Cosmetic Companies Marketing Strategies

Hello, hope you are doing well today, you are probably running or considering to open a cosmetics company and you’re looking for marketing guidance, well… Here it is! We put together a comprehensive guide on all the activities you can engage in order to market your cosmetics company! 

Table of context for marketing a cosmetic company

1. Build a community of customers
2. Create lots of (quality!) content
3. Cosmetics marketing distribution channels
4. Paid Advertising on Google, Facebook, & Instagram for cosmetics marketing
5. Micro-influencers are the key to the customer’s heart
6. Try marketing collaborations for cosmetics companies
7. Marketing Your Cosmetics Brand on Social Media
8. Create SEO-friendly content
9. Make use of user-generated content and reviews
10. Offer Promotions and Discounts
11. Use Creative Packaging for Your Cosmetics
12. Build Up your Personal Brand’s Cosmetics Marketing
13. Include testimonials in your product pages
14. Find customers through social listening
15. Find Brand Ambassadors on Instagram
16. Publish long-form cosmetics content
17. Repurpose your cosmetics marketing content
18. Measure, analyze, and improve your cosmetics marketing performance

1. Build a community of customers

In the past, the relationship between brands and customers was mostly a transactional one. Today? Brands that can turn their customers into a community enjoy far higher engagement rates, and that leads to increased sales. 

Community is a powerful engagement tool because it plays on the natural urge of people to belong. Sephora is probably the best example of a brand community in the beauty world. Named “Beauty Insiders”, it is continually evolving to provide more emotionally satisfying offers and experiences to drive sales. As a beauty marketer, you can also engage customers on social media and in your own community forum, encourage them to share their feedback, beauty inspiration, and tips within groups or on their social pages. Share special promotions as an exclusive members-only offer, and collaborate with beauty experts to help people solve their beauty problems. Remember that your main goal is to retain customers and strengthen their connection to your brand by building strong communities and lasting relationships.

2. Create lots of (quality!) content

Content marketing is an essential strategy for brand awareness and promotion. Content marketing works, because it engages the target audience with relevant, informative, or otherwise helpful content that provides value to the reader. Over time, people come to associate your brand with the value your content provides. This is a really powerful way to connect with potential customers, and a content marketing mindset should be inscribed in your brand DNA. 

Consider these content marketing ideas:

• Create “how to ” tutorials to teach people how to set up a skincare routine or home spa treatments.
• Build a newsletter subscriber list, and use it to send out special promotions and engaging content to your existing and potential customers.
• Go live on video and broadcast your story in real-time on social media. Video content is highly engaging and therefore an easy way to help boost organic reach for free.
• Survey customers to get feedback about your products and campaigns. You can do this via fun interactive content, like quizzes integrated as popups on your website, or via email campaigns. Use the findings to optimize your marketing strategy.
• Interview people from the beauty industry. Reach out to bloggers and influencers who are into beauty and cosmetics. Influencer marketing is huge in the beauty industry, and it can be a real win-win strategy for both you as a company and the influencer you’re working with.

3. Cosmetics marketing distribution channels

Effective beauty content marketing utilizes multiple distribution channels. This may include:

• Your ecommerce website
• Your blog
• Content hub
• Third-party sites and beauty blogs
• Social media platforms
• Influencer marketing
• Branded communities
• Podcasts
• YouTube
• Public relations
• Email
• Sponsored content and collaborations

Your marketing channels should correspond with your target audience’s behavior at the different stages of the customer journey.

For example, you might use search engine optimization to initially attract someone to your site. Then, you could retarget them across social media platforms with behavioral marketing. After someone joins your mailing list, you can push content directly to them to build trust.

Finally, you could complement these activities with PR, social media content, and influencer marketing campaigns to remain a prominent voice in your industry.

By producing content across multiple channels, you introduce more customer touchpoints along the buying journey.

4. Paid Advertising on Google, Facebook, & Instagram for marketing your cosmetics

Paid advertising is a direct and quick way to increase the visibility of your website and social media posts.

Be sure to explore your ad-targeting options for Facebook, Instagram, Google, and other channels. You can test out some ads using quick tools such as adwhale. And don’t forget to retarget your advertisements. Shoppers who visit your website can be served ads later on, with messages that are specific to their previous experiences. 

Having tools like Facebook Pixel and Google Ads Tag installed help navigate the retargeting process. Facebook Pixel works to track ad conversions and optimize ads, while Google Ads Tag tracks ad conversions as well, and remarkets products on your website.

