Social media has emerged as a mainstream marketing channel where brands and consumers can interact and engage in real-time. Almost every business that is active online is on social media to promote their products.
However, no other industry has benefited from the boom in social media marketing quite like the beauty industry.
How social media is impacting the beauty industry:
Social Media's Impact on the Beauty Industry
The growing popularity of social media and the sheer number of active users on social platforms has made it an essential part of any brand’s marketing strategy. The beauty industry has benefited greatly from this, $5.5 trillion industry.
Here are two of the most notable changes that have occurred in the industry due to the growth of social media.
Developing new sales channels
Beauty brands are using the popularity of social media platforms to bring their stores to consumers, rather than asking them to visit.
Visual social media platforms like Instagram are being used as virtual stores with the feed acting as a virtual product display – take beauty brand Sephora for example, whose Instagram feed allows users to shop by simply clicking a photo.
Images Courtesy: Instagram
Social media platforms have also recognized this trend and responded by offering features that aid in social selling. From shoppable pins to Instagram stories with CTAs, there are plenty of ways to sell on social media.
Most of these options direct users to an actual website where they make the purchase. But beauty brands are breaking the mold, shortening the process and selling directly from social media. A number of boutique beauty brands and merchants have emerged that take orders and accept online payments directly from social media.
Here is an example of such a beauty product seller. The photo caption tells the consumer to “DM me or order” [use] “Whatsapp”.
Images Courtesy: Instagram
Consumers can place orders by sending direct messages and pay with online wallets or any other payment method. It's that easy. Social media scheduling tools are extremely useful for managing and automating posts, ensuring a consistent presence across different platforms.
The industry is truly global
Another big change that social media has brought to the beauty industry is the realization of global sales. Gone are the days when you could only order products that were available in your region and had to wait for a relative to travel overseas to get your hands on your coveted beauty product. Now, with the advent of social media resellers, you can order from any brand without ever leaving the comfort of your home.
You may be wondering why anyone would buy from a social media seller when many beauty brands already offer international shipping – and indeed, ordering products from another country can cost you a lot of money due to shipping and import fees.
These social media resellers order products in bulk or use other methods to avoid paying high import duties, allowing them to sell the same products at a much lower cost than if they were ordered from an overseas website.
Below is an example of a reseller that delivers beauty products worldwide.
Images Courtesy: Instagram
Social Media Strategies for Beauty Brands
Here are some useful ones Social Media Marketing Strategy This is information that will help you succeed in the social media game.
Provide useful and informative content for your audience
One of the most successful social media content strategies for beauty brands is creating “how-to” content and tutorial videos.
Not everyone who is interested in beauty products knows how to use them, and makeup looks created by professional artists make ordinary beauty lovers want to see more. They want to know exactly how to recreate the same look, which is where tutorial videos come in handy.
Here are some reasons why you should include tutorials in your content plan:
- This is the type of information consumers want, not something you can impose on them.
- You can create a variety of looks using the same products, so you'll never run out of content ideas.
- These videos showcase your product in use and encourage people to buy it after seeing how it works.
- This removes any concerns consumers may have about how the product will look when applied, making the purchasing decision easier.
Besides tutorials, you can also use other helpful content like tips and tricks, skincare or makeup routines, etc. All of these provide highly sought-after and useful information to your existing or potential customers, and these types of content have similar benefits to tutorials.
And one of the best mediums to post tutorial videos is IGTV, like Nykaa has done here.
They created an IGTV channel where they just post tutorials, dos, don'ts, tips, and other useful beauty related content.
Create a unique brand personality
A great way to stand out from the crowd on social media is to have a clear and unique brand voice and personality, which will increase brand recognition and recall.
Yes, this is the same strategy that brands like Coca-Cola have used for years by keeping their brand elements consistent, like their logo and colors.
When applied to social media, the same strategy focuses on keeping the aesthetic and tone of your page consistent. Some brands may use humor to set their brand voice, while others may focus on a social cause or issue and maintain a serious brand voice. You can use any tone for your social media content, but make sure to keep it consistent.
In addition to tone, maintaining a consistent aesthetic can also help create a clear brand personality. You could use the same color palette for all your posts, or post similar content that, when viewed as a whole, looks like a portfolio.
check out Kylie Cosmetics' Instagram page. All the posts added together form a whole, giving your page a consistent look.
The color palette used in all the posts is the same, which makes the entire feed look great, plus, the pastel colors used in the posts resemble actual makeup products, as Kylie is known for her makeup palette of pastels and nudes.
If we compare this to the brand's personality, YSL BeautyYou can see the obvious differences: being a luxury brand, YSL uses black, red and gold colours which look elegant and luxurious.
Start a conversation and keep your audience engaged
Building a brand on social media requires being active and posting relevant content consistently and frequently, but it's not always possible to create new content every day for every platform you're on.
So, sometimes you need to post content that sparks conversation and keeps your audience interested. You can do this by simply asking a question, and once that question is answered, you will get engagement on your post.
Also, the questions don't necessarily have to be related to your industry, they can be anything fun that everyone wants to talk about.
For example, take a look at this Twitter post from Benefit Cosmetics: They asked a question that people wanted answered and it garnered quite a few comments.
You could also run a quiz or survey as these types of social media posts get high engagement. Or you could post share-worthy content that people will want to repost/retweet and continue to engage with even hours or days after posting.
Leverage user-generated content
User-generated content is a gold mine because it doesn't require any effort on your part, is authentic and is likely to be well-received by your audience. And even if you can't create new content for your social media accounts, it can provide you with enough content to post frequently.
All you have to do is inspire your audience to create content. You can do this by getting them to use your branded hashtag for a chance to be featured on your page. And of course, they need to be photographed using your products. For a beauty company, this means someone applying makeup using your branded products.
Benefit Cosmetics employs a strategy of reposting user posts that use the brand’s hashtag, #benefitbrows.
Image courtesy of Instagram
Use hashtags
This is the most important part of any brand’s social media strategy and cannot be ignored. Hashtags are extremely useful in expanding the reach of your content and targeting relevant audiences.
you can Use popular hashtags in your industry It’s to reach people who are interested in your niche, which will allow you to reach more people than you could reach on your own.
You can also create campaign or brand-specific hashtags to promote your content and track the success of specific campaigns.
Conclusion
The growing popularity of social media has played a major role in the development and true globalization of the beauty industry, which has fully embraced it and is using it to its full potential.
However, this has also increased competition within the industry, with everyone vying for consumer attention on social media. With this in mind, we have compiled a list of the most useful social media strategies for beauty brands to succeed in social media marketing.
Use the strategies above to get results with your social media marketing.
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The Influencer Marketing Hub team is a diverse group of experts who are passionate about influencer marketing, digital trends, and social media strategies. Each piece of content created by this team is researched and written to provide valuable insights, tips, and updates for our readers. Our authors are dedicated to delivering high-quality, informative, and engaging articles that help businesses and influencers succeed in the rapidly changing digital world.
