Although plenty of bloggers are gaining traction in cyberspace, few have been able to turn their blogs and Instagram profiles into multi-million dollar businesses. WWD sat down with Snob Essentials bloggers and Bag Snob handbag designers Tina Craig and Kelly Cook to discover how to transition from blogger to retail brand.
In terms of building a blog into a brand, Cook says the secret is maximising the strength of the following, and ensuring the blogger’s taste and influence is tailored to a specific market.
“The strength of bloggers switching to brands [is that] they have a built-in audience,” Craig told WWD. “Bloggers are not celebrities or fashion models. We are influencers. We have a specific following.” To maximise growth, Bag Snob is now focusing on an e-commerce channel.
On heading in the direction of e-commerce, “it always goes back to the talent,” cofounder and chief creative officer of Digital Brand Architects Karen Robinovitz told WWD. “The people who are evolving into more than what they started as - which was creating content on a blog - would have done this either way.”
"This is not to say that anyone who starts a blog takes this path. It always boils down to talent, drive, business savvy and entrepreneurship. It just so happens that where they began their public career was a website," Robinovitz adds.
