Want to run a successful fashion business? Have a sales strategy

Want to run a successful fashion business? Have a sales strategy

Whether you’re a fashion designer or retailer, you must have a sales strategy if you want to stay in business. Making sales is just as important as creating the product so neglecting sales in favour of the perfect product is a recipe for disaster.

Selling your fashion product can be a daunting task. There are so many things that you need to think about, from how you're going to price your product to what kind of photos you will use.

Then you have to think about how to get the message about your product out to your target audience where exactly they'll see it and in the language they will easily identify with.

That is why having a sales strategy and testing out these strategies is vital so you don't run out of business.


Why you need a sales strategy

A sales strategy is a plan that helps you identify your target market, create a product or service that will appeal to them, and determine how to get your product or service into their hands.

Sales translate into revenue, which means that if you have a sales strategy, then you can use it to predict how much money your company will make.



The Link between Marketing and Sales

People tend to use the term marketing and sales interchangeably but they have differences.

Marketing plans are designed to generate awareness of your brand and its products or services, while sales plans focus on closing deals—not just generating leads.

A good sales strategy requires a good marketing strategy. Without a clear understanding of what you're trying to accomplish with your marketing efforts, it's impossible to know what kinds of tactics are necessary for success—and even if you do manage to come up with some great ideas for campaigns and promotions, they won't be very effective if they're not targeted at the right audience.

Your marketing strategy should also be informed by your sales strategy, since both are intimately connected to each other. By knowing who your customer base is and how they think about buying things, you can create more effective advertisements that resonate with them and make them want to buy from you more often than not—which means more money in the bank!


How to Create an Effective Sales Strategy


1. Create a product that people want
2. Plan your marketing strategy
3. Use the right tools

1. Create a product that people want:

The most important thing you can do is make sure that the product you're selling actually has value in the eyes of consumers. If people don't see the value in what you're selling, they aren't going to buy it—and they won't be likely to come back and buy anything else from you in the future either!

2. Plan your marketing strategy:

Once your product is ready for sale, it's time to start thinking about how you're going to market it to customers (and why). Are there certain audiences or demographics who would be more likely to buy this product than others? Do any competitors have similar products that might affect sales for yours? What are some ways we could reach them?

These are all questions worth asking yourself before investing too much into marketing efforts—because once you start spending money on ads or campaigns, it can get expensive fast!

3. Use the right tools:

Not that we know why having a sales strategy is important, There are so many tools out there you can use, not only to spread the word about your products, but also to close your sales.

Let's discuss 3 tools that you can use for your sales strategy.


Tools for an Effective Sales Strategy


1. Social Media

If you want to make sales with social media, it's all about the content. And if you're not using social media to its fullest potential, then you're missing out on a huge opportunity.

First, you need to know where your audience is. This can be tricky for businesses that don't have a big budget for advertising—but it's possible! You just have to be creative.

For example, if you sell shoes online, figure out what hashtags people use when they search for shoes—and then use those same hashtags in your posts. That way when someone searches for those keywords, they'll see your content and hopefully buy from you!

Next up: videos are better than pictures because they're more interactive and engaging. So next time you're posting something on Instagram or Facebook or wherever else, try making a short video instead of just posting a picture.

Finally: carousels are great if you want to attract more views than normal photos or videos do because people tend to scroll through them without clicking anything else—so if there's something interesting in the middle of your carousel (like an offer or discount code), people will see it and click on it.


2. Online Advertising

Facebook and Google adverts are a great way to reach new customers and get them interested in your products. The problem is that many people think they're too expensive! But there are actually a ton of ways to use these platforms for a fraction of the cost. Here's how:

a) If you want more visitors from Google, focus on keywords! People search for things all the time, and if they search for something and find your ad at the top of their results pages, they'll click through. You'll have a new customer!

Try using a service like Keywords Everywhere or Answer the Public to know what people are searching for so you can tailor your sales pages to and insert these keywords into the text. That might be more likely to get people clicking on your ad.

b) Don't underestimate how powerful Facebook ads can be. They're cheap—really cheap—and they can drive huge amounts of traffic to your site. You just have to know what your audience looks like and where they're likely to be found on Facebook. 

Target your audience as narrowly as possible. You can narrow your target audience down to your business location, what age group they fall into, or even their gender. This will allow you to save money while still reaching a specific group of people who might be interested in what you have to offer—which means less wasted money.

But here's the thing: all of this only works if your website is optimized. If you don't have an optimized site, then no one will see your ads or visit your site when they do click through!

