The beauty industry is ever-evolving and extremely dynamic. It is particularly dependent on changing customer trends and purchasing preferences. Therefore, beauty brand marketers have to face and overcome the challenge experienced by beauty brands to maintain relevance by being willing to adapt to consumer preferences and industry innovations. The following are five digital marketing strategies for CPG beauty brand marketers that should be adhered to to ensure longevity in this highly competitive market:
Digital Marketing Strategies Beauty Brand Marketers Should be Using
1. Video Presents an Interesting Opportunity
Video may have killed the radio star back in the dawn of music videos but they can save the beauty industry. A Pixability: Women’s Wear Daily study discovered that 68.5% of all views of the 200 top beauty videos were of makeup tutorials. This means more than half of all beauty videos were makeup tutorials, showing consumers exactly how to apply products. This is just one example of the power of video to elicit a customer response.
Content marketers have given more attention to videos as they have begun to understand the impact that video content has on retail sales. Unfortunately, beauty brands, unlike those in other industries, are often faced with limited budgets when it comes to making videos as part of their digital marketing strategy. Thankfully, though, with the surge of popularity in tutorial-style videos, as mentioned above, this presents a great opportunity for beauty brands to get into the game.
As a marketer, you don’t have to spend thousands of dollars to make a product ad video. Instead, you can simply feature your products in tutorials. Another budget-friendly option for incorporating videos into a marketing strategy includes utilizing content in motion on social media. These videos are up to 70 times cheaper than standard product-centric videos according to Olapic. Consequently, they also have twice the engagement than a static image, which makes videos a win, win for beauty brand marketers. Clinique used product-centric six-second videos to replace traditional display ads and saw a 70% increase in their ad recall rate and a product awareness increase of 26%.
2. Augmented Reality (AI): Dawn of the Robots
While we have seen countless movies alluding to the dangers of letting robots take over, in real life augmented reality or AI is far from dangerous. In fact, for you as a beauty brand marketer, it can be immensely helpful. Beauty brands can use AI, to allow customers to “try on” their makeup virtually. Many beauty brand leaders have embraced the technology and are combining it with virtual capabilities to give customers a truly hands-on experience without them having to set foot in a store. Not only does AI help consumers, but it also helps beauty brands themselves to know what customers are most interested in, so they can channel their efforts towards their most popular products.
For example, Smashbox was one of the first brands to utilize AI when they introduced their eye-tracking technology. This was a tool that allowed their customers to “try on” their products. When trying them on, the AI technology could measure the eye movements of the consumers and instantly know if the consumer was responding positively or not to the product. This information was vital in helping the company determine what products to carry, and they were subsequently able to increase their conversions by 27% after implementing this AI tool.
3. The Age of the Influencer
You can’t spend more than a few minutes on social media without coming across a social media influencer. While the use of influencers to push products is on the rise in every industry, beauty influencers are perhaps the most pivotal in providing a boost to the industry. An influencer is defined as someone who showcases products and then shares their opinions of said products with their audience of social media followers.
The act of seeing a “real-life person” use a product can be a tremendously influencing act. This digital marketing strategy is one every beauty brand should be embracing because the influencer is not going anywhere anytime soon. It’s all about helping your brand connect on a personal, relational level with your customers. Influencer and Beauty journalist Victoria Ceridono said the following about the power of the influencer:
“The reason why an influencer has its audience is that they [the influencer] are real and genuine.”
Social Media: Within this category, it’s important to mention the importance of a social media presence. Without social media, there would be no influencers, at least not as we know them today. As a beauty brand marketer, you must create a social media presence for your brand and maintain that presence, engaging with followers and promoting them to give feedback and reviews. The more your brand is mentioned, the better.
4. Rethinking Tradition in Terms of Business Model
When it comes to the beauty industry, most think of the traditional path of selling makeup and skincare products i.e. a crowded mall or loud department store. However, in recent years, the beauty industry has grown leaps and bounds, especially in terms of its nontraditional business models. For example, instead of traditional methods of a customer walking into a brand’s store and buying products, beauty lines are now offering subscription services like Ipsy, Smashbox, Birchbox and FabFitFun.
A wise beauty brand marketer will embrace a variety of business models. While in-store purchasing might work for some, online stores or subscription services might work better for others. The idea is to think outside the traditional confines of how to sell makeup and/or skincare. This of course does not mean that your brand cannot still enjoy a brick-and-mortar existence or have a physical presence within a mall. Instead, it is often seen as a way to reach even more customers, by making your brand accessible across both physical and digital worlds. For example, instead of merely being available to your local buyers, your brand could be available nationwide or worldwide.
5. Utilize Crowdsourcing
Crowdsourcing is another digital marketing strategy that the beauty industry should be embracing. Glossier is an example of a brand doing this well. Glossier uses its social media community to engage with consumers, asking for feedback and input. This gives power to the consumers to influence the creation of new products and gives them a sense of ownership in the brand, which creates brand loyalty.
Another example of a beauty brand using crowdsourcing is Volition, a community-focused beauty brand, whose business strategy is built around crowdsourcing. Volition allows consumers to suggest and vote on ideas for new beauty products. If a product idea gets enough votes, it’s put into production and made available for purchase. To drive further engagement and sales, consumers who submitted ideas or participated in voting are offered a 40% discount on the product. This is a good example of how a brand can use crowdsourcing to build a following, encourage engagement, and most importantly, drive sales.
What This All Means, Staying Relevant in a Crowded Market
Although the beauty industry is a challenging place to make a name for yourself, as a beauty brand marketer, you can promote your brand by adhering to the digital marketing strategies noted above. Each of the strategies discussed will help you move closer to your customers and further away from stale strategies that have long since lost their luster. If you can’t incorporate them all at first, at least try to embrace a few and then work your way towards utilizing them all. Thankfully, if you contact the team at Digilant, we can help you determine which of these digital strategies are best suited to boost your brand’s reach and sales and help incorporate them into your marketing initiatives. Contact us today to get started.