a free consultation and let’s do it together.
