The key connection between Beauty Brands and Influencers
The relationship between influencers and brands has revolutionized the beauty industry – and led to some major upticks in revenue for big and small companies alike.
Beauty brands are now spending up to 50% of their digital budgets on livestream content, according to Audrey Depraeter-Montacel, global beauty lead at Accenture. That’s an astonishing leap in the industry compared to stats from previous years.
So what happened to make such a massive change for beauty brands? The age of influencer marketing arrived – and completely revolutionized the way marketers promote products. The cultural zeitgeist shifted – and peers became more influential to consumers than celebrities and traditional media. Beauty brands were among the first to harness the power of social influencers, which led to skyrocketing sales for early adopters.
Not only is social media ideal for beauty brands – which often rely on photography and video to showcase their benefits – collaborations with authentic creators opens the doors to reaching media-wary audiences. It’s never been easier for consumers to purchase directly from their favorite influencer – and the products they recommend.
Social media-led e-commerce is here to stay.
So how can your brand leverage relatable influencers to engage with consumers and convert their followers into clicks and purchases?
3 Steal-Worthy Tips from Top Beauty Brands to Leverage Influencer Marketing in Your Business
1. Recruit the right influencer for your brand.
Partnerships can either elevate or destroy your potential customer’s trust in your brand.
Make sure you do your homework and recruit influencers who align with your brand’s values and beliefs.
These days, having the highest follower count isn’t enough to move the needle. Savvy online consumers connect with authenticity – so in most cases, choosing a creator who aligns with your brand’s mission is the smartest strategy.
For example, if you have a product made with recycled materials, choosing to work with a creator who promotes sustainability as a core value to their audience is likely a better move than one who does not.
Like attracts like – so you are more likely to see better results from your value-aligned creator partnership, as their followers likely hold the same beliefs and values.
2. Support and encourage prolific influencer content.
Though it may be different from what your brand is used to, content is the key to all successful influencer-brand partnerships.
Empower your influencer partners to create authentic content – rather than handing them a rigid script and visual guide to follow. While technically you’re paying them like you would a model or an ad placement, the key to leveraging influencer marketing effectively is to let them use their own voice to connect with their community.
The most successful beauty brands embrace the spirit of collaboration… and take a volume approach to content. On social media, you have less than three seconds to capture the attention of your intended audience.
Plus, you need to consider how often people refresh their feed. For example, 42% of Instagram users open the app more than once a day, so sharing multiple pieces of content per day is becoming an increasingly popular strategy to capture waning attention spans and capture fresh eyes on content daily.
3. Community first.
Your influencer partnership will work better and convert more followers if you remember the golden rule: community first.
At the end of the day, your business serves people. People are what make your brand successful. So to be successful, you need to treat people like… people.
Some brands look at their customers as numbers on a spreadsheet. This energy conveys to savvy online consumers – who can spot inauthenticity in a heartbeat.
Top beauty brands have mastered creating an authentic connection with their consumer base well, which is why partnering with creators who put community first is a top priority.
Putting your community first even goes beyond social interactions. The most successful brands have built the “customer-first” mindset into their entire user experience – from no hassle return policies to simple, intuitive interfaces. They recognize the value in ensuring consumers are seen and heard… which pays dividends in the long run.
Influencer-brand partnerships are an essential part of any modern marketing mix. It can be the difference between meeting your goals and surpassing them.
The secret to leveraging influencer marketing well—on a scalable level—is by investing in strategic technology.
The traditional way of running influencer marketing campaigns involves gathering unreliable data from various platforms and sources, then cobbling it together into a report that tells a story. Often, this story is incomplete, leading to frustration and poor decision-making that hamstring both creators and brands.
The modern approach is integrating platforms, which not only offer valuable first party tracking systems for direct ROI evaluation… but also allow for real-time tracking of marketing efforts. This means clear, intuitive data tied directly to a particular influencer, platform, and post.
Creatable is the leading platform for brands entering (and conquering) the influencer marketing space for their brand engagement and e-commerce goals.
If you’re investing in influencer marketing this year, getting the right technology platform can make or break your results. Schedule a complimentary Creatable demo and let us show you how much more effective and seamless your influencer campaigns can be: https://www.creatable.io/demo.
