Beauty lies in the eyes of the Beholder!

This common saying has been proven true by Influencers who have transformed how beauty and cosmetic brands function. From reels with make-up tips for different skin types to skin care regimes that work, influencers create engaging content to reach a brand’s audience. The beauty industry relies on high visuals, and consumers rely on opinions and recommendations before purchasing a product. It is likelier that a brand’s target audience will buy an expensive moisturizer suggested by an influencer with thousands of followers rather than getting influenced by a brand’s advertisement promoting the same product. No wonder collaborations between beauty brands and influencers are a successful marketing strategy. 

A Brand’s Gateway to its TG.

Influencers can sway the audience’s purchase decisions since they bring to the table authenticity with first-hand product experience that they endorse. Beauty bloggers, vloggers, makeup artists, and social media celebrities, passionate about beauty, make great partners for beauty brands. Brands leverage the trust, followers, and reputation that the influencers enjoy, gaining eyeballs, generating awareness, and ultimately impacting consumer behavior. 

How it works?

• Beauty influencers regularly churn out authentic and relatable content, such as make-up tutorials, product reviews, demos, trend alerts, etc., to hook the audience. 
• Many brands regularly post sponsored content with a direct call-to-action by influencers for their followers to explore the brand or buy products. 
• Limited edition collections or co-branded products developed with influencers’ creativity and expertise resonate well with their followers. 
• Social media takeovers for a day or specific period are also common when the influencer engages with the brand’s audience, taking engagement to the next level. 
• User-generated content from influencers and followers can create buzz and enhance brand visibility. 
• Brands often gift their products to influencers to drive organic promotion and positive reviews. 
• Long-term relationships with specific influencers make them brand ambassadors with regular promotions, content creation, and engagements during campaigns or offline events.

Creating an Influencer Marketing Strategy for Your Beauty Brand.

Social media is full of noise, and with a plethora of influencers to choose from, it may be overwhelming to decide the right strategy for your brand. Worry not! These steps can help you create the perfect roadmap. 

Step 1: Understand your audience, their interests, triggers, and preferences. 

Go beyond demographic and spending power to understand their psyche. Do they prefer innovative beauty concepts or stick to traditional ones? How important is sustainability to them while buying? What content are they more likely to consume? What form of content consumption will work better? Where do they consume content? Are they looking for inspiration or education?  Surveys or 1-to-1 interviews can help you understand buyer’s preferences.

Step 2: Look for beauty influencers and shortlist them. 

You can check beauty forums and communities and search hashtags on the platforms that you are targeting. You contact agencies and influencer platforms that can assist you in finding the right influencers for your brand. While choosing an influencer, consider their audience, engagement rates, platforms they are popular on, content quality, and your budget. Incorporate different influencers who can create different types of content catering to various target segments within a larger audience set. Determine if these influencers are a good fit for your brand. Beauty influencers do not just create content about make-up products, they let their followers know their daily wellness routine to make it more authentic.

Step 3: Formulate an outreach plan. 

Check if the influencers are represented by a manager or agency through social media platforms or search engines. Understand the influencer’s audience, content types, alignment with your brand values, and opportunities to create value for your brand and their audience mutually. Use your personal profile as a marketing specialist to engage with their pages to gain visibility. Approach influencers in a personalized manner by using your research and elaborating on the collaboration or campaigns you have in mind with their expected deliverables. Emphasize the benefits of associating with the brand and lay the foundation for a long-lasting relationship. 

Step 4: Generate Content.

Once you have finalised the influencers, it is judicious to sign a contract detailing the duration, deliverables, schedule, content delivery terms, asset ownership, non-disclosure, termination terms, etc. Clear campaign briefs will ensure superior content quality and expedite the content creation process. Set campaign goals and objectives in your brief. Explain the brand style, tone of voice, and messaging guidelines to the influencers so that they have a starting point to create content. Share product knowledge, product usage, and content references to guide them. Reference videos, brand mood boards, content types, and formats can be additional inputs for beauty influencers. You can exchange ideas for the call to action, caption, storyline, and narrative, giving them independence and space to develop authentic content by utilizing their knowledge and expertise. It is important for the beauty influencer to have their own voice while adhering to the brand guidance you provide.

Step 5: Metrics 

Set KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) such as reach, clicks, bounce rate, sales through UTM (Urchin Tracking Module) links, visitor-to-customer ratio, and post engagement. Monitor these metrics using social media tracking tools. Based on the data, derive insights to plan future influencer marketing strategies, including product presentation, content creation, influencer interaction with the audience, and brand value communication. 

Some Beauty Brands that have done it Right!

The “Be Your Own Muse” campaign by Sugar Cosmetics in March 2023 featured influencers from different walks of life with the central theme of celebrating women’s empowerment. The campaign generated more than 1 million engagements with significant sales growth. The authenticity of story-telling when real women shared their experiences touched a chord with the audience. A diverse group of influencers, strong visuals, and a clear call to action encouraging the audience to share their stories led to the campaign’s success. 

Nykaa launched its Clay it Cool Mask range in February 2023, grossing 3 million impressions with a media spend ranging from ₹5 to 7 lakhs. Micro-influencers with less than 5,00,000 followers were selected for the campaign, but the reach was substantial. The high engagement rates enjoyed by this campaign were due to the selection of influencers genuinely passionate about skincare and beauty who connected with the audience. The reach was ensured by promoting the campaign on prominent social media platforms. A variety of quality content was generated since the influencers were given creative freedom with glowing reviews and how-to videos.

Make the most of Influencer Marketing

Consumers are spoiled for beauty product choices. It matters to the new-age customers if the products are cruelty-free and they deliberate before applying beauty products to their skin. Therefore, while it is important for beauty brands to ensure product quality, they must also connect with their customers by building trust and awareness to boost sales from authentic sources. Beauty is one of the three most evolved sectors in influencer marketing, presenting limitless opportunities for brands to tap into the social media world to generate awareness and, eventually, sales through marketing efforts. 

Avoid

Avoid common mistakes like partnering with beauty influencers whose values do not align with your brand, chasing follower counts blindly, and failing to prioritize goal-setting. Be vigilant and do not engage with influencers involved in unethical practices such as buying followers or undisclosed paid promotions. Engaging with such influencers can hamper the trust built by the brand with the audience and adversely affect the brand’s reputation. 

Harness the Power of Influencer Marketing for your Business.

Influencer marketing is a powerful tool in a beauty brand’s arsenal to reach its audience and engage with them to build awareness and boost sales. Beauty brands can successfully deploy influencer marketing strategies by identifying the right partnerships with influencers, creating compelling content, understanding the power of influencers, and staying ahead of trends.

Incorporate the power of Influencer Marketing in your strategies to boost your brand. If you need help steering through social media and running captivating influencer campaigns that will propel your brand’s growth, start a discussion with us at Hello@Quello.com.