S/W/F Boutique founder Desiree Deravi speaks to Imogen Bailey about the business' social strategy.
She’s a podiatrist by trade, but Desiree Deravi has always possessed a strong love for fashion.
Building on this passion, Deravi founded her womenswear label S/W/F Boutique a little over four years ago and decided to build the business on a made-to-order model to reduce waste and environmental impact.
In 2017 US retailer Free People picked up S/W/F, followed by Bloomingdales in 2018. The brand is stocked online by Australian retailers The Iconic and Glam Corner as well as in boutiques across Australia.
However, it’s not only the impressive growth the business has been able to achieve in as little as four years, it’s the social media strategies driving this growth that also deserve recognition.
Over 80% of the brand’s sales come through Instagram, Deravi says.
“Social media has played an important role for S/W/F from the beginning, with Instagram being our strongest channel.
“Our social media strategy is focused on organic growth, connecting with our customers in a genuine way and listening to the demand. It is also important to be open to change and new features that are available,” she says.
However, despite driving a large volume of sales through Instagram, right now, adapting to the changing COVID-19 environment has proved to be crucial for the brand, Deravi adds.
“We have needed to quickly rework our social strategy, especially in response to COVID-19. We’ve noticed numerous changes in the community and solely pushing product at this time does not sit within our values and ethos.
“Instead, we have reached out to ‘friends of the brand’ to ask for their support via IGTV to help keep our community connected at a time where isolation is required and the community is still navigating to find their new sense of reality,” she says.
This pivot away from direct selling won’t be perceived as strange by the brand’s followers though, as Deravi has purposefully invested time and energy into cultivating the S/W/F community.
“While engagement and 'likes' are incredibly important in gauging what customers are resonating with, we also believe it is vital for the S/W/F consumer to interact effortlessly with us and feel included in our world and community.
“Whether that is us reposting content of customers wearing the brand, or replying to the kind messages of encouragement, we try to keep our S/W/F community connected.
“We have gifted customers who we have seen have made multiple purchases over months - just to say thank you! We feel having a strong community and being generous goes a long way,” she says.
This engagement and strong community ensures that when the brand does execute a campaign, it performs extremely well.
Deravi says that S/W/F’s recent High Tea campaign saw engagement increase 150% leading to a surge in online sales.
“We shot a new collection ‘High Tea’ internationally in Europe last year which embodied the brand perfectly.
“When we launched and brought the collection to social media, our audience were engaged like we have never seen before.
“It was incredible to see the return on investing in this imagery was so powerful and successful on social media. We saw our engagement spike, sometimes tripling, and online sales mirrored this,” she explains. 
Desiree Deravi
The High Tea collection continued to deliver for the brand, with a post two months later generating significant engagement and reach.
The image of Deravi wearing one of S/W/F’s best-selling dresses – The Gingham Floss Apron Maxi – is the best performing post for the brand in the past 12 months, generating 1331 likes, 63 comments, 263 saves and a reach of 30,485.
“The conversion to sales for this post was low, however as the dress had already been available for two months we were grateful to see three sales out of it,” Deravi says.
Deravi adds that aesthetic imagery is key for S/W/F’s success on socials.
“We put a large focus and effort into our campaign and product imagery. As an aesthetically-driven platform, the imagery we use is carefully considered to complement the brand, and why we believe it is a key force in our online sales.
“As Instagram is such a visual channel, we have found its best for our branding too.
“It's important as a brand that our customers recognise our product as soon as they see it.
“We're well-known for bold prints and bright colours which we have been able to convey through Instagram to help the brand stand out,” she says.
Adapting to change – outside of COVID-19 – has also seen the brand rework its strategy when customer demand for certain types of content is dwindling, Deravi explains.
“I believe knowing your customer is integral to navigating sales on social media.
“What may work on another brand’s platform may not resonate well with your customer. It is about having an awareness of what consumers are asking for and responding to that.
“We have phased out having so much 'inspirational’ and ‘moodboard' imagery, and instead focused on refining our content to be centred around product.
“We are currently re-working our Facebook page and although our audience there is generally an older demographic, we aim to keep our content between platforms cohesive,” she says.
This flexibility when it comes to content is also useful when it comes to approaching new platforms, like TikTok Deravi says.
“We are open to all social channels. It's really important for us to embrace change and as the industry is fast paced to have our finger on the pulse and to keep an open mind and adapt to upcoming and new platforms when necessary.
“We have recently set up a TikTok account however we’re still in the process of creating content for the channel. We’re very excited to be working with an influencer to promote our product on the platform.”
While socials are clearly a key part of the S/W/F marketing strategy, Deravi says offline strategies are also important for the business.
“Although we heavily use social media in our marketing strategies, it's not the only form of promotion we invest in.
“We love to dress women who are empowering and confident in their own right at key events.
“Using social media as a key pillar can be a successful strategy however we like to diversify to ensure we maintain longevity,” she says.