How content can help your wholesale clients sell more

The most cost-efficient marketing program that all brands can execute with next to zero budget.

Across most of the western world, retail has been challenged for years by the Internet leading to the mass closure of many small independent stores. And then came Covid-19 on top and made it all worse. Is wholesale dead then? Not if you ask us at VOCAST:

“Some of the best fashion brands we work with actually have growth on their wholesale accounts from 2019 to 2020. I didn’t think that was possible in the current condition, so naturally, we have dug through the best cases to learn how they do it, and we discovered that most brands will be able to it with very little resources.

One of the great things about this marketing program is, that most brands already have the content needed to help their clients sell more. It is just a matter of delivering it in the right manner.”

“The numbers don’t lie. We have rapid growth in download traffic in our clients’ digital showrooms. After steady growth for a while, we went from 1,8 to 2,5 million unique monthly users a month during Black Friday.

An obvious testament, that you need content to sell products. Some of our best-performing clients average close to 100,000 downloads a month. And that activity consists mainly of their wholesale clients downloading images to do Instagram campaigns.”

Co-founder Jens Hamborg Koefoed

Internet changed publishing

20 years ago the only way to become known in a market went through fashion magazines. So very few, very powerful editors controlled your access to the market. If they featured you, you would be successful. Internet and Social Media have made drastic changes to publishing in the last decade or two. Since the Internet and Social Media have made it possible for anyone to become a publisher, everyone is publishing.

The first of the main consequences of that is, that to get known you have to go through radically more people than you used to reach your market. The second is, that since this number is higher you can’t rely on wining and dining and relations alone like PR people used to. Instead, you have to automate your PR and marketing programs. And then the quality of the content becomes more important since it should be able to engage your audience and tell the story that sets your brand apart.

Treat retailers like they were magazines

Since traditional printed publications have been losing reach and influence for close to 20 years, who did they lose it to? If you take a look at the fashion shows and who is front row the obvious answer is bloggers and other types of digital influencers that come in so many shapes and sizes. Nothing new here. But retailers also started blogging and Instagramming. They also have websites, newsletters and some even have printed publications.

And the good news is; They already love your product so much they bought it so you don’t have to pay them to market it on their channels. But they could use some help. Not all are professional content creators so they might do content with your products, that you don’t like.

But if you supply them with a steady stream of content there will be many positive consequences:

1. They will have you top of mind which is nice because you compete for attention with their other brands.

2. They will know your brand better, thus they will be better at selling it.

3. They won’t damage your storytelling by creating content that tells the wrong story.

4. Your content will help them drive customers into their stores asking for your product rather than the products from other brands.

How to get started?

So what do you need for this? Very little actually.

1. Content

You can start with the content you already create for a collection. Campaign shots, lookbook shoots, and product shots of course. But next time you do a photoshoot ask yourself which types of photos would my clients want to publish? In our experience, most great content originates from the original thoughts and the process of the designer.

So take photos and videos when you source products. It can be rough and low cost, start with an iPhone and start experimenting from there. Do content on your production. How is it made? Who is making it? Document the design process, make content on colors, fabrics, tailoring, prints, and other continuous design choices you do along the way.

When you do the classic photoshoots, you should do behind-the-scenes content with an iPhone. Show how fashion is being done.

2. Distributing content

Of course, you can send a link to Dropbox when your clients put in an order, but that won’t make them use your content. Think in snacks rather than meals: So you have to share small selections of content with a theme at a high frequency. Weekly or biweekly depending on your resources.

Do it visually. Everyone in the fashion industry are visual people and they like to be treated accordingly. Beautiful emails with links to visual content.

3. Copy writing

You should inspire them with a few lines for a post accompanied by the images and videos to nudge them to do it immediately rather than next week.

4. Evaluating

If you have a professional tool, you look at the download and engagement metrics to learn what they like and what they don’t. Our experience is, that location is better than studio. Make it personal, tell a story. Flatlays are better than cutouts. But the your clients are unique and they behaviour will tell you their story.

And one last thing: You should make it into a mantra that: The product isn’t sold before our clients sell it.

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