– Generate Organic Traffic/ Organic Cosmetics Marketing

Organic traffic should be the main source of traffic to your website. To generate more organic traffic, try out these recommendations:

• Email marketing: This may include website/social media content, new products updates, promotions, coupons, and brand newsletters.
• Blogs: The content should echo your brand’s message. Blogs might include free recipes and engaging video tutorials.
• SEO-Optimized Website: Every page on your site, and your website’s structure, should aim to rank well with Google.

5. Micro-influencers are the key to the customer’s heart

Customers relate best to real people who identify with their everyday struggles. At the same time, businesses want to leverage influencer marketing without having to spend lots of money on celebrities and famous influencers. This is why micro-influencers have become so popular; from 2019 to 2021, online searches about micro-influencers increased by 105%. With the ongoing rise of Instagram and TikTok, there are many more potential micro-influencers who might be a good match for your beauty business.

If you want to analyze the potential reach and impact of influencers on social media platforms, you can easily research all the important data using Social Blade. Choosing the right micro-influencer for your campaign has never been easier.

6. Try marketing collaborations for cosmetics companies

Create a holistic approach to beauty by partnering with other brands and companies in related industries, such as spas, fashion, or entertainment brands. These partnerships will not only help build brand trust and credibility but will also open up new distribution channels. ColourPop is a beauty brand that’s well known for its successful collaborations, such as its Hello Kitty collection that sold out very quickly. Another example is a competition with White Fox Boutique fashion company, in which the winner receives a $250 gift voucher to both brands.

7. Marketing Your Cosmetics Brand on Social Media

Having a strong, consistent voice on social media is no longer an option when it comes to brand marketing strategies. It’s a necessity. For beauty products and cosmetics specifically, there’s a range of ways to find success on social media. 

When you consider why someone buys beauty products, it’s easy to see why Instagram, Youtube, and TikTok are such great avenues for promoting your product. They’re platforms based on imagery!

With visually-based social media platforms, you can show off the exact results of using your products.

Before we get more into some specific things you can do for your beauty line on social media, here’s three essential guidelines for having a strong online presence:

• Post content frequently. To stay top-of-mind, it’s important to maintain your online voice.
• Respond and interact. When you engage with your audience, they’re more likely to keep engaging with your profile. Interaction builds a community and shows a human side behind the beauty business.
• Cross-promote your channels. Connecting your profiles can drive up engagement on all your platforms. Introduce your Instagram audience to your TikTok, for example, showing them exclusive content on another format. This makes it easy for potential customers to discover your entire online presence, your profiles, your website, and your online store.

8. Create SEO-friendly content

Consumers rely on Google at each stage of the buying journey. If you want to be visible at key moments, then you need to understand search engine optimization (SEO).

Conduct keyword research to understand what your audience cares about as they seek answers online. Then, publish and optimize content to show up at the top, middle, and bottom of the purchase funnel.

A holistic SEO strategy extends beyond product and service pages.

You must also create valuable content around informational and educational topics. You can even optimize your video content for greater reach and engagement. This type of SEO includes more generic, non-branded queries. As a result, you’ll attract potential customers who haven’t selected a particular product or brand.

Search-friendly content gets you in front of the right audience when they’re most receptive to your messaging.

9. Make use of user-generated content and reviews

User-generated content (UGC) and online reviews are an outstanding way to build trust with your audience. Because the content is created by actual customers rather than your brand, it’s much more authentic. People might not necessarily believe everything you say about your brand, but they will believe what your customers say. UGC and reviews are a powerful form of social proof. They show people actually using and enjoying your products, which helps solidify your own digital marketing messaging.

Wherever possible, highlight UGC and reviews. Showcase it on your website. Post it on social media. Leverage it in PPC ads. The more you can show real people benefiting from your products, the more you’ll establish your reputation as a trustworthy brand.

10. Offer Promotions and Discounts

Many beauty products and cosmetics are generally in high demand, but rather expensive at the same time.

Offering discounts and promotions, either online or at brick and mortar locations, can be something you advertise to gain attention, and can be a way to convince customers away from the typical brands they purchase.

11. Use Creative Packaging for Your Cosmetics

Inevitably, creativity is what makes your brand unique. Packaging is the first thing people see on the shelves, and it’s meant in part to represent your brand — so it should be creative as well.

