We’re all aware of the instant powers of Instagram. Its crop of beauty bloggers are the gods of social media and for any beauty, health or lifestyle business out there, it makes perfect sense to develop a social media marketing strategy centered on influencers, in order to promote new products and services natively and authentically.
It’s critical though, to select the influencers who are the best fit for your business. This may seem like an easy call, but it has its challenges.
First off, the influencers need to be truly influential. That means they need to have a sizeable number of followers on their social media accounts, but also drive engagement (for example do followers like, comment and share the content posted?)
They also need to be content creators. Their account should be appealing, creative and have a personal (and distinguishable) style. You would not want to work with someone who would post just about anything, in exchange for treatments, products or fees, but with someone who carefully plans every post, is discerning in their brand collaborations, and is keen to maintain their credibility.
It’s equally important to choose someone who is regarded as an ‘expert’ in a specific field or topic, and has gathered a community of followers likely to be receptive to what they have to say about your business. For example, if you’re promoting a range of facial treatments, you should collaborate with an influencer who has a keen interest in skincare, knowledge of facials, and is open to posting selfies sans makeup (and looking radiant doing so) to showcase your treatments.
Once you have a wish list of influencers you’d like to collaborate with, reach out and test your chemistry.
The most popular form of collaboration with an influencer is the treatment or product review in exchange for social media mentions. It is low cost to the brand, and it offers a great opportunity to test how well your business and the influencer can work together. Make sure you schedule the influencer visit at a time that is convenient for your venue as well, and that if possible you’re present for the meet and greet.
Another popular choice, when it comes to high calibre celebrities, and socialites in particular, is prepping for special events. Their followers will notice and comment on the beauty looks (i.e. makeup and hairstyle), plus these events are usually covered by lifestyle media too, so you could benefit from this wider coverage.
Once you have selected the influencers who are the best fit for your brand, you can explore ways to collaborate more closely, meaningfully and beneficially for your business.
For example, spas and salons need beautiful imagery for their website and ongoing social media activity. Instead of using generic images found on the internet, you could collaborate with several influencers and have your own photoshoot, creating plenty of relevant content for your ongoing marketing use.
Lastly, when you’re ready to deepen your relationship with the influencers of your choice, you can look at longer term partnerships, engaging them to act as brand ambassadors, or even bring them in-house, as creative consultants working alongside your team on developing new services, testing products, styling, or helping with marketing.
Beauty influencers have a strong skill set, from blogging and content creation to communication and trend forecasting, and they know your client base better than anyone, so there’s plenty of ways they can bring the edge to your business in order for it to succeed and stay relevant.
