How This Swimwear Brand Grew From Zero to 6-Figures in 8 Months

Be the BFF of your customers

“Every body is a bikini body.”

That’s the statement of Escape, a Canadian swimwear brand that grew to six-figures in less than eight months after launch.

Their mission is supporting women to escape from social norms to be skinny and instead feel good in their bodies, no matter how thin or curvy.

While selling bikinis might not sound spectacular, the team managed to start a body positivity movement across several social networks.

On Instagram alone, more than 130,000 people are following the brand and supporting the company with tons of user-generated content.

Since launch, sales grew by 150% per month, and they built a massive community of women who love the products and support the message.

Uniting What Others Are Trying to Separate

One of the primary reasons why Escape stands out from similar labels is because their products are for every body.

While plus-size brands are becoming normality, Escape has a compelling message for everyone, no matter if size XS or XXL:

“It’s a chance to portray your inner self and express it through Escape Swimwear… Your words will be spoken through our swimwear. We are here to make you realize that you’re perfect — just the way you are.”

Instead of producing bikinis that particularly fit curvy bodies, they have a different approach: they design beautiful pieces and encourage women to love their skin and feel confident regardless of stretch marks, extra pounds, or cellulite.

Content Writing Done Really Well

When browsing through their website, you instantly know whom the company is addressing: young and middle-aged women of all colors, backgrounds, and body types who want to feel confident and sexy in their swimwear.

Escape’s mission statement is simple yet powerful. And they particularly succeed in communicating their values so well because they sound just like your best friend.

They obviously hired content writers who’re either part of the target audience themselves or who know the ideal customer really well.

Here’s a simple yet powerful excerpt of their website:

“You are a strong, independent woman. You know what you want and you know what suits your body. You want to dress in a way that doesn’t scream individuality and class, but whispers it seductively. At Escape Swimwear, it’s our mission and we hear you.”

Escape did what tons of new companies fail to do: they identified their ideal customer, invested time into understanding their voice, and adapted their language. This probably took some time, but speaking the language of their community is now one of their biggest assets.

Massive Community Building

Another significant asset of the company is the strong community they built in just a few months. Through attractive sponsorship programs, daily giveaways, and their BFF voice, they managed to gain fans that are not only promoting the products for free but also producing content for social media.

The majority of the posts on their Instagram and on YouTube are created by customers, which is incredibly powerful and authentic.

Instead of investing in costly models and photoshoots regularly, Escape is using the power of their worldwide community, handing out free pieces, and getting lots of free content that they can use across their channels.

That’s a win-win situation for the brand and their community: Escape offers daily giveaways of their products and, in return, receives user-generated content in the form of real photos and videos from ladies across the globe wearing their pieces. That’s a whole lot cheaper and easier for the company than acquiring costly influencers. Plus, it allows them to reach diverse communities authentically.

The additional benefit for the content creator is that their picture gets exposed to a massive audience of more than 100,000 followers. For anyone looking to build an audience that is similar to the followership of Escape, these reshares are a fantastic way to get some exposure within a targeted audience.

The winners of these prizes aren’t obligated to post pictures of the products, but they usually do it as a way to give thanks and because they feel connected to the brand.

Sponsorships

Besides their massive community and the content created by giveaway winners, the company also does influencer collaborations.

They accept ambassadors from all platforms with over 800 followers. So the entry barrier is low, and again this helps them to diversify their marketing and reach different groups of people from various communities and countries.

These partners share a 10% discount code and reviews of the products with their followers in exchange for free pieces. Additionally, they get a 15% commission of all sales made through using their code and several other benefits such as random send-outs of products to the ambassadors.

These collaborations are relatively cheap for the company and help to spread the word quickly.

Contrary to conventional paid sponsorships, these partnerships seem more authentic to the audience of the ambassadors. Followers are more willing to check a brand out if they trust the person sharing the content, and that’s usually much easier with small influencers.

While Instagram is the strongest channel of the company, their products are also heavily promoted by various YouTube influencers.

Just like on Instagram, also here, they are collaborating with different partners, ranging from a few thousand to more than 200,000 followers.

The video of one influencer, for example, got more than 12,000 views and 200 comments in just a few days.

Bottom Line

While the marketing team of Escape did an exceptional job in growing the brand quickly for relatively low costs, their strategies can actually be applied across various branches and companies.

Have a bold statement

Unless you’re launching highly innovative products that didn’t exist before, having a USP (Unique Selling Proposition) and a why is non-negotiable.

Swimsuits are nothing new, and even if you’re producing the most beautiful bikinis, you’ll need to communicate why people should buy your pieces instead of going for other, similar brands. With their “Every body is a bikini body” statement, Escape clearly communicates what they stand for. Some people might unfollow the brand for posting pictures of curvy ladies in bikinis, yet, they stay true to their mission and keep promoting their core value, which is body positivity, no matter how skinny or curvy you are.

Focus on channels that work in your favor

Escape heavily focused on building their community on Instagram because that’s where their target audience spends most of their time.

As a new company, your marketing resources might be limited, and you’ll have to make effective decisions about the channels you use. Thus, having a clear image of your target audience and knowing where they spend their time is critical. Right now, Escape is investing in TikTok, which is incredibly smart because that’s another powerful channel where they can reach their target audience effectively.

Master content and copywriting or hire someone who’s really good at it

The compassionate, best-friend-style of Escape’s communication was one of the first things to catch my attention when I came across their website. They are masters of using the ideal language to attract and keep their community of strong, confident women. Words have tremendous power, and if you want to grow a business on the web, you need to know to whom you’re talking and how your ideal customer wants to be approached.

A strong community beats any paid advertising

Without the highly engaged community, Escape wouldn’t be able to post so much unique content from diverse backgrounds. Their followers and affiliate partners enjoy the products and the message of the brand so much that they lovingly support the company in exchange for discount codes and free items.

User-generated content is the most reliable driver on social networks like Instagram: the more fans you can motivate to create content for your brand, the better. That’s one of the things Escape nailed in a short time through their attractive giveaways and the way they communicated with followers right from the beginning.

Can This Type of Marketing Also Work for Other Businesses?

Depending on the type of business, building a strong community, and leveraging a few specific social networks can be an effective marketing strategy.

We’re all sick of paid ads and particularly of obvious sponsorships from huge influencers. If, however, a person you know and trust shares pictures with a specific product, you might pay close attention and check it out.

Making use of gift cards and free products is a smart way to share your products with loads of people. And if they like them, they might a) buy more and b) become one of the affiliate partners and promote your brand to their own social network.

This type of marketing is particularly effective for companies selling physical products with relatively low production costs. Plus, for products that are interesting for a wide range of people. For companies who’re targeting specific niches, this approach might be less effective.

Yet, all kinds of fashion companies could make use of a great community that supports them in their marketing pursuits. Suppliers of stationery, accessories for digital devices such as phone or laptop cases, cosmetic and jewelry brands, but also various other lifestyle companies can learn lots from the way how Escape grew from zero to six-figures in less than a year and apply similar strategies.