Beauty is a big business in Australia, with one study suggesting that the average Australian woman spends approximately $3,600 on beauty every single year.
The country’s love of skincare, makeup trends, and other beauty products is a boon for those in the business. The only question is, how can you encourage audiences to opt for your brand over others?
Here are five fantastic online marketing strategies for those in the beauty business.
1.Use micro-influencers
Influencers have become part and parcel of the beauty industry, famously overtaking both company ads and celebrity endorsements. Well-known names and faces can make or break new beauty products with a positive or negative review, although for small beauty businesses, these big stars can also break the budget.
Fortunately, there’s a growing trend towards ‘micro-influencers’. Think less the latest Bachelorette star, and more that girl you see in the mall who always looks well put together. A micro-influencer is much more of a ‘real person’ in the audience’s eyes, and is therefore much more relatable and reliable.
Look for likely candidates on your social media channels who fit the bill, and see if they would be interested in reviewing your beauty products or experience.
2. Spend time ‘social listening’
Social media is the perfect place to connect with your audiences, but before you start broadcasting your message, take some time to practice social listening. This is simply a time to research, using social media, what your audiences are saying about your brand, your products, the industry in general, and the products and services you offer in general.
This is a fantastic way to understand your audience’s pain points and frustrations with their beauty routines, and with beauty providers, so you can base your messaging around solving those issues.
Social media tools such as Mention can help to streamline your research.
3. Embrace user-generated content
For the small business owner or marketer, the marketing budget is never going to be as generous as big-name brands. That’s why user-generated content can be such an advantageous business marketing strategy.
Encourage your audience to share their successes with your brand. Many will simply share for the connection with the brand, but you will likely get more submissions if you offer giveaways for those whose submissions you choose to reshare on your own social platforms.
Not only can this strategy keep the marketing budget healthy, it can also encourage strong relationships with users, and provide audiences with everyday testimonials from happy customers.
4. Focus on image-heavy social media marketing platforms
Social media marketing for small business is essential, and as the beauty business is an aesthetic one, a strong social media presence is vital as the basis of any marketing efforts. This means setting up accounts across Facebook and Instagram at a minimum, and potentially Pinterest and TikTok as well.
Use these platforms to share images of your products and what they can do, as well as short videos that provide advice, tips, and inspiration. This is the place to build a brand and a connected community, so keep the sales posts to a minimum and schedule plenty of photos, gifs, and videos to keep the imagery to a maximum.
5. Collect positive reviews and testimonials
Reviews and testimonials from happy customers are immensely valuable for all businesses, but for beauty providers in particular.
Potential customers will always want to hear from past customers about the products or service. Does a certain cream make acne-prone skin break out? Are the nail technicians friendly and easy to talk to? Does that hair mask work for fine hair?
Sometimes it’s not enough to answer these questions on your product pages (although you still should!) – customers will always love to hear the opinions of someone who has experienced the service themselves. Be sure to collect and share these reviews across your website and social media pages.
Online small business marketing is never easy, but these five tips should help you move in the right direction. You can also use White Pages Connect to help stay on top of your online listings, reviews, and social media platforms to help streamline your work and stay on top of your efforts.
