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In the ever-expanding age of digital media and social experiences, digital marketing has become rooted as an essential part of every business. In 2020 all industry-leading brands are now defined by their digital presence and online community. For the beauty industry, the driving force behind its culture and passionate community is because of digital marketing from cosmetic brands. Therefore, to show just how brands can leverage modern strategies, I have outlined the top 10 practices in digital marketing for cosmetic brands.
For cosmetic brands establishing a strong social media presence has always been an essential part of their marketing strategies. However, as these platforms evolve, new features are continuously added to enhance the digital experience. In 2019 alone, numerous features were added to Facebook, Instagram, and SnapChat, which businesses could leverage to engage with their followers. On Facebook Collaborative Stories, and Facebook Watch was added to improve the experience of video viewing on the platform.
On Instagram, the ever-popular Stories feature, which attracts 500 million daily active users worldwide, was streamlined using “Highlights” categories. Then on SnapChat, the developers launched a Filter & Lens Kit, allowing brands to place sponsored ads, filters, and lenses right within user-generated content. All of these features within one year has changed the dynamics for brands to market on these platforms. Therefore, for all cosmetic brands, immediately integrating these features into their social media strategy will help increase engagement with followers.
Over the last several years, one of the most significant features added on social media platforms was the integration of e-commerce capabilities. For cosmetic brands, this ability to drive e-commerce sales right within the social experience has changed the way these brands plan their digital marketing strategy. One of the most notable social commerce integrations is Shoppable Posts on Instagram. Using the built-in catalog manager, brands can connect their e-commerce platform to import and tag their products on any post.
According to a 2019 social media marketing study, 72% of Instagram users have purchased a product through the app. Due to this integration, the behavior of customers has also changed. According to a 2018 report by the Global Web Index, 54% of social media users use the platforms to research products. Therefore, cosmetic brands, if they haven’t already, should adopt social commerce features to help drive conversion right from these users.
No matter the brand or industry, customers want to be heard when connecting with brands. Therefore, for the cosmetic industry, which prides itself on interpersonal connections, it is essential to establish channels of customer service on social media. According to a 2019 report by Statista, 47% of US customers favorably view brands that actively respond to customer service inquiries on social media. However, customer service on social media is more than being reactive to inquires.
Rather cosmetic brands need to have proactive customer service via social media listening. The brands should know and respond to when followers mention the brand in both negative and positive messages. No matter what the inquiry is, building a positive experience for customers is essential, as 71% of these customers are more likely to recommend a brand if they have a positive interaction with the brand.
In addition to Social Media customer service, a crucial part of future customer interactions is the onset of artificial intelligence-driven chatbots. For cosmetic brands, these chatbots can help facilitate a 24/7 conversational line of communication with customers. Using the advanced AI capabilities of messaging apps such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, brands can automatically connect with customers. These AI Chatbots can also employ methods of Conversational Marketing through automated product suggestions, tips, and conversation-based commerce. The unique qualities and experiences of these Chatbots are what lead to the 2019 Gartner research report estimate that by the end of 2020, 85% of customer services will be chatbot driven.
Across all social media platforms, video content has become a dominating force for brands to connect with their followers. In the beauty industry alone, brand-generated content counts for 39% of the category related views on YouTube. For cosmetic brands, the company produced content can help communicate product announcements, tutorials, testimonials, and key messaging driving the brand. Therefore, by leveraging video content, cosmetic brands will be able to connect with customers on a human level and build a strong viewership base.
In the beauty industry, if there was one guide all brands should follow in digital marketing, it is the use of influencer marketing. Across all social media platforms, the beauty industry is driving a strong and passionate community of advocates. On YouTube alone, 60% of beauty-related views are for videos created by influencers. With this massive network of strong personalities and pop-culture icons, cosmetic brands can leverage the millions of followers these influencers have amassed. Whether it is through $100K influencer sponsorships or user-generated product reviews from PR list kits of new products. The conversation surrounding the brand, whether positive or negative, will drive interest as well as traffic to the brand’s website and social media.
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With the ability to conjure broad analytical data from website platforms, digital advertisements, and social media, brands can begin to tailor personalized experience per target market segments. For cosmetic brands using data-driven personalized experiences can help leverage all customer interactions to improved conversions. According to a 2016 Marketo study, 73% of consumers report only engaging with offers that are personalized to their previous interactions with the brand. Therefore, cosmetic brands should embrace interactive content such as personalized offers, marketing emails, and website pop-ups. According to a 2018 SoDA report, creative one-to-one marketing experience can help improve customer engagement.
With modern digital media and assets, digital marketing strategies have become not only more complicated but also time-intensive. In the beauty industry, brands are actively sending email campaigns, generating landing pages, posting to social media, and personalizing websites per market segmentations. So why not leverage modern tools to automate these processes? Using automation and management tools such as Marketo, Salesforce Pardot, as well as Salefusion, cosmetic brands of all sizes can better reach their marking and metric goals.
When it comes to web design in 2020, nothing is more important than building a website using progressive mobile-first design. Not only will mobile-first design make the website more accessible to the global internet user base, but it will also help with website performance and Search Engine Optimization. In 2016 Google adopted an open-source standard called Accelerated Mobile Pages or AMP. AMP, as a coding standard, can enable designers and publishers to build efficient mobile-first websites. For cosmetic brands that publish maintain a company news page or blog, the AMP standard will allow Google to push supported content to a featured news carousel at the top of search listings.
Search Engine Marketing or SEM is an essential digital marketing practice for all brands. By using SEM, cosmetic brands can uniquely tailor display and search ads to reach target market segments best. SEM will not only help drive traffic to their websites and e-commerce sites, but it will also improve search visibility. For smaller cosmetic brands, improved search visibility using search ads can help the website appear on top of search results next to more prominent brands. Improved visibility will help both improve website traffic but also result in an increased visitor conversion rate.
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