Digital Marketing in a Tactile Industry: Bringing Beauty Online

Testing a lipstick color on the back of your hand. Asking a perfectly-contoured sales assistant for advice about which shade of foundation will best match your skin. Spritzing perfume on your neck and wrists, even if you were already wearing perfume when you left the house.

When it comes to buying beauty products, many customers adore the in-store experience—leaving brands scratching their heads about how to utilize digital marketing effectively.

Since your website, social media posts, and marketing content can’t offer the same tactile experience as an in-store visit, how can you connect with customers in a meaningful way through their computer screens? The answer, it turns out, is simple: by seeing how they use your products, and showing them how others do the same.

The democracy of beauty

Since the rise of YouTube and other content-sharing platforms, beauty brands have been given a window into how consumers actually use your products. And what you see might just surprise you. As the millions of makeup tutorials on YouTube make clear, beauty is for everyone—and not everyone uses products in the same way.

A quick search online can reveal the biggest fans of your brands and give you a glimpse into the myriad of looks they create. This alone can completely transform your digital marketing strategy. As L’Oreal discovered when it launched its digital-first strategy in 2010, your customers and marketing team might be speaking a totally different language when it comes to the beauty terms they like to use. This can create a disconnect, making it harder for customers to connect with your brand.

Start by seeking out the people who actually use your products and listening to what they have to say. You may find that your marketing strategy becomes much more inclusive and relatable—and this may open new avenues to reach your customers

The power of influencers

Today, YouTube tutorials offer consumers around the world an easy way to learn new makeup techniques, find inspiration for a look, or showcase their talents and style. And since many prominent beauty vloggers also share the brands they’re using (through both their tutorials and alluring haul videos), viewers can easily recreate their favorite looks by purchasing the same products as their favorite YouTube star.

Watching makeup tutorials creates a similar experience to dabbing makeup on your hand in a store. It lets you see what the makeup looks like on a real person—not just a (possibly photoshopped) model in a slick advertising campaign. And since that person is showing you how to create the look, it only enhances the feeling that you too can look this good. The I-want-this factor is key to your digital marketing strategy—especially if you’re encouraging customers to buy a beauty product online that they’ve never had the chance to test in person.

Connecting with influencers can be an incredibly powerful way to boost your referral traffic, build desire among your target audience, and attract new customers to your brand. Say an influencer includes direct links to your products’ pages in the description of their video—then helpfully directs viewers to check out the links in the description to find all the products they used in the video. Viewers can then instantly click through to your website and add the products they loved to their basket.

If an influencer regularly uses your products, you can also invite them to create a guest video for your branded YouTube channel, or write a post under their byline for your blog. This increases the likelihood that they’ll talk about your brand on social media, further increasing your exposure.

This isn’t your grandma’s beauty campaign. Let’s utilize digital marketing effectively. For help creating a stunning digital marketing campaign that really turns heads, contact Liqui-Site today.