Intimate apparel is anything you wear under your clothes or to bed at night. For example, shapewear, bras, underwear, socks, and lingerie can all fall under the broad “intimate apparel” umbrella. The United States has long been a hot market for intimate apparel. However, with fewer shoppers searching for intimate goods in brick-and-mortar stores, sellers have had to shift primarily to online selling and marketing.
Marketing intimate apparel online can be tricky because it requires marketers to maintain a delicate balance between effective product promotion and tactfulness. It’s important not to come across as crass or insensitive when discussing the personal nature of intimate wear. However, you also want to market in a way that helps you get noticed over your competitors. Here are five tips for tastefully marketing your intimate apparel products online and getting noticed for all the right reasons.
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1. Market to Real Women
Remember the old lingerie commercials that seemed to market to men rather than women? They often featured impossibly slender models with gigantic chests prancing around in bras and underwear that looked three sizes too small. Today’s women aren’t so easily persuaded by such gaudy advertisements. If you want to increase sales, don’t advertise your products to supermodels. Instead, keep your true target audience in mind – real women with real bodies.
Most women don’t have enormous breasts and Barbie-sized waists. So why would you fill your online advertisements with supermodels who don’t reflect what a typical woman’s body looks like? Instead, hire authentic, real-looking women to model your intimate apparel. Remember to also consider average breast sizes when marketing bras and lingerie online. The more women can see themselves in your advertisements, the more connected they’ll feel to your brand.
2. Emphasize Comfort
Most women like to have a few sets of sensual lingerie they can bring out for special occasions. But for everyday wear, the average woman prefers comfortable undergarments that gently hug her curves and allow for natural movement. If you really want to attract a broad female audience, make sure you emphasize how comfortable your intimate clothing is.
For example, you might want to emphasize how well your underwear fits the average female body. Or, you could draw attention to the fact that you offer bras without uncomfortable underwires. Any unique features your products have that can increase the wearer’s comfort should be shamelessly advertised. You’ll find that it’s much easier to attract your target demographic if you let them know how comfortable your line of intimate apparel is.
3. Be Authentic and Relatable
Most people can spot a fake, whether it’s a counterfeit name-brand purse or a phony person. In general, people tend to shy away from marketing that feels disingenuous. Want to help your products fly off your shelves? Make sure your brand voice is authentic and relatable. If you’ve never developed a brand voice, now’s a good time to do it.
To develop an authentic brand voice, you need to understand who your audience is. What type of person is most likely to buy your clothing? Once you can envision your typical buyer in your mind, imagine how you’d talk to that person if you were their friend. What type of language or jargon would you use? Once you come up with an authentic brand voice, use it consistently across your internet, social media, and advertising content.
4. Take Your Social Media Game Up a Notch
If your brand doesn’t maintain a strong social media presence, you’re missing out on opportunities to connect with a huge audience. Whether you love or hate social media, there’s no denying its unique ability to boost brand awareness like no other form of marketing can. To take your social media game up a notch, make sure you have active profiles on all the major platforms. At a minimum, these should include TikTok, Instagram, X, Facebook, and Pinterest. If you can’t realistically maintain an active presence on all of these channels, just pick two or three to start.
Next, create engaging, informative, and entertaining posts that encourage interaction. How often you post depends on the specific platform. For example, most experts agree you should post 3-5 times a week on Instagram, 2-3 times per day on X, and 2 1-2 times per day on Facebook. Using a social media planning tool like Hootsuite can help automate your social media posting schedule so you can focus on other things. When people get used to seeing your brand represented on their favorite social media sites, they’ll tend to trust you more.
5. Provide Clear Sizing Instructions
Purchasing intimate apparel online requires a leap of faith. It’s often more difficult to return intimate items than it is to return other clothing items. Therefore, buyers have to rely on the seller to provide accurate sizing information. Unfortunately, many online retailers are sloppy about providing sizing instructions. Often, they end up with frustrated customers who don’t understand why the size they ordered doesn’t fit as it should.
When marketing your products online, take time to make sure every product listing contains user-friendly instructions to find the perfect size. You should be so confident in the average buyer’s ability to find the ideal fit that you’re willing to offer free returns if your sizing instructions lead them astray. Once buyers learn they can rely on your intimate offerings to always fit well, they’ll become loyal repeat shoppers. They’ll also most likely refer their friends and family members to your online store.
Effectively marketing intimate apparel online can be tricky, especially since there’s so much competition in the industry. Use these tips to help your brand stand apart from the rest and earn the trust and loyalty of your target audience.