Want to turn your passion for fashion into a career? Whether you’re planning to dive into it full-time or simply looking for a side hustle, becoming a fashion influencer is the answer you need. But how do you become a fashion influencer and what’s so great about it? This post serves as a comprehensive guide on how to become a fashion influencer.
How to Become a Fashion Influencer:
Why Become a Fashion Influencer?
First of all, you may still be hesitant to dive into the scene because you’re not so sure how lucrative it is. Moreover, there’s also the subject of stability as being an influencer may not seem like such a stable source of income. So you may be wondering why you should become an influencer in the first place. Here are a few key reasons why you may want to consider making a living from being a fashion influencer.
Make a Living Doing What You Love
For starters, if you’re passionate about fashion, then being an influencer in the fashion industry is a great way to make a living doing what you love. Chances are you already know a lot about fashion, so you can easily turn that knowledge into financial gain. You mostly need to create content related to your interest so you can build an influence in the niche, which will then help you earn sponsorship opportunities from relevant brands.
It Comes with a Good Earning Potential
Even if you’re not Kardashian-level famous with the potential to earn millions per post, you can still make decent money from being an influencer. A survey of 1,865 Instagram influencers found that the average influencer earns almost $3,000 per month from their Instagram account.
According to our report on influencer rates, you can potentially make anywhere between $2 and $20,000 per post depending on factors such as follower size, platform, industry, and content type. For example, a micro-influencer on Instagram might be able to make about $100-$500 per post whereas someone with the same number of followers on YouTube could make up to $1,000 per video.
Enjoy Greater Flexibility
Not built for the 9 to 5 life? Or perhaps you just want to make a little extra income while keeping your full-time job. Regardless of your preference, you have the option to make that choice when you’re a fashion influencer.
If you want to do it full-time, you’ll have the freedom to pursue your other interests or even travel around the world. If you’re doing it as a side hustle, it’s easy because you can even take photos of the daily outfits you’re wearing to work and turn that into content.
Steps to Becoming a Fashion Influencer
Now that you know the kind of benefits that you can gain from becoming a fashion influencer, what are the next steps? Follow the steps below to start your journey as a fashion influencer.
Step 1: Focus on a Niche
The social media landscape already has an abundance of fashion influencers. So if you can set yourself apart from the generalists, that’s your best bet at succeeding. For that, you need to find the niche that you want to focus on. While you may think that fashion is a niche in itself, the subject is much broader than you can imagine.
Do you want to specialize in luxury fashion? Or perhaps you’re more into thrifted finds? Maybe you have a knack for the avant-garde, or you love to make your own clothes. Some influencers may even focus on specific clothing items such as footwear or handbags.
Having a clear idea of your niche will help you stand out and attract an audience that’s interested in the type of fashion content you’re creating. For example, Thalia Castro-Vega aka @polychrom3 is a fashion and style influencer whose main focus is on maximalist fashion. She regularly shares her outfit of the day and provides bite-sized style advice for people who want to get into maximalism. The influencer has amassed 165k Instagram followers and about 151k TikTok followers.
Step 2: Define Your Personal Style
Influencers manage to build their influence by showcasing their expertise or in-depth knowledge on specific topics. Similarly, as a fashion influencer, you’ll need to effectively portray yourself as an expert or an authority figure when it comes to fashion. To do that, you need to look good…and that’s where your personal style comes in.
Being a fashion influencer isn’t just about dressing well and wearing the latest trends or the most expensive brands. Anyone can do that with enough money and resources. Rather, it’s about having your personal style shine through regardless of the clothes you’re wearing. So even if your niche is related to thrifted clothes, your personal style will help you showcase those thrifted items in a way that screams “you.”
Rachel Maksy is an influencer that’s built a name for herself in DIY fashion and anime costumes and currently has more than a million subscribers on YouTube. Her personal style is very unique in that she draws inspiration from medieval times and vintage fashion.
Step 3: Choose a Platform
Your choice of platform plays a vital role in the type of audience you’ll attract and the amount of money you’ll be making. Moreover, certain types of content are more suitable for specific platforms. So you have to be very careful about choosing a platform that works for you. While you’re free to repurpose your content and share them across multiple platforms, focusing on just a couple of platforms in the beginning will help you streamline your efforts.
If you think your content will resonate with a younger audience, perhaps you might want to try TikTok. Similarly, if you want to focus on creating short-form videos, TikTok and Instagram would be the ideal choice. However, if you’re going to create more in-depth video tutorials, YouTube would be your best bet.
On top of this, remember the influencer rates report we mentioned earlier? According to the report, some platforms have a higher earning potential than others. For example, influencer rates on Twitter are much lower than influencer rates on Facebook. So make sure to strategically consider these factors when narrowing down the ideal platform for you.
