Decoding Fashion and Accessories Digital Marketing [2023]

The global jewelry market earned 57.965 billion in 2021, and it doesn’t show signs of slowing in 2022 and 2023.  Lockdown during COVID-19 provided a massive boost for online retailers, but since the introduction of iOS14, tracking online sales at the ad platform level has proved challenging.  Digital marketing in the fashion and accessories industries is evolving rapidly. In just a few short years, we've seen remarkable changes in how brands reach and engage customers online. If recent trends are any indication, the next few years will bring even more transformative changes to how fashion and accessory brands market themselves online. 

Here's a look at some of the most exciting digital marketing trends poised to take over the industry in 2023 and beyond.

#1 Focus On Your Customer Journey

To ensure continued success, it is crucial to focus on your customer journey and analyze your website and channel statistics regularly. Paying attention to where customers are dropping out of your funnel can help you improve your website and marketing efforts to keep customers engaged. Tracking your metrics and funnel performance will help you increase your conversion rate and increase sales in the long run. Focus on the channels with a high drop-off rate and see where the customer journey can be improved.

Make sure you're providing fulfilling experiences and content to customers in each stage of the buying process. 

In your audit, you want to make sure you're investigating the above and addressing any issues directly.If it comes to light that it’s a problem with your sales process, then it’s an opportunity to address the sales process and train your staff to handle their role successfully. Drop-offs at the sales stage are sorely overlooked issues that many companies struggle with right now.  If you're not super-focused on the sales stage, and it's not a part of your monthly or quarterly discussions, you are behind the curve.  Focus on the customer journey and implement improvements to ensure your customers are getting what they need. 

You can then develop a testing approach to improve conversion rates. This will always be more effective than the a/b testing that doesn't consider the journey customers take.

Key Takeaways For Your Customer Journey

• Monitor and conduct analytics audits regularly.
• Where are users dropping off in the funnel, ie, product pages, collections pages?
• Are there barriers to checking out quickly and easily?
• Is your product page optimized for user experience?
• What channels are performing poorly, and which are performing well and why?
• Develop a regular A/B testing strategy to make incremental improvements. 

More Personalized and Targeted Advertising

Today's consumers are accustomed to seeing highly personalized ads. Brands use custom events to track user behavior and target users with ads matching their preferences. This type of targeted advertising is already highly effective, and it will become even more so over the next few years. Brands will increasingly use data from social media, e-commerce platforms, and other sources to create highly personalized ad experiences for their target audiences. And as advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning technologies become more accessible, we can expect to see even more personalized ads in the future. 

As we move into 2023, the trend will only continue as personalization and customization become even more critical in the digital space. For fashion and accessories brands, this means creating content that speaks directly to the individual needs and desires of their target customer base. Gone are the days of generic "one-size-fits-all" marketing campaigns - now, it's all about creating a personalized experience that will resonate with your audience on a deeper level.

Key Takeaways For Personalized Advertising In 2023

• Aggregate your customer data
• Sync data from your CRM or email platform to create custom audiences.
• Track key custom events from your website to personalize advertising
• Use dynamic ad formats
• Sync your product data with major ad channels 

Double Down On Email

If you are an established brand, email marketing is likely your top-performing channel, and if your brand is just launching, doubling down on your email marketing is imperative to increase audience engagement.  With the rise of automated platforms like Klayvio, we suggest working through, at a minimum, your welcome flow for new customers.  This is a worthwhile investment, and it will pay dividends in the future. 

Consider using at least the following in your welcome flow:

• Send a series of emails that welcome a new customer and help them learn about your product
• Introduce yourself or your team to the customer
• Offer a discount or coupon code to encourage the first purchase
• Track real-time behaviors in your emails to segment your leads
• Provide a personalized single-use coupon code

If you can’t email the list, SMS is the next best marketing channel. Texts are incredibly personal for customers, and though your deliverability may experience some hiccups, customers have an incredibly high bar for SMS interruptions. As long as you’re monitoring your cadence, you’re good to go. Make sure to segment your customers and give them a way to opt out should they wish.

Key Takeaways For Email Marketing In 2023

• It's no secret that winning in digital means winning in email
• Ensure your email marketing is set up correctly with at least some of these flows:
• Abandoned Cart
• Welcome Series
• Time-Based Email Offers
• Winback
• Review Requests
• Add SMS marketing into the mix ASAP!

Generate Creative Faster

The ad creative you use is more important than ever. The best strategy is to build content for the platform you are advertising on.  For example, create TikTok videos that feel like organic TikTok posts.  The best-performing ads feel native to the platform.  We suggest doubling down your creative diversification in messaging and formats for 2023.  You will not only have to be more creative with your ad messages but also with the formats you use. Video ads are no longer enough. You must create creative content that people want to see and engage with. This can be done through various formats, such as influencer marketing, user-generated content, and virtual reality.

Additionally, stay in regular communication with your media buyers and deliver fresh creative to test more aggressively against audiences in retargeting and prospecting.  Initially, test targeting as broadly as possible on cold audiences and let the platform algorithm narrow your ideal customer.   

Key Takeaways For Creative In 2023

• Double down on your creative
• Video is king 
• Test messaging and positioning within the market 
• Get into a regular cadence with your media buyers 
• Provide consistent creative every week 
• Test your targeting more aggressively against creative and messaging
• Look-alike lists
• Broad targeting
• Demographics
• Locations

Inspiration

We’ve compiled two swipe files with some top-performing content from Meta and TikTok.

• TikTok Ad Examples
• Meta Ad Examples

The Rise of Influencer Marketing 

It’s no mystery that influencer marketing has become an increasingly popular tool for reaching consumers. This is especially true in the fashion and accessories industry, where influencers can help to promote and sell products to their followers. As we move into 2023, this trend will undoubtedly continue, with more brands turning to influencer marketing as a crucial part of their digital marketing strategy. Influencers will be able to reach a wider audience than ever before, and they will be able to target specific demographics with tailor-made content.  Getting the rights to use influencer content made for specific platforms in your ads can be a big part of your digital ad strategy.  It becomes easier to scale when you have a systematic approach to delivering and using that content to generate sales. 

Key Takeaways For Influencer Marketing

• Develop a plan to work effectively with your influencers 
• Creative briefs 
• Tone and brand messaging
• Follow-up and delivery 
• Vary your messaging and product regularly