Some people will only purchase shoes by a particular designer or sold by a certain store. Keep this in mind when you are developing a marketing plan for your own line of shoes. An effective shoe marketing campaign must be strong enough to break through a consumer's buying prejudices. The campaign must build up brand recognition around your shoe line, increase sales from new customers and also encourage continued purchases of the same brand by existing customers. The idea-generation process for your shoe marketing plan should be continuous.
When you are featuring your shoes on models, do not limit the photo images to the feet only. Feature the entire model in your ad campaign, head to toe, to give the potential customer a full view of what someone will look like when they are wearing your shoes. This is especially important for women's shoes. Keep in mind that putting on a pair of heels or platform shoes can actually extend the wearer's body and lift the calves, which is a key effect to feature in your advertisements. If you want to show details of the design, place an inset photo on your advertisement that pictures a close-up of the shoe on the model's foot.
When you are releasing a new line of shoes for women, hold a fashion show as part of your marketing plan. It is best to limit this marketing idea to women's shoes only since women tend to be more receptive than men to these types of events. Invite "fashionistas" from the area to the event and offer free tickets to people in your target market (such as ladies 18 to 35 years old). If the fashion show is a success and draws in a significant amount of orders in your test market, you can then take the show on the road to other major markets.
Once you start to receive shoe sales, keep a very close eye on the trends. Find out which shoes are selling the most, ask for reviews from customers and feature them in your next set of advertisements if they get positive feedback. Use these popular shoes as an anchor to help build up brand awareness and assure new customers of the quality of your shoe line. Once people order and like your popular brands, they will be more likely to check out your other styles as well. Be sure to ask customers where they heard about your shoes so that you know where to funnel more of your marketing dollars.