Step 4: Create High-Quality Content
One of the most vital steps to becoming a fashion influencer (or any influencer, for the matter) is to create great content. The quality of your content is the very reason why people are going to pay attention and decide to follow you. And it’s not just about the quality of the photo or video, but more about the quality of the content itself. Are people getting something valuable out of it?
Perhaps you’re going to provide valuable styling tips and fashion inspiration or share in-depth reviews about the latest fashion trends. Or maybe you want to keep your followers entertained with fun facts and interesting observations into the world of fashion. Whatever the specifics may be, you have to give people a reason to follow you.
Jacques Slade aka @kustoo is a sneakerhead and a fashion influencer who focuses on creating content related to sneakers. He regularly shares news and updates that would be of interest to fellow sneakerheads. His 173k Instagram followers tune into his content to hear all about the latest releases and fun facts that are relevant to them.
Step 5: Grow Your Audience
If you’re going to become an influencer, you need people to influence. That is, you need to build a significant following so that brands will consider you influential enough to partner with. Creating high-quality content is an essential step to building your audience organically, but it’s only the first step. Besides this, there are several ways you can attract more followers to your account:
- Post at the right time when people are most likely to engage with your content. The more engagement you get for the post, the better your chances of getting non-followers to discover it through the Explore page or For You page.
- Use popular and relevant hashtags that will improve your content discoverability. When people search for or interact with content related to those hashtags, there’s a good chance that they’ll find your content.
- Follow and interact with other fashion influencers. This will help you get on their radar and possibly even get noticed by some of their fans.
- Run contests and giveaways that will encourage your existing followers to share your content with their own followers. This is a great way to attract new followers to your account and eventually build a bigger following.
Step 6: Create an Influencer Media Kit
If you’re really serious about becoming a fashion influencer, you need to be prepared with an influencer media kit. Think of it as your influencer resume that details who you are as an influencer, what type of audience you can reach, how many followers you have across platforms, and what you can offer to brands. In other words, your influencer media kit is what will help you sell your skills and ability as an influencer.
Most brands who are looking to partner with influencers will request for this media kit before finalizing their decision. So whether you’re reaching out to brands first or you’re getting approached for partnership opportunities, you’ll need to have it handy as it helps you to establish your value as an influencer.
Now if it’s your first time creating one, you might be wondering what you need to include in your influencer media kit. Here are some of the essentials:
- Key details about yourself, what you do, what your interests are, etc.
- Your contact information so brands know how to reach out to you
- How many followers you have on leading social media platforms
- Other important stats about your accounts such as views and engagements
- The type of demographics that makes up your audience base
- Previous and current brand partnerships
- Testimonials from other brand partners
- Types of collaborations that are available (sponsored posts, video reviews, giveaway sponsorships, etc.)
- How much do you charge for each type of collaboration
When it comes to your media kit, make sure that it visually represents you. That is, skip the boring documents and create a kit that’s visually appealing and instantly leaves a lasting impression. Make your personal style and identity shine through with this kit. Platforms like Canva have plenty of influencer media kit templates that you can use and customize.
Step 7: Look for Partnership Opportunities
Finally, you’re all ready to soar…or in this case, start looking for those brand partnership opportunities. When you’re still new to the influencer marketing landscape, chances are that you won’t get too many opportunities yet since you’re still growing your following and building your authority in the niche. So at the very beginning, it doesn’t hurt to reach out to brands instead of waiting for them to approach you.
You can start by creating content featuring the brands that you love so you can get under their radar. At some point, you might even want to message them directly and see if they’re open to any partnership opportunities.
Another effective way to land those initial sponsorships is by joining an influencer marketplace or a network where brands might scour for the right influencers to work with. This is a great way to get matched with brands who are looking to partner with influencers that match your characteristics. Most influencer marketing platforms such as creator.co, influence.co, and Find Your Influence offer an influencer marketplace that you can join to get noticed by potential brand partners.
Ready to Dive into the Influencer Marketing World?
There you have it–seven essential steps to become a fashion influencer. Growing your influence is no easy feat, but if you put in the hard work, you can eventually turn it into a lucrative career. Even if you’re only looking to do it as a side hustle, becoming a fashion influencer is an excellent way to make a little bit of extra income. So make the most of the tips and ideas we shared above to join the ranks of leading fashion influencers.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who can be a fashion influencer?
Anyone who is passionate about fashion and is willing to put in the work can become a fashion influencer.
Who pays fashion influencers?
Fashion influencers are typically paid by the brands and businesses they partner with.
How do I start a career as a fashion influencer?
You can start a career as a fashion influencer by creating high-quality content and building an audience.
How can I be a paid influencer?
You can be a paid influencer by finding brands to partner with and collaborating with them for sponsored posts, giveaway contests, etc.
What is the fastest way to become an influencer?
The fastest way to become an influencer is focusing on a niche and creating high-quality content that will help you attract followers.
