2017 State of Content Marketing in Fashion & Apparel

2017 State of Content Marketing
in Fashion & Apparel
2017 State of Content Marketing
in Fashion & Apparel

Feelings about
Content Marketing in
the Fashion Industry

90%
of the fashion industry believes that
content marketing is crucial — if not
extremely crucial — to the success of
their organization.

60%
30%
7%
2% 0%
Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree
"Content marketing is critical to the success of my
fashion organization."
Content Marketing is Critical to the
Success of Fashion Organizations

87%
of fashion companies have a sense of
commitment to content marketing in
their organization

38%
50%
9%
4%
0%
"There is a general sense of commitment to content marketing in
my fashion organization."
Sense of Commitment to Content
Marketing in the Fashion Industry

However, only 47% have a
documented content
marketing strategy.
And 46% of fashion
organizations are neutral
or do not believe that
their company’s content
marketing is successful.

18%
29%
30%
19%
4%
Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly
Disagree
"My organization has a documented content marketing
strategy / KPIs for success."
11%
39%
32%
13%
1%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
"My fashion organization's content marketing is successful."

A recurring theme in content marketing in the
fashion and apparel industry is inconsistencies
in expectation and realistic strategy.
The fashion industry agrees that content
marketing is crucial to success…

… so if the shoe ﬁts, why are most
brands not wearing it?

95%
of the fashion industry expects more
content, and higher quality content from
their organization in 2017.
2/3 of fashion teams believe their
organization’s content marketing is more
successful now than last year.

61%
33%
5%
0% 1%
"Compared to 2016, I expect my fashion organization to produce
higher quality content in 2017."
22%
46%
23%
8%
2%
"Compared to 2015, my fashion organization is more successful now
than last year."

“With high cost, conventional modes of advertising on
the decline, more and more brands are turning to
original content to target their customers.”
High Snobiety

Higher quality content is a winning
strategy that made fashion organizations
more successful now than last year
Let’s keep going!

72%
52%
50%
36%
27%
26%
17%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%
Higher quality of content
More content
Better audience definition
Strategy changes
Better lead capture tactics
Better distribution
Better measurement
What tactics made your fashion organizations' content marketing become
more successful than last year?
Tactics That Made Fashion Brands More
Successful Than Last Year

On the other hand,
budget issues were the largest cause of
a fashion organization’s decline or
stagnation in content marketing success
in 2016.

54%
46%
36%
34%
24%
24%
11%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%
Budget issues
Not enough time
Lack of good visual content
Training/knowledge
Management support
Lack of writers
Other
What issues made your fashion organizations' content marketing stay
the same or be less successful than last year?
Issues that Made Fashion Brands Less
Successful Than Last Year

Fortunately, 63% of fashion organizations
expect their budget for content
marketing to increase in 2017
(from an average of about 25% of their
marketing budget).

29%
34%
27%
7%
3%
"I expect my fashion organization's budget to increase in 2017."
12%
24%
26%
21%
5%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
50-100% 25-50% 10-25% 1-10% 0%
How much of the fashion industry's marketing budget is spent
on content creation?

87% of shoppers do research online before
visiting a store.
Google

The fashion and apparel industry is
continuing on the upward trend of digital
content marketing usage in 2017

85%
57%
44%
44%
37%
28%
25%
23%
15%
14%
5%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%
Social Media
Online Lookbooks
Video
Blogs
Newsletters
Moodboards
Online catalogues
Print
Digital magazines
How-to-videos
Content Aggregation
What kinds of content does the fashion industry currently use?
Kinds of Content Currently Used by the
Fashion Industry

After social media, the most critical
content types for 2017 are video, online
lookbooks, and newsletters

156
56
50
49
31
23
18
16
12
7
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180
Social media
Video
Online Lookbooks
Newsletters
Blogs
Print
Online catalogues
How-to videos
Digital Magazines
Content Aggregation
*Calculated by mul.plying the percent of respondents who deemed cri.cal to success by the number of respondents who used each kind
of content
Fashion industry's perceived importance to success in 2017 (weighted by
amount of use)
Most Critical to Success in 2017

of the fashion companies that don’t
already use online lookbooks, blogs, and
video plan to start in 2017.
1/4

A large trend for 2017 is the seamless
integration of content and eCommerce

online look books and video are on the
rise, as well as the direct linking of social
media to the fashion organization’s
eCommerce site.
Clickable

The fashion industry felt that
is the most critical content type
for success in 2017.
social media

is the #1 contender for
relevance in 2017, followed by
Facebook
Instagram

surpassed Twitter by 7% as the
next most important social
media platform to pursue in
2017.
This makes sense, given that
video was one of the most
important content types cited by
the fashion industry for 2017.
Youtube

66%
40%
28%
21%
20%
16%
13%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%
Instagram
Facebook
Youtube
Twitter
Linked In
Google+
Pinterest
% of fashion companies that cited as extremely critical to
success in 2017
Most Critical to Success in 2017:
Social Media

8%
8%
16%
31%
17%
14%
6%
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35%
100%
90%
75%
50%
25%
10%
0%
As a fashion company, how much of your blogged
content is overtly promotional?
Overtly Promotional Blogged Content
The fashion industry is split on the use of:

is the #1 KPI of content
marketing looking into 2017 (for
an estimated 45% of the fashion
industry).
Brand awareness

45%
27%
20%
8%
Brand awareness
Product sales
Engagement
Customer loyalty

Perhaps, “instead of contributing to the general
hubbub on every platform, do targeted impactful
content that inspires people.”
Duncan Edwards
Content Strategy Consultant/Director for ASOS

The majority of the fashion industry uses
customer feedback and competitive
analysis as tactics to determine the right
content, while only 44% use keyword
research in content marketing!

77%
60%
44%
34%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%
Customer feedback
Competitive analysis
Keyword research
Employee feedback
As a fashion company, what tactics do you use to determine the
right content?
Tactics to Determine the Right Content
in the Fashion Industry

is performing better in proportion to the
amount it is used. Banner ads are
performing slightly worse than the
amount they are used.
Paid Search Engine

Organic Search Engine
Email Newsle2er
Banner Ads
Paid Search Engine
Print
Na8ve Adver8sing
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
%Success
% Usage
Use of Content Distribution Tools vs.
Relative Success

is the most widely monitored metric to
determine content marketing success in
the fashion industry. This is followed by
product sales and social sharing.
Website trafﬁc

Logical upgrades
from just monitoring website trafﬁc, like
tracking conversion rates, SEO rankings,
dwell time, and purchase intent, are much
less widely used in fashion marketing.

76%
66%
55%
44%
42%
32%
31%
21%
11%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%
Website Traffic
Product Sales
Social Sharing
Conversion Rates
Community Growth
SEO Rankings
Time on Website
Purchase Intent
Inbound Links
As a fashion company, what metrics do you use to measure
the success of content marketing initiatives?
Metrics Used to Measure the Success of
Content Marketing Initiatives

Only about 38% of fashion
organizations measure ROI on their
content marketing.

A lot still up for grabs in the
fashion industry…

The fashion industry has not had a
need for carefully thought out,
incredibly relevant content marketing
pieces.

Why? Because there’s still a lot up for
grabs in the made-for-digital fashion
marketing world.

However, as more and more brands begin
digitalizing, the brands that pull ahead from
the masses will be the ones who have
a targeted, documented
content strategy.
So let’s get started…

“There [is] no reason to be shy. The world is hungry
for new things.”
Carol Lim
Co-Creative Director for Kenzo

2017 State of Content Marketing in Fashion & Apparel

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