Back in the day, getting a feature inside a glossy magazine or getting celebrity endorsements was the only way for beauty and makeup products to capture attention. A lot has changed since then, but one thing remains constant: public relations is still vital in the beauty industry. For this reason, if you own a beauty brand, you should learn how to use PR to promote your brand.
At the moment, there are so many different beauty goods and cosmetics on the market. For this reason, you need public relations strategies if you want to stand out.
Even so, you should never think of public relations as a one-time event but, rather, as part of a long-term strategy. Before you begin experimenting with various strategies for generating publicity in the beauty industry, you must first answer the following questions.
- What distinguishes your beauty brand?
- Are the brand and spokesperson engaging and fascinating to your target audience?
- Is the spokesperson capable of providing credible analysis on a variety of beauty-related topics?
The truth is that having a dynamic spokesperson and a unique brand story can make the difference between being featured in a news story or having your pitch pushed aside in favor of a competitor’s pitch. For this reason, you need to invest time and effort in a creative and persistent media outreach strategy. With the right approach, you can receive the media exposure that your beauty brand deserves.
How to do PR for beauty brands
1) Pitch the media constantly
Doing consistent PR outreach can help you capture the attention of beauty journalists. You should begin by determining what you want to say about your beauty brand to the public in the coming months. An editorial calendar can help you plan your PR strategy down to the smallest detail. Once you’ve laid out a content strategy, you must then concentrate on your media contacts.
You should limit your pitches to journalists you already know and be deliberate in your outreach. Additionally, you must maintain positive relationships with the media by taking note of what each contact covers, following up when necessary, and sending a pleasant email or two without the intention of pitching a story.
Keep in mind that media relations does not happen quickly. Nevertheless, with the correct mindset and the right PR tools, you can reach the right people when it matters most and earn coverage from beauty publications.
2) Develop a timely and adaptable approach
Simply put, pitches that are current and newsworthy receive media attention. You are likely to miss out on acquiring publicity in the beauty sector if you don’t tie your pitch to what’s happening in the world and respect how media outlets work.
In order to develop newsworthy pitches, you should keep an eye on major stories with which you may have to compete, as well as the lead time at each outlet that you’re pitching.
Make sure you’re marketing appropriate items and cosmetics if you want to do PR for beauty brands correctly. For example, pitching a full-coverage, heavy cosmetics foundation might not be the best idea in the summer. Similarly, in the winter, a light moisturizer won’t get much traction.
However, one way to beat the seasons is to capitalize on several “cultural holidays” (e.g., National Lipstick Day or Women’s Day) to become more relevant and topical.
3) Create some buzz around your beauty brand
It should come as no surprise that generating a buzz about your brand will earn you lots of attention in the beauty industry. Product announcements, visually appealing press releases, well-thought-out social media campaigns, and user-generated content are just a few examples of strategies you can use. With these strategies, you can expand your reach and gain media attention.
Do you need help creating content that will capture attention?
Pressfarm is a PR agency that helps startups and companies of various sizes create newsworthy content that can be distributed to media professionals and on earned media. Their PR professionals will create the content and advise companies on how to gain media coverage. Along with that, their Account Executive will create a customized media list from their media database of over a million media contacts. With these lists, companies can start developing relationships with professionals in their niche.
4) Make good use of brand advocacy
As a beauty brand, you should not overlook advocacy opportunities, especially if you want to distinguish yourself in a crowded industry.
The term “advocates” does not always imply “social media influencers”. You can also collaborate with beauty and makeup professionals, hair stylists, and beauty journalists. Other industry experts who may not have a large social media following can also be essential collaborators.
Influencer marketing is a type of advertising that focuses on using well-known individuals who have the clout to spread a brand’s message to a larger audience. Businesses inspire, hire, or pay influencers to spread the word on their behalf rather than directly marketing to consumers. Since people trust influencers more than they trust brands, this marketing strategy is usually used with social media and content marketing. Most influencer campaigns have a social media component. In this social media component, influencers are expected to disseminate information through their own social media platforms.
Many influencer programs also contain a content component, in which the firm that has hired the influencer or the influencer themselves create the material.
