How To Write A Fashion Clothing Marketing Plan

As you create your business, it’s important to know that most people find out about a clothing brand through marketing. So how can you carve yourself off some of the attention of your chosen target audience? How can you create a marketing plan that will help you achieve your goals?

To write a fashion clothing marketing plan:

1. Conduct enough market research to make informed decisions.

2. Create your SWOT analysis for your business—which stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. 

3. Outline your marketing objectives. 

4. Use your research to determine which mediums are best for your marketing. 

5. Find the product you would like to focus on and set your prices. 

6. Determine how you’d like to market your clothing line—take those objectives and put them into reality. 

7. Create your message.

There are many different ways to create your marketing plan, but these are the basic steps and the information that you will need to make your best marketing decisions. Whether you’re considering print or online marketing, or want to focus on a specific target audience, read on to find out what you should know before you put an advertisement anywhere. 

Conduct enough market research to make informed decisions.

When you’re creating your marketing plan for your clothing line, it’s important to have an idea of what other people are doing and what trends are most popular at the moment. It’s also important to broaden your horizons—what you might think works in terms of marketing may not be the best idea to reach your target demographic. 

How to Write a Fashion Clothing Marketing Plan.

To create this part of your marketing plan, talk to everyone within your company, big or small, to figure out what their opinions and impressions are of your fashion company. This will help you create a section of your marketing plan that comes into play later. 

You should also start researching your competitors. Consider looking into the strategies of businesses of your same level—or set your sights higher. See what they’re doing right and consider what they could improve on. Find out where they’re advertising, and how they’re doing it. Learning from whatever they’re already doing can help you determine not just what trends are popular in clothing, but what trends are most popular in advertising—just like viral videos on TikTok or memes on Facebook, they come and go. 

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Create your SWOT analysis for your business—which stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. 

After determining your market research, it’s time to consider what it means for your business. Your SWOT analysis is an important part of your business plan, but it is also integral to your marketing plan. What your SWOT analysis does is outlines what your business strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats are, and how you can fix them. 

Using that research, determine what your strengths are. Consider the business atmosphere, what you can provide, and what you do for your employees. How is your customer service? How do you rise above your competition?

Your weaknesses are similar to your strengths—internally, what can you do better, and how can you do better externally on a public market? What are you striving to do better? What are your goals for improvement?

What kind of opportunities are you looking for in the future for your clothing line? Outline them here. What kind of growth do you think you can achieve, and what are you looking to do in the future? What kind of market would you like to branch into?

When it comes to threats, you can also use your market research to determine those. What kind of issues may your business face, and how can you combat them? What kind of challenges to trends put on your clothing business? How about potential competitors? Do you have issues with your location? Consider anything that may limit your success or profits at this point in your analysis. 

Outline your marketing objectives. 

This may seem obvious for your clothing line—gain more popularity and increase profit—but it’s important to create goals that are both attainable and still high enough to be a cause for celebration. Be specific when you’re considering your objectives, even if it is bringing in new repeating clients, creating a better online presence, increasing your profits by a certain percentage, or even just creating a better and more recognizable brand. 

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Use your research to determine which mediums are best for your marketing. 

When considering marketing, you can’t just look into what the market is doing—you also have to research what kind of medium is best for your marketing plan. There are many options out there for you, including still word of mouth and television advertising. But what works best for the clothing industry? It’s really a toss up, depending on what your target market is. Two of the best approaches for a clothing brand are:

How to Write a Fashion Clothing Marketing Plan.
  • Online marketing. This tends to be the most popular and will continue to be popular, as it is both one of the easiest ways to market and one of the cheapest. If you are a small business and you are just starting out, you can easily leverage your social media pages for free advertising. Posting and going viral just means more attention for your products, so craft your social media posts with enough information to bring people back and make them curious about your brand. 
  • Print marketing. The print marketing medium is still alive and well in the fashion industry. Consider all the magazines that are still around that focus on fashion—Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar to name a few. This is still an option for your fashion line, although it can be hard to break into—you have to be persistent, make connections, and do a lot of the work yourself. 
Find the product you would like to focus on and set your prices. 

While this may already be in play for you as a growing business, if you’re just starting out, make sure you have your inventory purchased and set, along with prices. When people search your advertising for what they may be interested in purchasing, they need to know whether your products are within their price point. Don’t be afraid to show that in your advertising as well. 

Determine how you’d like to market your clothing line—take those objectives and put them into reality. 

So where does the combination of all that market research, your SWOT analysis, and your objectives come into play? All that information you’ve gathered can now be used to create your marketing plan. Since you’ve decided what marketing mediums you think may work the best, it’s time to start developing what your advertisements may look like. 

One important thing to note is that this is still your marketing plan. You do not have to finalize any potential posts or ads—just get an idea of what you want it to look like. Have a brand already for your clothing line? Make sure all your marketing materials display your logo, name, colors, fonts, etc. that you use for your clothing line for maximum effect. 

Create your message. 
How to Write a Fashion Clothing Marketing Plan.

With all that market research and determinations on what you want your advertisements to look like, it’s time to craft your message. This is really the final step in creating your marketing plan when it all comes together. What do you want people to take away about your brand? What do you want them to know? Outline the impressions you want your target audience to have when they look at your advertisements. 

At this point in development, your plan should be created and you’ll be able to consider your next steps. Whether you feel comfortable creating your own advertisements and posts or choose to hire a professional instead, it doesn’t matter—you have the appropriate target information, branding, and your message all planned out for them to work with. Whether you’re a small clothing business looking to work in a local area or if you want to branch out into something bigger and get in contact with a magazine like Cosmopolitan, this marketing plan guide can help you get there. 

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RELATED QUESTIONS

What are the seven elements of a marketing plan?

While there are many different ways to approach a marketing plan, it’s important to remember seven steps, including determining your product, setting your price, finding the place you’re going to advertise, know the people you’re advertising to, outlining your process, and creating your advertisements. 

What are the best ways to advertise my clothing line for free?

There are a few ways to advertise your business for free, and most of those ways come from a social media presence. Using sites like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, you can post on your business account information, videos, facts, and any other posts that may catch the eye of your potential customer. These posts are free and don’t have to be considered advertisements, but they can still capture the attention of potential customers. 

To learn more about how to start your own fashion clothing line check out my startup documents here

Please note: This blog post is for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Please consult a legal expert to address your specific needs.