12. Build Up your Personal Brand’s Cosmetics Marketing

A strong personal brand can build credibility of your beauty line and help you come across as an established expert in the industry. We see examples of personal branding everywhere when it comes to cosmetic marketing — Kylie Jenner and Rihanna, just to name a few (Given, those two were household names long before their entrepreneurial efforts in beauty products). Still, growing your personal brand to have the reach of a micro-influencer is possible using a variety of strategies:

Write blogs and articles
Talk about what inspired you to launch the cosmetic line
Share your story, challenges, knowledge, future plans
Share the goals of the business
Implementing these tactics can reinforce your leadership of the business while also making customers feel better about a purchase.

Having a good, well-established personal brand makes customers feel like their purchases are more person-to-person rather than a transaction from a business.

13. Include testimonials in your product pages

Happy customers are your best advertisement, hands down. And testimonials are one of the strongest influences on a customer’s decision-making process. Shorten your customers’ research process by giving them all the information and valuable links related to your product. Did someone write a positive review of one of your products? Great! Add a link in the product description and watch the magic happen. Video testimonials are particularly engaging, especially for the beauty industry. Videos of people trying out different products and recommending their favorites is a great way to promote testimonials for your beauty brand.

14. Find customers through social listening

Social listening is the practice of monitoring your brand’s online presence, by searching and analyzing online conversations about your company, its products, competitors, and more. Social listening software such as Brand24 or Mention can help you do this. Choose keywords that are relevant to your brand, such as “YourBrandName”, “skincare routine”, “best organic cosmetics”, “vegan oil/serum”, and go for it. The software will aggregate all online mentions and threads where you can easily start engaging with potential prospects.

15. Find Brand Ambassadors on Instagram

Using brand ambassadors can be a small investment with very high rewards.

For example, by simply offering micro-influencers free or discounted products and perhaps some cash, your brand could get thousands of engagements from a single Instagram post.

Promote Your Cosmetics with Video Content
Video content has grown more and more popular, and videos using beauty products are no exception. Some videos you might consider are makeup or cosmetic tutorials, short clips of applying the product, and “behind the scenes” footage.

Another prominent example is before-and-after images, which are huge when it comes to promoting beauty products. They show the impact of a product in a very straightforward way.

Using the same “before-and-after” strategy in video content can achieve the same effect, but with a few added embellishments. Here are some reasons you may use this strategy in video content as opposed to an image:

The model, actor or representative in the video may add their own personalized voice that echoes your brand.
The viewer may see the before-and-after effect as more trustworthy if they see someone actually using the product.
A video may seem to have a more human element than a still photograph.

16. Publish long-form cosmetics content

When it comes to organic search, long-form content tends to perform better than shorter content. According to an Semrush study, content ranking in the top 3 positions in Google was found to be 45% longer than the content in position 20 on average.

To clarify, content length is not a Google ranking factor. So, don’t add fluff to boost word count. Rather, cover a topic as completely as necessary with high-quality content.

Google prioritizes content that fully satisfies the intent behind a search so that a person doesn’t have to go to multiple sites to find what they’re looking for. Long-form content meets this criteria because it anticipates and answers user’s questions about a subject. Furthermore, it enables you to rank for similar long tail keywords with each piece of content.

As a result, you’ll expand your reach and build relationships with new customers.

17. Repurpose your cosmetics marketing content

Repurposing content in different formats is a great way for beauty marketers to drive greater ROI from existing content.

For example, you could turn a long-form blog post into a series of YouTube videos that collectively cover the same information. Then, embed the videos throughout your article.

Or you could combine multiple blog posts into a downloadable eBook, then add CTAs to each of the articles. Alternatively, you might convert a series of Instagram posts into a lookbook. Maybe you could get creative with user-generated content and use a background changer to make it fit your branding, then post it on your social media channels.

19. Measure, analyze, and improve your cosmetics marketing performance

To make your content marketing efforts more effective, be sure to regularly measure and evaluate your results. You need to determine what’s working, what isn’t, and what adjustments you need to make.

The metrics you use to determine the effectiveness of your content will obviously depend on the content itself. For a blog post, you might measure the amount of organic search traffic it generates, how long visitors stay on the page, and whether they click through to any product pages. For a video, you might measure the number of views, the average time watched, and the percentage of viewers that watched beyond a specific point.

If a piece of content performs particularly well, try to determine why and then use that strategy more in the future. If content isn’t performing particularly well, adjust as necessary, testing until you find what generates the best results.