Editorial planning: how fashion brands can make their content more lifestyle-driven

Not every lifestyle brand is a fashion brand, but every fashion brand can also be a lifestyle brand.

Don’t worry if that sentence felt confusing. That’s what I’m here to break down.

If you’ve ever studied even a little bit of marketing, you’ll know that customer profiles or avatars are super important. You can’t create effective messaging or position your brand correctly if you don’t know who you’re selling to!

Brand owners will often have an idea of who their ideal customer is in their minds. Maybe it’s because they see them in person every day, or at least chat with them online on a regular basis. Maybe it’s because they’re modelling their ideal customer after themselves. Either way, the image exists somewhere.

They know this person’s style, their interests, hobbies, values, struggles, and desires. They know what kind of city they live in, what kind of career they have, what kind of music they listen to, and how they spend their free time. The level of knowledge is deep, but it’s not always reflected in a brand’s content.

And sometimes, that’s ok. It’s totally fine to stick with the basics and cover foundational topics if you’re just starting out with content marketing. But when you reach a point where you’ve got all that done and dusted, and your content is starting to feel stale or repetitive? It might be time to branch out with lifestyle content. I’ll be explaining exactly how to do that below.

What is lifestyle content?

But first, let’s give a more specific definition, because the term “lifestyle” can feel vague at times.

This type of content goes beyond your general niche to cover relevant topics that relate to your ideal customer’s life as a whole.

For example, you might have a jewelry brand. General niche content topics include things like material and craftsmanship technique overviews, styling tips, trend edits, gift guides, and care tips. It covers a wide range of information and material, but you could go even further by writing about the travel destinations or media pieces that inspired your designs, or activities or events you could wear the jewelry to.

Essentially, it’s content that encompasses areas of an entire lifestyle rather than just one part of it.

Why diversify your content

You don’t need to diversify your content with lifestyle topics. It’s totally fine to stay in your lane, and you can achieve great results by just sticking to your niche.

But sometimes it’s nice to switch things up on a personal level, and your audience might love it too.

Here are some signs you might be ready to diversify …

• You want to build deeper connections with your audience. Lifestyle content really taps into the “why” behind your brand. By reflecting elements of your customers’ real lives, you go above and beyond a mere shopping destination. Your brand becomes part of their daily inspiration. An activewear brand that sells amazing gear and offers solid workout advice? Now that’s adding value.
• You want to expand your reach and visibility. From a purely logical point-of-view, expanding your niche means creating greater visibility for your brand. Let’s say you have a clothing brand. Before, you might have only been able to attract people specifically looking for fashion content. Which was probably the goal, however … if you started posting city guides/packing list guides that included your brand’s most travel-friendly pieces, you could also attract travel enthusiasts. It’s like having a pop-up café in a boutique. Some people might come for the coffee, but they’ll end up staying for the clothes.
• You want to increase engagement and shareability. The more diverse your content is, the more likely it is to resonate with a wider audience. People will be more likely to share travel and wellness guides than product pushes. Lifestyle content tends to feel more relatable and useful, meaning more saves, shares, and time spent on your website.
• You want to strengthen your brand identity. You know how I was mentioning the ideal customer avatar a little while ago? Releasing content that spans a lot of their interests creates a strong sense of connection and identity. They’ll know that you get them, because, well, you post about all the things they care about!

How to plan lifestyle content

Branching out of your core niche might feel intimidating, but I promise it’s easier than you think.

I hate to sound like a broken record with the ideal customer avatar, but it relates to that. Coming up with lifestyle content basically just means building on that deep understanding of the kind of life a person lives and what interests them.

For example, if you have a fashion brand catered to professional women, you could start including topics based on professional development, work-life balance, or anything else that might interest a busy working woman.

If you have a clean beauty brand, you could write about other wellness-based topics like self-care practices, healthy eating and exercise tips, and sustainability initiatives.

And if you have a vegan accessories brand? The whole vegan world is your oyster: recipes, vegan-friendly travel destinations, vegan product recommendations … you name it!

Start by going back to that customer avatar and make a list of any and all topics that might interest them. Have a good brain dump session. And if you’re feeling stuck? You can always get ideas by …

• Talking to that ideal customer. They might be friends, family members, or existing customers of your brand. Ask them what kind of articles they like to read or what types of headlines draw their attention when they’re scrolling through their news feeds. You can always head to social media and utilize polls to get quick and easy answers!
• Browsing comment sections and DMs. This is another great way to get insight into what real people are interested in. If people bring up certain topics (like travel, food, or movies) a lot, you’ve got your ideas right there.
• Using keyword research tools. Don’t worry, this doesn’t have to be intimidating. There are free and easy to use tools like Google Trends, Answer the Public, and even Pinterest that can give you insights as to what people in your niche are searching for. Pay attention to the angle of the questions to tap into the lifestyle element. For example, people might be searching for “easy everyday outfits for moms” or “fashion tips for date night”, meaning your customers would probably also be into motherhood or dating content.
• Joining online communities. Not feeling technical? Online communities like Reddit and Facebook groups can give you plenty of insight without any overt analytics. Check out what people are posting about, what their struggles are, and what kind of content they share. You can also get related group suggestions that might be of help.
• Researching competitor brands. It never hurts to get external inspiration! Remember, you might get topic ideas from others, but you can always put a unique spin on anything to make it your own.

Finding balance between niche-specific & lifestyle content

Ok, so now you can see how easy it is to expand your content and make it more lifestyle-driven.

However, it’s only natural to want your content to have a strong theme. It should be clear what kind of brand you have (clothing, jewelry, skincare, interior décor, etc), so you might not want to go overboard with the lifestyle content if your brand isn’t a lifestyle one at its core.

That’s where editorial planning comes in. Take a look at your content calendar and slide in the lifestyle content where it makes sense and doesn’t feel overpowering. You can come up with a numerical ratio like 80/20, or simply space it out by deciding to inject one lifestyle piece a month. It’s totally up to you to decide how much you want to lean into the lifestyle content.

You may also want to look at seasonality and special events, like using New Year’s as an opportunity to talk about goals or resolutions.

Whatever you choose, make a plan to keep your content feeling interesting and balanced. You can use content pillars to make sure you’re covering all the themes you want, for example styling tips, craftsmanship techniques, shopping guides, and lifestyle content.

They say diversity is the spice of life, so why not enjoy a more diversified content range? It makes marketing more interesting and enjoyable for both you and your audience.

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