04 Apr Blogging meets freebies
Blogging and social media play an important role in sales. 64% of social shoppers look to blogs for inspiration before buying, writes Cindy Drabaviciute
Image licensed under Creative Commons
There are four times as many bloggers in the US than the UK; 29.2% of bloggers are located in the US leaving the UK second place with 6.75%. A fashion blogger is a type of blogger that mostly blogs about fashion, mixing other things in to spice it up. Most fashion blogs include beauty tips and reviews, lifestyle and fitness. As time goes by and as the number of readers grows, most fashion bloggers will end up having a YouTube channel. It’s another platform other than blogging, for them to increase the number of followers. It allows the reader to see the personality of the blogger and get to know them better.
We’ll chat about vloggers some other time, today I would like to look at the financial side of fashion bloggers. As you may or may not know, being a fashion blogger doesn’t always revolve around shopping and spending money. Naturally, the bloggers do receive clothes for free which they will then advertise on their blog. A lot of bloggers get freebies from companies in an exchange of them putting a good word in or spreading the word about less known companies. Fashion comes in all shapes and sizes and so do freebies. Bloggers receive shoes, accessories, make up, make up accessories, the list goes on and on. The fun part of this is that the bloggers aren’t obliged to advertise the garments, they get to choose whether they want to advertise the product or not. They all have a distinctive taste and style and since 81% of US consumers trust advice and information from blogs, it’s only fair of them to do their bit and do justice to the product.
Social networks can influence people’s decisions with Instagram and Facebook being most influential in at least one fashion category.Having done research, I found out that clothing companies like Miss Guided, Rad, Asos and sportswear like Nike and Daniel Wellington watches collaborate with fashion bloggers from time to time in an exchange of a good review. Many fashion bloggers have collaborated with Daniel Wellington watches and in doing so they provide their readers with a discount code for the watches. In most cases its 15% off with a bloggers name. This technique works three ways; not only do the bloggers get a free watch, the readers get a discount, and in Daniel Wellington’s case, a possible increase in sales. I have contacted Daniel Wellington’s press office to find out how these collaborations take place, what they expect from the bloggers and how do these collaborations benefit the company and I’ve got an email from the social commerce coordinator saying, “Unfortunately, this is not something we are interested in taking part of at the moment.”, he also wished me good luck with the report. Shame it’s not a watch, but that’ll do. A swim wear and underwear company Triangl have also responded to my email, saying that “Unfortunately we won’t be able to help you as we are unable to provide any information on our company’s strategy, therefore we have to politely decline your request.” I will leave this quote for your interpretation.
If you ask me what I found out from the research, I would say that even though press offices declined politely, they aren’t as cooperating with journalists as they are with fashion bloggers. Other companies have not responded to my emails.
