If you’re a new beauty brand founder, you know that every dollar you invest in your brand counts. Want to make sure you’re making investments in the areas that will actually move the needle? In this article, we dive into the biggest marketing investments for under 10k that can double your revenue.
1. Pinterest
Marquis Bohannon James of Bovanti Cosmetics argues that the key to successful brand marketing is planning your strategy in advance, starting with social media. “You must have a game plan for attracting more customers continuously!”
IG may be the biggest social media platform at the moment, but that doesn’t mean you should put all your eggs in one basket. While Pinterest users are mostly women (70%) who are looking for ideas and inspiration, the platform has seen a big spike in users who use it to discover new brands and make purchases. A report from Montetate found that Pinterest is the social media platform that drives the highest value conversions, and people are spending more money on Pinterest than any other social media network.
For beauty brands looking to boost sales via Pinterest, consider Neil Patel’s advice of posting buyable pins and rich pins to help users instantly purchase your products. You can also increase organic traffic through infographics, blog posts, lifestyle content, and product images on a daily basis to grow your community on the platform. Another option is to pay for “Promoted Pins” (aka Pinterest ads). 93% of pinners say they use Pinterest to find products, plus 40% of users on the platform have a household income higher than $100k.
2. Micro-Influencer Marketing
In a nutshell, influencer marketing is a type of social media marketing that involves endorsements, sponsorships, and product mentions from individual influencers who have an engaged social following within their selected niche. Partnering with an influencer who’s accumulated a high amount of trust with their following and having them recommend your product not only increases sales, but works as a form of social proof for your brand that you can leverage afterwards.
While Instagram is the most popular platform for influencer marketing, there are other growing platforms to consider as well like Snapchat, YouTube, and TikTok that can help you reach new demographics and engage in a more intimate way.
For many small beauty businesses, your budget might be too small to work with larger influencers.
*Cue the micro (and even nano) influencer* (aka an influencer with less than 50k followers). Here’s why: they’re more cost-effective, tend to see higher engagement than larger influencers, and more accessible for a long-term partnership, which is the key to a successful influencer campaign.
When drafting a brand deal with a micro-influencer, be sure to ask them:
- Their engagement rate: The higher the engagement rate, the more you’ll also get ROI on your partnership.
- Their availability: Know how much time and resources they’re available to offer to create the content you’re seeking, especially if you’re looking to shoot in several different spots or if you request script writing.
- Length of the campaign: Be clear on the number of posts you want the influencer to commit to sharing about your beauty products. Remember, the longer the relationship, the more constant exposure their followers will have to your brand.
- Usage rights: Will they allow you to repurpose their content for your brand?
Learn more about partnering with the best influencers for your brand here.
3. Digital Content
When it comes to the biggest marketing investments for a beauty brand, most founders agree that creating content is essential. “I would consider [investing] in video to help support the more mood-driven and emotional experience of the brand,” shares Ava Ghiotti, founder of Merchants of Beauty.
Similarly, Shelly Ann Winokur, founder of Kiss Kiss Goodnight, encourages new brand founders to invest in engaging online content. “I would invest in content: photography, videography, and blogs. These just lead to conversion that you can track faster than other forms of marketing.”
Typically, a well-produced brand video will cost around 10k, but can be repurposed for multiple content platforms. Share it on your YouTube or Vimeo channel, pull snippets of it and share to IG Stories, IG TV, and Reels, take behind-the-scenes snapshots and bloopers and publish them on TikTok, transcribe it and turn it into a blog post with the embedded video, and leverage it for a branded ad.
Similarly, investing in a product photographer can be pricy but worth it in order to have images that bring the brand personality and voice to life (and don’t look like generic stock images). An experienced product photographer will produce media and retail-ready shots on stark white background with no off-tone or shadows.
4. Beauty Accelerator Programs
Sometimes one single investment can come with a big payoff thanks to contacts, mentorship, and support.
For founders who want to get crystal clear on their ideal customer, how to message to them, where to find them and ultimately, turn them into brand evangelists, the Conventional to Cult Status Beauty Brand Accelerator Program is by far one of the biggest marketing investments that will transform your business. The select few beauty entrepreneurs who make it into the program will learn everything they need to know about how to market their beauty business from Aggie Burnett herself plus leading industry experts.
5. Email Marketing
To this day, email marketing is one of the biggest marketing investments that offer the highest sales conversions. Brands that invest in a graphic designer and a copywriter (or learn to do it themselves) and create high-value weekly emails and automations are one of the smartest strategies to retain interested prospects and have the chance to convert them into customers.
Clarissa Wright, founder of CNW Digital (and guest expert inside Conventional to Cult Status Cohort #4) says, “Email marketing is cost-effective especially as a small business with high returns. Email on average has a 6-7x return on spend. SMS marketing has even more with on average 12x ROAS. I have several brands that email accounts for 30-50% of revenue. So it’s an extremely valuable and powerful tool.”
In order to achieve those results Wright recommends, list building is extremely important. Ensuring you have a good lead capture strategy in place is important. Building a solid list (quality over quantity) is equally important. Once you do that, make sure you have a strong content planning strategy. Meaning that you’re providing content that is relevant to the user and encourages them to join in on the conversation or get involved in some way. If you focus on those 3 things, you will have great success.”
Hype up the value of joining your mailing list on every platform you have. You can do this by creating a LinkTree that you include in the bio of your Instagram, offering lead magnets on your website, or even creating a big giveaway or multi-brand sweepstakes exclusively available for email subscribers.
Conclusion
Regardless of where you are in your entrepreneurial journey, or what size your beauty business is, knowing where to invest your marketing efforts has major ROI when it comes to seeing increases in revenue as quickly as possible. The strategies mentioned in this article are some of the biggest marketing investments that can lead to faster brand growth. We’d love to hear from you, have you incorporated any of these strategies into your marketing plan?
If you’ve been stuck in a cycle of putting out discounts, sales, and promotions, boosting FB and IG posts, and launching product after product (before the last batch even sold out) just to get a little customer attention, you’re missing the secret sauce to growing a cult-status brand. Apply to the Conventional to Cult Status Beauty Brand Accelerator here.
