Spun Clothing Wrap Dress

One of  our favorite fashion PR gurus, Crosby Noricks, asked Maria and I to contribute to  PR Couture this week.

Show Me The Pretty, the indie fashion component of PR Couture, features 5-question interviews with hand-selected indie fashion labels. PR Couture shares the pretty and then turns it back to the designers to ask questions and get advice and feedback about their own fashion PR strategy from a variety of industry experts.

This month’s Q & A featured organic, sustainable fashion line SPUN clothing created by Sara Seumae. Sara (described by PR Couture as “a mom on a mission”) wanted to how to successfully maintain and further market her organic clothing line to the consumer retail industry.

Her Questions, Our Answers

Read the full articles on PR Couture Fashion Blog: Show Me Pretty with Spun Clothing.

There has been lots of discussion lately about free sample requests from bloggers. I find that even if I’m not being asked to send free product, some blogs are just not a good fit for my brand. Aside from just plain ignoring the email or phone call, what is the best way to decline a media request without making enemies? Is there a way to keep people happy but say no?

If a blog isn’t a good fit, then don’t provide product. A blogger requesting samples should know their audience. If you go to their site and it doesn’t fit, that tells me the blogger needs to do more homework, so tell them. As an indie designer, you don’t have the endless promotional/sample budgets. Simply let them know that while you are honored at the request, you are still growing and can’t oblige them right now. But please keep in contact for the future in case the opportunity arises. Who knows, they may change the direction of their content and they may be a viable and valuable outlets for you in the future. Never burn bridges. – Macala Wright

Don’t be afraid to say “NO”. With such a wide variety of brands and sites out there, there is no reason why people should work together if they have anything less than a perfect fit. Forming a relationship with a blogger who is not a fit is a disservice to both the brand and the blogger. In this example, just like with anything else in life, honesty (and diplomacy) are the best policy. Take a minute to compliment the blogger, so that she / he doesn’t take your refusal as a personal affront. Thank them for their interest, then briefly explain what types of partnerships you would like to pursue, and briefly state your strategy and vision. Be brief, yet passionate. Tell them that if you come across a brand that’s a better fit for their blog, you will put them in touch (and do carry out your word if circumstances develop that way). Never say you’ll do something and not go through with it, even if you never intend to do business with this person. Your word is all you have, it’s your biggest asset and can be your biggest liability. This community is very tightly knit, so word of unethical behavior will come back to haunt you. If you form a good relationship, even if you don’t work together, this blogger will surely refer other bloggers that are a better fit, provided that you state your vision and strategy clearly and concisely. – Maria Ogneva

A company’s website is just as important today as business cards used to be 10 years ago. Have you ever found yourself liking a brands pitch but being turned off after visiting their website? Are there any tips for things that are a must on a website? What do you absolutely cannot stand on a website?

This is a very big question, and not easily answered in  a short paragraph, but I’ll do my best. A company’s website is it’s digital calling card.  It has to be functional, it has to be easy to navigate, it has to have a proper balance of white space for it’s viewer’s eyes to rest. If you can’t find the information you need or there’s a ton of things happening simultaneously, the viewer is going to leave and not give it a second thought. If it’s an ecommerce site, the photo quality has to be up the best possible.  Cross selling and recommended items are a must-have feature and will increases your average order side by at least 18%.

You must also have an email subscription list for customers that you actively use (in a conscious way of course – not spam) to promote your store, what’s happening and anything that your customers want to know about. Email subscribers are return customers which means repeat sales.

• Let’s say your average order is $128.00. A loyal customer will order 4 – 5 times per year from your site.
• That means, one loyal customer spends $512 – 640 per year on your site.
• If your marketing efforts add 20 loyal customers per month, you’ve grown your sales $10,240 – 12,800 per month; $122,880 to 153,600 per year.

That’s nothing to sneeze at.

