The beauty industry is one of the biggest and fastest-growing sectors out there. New innovations are happening every day, and beauty brands big and small are making their mark on the space. This means that, unlike 10 years ago, there is now a lot of competition between beauty brands for visibility and market share. And because consumers are no longer responding to vanity marketing, beauty brands are tasked with finding new ways to connect with customers and stand out from the crowd.
That’s where email marketing comes in. Studies show that around 99% of email users check their inboxes every day, and they expect some of their mail to be from brands. They sign up to receive information and special offers straight to their inboxes and are willingly giving up their information for communication from brands directly. So, how can beauty brands take advantage of this?
Why Do Beauty Brands Need Email Marketing?
Marketing as a whole is important to any business, but for beauty businesses, it’s important to choose the right channels to promote your message. Over the years, email marketing has proven to be one of the most effective ways of engaging with buyers on a personal level, and of building up trust and brand awareness. In fact, the beauty industry is one of the few sectors that still sees enormous success from email marketing, compared to others that have been in general decline for the last few years.
On top of that, email marketing is a great way to drive extra traffic to your site, and generate more revenue from it. The online health and beauty industry is set to reach almost $450 billion by 2027, and according to industry analysis, buyers are looking for science and expertise behind their beauty products. Buyers are focused more on ingredients and functionality than ever before, and email marketing is the perfect place to provide the information they’re looking for. Showcase testing, proof points, research and efficacy, wrapped up in a branded email that’s educational, familiar and provides personalised recommendations. There’s no better way to convert prospects and boost your profits.
Build Your Email Marketing Strategy
Define
First off, you need to define who your target audience are, and what it is they want. If you have any other marketing in place then this should be fairly simple, as you’ve done it already. But for effective email marketing, you need to know exactly what beauty products your customers like, what experience they expect and how much they’re willing to pay so that you can put together an appropriate campaign.
Segment
You may have different buyer personas you cater to. Some may be older ladies looking for specific skincare support, while others might be young people looking for trendy makeup and the latest product recommendations. You don’t want to send them both the same email, as it will likely lose you customers. Instead, segment your mailing lists by demographics as a baseline, so that you can tailor your approach to each one and get the best results. You can segment further based on things like characteristics, location and buying behaviour if you want, but the demographic is a good place to start.
Signup
Now it’s time to build that email list! You may have some people’s contact information already or even a fully established mailing list built from previous customers. But you still need to add to that list with fresh prospects in order to get results. A great way to do this is to offer an incentive for signing up for your mailing list. Discounts, personalised skincare recommendations and free samples are all great ways to do this.
Promote
Don’t expect prospects to know you have an email newsletter or where to go to sign up. You need to let people know! Post about it on social media, have a pop-up on your website, and generally promote your emails as a place where people can get more information and an inside scoop. Show people what extra value they can offer (and actually deliver on it) to help grow your list even faster.
Retain
Getting people to sign up and buy something once is all well and good, but the real value in email marketing for beauty brands is being able to retain those customers and get them buying time and time again is where you see real success.
A/B Test
Even with all of that knowledge about your customers, it can take time to get into their heads. A/B testing is a great way to figure out what your customers will respond to best, and make data-driven decisions. A/B testing allows you to take one email to one of your market segments, and try two different approaches. For example, your segment might be ‘Women 50+’, and you might want to know if they respond better to a brand communication or a personal one. You would send 50% of those emails from a branded email address (like [email protected]), and the other 50% from a ‘real name’ sender. Then you would compare the results and see which email got more opens, clickthrough’s and general response so that you could take the more successful approach moving forward.
Measure
Once you have campaigns up and running, you shouldn’t just leave it at that. You need to track the performance of your emails and see what your customers are responding to, and what they aren’t. Luckily most email marketing platforms will provide you with detailed metrics and stats around your emails, but the three you need to pay close attention to are:
- Clickthrough rate
- List growth
- Revenue per open
These track how many people are clicking from your emails to your website, how many new people are signing up to your mailing list, and how much money on average you make from each email opened. By viewing these metrics you can see just how well your campaigns are performing and make changes accordingly.
At Lion Spirit Media we specialise in marketing for beauty brands and helping them grow. We’re the greatest beauty and cosmetic marketing firm you could collaborate with, whether it’s generating organic brand revenue or developing beauty email campaigns that connect with consumers and encourage them to buy your items. From skincare and sun care to colour cosmetics, personal care products and the whole supply chain, we can help you harness the power of email marketing and grow your brand. To find out more, just get in touch with the team today.
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