With influencer marketing on the rise, all brands now want a piece of the social media pie. Recently on our blog, we discussed the impact of the rise of influencer marketing and what that means for the beauty industry. In this post, we will be further diving into the topic of beauty influencers, giving you a guide and examples of how brands navigate the world of beauty influencers to find one that fits their brand.
Maintaining Brand Image
Before incorporating influencer marketing into your brand mix, make sure that you have a clear idea of your brand image and how you want to shape it in the future. Ask yourself these questions:
- Who is my target audience? What kinds of social media platforms do they use?
- What kind of content do I hope to curate and deliver?
- Is there a call to action or result that I hope to deliver from these influencer marketing campaigns?
It’s easy for brands to get lost in the complex world of influencer marketing as there are countless different styles out there. By having a clear sense of your brand’s existing image and guidelines, it will be easier to keep a consistency in marketing and content development.
Understanding Scale
At the end of the day, marketing efforts must have a measurable impact. Decide on which returns on investments you plan on hitting and make sure that your campaigns are able to deliver those. Influencer marketers come in all shapes and sizes. Specifically, depending on your company budget, you will be exposed to certain markets of influencers. These partnerships can vary in several ways:
- Product exchanges
These partnerships are the most common because they require the lowest budget. Often, micro-influencers are willing to post about your products as long as you send them samples to try. Of course, they will be posting their honest reviews, so there is less control for the brand. An example would be beauty brands like Caudalie and Fresh. You’ll find a lot of their content on beauty bloggers websites and Instagrams.
- Paid advertisements
Paid advertisements are the most straightforward types of partnerships. Usually, they involve contracts where influencers and marketers agree on the content being posted. As a result, the product is very obviously marketed and often labeled as an ad. Examples of this would be Daniel Wellington, who partners with numerous online influencers with their lifestyle shoots tagging the brand and giving personal discounts on their products.
- Long-term partnerships
For the most natural and successful types of partnerships, brands work with influencers over a period of time. Using this technique, influencers naturally integrate the brand into their lifestyle. This is often very costly for brands as well. Most importantly, credibility is high as influencers must carefully choose which brands they want to associate with over a long period of time. Examples of this include Lancôme’s long-term partnership with Chiara Ferragni. She often gives shout-outs to the brand on her channels during crucial events such as her wedding.
Long-term Sustainability
Influencer marketing is no doubt a successful and measurable method of marketing. Most importantly, the results should be sustainable and not a one-time effort. Make sure that your brand remains loyal to its original image, targets their intended consumers and builds relationships with influencers over time to create more naturally integrated content.