Great calling card site: lyellnyc.com

Great ecommerce sites: toast.co.uk | nastygal.com | anthropologie.com | piperlime.com – Macala Wright

I wholeheartedly agree that a website is a business card for today’s business, as is your profile on any social network or blogging / microblogging site, such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr, etc. In the age of web-enabled transparency, the old adage of “don’t write / say anything that you wouldn’t want on the front page of NYT” is truer than ever. If you are producing content and inter-linking and feeding this content into multiple platforms, make sure it’s always the content that you are proud of. For example, if you feed your Twitter updates into your Facebook profile and onto your blog or website, please make sure that you are proud of and stand by every single tweet.

My biggest pet-peeves are: dishonesty, lack of clarity, lack of strategy and vision, bad design (visually and bad navigation) and irrelevant ad clutter.

1. Dishonesty: If you state that you are a top ranking site in terms of traffic and audience engagement, and I see zero comments on all of your blogposts, you just lied, and I leave.

2. Lack of clarity: If after being on your site for 30 seconds, I still don’t know what you do, I leave. You can track how quickly people leave your site via Google Analytics (analytics.google.com) – especially pay attention to the bounce rate.

3. Lack of strategy / vision: This goes hand in hand with #2. Even if I know what you do, I need to know how you stand apart from the other 20 sites that do the same thing. If it’s not clear, I leave. After all, I have 20 other sites to look at.

4. Bad design: If your design is unsuited for your industry, it’s confusing, and I leave. Some visual design is literally hideous; fortunately it’s easy to tell which ones those are – sometimes you get a headache just from looking at the color palette and / or flashing lights. MySpace, anyone? Unsuited for industry is a finer point. If you are an upscale fashion site, your design should be refined and beautiful in every way; you should be able to say “If Coco Chanel was a website, she would be my site.” If you are a
children’s fashion site, make it a lot more playful and colorful. However, bad visual design is just one part of the equation. Making it easy and pleasurable to use is key in increasing time on the site and engagement. You should hire a good UI (user interaction) / UX (user experience) designer to make sure that your page layout and navigation structure make sense and inspire action on the site. If I don’t know where to go, or if my eyes hurt from looking at your site, I leave. And quickly.

5. Irrelevant ad clutter (or any clutter for that matter): We all have to make a living, and some of us do it with ads. However, not all ads are created equal. Ads must be 1. relevant and 2. consistent with the site design. If you are a site about organic clothing, ads for mass produced clothing from KMart just won’t work on your site. They are confusing and take away from the credibility and the brand  you have so carefully created. Even if your ads are relevant, where you put them is an important
decision and part of your design issues from #4. You are better off charging a bit more per ad, for fewer ads; or introducing a combination of ads and sponsored editorials.

Whatever you do, remember to: 1. be clear about what your brand is, 2. be true to your brand, 3. be appropriate, 4. be engaging for your community and give them what they want, 5. be original – you don’t want to be just another fashion site; pick an angle and work it! – Maria Ogneva

Indie designers are on a small budget and our livelihood depends on sales. There are lots of great websites out there that help us get our brand in front of shoppers. However, do you believe that designers should evaluate how many of these different avenues we take? Do you think it’s wise to sell our pieces on our own website, on Etsy, as well as sites such as Smashing Darling? Or do you find that stores will think twice about placing a wholesale order when they will end up having to compete with the designer? Are some indie designers actually hurting their sales by being everywhere?

It depends on the goal of the clothing company. There are many lines that are distributed in many places. Free People is distributed through major retailers like Macy’s and its own website. True Religion, Ella Moss and Cosabella all have multiple distribution points through small, independent retailers and major retailers such as Nordstrom. I do not believe that selling directly through your website, an Etsy portal and Smashing Darling are conflicting. You are talking about three different audiences (markets). There is some crossover between who visits your website, Smashing Darling and Etsy, but I guarantee you, it’s not a large as you think. If your line isn’t available through one of these portals, you may be missing out on sales and expanding your client base. If your distribution outlets match your marketing strategy and support your brand’s message, then use everything you have at your disposal to grow your line. The only conflict I see arising is if you suddenly pick up a larger distribution contract with someone like Macy’s (which is happening because of their new focus on green lines) and all of the sudden you export or outsource production. You will have to make sure you’re still in accordance with the guidelines set forth by your other distribution outlets (e.g. Etsy is handmade goods). – Macala Wright

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