That's why I recommend using a free service like Wix or Google My Business (GMB) to build an optimized website.


3. Word of Mouth

Word of mouth is one of the most effective ways to make sales for your business. It's one of the reasons that so many businesses rely on referrals from their customers and clients to grow their business.

Word-of-mouth marketing is when you ask your customers to tell others about their experience with your product or service. You can do this by asking customers to share on social media, leave reviews, or refer friends and family members.

Word-of-mouth marketing works because it's authentic and real. When someone has a good experience with your product or service, they're going to want to tell others about it! They'll want everyone else to know how much they enjoyed the product or service—and why they think other people should try it too!

So how do you use word of mouth as a sales strategy? It's simple. Ask for reviews from current customers. If they enjoyed your product, they will be happy to give you one. Make sure you ask for their pictures and their social handles as well to lend more authenticity. It works for me every time!


Conclusion

The internet is a great place to find new customers for your business. You can use social media, Google Ads, and other forms of advertising to reach people who are interested in what you're selling. Good old word of mouth advertising also works tremendously well.

But how do you make sure that people who see your ad actually buy from you?

Put a lot of thought into your sales strategy while you are building the product or service. In fact, a lot of your sales content can be obtained while creating the product such as behind the scenes videos and photoshoots.

The best way is to start by creating a strategy that lets you do more than just sell products—it lets you build relationships with customers so that they keep coming back for more!

Which strategy do you use? We would love to hear from you. Drop a comment in the section below.








Want to cut your production time in half?  Then ditch the paper and pencils and go digital!

Want to cut your production time in half? Then ditch the paper and pencils and go digital!


This picture made me laugh when I saw it!  But yes!  We tailors now use laptops!  😀 I spoke about it on our radio show on 98.9 Kiss FM on Friday and you should watch it!  I tell you this is the way to go!

Ok… so I realized that whilst promoting this Course (and I must confess, I don’t think I really promoted it that much), I never really spoke about the benefits of the Course.  So you are probably thinking… “why go digital when I can use my pencil and paper” right?

Ok… check out this scenario…

Example of a Digital Pattern and the Sewn Outfit



You make clothes for people and draft your patterns manually.  Imagine if you could do this on the system just once!  And next time someone else comes, you input their measurements and voila, the pattern comes out in their own size!

OR you run an in-house clothing production unit creating clothes in standard sizes.  Oh… imagine the torture of having to grade each pattern one by one when with just a few strokes, your work is done!

I can safely speak for myself when I say I have to be physically and psychologically prepared for pattern-making!  Having to search for paper, pencils, erasers and all what not or WORSE discover that I am out of paper is like the worst thing!  But now… you can simply work on your dining table in front of the TV.  Life does not have to be so tough anymore! 😀

And this is just a SNAP SHOT of what this course has to offer!  You can work across international boundaries as well.  I have 2 people who have reached out to me asking me to create patterns for them.  So this is you starting a new career as a pattern maker! 

Okies so ditch the pencils and paper and switch to digital patterns on your laptop!  And save yourself the headache and backache as well!  Register for our Pattern-Making & Grading with Computer-Aided Design.  

Please click on this link to watch the video about me talking about this Course.  It starts from 1:20

SO details about the Course?!  I’ll give it to you just now!

The course begins on Tuesday 4th of July 2017 and it will hold on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10am – 2pm.  It is in 2 parts:

Part 1 is the Pattern Making bit.  It lasts for 5 weeks and costs N80,000 including your training materials except, of course, your laptop.  That you need to come with.

Part 2 is the Pattern Grading bit which is where you increase or reduce in size.  This will last an extra 3 weeks and costs N40,000 if you registered for Part 1.  

If you want just this part of the Course, it will cost N50,000 and it includes your training materials.  But to be honest, this limits you to just the manual grading portion because we can’t start teaching you about the digital workspace in Part 1. Please bring your laptop.  Oh… if you use a Mac please contact us before you register.

And that’s it really!  Easy peasy!  Trust me you will love this Course!

Registration is easy!  Simply pay the fees by bank or online transfer into the Martwayne Limited 023 710 3843 account in any GTBank OR

you can simply click on any of these links to register.  It takes you to our Paystack payment portal 😀




Excellent!  This tech age is making life so much easier! 😀

SO!

If you have questions, please reach out to us on 0818 395 8856, WhatsApp: 08097876075, E-Mail: twilliams@martwayne.com or martwayne@gmail.com or via Blackberry: D8E9802C

Oh. PS.  You need to be familiar with Pattern-making to register for this Course.  If you are a beginner, you can register for any of our sewing courses.  They all include pattern making.

