6 Essential Boutique Marketing Tips for Success

Choosing the clothes that’ll make your clientele squeal with delight and order one of everything may be the fun part of owning your online boutique – but it’s only half the battle. 

Let’s be honest. You didn’t get into this business to have a closet bursting with unsold inventory. If you want your boutique to continue growing, you need to sell!

For your boutique to be successful (and for you to get PAID), you’ve got to get your online store in front of the right people. The kind of people who are already looking for EVERYTHING you’re selling.

It might sound a bit hard to believe, but marketing isn’t about convincing people to buy from you. More often than not, it’s about showing up in front of the people who are already poised to buy. (It’s way easier than changing people’s minds, I’ll tell ya that!)

Not a born marketer? No worries. With the right tools and a bit of a push, any online boutique owner can go from unknown to unmissable. Here are a few tips and tools EVERY boutique owner should be using to market their online store:

1. Email Marketing

Email marketing is a great way to increase engagement and conversion for your online store. It allows you to nurture your relationship with customers – and turn one-time customers into uber-loyal fans.
 

Try offering a one-time discount code for new email subscribers. It’ll help you build your list and make it easier for you to advertise directly to them in the future.

Of course, building your list is only the first step. Once you’ve got a handful of customers interested in hearing from you, give the people what they want! Consider creating automated onboarding emails for new subscribers, outlining information on how to place an order, how to get in touch, and a highlight of your top-rated projects. Then, send out regular emails letting your customer base know about upcoming sales, product launches, and more.

2. Run Promotions

Mobilize your audience to take action by running promotions every so often. Advertise sales regularly – but not so regularly that they’re not special! It’s a great way to boost sales and create some buzz around your shop. (Especially if it’s a truly amazing deal!)
 

Be thoughtful about what you’ll do during certain seasons and holidays as well. For example, a lot of consumers tend to expect some sort of a Black Friday deal – get in on it!

3. Use Instagram

Boost your organic social presence. Create a separate account for your online boutique and post consistent content showcasing images of your products. Post both quality product photos as well as user-generated content of your wholesale boutique items in the wild. And make sure you always use a few relevant hashtags to help new customers find your shop!
 

Another great way to build your social media following (and your potential customer base) is through Instagram giveaways. Encourage your followers to tag friends or share a post in exchange for shop credit. Works like a charm!

Consider partnering with Instagram influencers to advertise your online boutique as well, in exchange for product or payment. (For best results, make sure their following is engaged and aligned with your brand!)

4. Run Paid Ads

A little $$ can go a long way if you play your cards right. If you’re looking to boost your sales and your brand awareness, investing in advertising is a great option. Run Google Adwords campaigns to push your boutique to the top when your customers search for online stores like yours. Run FB/IG campaigns to get your brand in front of the right people while they’re scrolling through social.
 

If you have the budget, consider hiring an expert to own this task. A great paid ad strategy can pay off in a big way. If not, that’s okay too – it doesn’t cost much at all to play around on your own and gradually see what works for you.

5. Use Pinterest

Did you know that 55% of users specifically use Pinterest to find new products? That means Pinterest is FULL of people looking for things to buy. Pinterest can be an incredibly powerful tool for driving traffic to your site and attracting new buyers. Start creating pins for blog articles as well as each of your products. Then, make sure you continuously post fresh content to keep users engaged.

6. Learn From Your Competitors

If it’s working for your competition, it’ll probably work for you. No need to reinvent the wheel here. So many people out there have spent tons of time and energy figuring out the best marketing strategy for their online boutique – figure out what they’re doing and try it out!
 

Identify your top 10 competitors. Then, do a little research to figure out what sort of marketing efforts they’re making. Peruse their social media accounts and see what kind of influencers they partner with. Sign up for their mailing list and see the sort of emails they send out. Try and figure out what keywords they’re using to help them rank on Google. Then, try doing the same!

Now that you’ve got some great marketing ideas to try, get out there and experiment! Sure, it might require some time and $$ upfront, but marketing dollars always have the potential to pay off big time.
I know we said that inventory isn’t everything… but let’s be honest, running a successful boutique is a LOT easier when you’ve got access to a wide variety of high-quality, uber-trendy, crazy affordable wholesale boutique items. (We’ll even provide you with professional product photos you can use in your marketing efforts so you can start advertising new products right away!) 

Create a free Supplied account today to start enjoying access to over 25,000+ wholesale boutique items.

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