How influencer content helps
The influencer economy has forever changed how we buy things. Around 67% of businesses claim they employ influencer marketing in some way. This figure is expected to climb as social media influencers receive more mainstream visibility. As demand grows, the influencer economy is turning toward more simplified solutions. Moreover, companies are now adopting technologies like influencer networks and match-making platforms to connect with influencers more easily. On the other hand, brands that do not participate in influencer marketing are losing control. After all, the average consumer now has greater power over the purchasing process, and digital advertising makes it harder to reach them.
Traditional digital marketing isn’t working anymore. 66% of customers are overwhelmed by too many internet marketing communications. In addition, 20% of customers boycott a brand because of excessive promotion. Smart organizations are addressing this by leveraging influencer marketing to engage clients in continuous dialogue. Influencer content should be a priority for marketers. After all, unlike typical ad campaigns, influencer marketing breaks through “ad fatigue” and offers authenticity.
The benefits of influencer marketing extend beyond increasing a brand’s reach and clicks. A good influencer marketing strategy will produce metrics that matter and will fit your business objectives. Examples of this include acquiring new customers, increasing repeat purchases, building customer loyalty, and optimizing income from loyal customers. Customers want to hear about you from real people, not impersonal salespeople who use the same generic strategies over and over. Influencer marketing is no longer an option for marketers: content creators can promote business growth while also creating the authenticity required to engage consumers.
5) Invest in samples & PR packages
There are a few ways to enlist the help of beauty brand advocates. You could host an event (online or in-person) to test and promote your beauty products and cosmetics on social media. Alternatively, you could send out a PR package with samples and wait for feedback. These PR packages are necessary to help journalists and editors write about a brand.
How to connect with beauty journalists
There are three main ways to go about getting media contacts. You could access a media database and get a comprehensive journalist list in just a few clicks. Alternatively, you can purchase a ready-made media list for beauty products. Another option is to research beauty media contacts and create a PR list on your own.
For the most part, your budget will play a huge role in what kind of media contacts you have access to. If you have constant access to a media database, all of your contacts are always up to date. Nevertheless, you can also manually create your own media list with relevant journalists if you can’t afford to buy beauty media contacts.
If you decide to DIY your media list, you can find some contact information online. While many journalists don’t share their contact information on Google, you can at least locate their social media handles. Once you have a journalist’s social media handles, it’s easy to reach out and build a connection on a variety of platforms. While this approach is undoubtedly more time-consuming, it’s also a lot less expensive than buying a beauty and cosmetics media list.
Regardless of which approach you choose, you must regularly revise and update your beauty media press list. Do you want to make the most of your beauty and cosmetics list? Then you should identify the best approach to use for each media contact before you start pitching. A good way to go about this is to read previous stories from each media contact and pinpoint elements that stand out. With this information, you can talk to each contact on your list in a way that they can relate.
Here are some additional things to keep in mind:
- If your beauty business is based online, you should build relationships with beauty bloggers and influencers.
- Pitching local media outlets will help you to get clients through your doors if you own a day spa, skin care center, or a brick-and-mortar business.
- DERMASCOPE, Skin Inc., and GCI should all be on your company’s pitch list, regardless of what kind of beauty products you sell.
- You should also build relationships with media contacts who are on television, as this medium is ideal for beauty products and cosmetics. Producers and bookers alike enjoy engaging product demos and before/after portions because they are visually appealing. Television is an excellent medium for contacting individuals in your industry (even nationally), building credibility, and getting your name out in the industry.
Conclusion:
When you’re aiming for success, quality beauty and cosmetics products are only half of the equation. You need to develop effective PR strategies to gain the trust of your target audience. While media outreach helps with this, it takes time to build relationships with beauty journalists. However, with the right approach and just a little bit of patience, you can connect with people who can help you position your brand right in front of your target audience.
As a beauty brand, you may be an expert in the beauty industry, but you may not have experience in generating publicity for your brand. By hiring PR professionals like those at Pressfarm, you can focus on what you’re good at while also benefitting from public relations expertise to help you achieve positive media coverage.
The experts at Pressfarm use the content you submit while signing up to create quality content for your brand. With our professional press releases, engaging guest posts, and creative media kits, you can make a splash in your industry. We also provide our clients with access to a comprehensive media database of over 1 million journalists across different industries, including the beauty industry. Using our distribution strategies we can boost your brand’s online visibility by helping you feature in relevant search results across different search engines. By partnering with Pressfarm, you can build a brand image that commands attention.