Many apparel companies have mastered marketing techniques to garner the attention of the public and grow as a brand. One company that has been particularly adept at digital marketing is ASOS – a London-based clothing company that sells multiple apparel lines that targets customers in the 16-30 age range.
ASOS has no brick and mortar retail stores, and they depend on e-commerce for all of their business.
Luckily, the company has proven that they can master the realm of online marketing to draw in customers and grow; in fact, the company has a target of 25-30% revenue growth this year, and they will be investing £200m to expand the business by the end of 2018.
Here are the ways that ASOS has used the power of the web to become one of the most successful fast fashion companies in the world.
Exclusive Twitter Discounts
ASOS makes use of one social media network particularly well for marketing: Twitter.
The company regularly tweets outfit suggestions to followers, with images and links to clothing.
https://twitter.com/ASOS/status/1030427275194511361/photo/1
In addition, they use Twitter to offer exclusive discounts on items. By offering exclusive Twitter discounts, ASOS encourages people to follow them, then regularly receive information about deals on products that they might be encouraged to buy.
ASOS Branded Fashion Magazine
To help strengthen their brand and draw in a larger audience of fashion-conscious followers, ASOS created their own branded magazine. The magazine is (usually) only sent to the most loyal shoppers of the brand.
As of today, the magazine is the most widely read quarterly fashion magazine in the UK, and the company has put out more than 100 issues. To celebrate the 100th issue, the company decided to sell the magazine to non-customers of the brand.
ASOS' magazine is a smart marketing tactic because people cannot get their hands on a copy unless they shop the online store – which means they're encouraged to buy.
The company also uses the magazine to promote their own clothing, which can then help encourage the sale of specific products or pieces.
Targeting and Mass Appeal
Many e-commerce clothing companies today are focused on using personalized marketing tactics to deliver targeted marketing messages.
To do this, they collect consumer data and try to deliver relevant ads. However, ASOS' marketing team understands that while personalization is important, mass marketing has its own place in a comprehensive strategy.
ASOS will gather data to market the right pieces of clothing to the right consumers. However, they also do things like create a brand hashtag to get a wide range of people showing off their ASOS clothing.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BnTa4PDj8vq/?utm_source=ig_embed
The #AsSeenOnMe hashtag encouraged anyone who'd bought and worn ASOS clothes to post the clothing on their Instagram. This not only helped customers feel like they were a part of the brand experience, it also provided value to other customers (and potential customers) who were getting advice from a collection of "peer" stylists.
By balancing specific targeting and mass wide appeal, ASOS expands its reach to communicate with the largest possible audience and makes the most of its marketing dollars.
Newsletters to Announce Sales
In order to encourage shopping but still make sales feel exclusive and special, ASOS is strategic in how they announce their discounts. While they host large sales on their website during popular times (e.g. the December holidays), ASOS also uses their email newsletter as a specific platform for disseminating discount info.
More than 50% of ASOS' newsletters contain information about sales. Many of the emails that the company sends out also contain discount codes.
By using email newsletters as a means of getting out information about sales, ASOS encourages people to sign up for the newsletter. This means that people not only get to see information in the emails that encourage them to buy, it also gives ASOS the contact info of potential sales leads, which they can use in a variety of ways to encourage shopping.
If you're going to run an Internet-based fashion business, it's important to also understand how to use digital means to market to an audience on the web.
ASOS has done just that with their effective online marketing techniques.
By utilizing a variety of channels and tactics to reach both wide and targeted audiences, and by taking advantage of new and daring technologies that other clothing companies were overlooking, ASOS has become the UK's largest online fashion retail company – and one that's set its sights on continuing to grow.
