A digital marketing guide for emerging brands

We know about editorials, lookbooks and PR. But what on earth are CRM, GEO and your ROAS?

By Marjolijn Oostermeijer

The digital marketing playing field is changing rapidly – a line that makes Anneloes van Vugt, partner and Content Director at DEPT, cringe. “Right now, every single marketing deck opens like this,” she laughs. “But it’s true. Or rather, the game has changed.” According to her, many fashion brands still use social simply as a channel: “a place to send what you created elsewhere.” This makes sense: in the beginning, Instagram was praised as the new front row. Brands shared runway pics or editorials that would’ve otherwise landed in magazines. A mention in a glossy shopping page became a targeted social ad. Most brands still take this approach, but people don’t use social media the way they read Elle.

Some have mastered the game. GCDS’s recent SS26 campaign made headlines while giving Tumblr energy: playfully chaotic shots complete with meme-style overlay. “I think fashion has become too afraid of being entertaining. For us, the internet isn’t a marketing channel but a language,” explains Giuliano Calza, the brand’s creative director. “Memes, absurdity, nostalgia and humour are how an entire generation communicates, so if you ignore that, you’re not really speaking to people.” It’s not just about being seen. “When people laugh, share, remix or even debate a campaign, they’re participating in it rather than simply consuming it.”

Create a digital marketing plan

To go viral, you don’t need a million-pound budget or one of the Hadid sisters. You need a plan. According to Anneloes, aimlessness is one of the most common digital marketing pitfalls: scattering yourself across channels, posting for the sake of posting (even trickier now that you can outsource content creation to AI) and paying for ads before you have a brand worth advertising. “Paid media amplifies what you already have. If you have nothing, you amplify nothing,” she says. Before you start creating content, have the following on paper.

Positioning: In two sentences, write down who you are, who you are for (your target audience) and why they should care about you.

Brand codes: Create a brand guide with your tone of voice, visual style, and communication dos and don’ts. This can be a one-pager, and is especially crucial if you plan to outsource parts of your content creation (whether to AI or a human creative).

Target audience: Map out your target audience in greater detail than the positioning. Who’s currently buying your product – and who would they be, ideally? What values or (sub)cultures do they vibe with? What channels (from Instagram to Discord to newsletters to online magazines) do they use, and how?

Budgets, capacity and other must-haves: To sell, you’ll obviously need a smoothly running e-commerce site and enough stock. It’s also wise to create accounts on Trustpilot and Google to track and moderate reviews. Lastly, you’ll want to start with building an organic social presence – which is free in terms of advertising budget but does take consistent team capacity (more on that below).

Bonus exercise: To understand what your brand is (beyond its garments), Anneloes recommends writing a short profile about your brand, as if it were a person. This exercise might feel moot for a namesake label, but it can be helpful to untangle where you (as a designer) end and your brand begins.

Nathalie Zoeteweij, a freelance creative who does social media for several fashion brands, stresses the importance of returning to your roots. Why do you do what you do? “There’s a big difference between a brand that emerges from a community or passion and one set up purely for commercial reasons. What works today is a brand with a clear identity and a face or team behind it. From there, you build a consistent strategy, recognisable content and your own style.”