Fabulous!  Please tell everyone to tell everyone!

I look forward to you joining us!  

Have a great day ahead!

PPS.

Watch out for details of our other courses:

–  Design & Fashion Illustration with Computer-Aided Design
–  Basic Fashion Course for Juniors (ages 9-16)
–  Short Course in Childrenswear.


Things to Consider Before You Quit Your Job for Fashion – Martwayne on Business Africa 98.9 Kiss FM Lagos

Things to Consider Before You Quit Your Job for Fashion – Martwayne on Business Africa 98.9 Kiss FM Lagos

ME 😀 with Anchor Ayodele Kazeem on the left and Co-Anchor Kayode Osokoya, Business Africa 98.9 Kiss FM

Hello good people!  So we had another fab show on Business Africa last Friday.  I could really get used to this radio gig 😀 !  It was a really good one!  

So yes!  I’m sure many people working the 9-5 grind can connect to this. Or are the work hours 8-5.  Either way, I am sure there are loads of peeps out there who LOVE fashion, who are just itching to key into this passion of theirs but are clueless on how to go about it!  I know because I chat to people all the time about this.  

If you are at the same crossroads but you missed our show on Friday, you are in luck! Simply click on the link below and you’ll be right with us in the studio! 😀   


Don’t forget to share with your friends and family who need this and join us this Friday again at 10am on 98.9 Kiss FM! 

PS!

We had to postpone the start dates of the Corsetry Course and the the Patternmaking with CAD course.  The Corsetry now starts this Saturday, June 17 and the Pattern with CAD on the 27th of June.

We also have dates for our next set of Courses:

–  The Design & Illustration with CAD starts on July 15th and 18th;
–  The Basic Fashion Course for Juniors starts 1 August; and
–  The Childrenswear Course starts on the 22nd of August, 2017.

Please save these dates and forward them as well.

More posts coming up shortly!

Have a great week!
Join me at 10am tomorrow, 9 June on 98.9 Kiss FM Lagos.

Join me at 10am tomorrow, 9 June on 98.9 Kiss FM Lagos.


Yes people! Join me tomorrow at 10am on 98.9 Kiss FM Lagos where I will be discussing “Factors to Consider Before You Quit Your Job for Fashion”. If you are currently at crossroads and not sure what to do, you need to tune in! And you can also call into the show to ask questions on 0809 899 8898. Cheers!

Martwayne on Business Africa 98.9 Kiss FM Lagos; 2 June 2017 – Dealing with ‘The Fear of the Unknown’

Martwayne on Business Africa 98.9 Kiss FM Lagos; 2 June 2017 – Dealing with ‘The Fear of the Unknown’

Left to Right: Adeolu Olatunji (Producer); Ayodele Kazeem (Anchor); ME (Guest) & Kayode Osokoya (Co-Anchor)

Yes!  So I was on radio again last Friday talking about what I love to talk about the most – FASHION! 😀  So yes!  Last Friday, on Business Africa on 98.9 Kiss FM Lagos, we were talking about how to face your fears and become a fashion designer or start a fashion business!  If you missed the show, don’t stress! 😀  Here’s the video!  Watch it for tips on how to turn your love for fashion into a viable business by first facing your fears and just doing it!  It was tres fab and I loved every minute of it!

I’ll be on again this Friday talking about “Factors to Consider Before You Quit Your Job for Fashion”!  You don’t want to miss it!  Join me on 98.9 Kiss FM Lagos at 10am (actually my slot begins at 10.15 so you can tune in then).  Have your questions ready and let’s have great fun!

Oh yes!  Here’s the link to the video:  

Don’t forget to like and share this video with all your friends and fashion lovers and don’t forget to subscribe to The Martwayne Channel on Youtube!

Muchos gracias!

OH!  PS.

Don’t forget about the Pattern Making & CAD Course coming up on the 13th!  It promises to be fab!  You don’t want to miss it!


Hello May!!!  It’s Picture Time!!! Enjoy pictures from our Q1 2017 Fashion Courses: Fashion Illustration, Corsetry, Textile Design & other stuff we’ve been up to at Martwayne! :-D

Hello May!!! It’s Picture Time!!! Enjoy pictures from our Q1 2017 Fashion Courses: Fashion Illustration, Corsetry, Textile Design & other stuff we’ve been up to at Martwayne! :-D


HELLO Good People!!!!!!!  Gosh it has been AGES since I was here!  So let me catch up on all the greetings I have missed out on.  Happy belated new quarter!  Happy belated Good Friday!  Happy belated Easter!  Happy belated Workers Day!  And the latest one… Happy Belated New Month lol!  And of course Happy Happy HAPPY belated BIRTHDAY to all my fabulous people out there!  I am sure you all had great holidays and even greater birthdays!  I know we did at Martwayne! 😀

SO!  What we have been up to since my last post (insert-covering-my-face-emoticon-in-here).  No excuses really!  As I type this, I’m thinking to myself that there has to be some app out there that just types away while I talk right?!  There just has to be an easier way to blog…. I really have to explore that option.  So yeah!  That’s my excuse!

