In 2020, the global beauty industry was worth $483B. And, just in a year, it jumped to $511B. Despite the pandemic bringing most businesses to a standstill, the beauty industry has not just survived but grown at a rate of 4.75%.
The main reason for this? This industry has taken the online route. The reason behind this shift is clear: be where your prospective customers spend most of their time — online. Of course, this change has been led due to the new normal.
Now cosmetic and skincare brands have diversified their strategies and tapped into new markets. Thanks to their online marketing campaigns, they have been able to target a wider audience and garner more sales.
Let’s understand the impact of this shift with an example: L’Oréal, the largest beauty group today, has now moved 70% of its marketing budget to digital, from 50% pre-pandemic. This move has helped them achieve their e-commerce target in just eight weeks which would have otherwise taken at least three years, according to Lubomira Rochet, L’Oréal’s Chief Digital Officer, in an interview.
Getting the same results might not always be easy in a sea full of beauty brands. But, as a cosmetic company, focus on what draws users to such brands. Is it just the brand name and the product quality? Is it the way they tell their story on social media? Or is it the local community?
Honestly, all this and more makes a cosmetic brand successful. To compete in this very well-established industry, you must know how to ace the online game. After all, this is where most Gen-Zs and Millennials are.
To help you, we have curated a list of tried-and-tested methods that will take you a step closer to establishing a solid customer base online.
Do A Product Giveaway
Using product giveaways, you can give away your best-selling products to selected winners. For instance, if you are planning a new launch for your beauty product, give away product minis to your followers who fulfill all the rules, such as liking the post, commenting, tagging their friends, and sharing the post on their story.
For example, look at NYX Cosmetics’ giveaway campaign for Halloween. They have kept the rules quite simple, encouraging more users to participate.
Host Makeup Tutorials
An eyeshadow palette with a perfect balance of matte and shimmer shades? Works. But, an expert showing how to use that eyeshadow palette in 10 different ways can work wonders. You can host an Instagram or YouTube Live and invite a beauty guru or an in-house expert, where they’ll use your products and review them for your audience.
For instance, look at how Huda Beauty shared a reel wherein Huda Kattan, the founder, is seen trying the viral eyeshadow hack using the Huda Beauty eyeshadow palette.
Collaborate With Influencers
Did you know that around 49% of consumers depend on influencer recommendations? So, what exactly is influencer marketing, and why is it so effective? In this campaign, you work with creators having a substantial following on social media platforms and/or are seen as experts in a particular niche such as beauty, skincare, fashion, and more. These creators review your products and recommend them to their audience. Influencers can choose to do this in the form of a post, reel, or even a YouTube video. Influencer marketing is effective due to the relationship they have built with their followers. When you take time to connect with your audience, listen and understand what they want, they are more likely to trust what you recommend.
If you are just starting out, the key here is to collaborate with a micro-influencer, as these creators have a better engagement rate and a targeted audience.
You can partner with an influencer to promote your new product range, host a giveaway, conduct a contest, shoot a tutorial, and the list goes on. Remember, always know what the influencer’s strengths are, and then create a campaign together.
For instance, look at how Sephora collaborated with @best.dressed to promote their clean beauty line. Even though the post is a brand collaboration, the influencer has kept the caption and overall aesthetic the most authentic to her usual style..
Run a Hashtag Contest
Instagram contest posts tend to earn roughly 64x more comments and 3.5x more likes than a regular post.
So, if you are planning to launch a new product, make your audience a part of the ‘behind the scenes’ process by hosting a contest. For instance, your audience can create a hashtag for your product. All you need to do is share a post that lists your product’s USPs. And, based on this, ask participants to create a unique tagline or hashtag for the product. You can give away the new product for free to whoever comes up with the best tag.
Refer to this contest hosted by @lineofpearlsboutique. In this post, they have clearly outlined the contest’s rules and included the brand tonality. These pointers make it super easy for the audience to understand what the brand wants and what they should do to win the contest.
Run A Poll & Listen To Your Audience
Your audience makes your brand. By listening to them, you can understand how they feel about your product, what you can improve, discover potential leads, and enhance the overall brand experience.
Listening to your audience can be as simple as making them a part of your product launch. For example, you can host a poll between two products. Your audience can decide which product to launch by participating in the poll.
Or, you can even use polls as a part of your pre-launch campaign. Ask questions like: Are you excited for your launch? Guess what our next product is going to be? What are you expecting from our new product range? And so on.
Look at how Sephora has used the Instagram story feature to drop hints about their latest event with Wishful Skin, Dior Beauty, Kayali, and Huda Beauty using the available polls feature.
Create a winning online marketing strategy for your cosmetic brand!
In today’s competitive market, having just a good product line is not enough. You need to amp up your marketing strategies to tell your story and ensure your target audience can connect with it.
Giveaways, polls, contests are just some of the ways to help you out. We understand, there’s a lot to choose from. Don’t feel the pressure to do them all! Just pick the ones that align with your brand and seem feasible, and you’ll be good to go. To wrap it up, you can try:
- Giving away your best-selling products
- Hosting makeup tutorials with beauty gurus
- Collaborating with influencers
- Creating hashtag contests
- Listening to your audience via polls
If you are a small team and not sure where to start, consider taking help from Woobox. This is an online platform designed to boost engagement. You can use this platform to create successful contests, giveaways, polls, forms, and much more.
So, what’s stopping you? We are just a call away. Our Support team is available from 9am to 5pm PST, Monday to Fri at 1-360-450-5200 and support@woobox.com
