Influencer marketing is now used by all industries and sectors, and more specifically in the beauty sector, a rapidly expanding market. In 2022, 31.3% of consumers purchased at least one cosmetic product online, making the beauty sector the 4th largest e-commerce market in terms of customer volume. And according to the latest estimates, the global beauty market is expected to be worth 863 billion dollars by 2024 (Zien Market Research study).
At the same time, influencer marketing has never been more powerful in developing brand awareness and showcasing their products: beauty influencer posts generate on average 7 times more engagement than posts from the brands themselves (compared to 4 times more engagement for other sectors).
This is also why an increasing number of beauty brands are forming partnerships and collaborations with influencers: it is estimated that 90% of advertisers in the cosmetics sector have already used an influencer to create custom content.
On the consumer side? 82% are more likely to buy a product recommended by a beauty influencer.
But partnering with an influencer means the need to carefully calibrate the collaboration. Here are our tips to make this partnership a guaranteed success.
Beauty Partnerships: Performance Lever for Brands on Social Networks
An influencer partnership (sometimes called an influencer program) in the beauty sector is a collaboration between a cosmetic brand and one or more influencers whose area of “expertise” is in lifestyle and/or beauty.
This collaboration involves the creation, by the influencer, of sponsored or non-sponsored content, in which they promote the brand’s products or services. This promotion is done on social media: Instagram, TikTok, blog articles, YouTube, etc. While Instagram has long been THE social network of influence par excellence, TikTok has been gaining considerable momentum in recent years, especially in the field of cosmetics. Also read: the ultimate guide to guarantee virality and engagement in the beauty and dietary supplements sector.
Beauty Brand/Influencer Collaboration: For What Purpose?
Influencers in the beauty sector have a certain legitimacy to promote the brands they collaborate with (for remuneration, gifting, or on their own initiative).
The reasons? Their credibility in this category, the trust they have established with their audience, and their ability to distribute their content on one or more platforms and/or social media (YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, etc).
Thanks to beauty influencers, brand products benefit from new awareness, with a positive impact on their e-reputation and sales.
Marketing professionals are fully aware of the role an influencer can play in highlighting a new product: influence campaigns with influencers during a launch are a significant lever to ensure that the product generates immediate interest among highly targeted consumers.
And if the influencer manages to convey a positive image of the product with authenticity and naturalness, it’s the winning combination!
94% of internet users say that a positive review encourages them to buy a product and 30% of brands now consider influencer marketing as a strategic priority to increase the visibility and success of products.
Thus, including influencers in your brand’s marketing strategy will increase awareness, traffic and, ultimately, your brand’s sales.
How to Succeed in Your Beauty Partnership with Influencers?
We have all seen bad buzz on social media or at least had questions about a completely improbable beauty partnership between a certain brand and a beauty influencer, with totally different principles and values or content contrary to the ethics or approach of the advertiser. The result? A lack of understanding from internet users, a lack of credibility, and a detrimental impact on the brand’s image.
This is why it’s necessary to be meticulous when choosing influencers, and to learn how to collaborate well with them.
Choose the beauty influencer based on their relevance to the brand and their audience
Before choosing a beauty influencer, it’s essential to analyze their previous content to ensure it aligns with the brand and its values. And the relevance of the “influencer is probably the most important factor in ensuring the success of their” influence campaign!
We often contrast micro-influencers and macro-influencers, thinking that the more well-known the influencer is, the more optimal the result will be.
The nano influencer or micro influencer is an internet user who, so to speak, “resembles” consumers. They don’t live or barely live from their content, as their activity is not sufficiently remunerative for a full-time job. Most of the time, they have less than 5,000 subscribers (nano influencer) or between 10,000 and 100,000 followers (micro-influencer).
The macro influencer or mega influencer is much more famous. Known by the majority on the Internet, they can be a celebrity with tens of thousands or millions of followers: between 100,000 and 1,000,000 for the macro influencer, and over 1 million for the mega influencer. The macro or mega influencer is very often approached by brands – who will ask them to promote a product or service on their social networks, with a contextual caption mentioning the brand.
By using mega or macro influencers, a brand positions itself in front of millions of people. This is excellent for visibility and awareness (but often at an exorbitant price).
When it comes to “authenticity, sharing, and” engagement, nano and micro influencers take the prize: micro-influencers (10k-100k followers) have an average engagement rate of 5.6% on Instagram for the beauty category, while macro influencers (over 100k followers) have an average engagement rate of only 2.3% on the same platform.
Establish a genuine relationship of trust with the influencer
Before launching a partnership, it’s important to establish a genuine relationship of trust with the influencer by meeting them, exchanging ideas with them, and above all, giving them a certain freedom for creating their content. With Trustt, each mission addressed to a content creator contains an instruction manual set up by the brand. It provides indications and guidelines on the UGC to produce for social networks, as well as advice to inspire the influencer, without limiting their creative freedom.
Set clear and measurable objectives for the campaign
Defining concrete and measurable objectives allows for a concrete analysis of the impact of the content distributed by the influencer. This includes, for example, the statistics of the post or video (number of views, interactions, etc.).
By using Trustt, you get the complete details of the performance of social publications shared for each product mission or event, whether addressed to influencer content creators or brand ambassadors: content engagement rate (on Instagram, TikTok, etc.), reach, likes, comments, top 3 publications…
Choose the right social platform and the right content for the campaign with the influencer
The choice of platform will depend on the target audience and the campaign objectives. A campaign with a beauty influencer on Instagram will be more effective if you’re looking to target a female audience of 30 years and older, and if you’re focusing on superior visual quality.
Conversely, a video on TikTok will offer greater organic reach, especially among young people. TikTok’s algorithm tends to push authentic and natural content, particularly of the type “product reviews”, “before / after”, “tutorials”, etc.
Product staging, professional photoshoot or more natural and spontaneous, there are many formats used by beauty influencers to create content on social media, specifically on TikTok and Instagram: it’s up to you to define the one that meets your expectations and that you can reuse for your communication materials!
The Trustt tool allows you to launch 100% TikTok or 100% Instagram campaigns (or a mix of both) thanks to the filter tool, to sort candidates according to the social network on which they are most active, but also according to the quality of their audience, their previous content and the evaluations left by other brands.
Offer Fair Compensation to the Influencer
If you choose to set up a partnership with an influencer, it is important to offer them fair compensation for their work, based on their reputation and the target audience. Rates can vary depending on the platform and the number of followers the influencer has.
With the Trustt Ambassador Program, brands recruit content creators (micro-influencers) who are engaged and have a qualified audience, who sincerely wish to contribute to the brand’s journey, without establishing an influencer partnership or receiving financial compensation. They can thus discover products or participate in events, and share their opinions on social media in return.