Okies you have missed a lot yes but not to worry!  I am here to catch you up in one single post!  We will do more of pictures but of course we still have to do a teeny weeny bit of writing for the benefit of those just coming into contact with us for the first time.  Besides… let me confess… I just lost about 3 hours of this same blog post which just disappeared so really I am just oh-so-happy with just pictures and tiny writing right now… 

SO!  What do we start of with?! 

YES! First!  First!!  First!!!  We’ll start off with this AMAZING testimonial from one of us at Martwayne.  Whoop!  Whoop!  You know how much we love testimonials! 😀


Yeah… this dress!  All I can say is “THIS DRESS”!  After all the drama, let’s just say I am glad it turned out great!  A one time perfect fit, kudos to another Martwayne student @tolunimz on such a perfect pattern!  And I am glad it turned out great!  I think @ms_ellysha makes a stunning Maid of Honour don’t you think?! Glad our students see value in what we teach! Can’t wait to see more work from them.  


Next up?!  My interview with Pretty Woman magazine! Whoop!  Whoop! Whoop! 😀


Yes yes!  So I had this great interview with Tricia of Pretty Woman magazine on fashion entrepreneurship which you all know is my thing!  Oh you should check out @pwmagazine and follow them on Instagram.  The articles and pictures they post are really inspiring especially for fashion lovers.  So yeah… this article basically centered on advice for fashion designers who are either starting off or currently running one so you should grab a copy at Glendora Bookstore in Ikeja City Mall, Patabah Bookstore in Adeniran Ogunsanya Mall, Surulere.  Hang on though… the article came out in March so I guess it’s best to contact them for a copy and get yours delivered.  So here I am saying Thank you! Thank you!!  Thank you!! @pwmagazine!  Really honored to have been considered for this!

NEXT up… Easter Holiday Hang-outs! 😀


Oh yes!  This was another fun one! In April, 2 Martwayne students launched their ready-to-wear lines.  There’s @chioma.redbutton of @redbutton.com.ng in the middle on the left and Nneamaka of @makayembellishments on the right.  Yes yes!  Always a proud moment for us.  Wishing them both the very best in this new field.  I cannot wait to rock my orders! 😀

OKIES!  And now for work!  😀
Everyone who’s been on our instagram page @martwayne (you have to follow us if you don’t already do so :-D) can confirm we have been very very busy!  In the first quarter, we successfully ran 5 courses!  Yes!  5 courses!!! Actually make that 6!  We somehow managed to sneak in a Juniors Course in there somewhere lol. Like wow right?!  We started off with the Beginners Course and the Bodices & Dressmaking Course.  And we also ran our very popular Design, Fashion Illustration & CAD Course.  Then we launched 2 brand spanking new courses, the Textile Design Course and the Corsetry Course.

Now confession time…. we were so busy I actually forgot to take a lot of pictures. 🙁  But these were the few I could squeeze in.  And by few, they are actually not that few but not as much as I would have hoped!

Let’s start with the Design, Fashion Illustration & CAD Course!


Yes!  This is always a trip for me because it is always amazing seeing students who could not draw a thing when hey started churn out full fashion illustrations not only manually but digitally.  Don’t believe me?!  Ok check out this comment from a participant in this current stream:
  

See…. she said it.  I didn’t!  I have always said you can learn anything if you put your mind to it!  And put their mind to it, they did!  Even when we changed the timing from 12 noon to 10am, they were here on the dot of 10 and by 2pm they were out!  And the weekend students were not left out as well. Shame I don’t have pictures yet but gosh they put in the long hours!  10am – 6pm every Saturday!  I am literally in awe! Sometimes, catch up classes started at 8.30am and they stuck to it!  

The Course is not over yet!  They are currently working on their project based on the theme ‘Back to the Future – a link between the past and the future’ and I cannot wait to share those either.  That will be in a separate post though.  For now… enjoy the pictures…






     



 Okies!  Now we move on to a Sewing Course!  The Corsetry Course!

