The beauty industry is rooted in appearances, dedicated to helping customers develop skincare rituals and stunning makeup looks, and this is what helps it to sell products. You might not buy a lipstick or eyeshadow palette if you haven’t seen what it looks like when applied, and demonstrating products in this way is most easily achieved by employing a content marketing strategy.

This generally comprises blogs, videos and social media updates, but for beauty businesses, makeup tutorials, photographs and how-to guides are all essential ways to get your brand’s benefits across.

As more users take to social media for beauty inspiration, making the industry even more fiercely competitive, platforms like Instagram and YouTube have surged in popularity. With 41% of consumers more likely to discover new beauty brands and products via social media advertising, brands are upgrading their content strategies accordingly. These platforms can make it easier for your own business to show off their products and offer advice, a far easier form of advertising compared to pre-social days of billboard campaigns, and flyers and leaflets.

Why your beauty business could benefit from content marketing

Content marketing has become a no-brainer for beauty businesses around the world, helping them to build brand awareness, increase sales and reach more potential clients (according to The Marketing Helpline.) By producing interesting, useful and aesthetically pleasing content, beauty fans are more likely to engage with and share your content. This content needs to be high quality and attractive to users in order for them to be willing to share it online. Platforms like Instagram and Pinterest rely on visual content especially, so using photos of people who represent your target audience can greatly boost your content marketing campaign and enhance the authenticity of your brand.

This can help to position your brand as reputable, and increase your sales. For example, makeup brand Fenty targets a diverse range of customers, and its social media content reflects that. Your content marketing campaign should also represent your branding, using a consistent colour palette and set of imagery, as well as showing off the business as a whole, including behind the scenes content. This is where the power of influencing comes in. Social media has changed how brands market their products, and more companies work closely with social media influencers to promote them.

Good content also encourages users to share it, which is best achieved when your posts are as eye-catching as they are useful. For instance, not only do brands like The Ordinary and Milk Makeup use Instagram for tutorials, tips and product recommendations, but their profiles look the part as well. In 2018 alone, 200 million beauty fans flocked to Instagram to get their beauty inspiration, and 72% of Instagram users make purchases based on items seen while browsing the app.

Beauty brands who have created engaging content

Fentys

Rihanna’s makeup brand Fenty has arguably had the biggest impact on the industry in recent years. Launched as an online exclusive in 2017 and advertised solely via Instagram, its unique strategy gained 1.4 million followers in just four days. Fenty Beauty offers products to consumers with a range of skin tones and approaches to style, making the brand stand out by actively reaching a diverse target market.

Tutorials created by Rihanna herself can be found on Fenty’s YouTube, whose videos regularly rack up hundreds of thousands of views.

Glossier

This online-only brand sells less than 30 products, but has still generated huge levels of social media engagement, with three million Instagram followers. Glossier is a content-first company, and uses Instagram as a key part of its strategy, making its name by identifying its very specific customer base — beauty fans who prefer natural looks. They began by uploading over 125 photos before even launching their products, which established their brand identity and aesthetic.

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IT’S BACK! The Hoodie in Original Pink ? WHO: @endea_owensonbass & The Cookout, playing their original song “For The People” WHERE: At their homes, across NY State WHY: Because music still brings us together In Endea’s own words: “the whole idea of the band was for me to put together a group of friends that I admire and respect—to be the change I wanted to see. We’re continuing to find ways of playing together while social distancing, and it’s birthing a new sense of creativity for us.”—@endea_owensonbass Special thanks to @endea_owensonbass @ellabricmusic @joesaylor @shenelvox @thejefferymiller @luther_s_allison @crmcbridemusic

A post shared by Glossier (@glossier) on May 20, 2020 at 8:16am PDT

Having attracted such a big fanbase, the brand then designed its packaging and labels for maximum social media appeal. In 2018. Glossier even opened a flagship store in Los Angeles, which was created with Instagram in mind, encouraging shoppers to take photos and share them online.

Sephora

The French makeup company pushes its beauty products through online tutorials, blog posts and social media updates. Sephora focuses on creating personalised experiences for its customers, including an app where consumers upload photos of themselves to see how different makeup might look on them.

The brand offers a wide range of items which need to have the appeal to match, and by personalising its content, Sephora has reached an Instagram audience of nearly 20 million users.