The Internet has changed virtually every industry, but few sectors have been as affected as the beauty industry. Thanks to social media and online marketplaces, it’s now easy for consumers to research, compare and purchase the products they love without even leaving home. For years, the only ways consumers found out about new products were through ads in publications or billboards. However, with the rise of online marketing, beauty firms can reach potential customers anywhere in the world and keep them engaged with relevant content.
Why Use Digital Marketing?
In recent years, businesses large and small have recognized the power of digital marketing. And why wouldn’t they? Thanks to the combination of the increased use of social media and the widespread availability of smartphones, marketers can track customers’ behavior, interests and preferences across different platforms. This enables them to target and engage with consumers where they are most likely to spend their time.
Additionally, with many options for measuring performance, businesses can accurately track the value and impact of their efforts. To put it simply, it’s now possible to fully automate marketing campaigns and measure the results of your digital marketing strategy with precision.
A Brief History of Online Marketing For Beauty Firms
Although the concept of online marketing for beauty firms has been around for a while, it wasn’t until relatively recently that the industry began to put digital marketing strategies into practice. Thanks to the increased use of social media and the rise of online marketplaces like eBay, consumers have access to a wealth of information and comparison shopping, which in turn has empowered them to be more selective and demanding of brand representatives.
That’s not to say that all consumers are behaving in a virtuous manner, and it’s important for business owners to understand how online marketing for beauty firms can help them navigate consumer behavior and identify ways to improve their business. Here are a few examples of how the online space has changed the game for beauty firms.
E-commerce Fuelling The Growth Of Online Marketing
Thanks to the growth of e-commerce, consumers have more options than ever when it comes to purchasing beauty products. eBay, in particular, has been a game changer, enabling consumers to buy products from various brands and receive them without leaving the comfort of their homes. What’s more is that with many retailers offering free shipping, it’s now possible to purchase products from distant lands.
As a result, online marketing for beauty firms has shifted from offline marketing (such as radio ads and billboards) to online marketing. And since the Internet provides a level playing field for all businesses, the barriers to entry have never been lower. Any business with a website and a modest budget can easily set up shop and start competing for customers. When combined with the power of social media, the impact can be profound.
The Increasing Role of Online Aesthetics Journals
Although online marketplaces like eBay have enabled consumers to find and purchase the products they want, in many cases, it’s not exactly what they want that they find. A lot of the time, they’ll need a bit of guidance to understand what product is best suited to their needs. That’s where online aesthetics journals come in.
Just like a traditional printed magazine, but with an added digital twist, online aesthetics journals provide an open forum for professionals in the field to share their findings, insights and advice with other aestheticians and beauty fans. What’s more is that with the continued rise of mobile photography and video, consumers have an endless supply of content at their fingertips and can easily find the answers they’re looking for.
Video Content is on the Rise
Thanks to the wide availability of inexpensive consumer cameras and the decreasing costs associated with video recording and editing, creating and distributing video content has become incredibly affordable and easy. As a result, video content is now commonplace and expected in virtually all types of marketing and advertising. And it’s not just individuals either—organizations like Google and Facebook offer robust video platforms that businesses can leverage to better engage with customers.
Because video is such a powerful and effective way to engage with consumers, online marketers should consider creating video content for their businesses. What’s more is that in today’s world, consumers are so accustomed to watching video content that they might not even realize that they’re actually engaging with a brand or seller via video.
How to Market Your Beauty Salons Online
If you’re new to the world of online marketing for beauty firms, it might be a bit overwhelming to know where to begin. But fear not—with Google Analytics, the world’s most popular marketing tool, everything becomes a little bit clearer.
One of the best things about Google Analytics is that it provides a full overview of your website’s traffic and performance, allowing you to track the results of your marketing strategy. With a bit of analysis and insight into how visitors arrive at your site, you’ll be able to understand what works and what doesn’t, and make appropriate changes to improve your results.
The Basics
If you already have a business website, you can use the Google Analytics tool to easily and quickly see the results of your marketing efforts. To do this, log into your Google Analytics account, choose “Behavior”, then select “Site Content” to see a map of your website’s traffic.
The good news is that you can also use the content within your website to create additional content that’s more beneficial to your business. For example, if you have a blog about beauty, you can use the information to create and publish articles about fashion trends in the beauty industry. What’s more is that since your blog is already established and contains a healthy amount of content, you can use the same articles to create e-books, white papers or infographics that further expand your outreach and grow your business.
To publish your own content or pullcontent from elsewhere, you’ll need a content management system (CMS). WordPress is the most popular choice among web developers and bloggers because it’s incredibly easy to use and offers a large amount of pre-built functionality that enables you to build a fully functioning website within minutes. Additionally, thanks to its affiliate program, you can earn a commission from each click-through to a product on your site.
Optimizing Your Website For Search Engines
Since your website is already online and accessible to the general public, it’s important to ensure that mobile users and search engines can easily and accurately discover your content. In other words, you want your website to be as useful as possible to both visitors and the major search engines like Google and Bing.
To do this, you need to optimize your website for the search engines. Fortunately, with a little bit of effort and research, you can easily find the right keywords and phrases to use in your content to ensure that your website is relevant to as many people as possible.
For example, suppose you’re a nail polish manufacturer and you want to expand your reach to include hair care products. One option is to create a blog post discussing the benefits of nail polish for women with hair loss. Using the keywords “nail polish”, “women” and “hair loss” in the content makes it much more likely that a potential customer will stumble upon your article and purchase your product.
As you continue to develop your website and gain experience running marketing campaigns, you’ll discover additional ways to improve your SEO and get more people to your site. But for now, you can use the basics listed above to get started.
Social Media Marketing
Although search engines are an important part of online marketing, social media is the best way to connect with potential customers that you didn’t already have in your database. And since everyone and their grandmother has a blog or a Twitter account, it can be difficult to stand out among the crowd.
To solve this, you can use the power of social media to connect with people that have a similar interest to your products. If you’re a nail polish company, for example, you might want to create a Twitter account and begin using the #nailpolish or #paintsforprofessionalism hashtag to identify relevant content pertaining to your industry.
The beauty sector is highly competitive, and customers are more informed than ever before thanks to the Internet. As a result, it’s more important than ever for businesses to develop a comprehensive online marketing strategy and utilize the full potential of digital marketing to reach consumers where they are and keep them engaged with content that’s relevant and interesting to them.