So this was carved out of our Bodices & Dressmaking Course Part 3 due to demand.  We had experienced bridal wear designers who wanted to learn corsetry without going through the whole course.  And that is the beauty of our Courses.  You ask, we listen and we make a plan!  Most people have time and financial constraints so might not want to run the whole Course while others come in from out of town.

Yet again, we have few pictures ;-(  BUT please “manage them” lol as they say… Hope to have more pictures next time!

Don’t you just LOVE a well-built corset?! 😀


Told you we didn’t have much pictures.  I don’t have the corsets of the other participants plus this was just the first type of corset.  The 2nd task was the corset with a cup.  But anyway…. you can tell from the pictures they did a great job.  The next one, which is a weekend option, is coming up in June so if you missed this one, watch this space!

Now on to the Textile Design Course! 😀

Oh wow THIS course here was the ISH!  If you missed it, you definitely have to register for the next one!  I was completely impressed with the participants’ work and there was even an excursion to the local markets to actually discover where to source fabrics from!  Really bummed I don’t have much pictures at all!  I am so sober!  But I can tell you it was a GREAT course!  There was beading, hand embroidery, tie and dye, fabric painting (oh that was my favourite) and even a small bag-making module.  But like I promised, less writing and more pictures! 🙂







Stunning right?!  I know!  Not to worry, if you missed this one, we still have another one coming up sometime in August which you can still register for.  And the Digital Textile Design as well so watch this space! 

Yes yes!  Almost done!  We still had other things we were up to.  I’ll touch on those just a tad bit!

Juniors Course:



Yes we had a determined young lady in high school who was DETERMINED to learn fashion on Saturdays!  Like wow!  Her passion is on another level!  And boy was I impressed!  I thought it would be hectic adding a weekend sewing program to her busy schedule but she is having none of it!  This young fashionista is ready to move on to the next stage!  I am tempted to move her on to the Beginners Course but I think we’ll just structure something for her which we will also run over the summer holidays as well.  We already have the requests coming in!  So big thumbs up to you Teni!

Corporate Training for Professionals on “Dressing for Success”


Haha!  Yes!  This is something I don’t really talk much about but I should!  😀  You all know I am a professional at heart right!  Thanks to my background I am able to merge my fashion knowledge with the business community and structure a Course for corporate professionals on how to use fashion as a tool for personal and business success!  Now you know why I love what I do right?!  It is so versatile I can do so much! And of course this is one we just concluded for KPMG Professional Services. (I know right?!)  It was a GREAT session and I thoroughly enjoyed it and I am sure they did as well! I am looking forward to the next one already!  Thank you so much KPMG!

And finally…. (phew) and I m OH-SO-HAPPY about this one…  

The Launch of our Clothing Factory!  YAYE!!!!!!!!! 


After running away from this idea for so long, 2 Martwayne students and 1 finally decided to confront this issue plaguing the Nigerian fashion industry for so long – an affordable production unit where fashion designers can outsource their designs to for production in standard sizes!  And yes we started it out and I must say, it has been incredible!  And we have not even advertised it yet!  I won’t give details in this post.  This is the content for another post entirely!  But yeah…. you can clearly see that we have NOT been idle one bit!

PHEW!  That’s about it!  I am completely knackered!  

I will conclude this post by thanking every single person that has made our year so successful – the instructors you are just amazing, Martwayne staff – you guys are the BOMB, those who refer us every single day – God bless you loads ….. and of course, our VIPs – our clients and participants!  You are just AMAZING!  Without you, we would not be here!  We really owe you a lot!  Thank you!  Thank you!!  Thank you!!!

Watch out for our next few courses coming up!  We have amazing ones as well…

–  Pattern-Making with Computer Aided Design (Digital Pattern-Making);
–  Short Course in Childrenswear
–  Short Course in Corsetry (Weekend option)
–  Digital Textile Design (this is still tentative)… and of course
–  We are still taking registrations for the Beginners as well as Bodices & Dressmaking Course as well.

Details will come up over the next week or so – so watch this space!  

And oh… PS. I still haven’t forgotten the podcasts I promised on “Starting a Fashion Business”.  I know many are looking forward to it but I have been warned to take things slow and tackle each project one by one.  And I am heeding that advice!  So I will work on it!  My major prayer right now is for some serious help with my weakness for procrastination. I am really working on it.

Okay! Okay!  I am GONE now!  Like finally!  I am now clicking  “Publish” FOR REAL now!

Have a great week everyone!!!  Don’t forget to follow us on Instagram @martwayne Just click this link!  Ciao!
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