The beauty industry is huge and continues to grow year on year. As a result, research suggests that the global cosmetic market will grow 5.10% each year between 2018 and 2026, with the overall market value reaching a whopping $648.31 billion! There is fantastic scope for beauty brands to capitalise on these opportunities for growth by creating well-crafted beauty marketing strategies.
“The global cosmetic market will be worth $648.31bn by 2026 – Data bridge market research”
In this article, we explore the leading trends in content marketing for the beauty, health, and wellbeing industry and provide tips and advice to help marketers stand out from the crowd and therefore get ahead in this highly competitive, but lucrative, industry.
Creating a successful beauty marketing strategy requires marketers to understand key industry trends.
Trends: What’s Happening Within The Beauty Industry?
Every marketer should understand by now that relevant and useful content is the foundation for content marketing success. The only hope any of us have of creating strong content lies in listening to consumers and giving them the experience they want and need.
To do this, you have to analyse the market for current trends – including new, as well as long-standing, trends.
Topic Trends: What Do Consumers Care About?
There are many important trends to be aware of if you work within the beauty marketing industry. First, the push from younger generations, especially women, for brands to operate with greater social responsibility
An emerging trend – and so ripe for unique content – is the growth in cosmetic products that protect against environmental pollution. According to a Mintel report, 41% of facial skincare users think pollution has the greatest impact on skin health. Examples include products that help protect skin from poor air quality and products that offer UV protection.
Not only are consumers concerned with the impact of the environment on their health and beauty, they’re also concerned about their impact on the environment. We can see this trend from many of the leading brands:
- L’Oréal want to use 100% recyclable packaging by 2025
- Procter & Gamble committed to 100% of their packaging to be recyclable by 2030
- Avon has achieved 93.4% of its goal to send zero waste to landfill with 95% it’s target by 2025
We are also witnessing rapid growth in products committed to sustainability. According to the Mintel report, “Sub-Zero Waste: 2019 Global Beauty and Personal Care Trend”, brands need to adopt sustainability and zero waste initiatives or face extinction. They go on to say that companies who make this move now will therefore stand to gain from a ‘first-mover’ advantage – again, a great trend to be getting on-board with ASAP.
Consumers want to know exactly what is in their products and traceability of the raw materials is something many brands are focused on.
How To Work This Into Your Content
When thinking about these trends in terms of beauty marketing, ask how your brand complements these trends and craft content pieces showcasing this. E.g., if social responsibility is important to consumers, what does your business do that reflects its corporate social responsibility duties?
It’s important to remember that consumers are savvier than ever. 54% of UK beauty and personal care consumers often research their products before they buy them. By understanding the types of concern they have, you can provide them with the information they’re looking for.
These trends are gaining traction and predictions are that they will continue to strengthen over the next 10-years.
Content Trends: How Should Beauty Marketers Talk To Consumers?
Understanding what information your customers are looking for from your content is half the battle with content marketing. The other half is to understand how to talk to them and this has two sides:
- The sort of language you use, e.g. transparent, honest, authentic
- The technology and resources you use, e.g. video marketing, blogs, interactive AI, the use of influencers, etc.
Beauty Marketing & Language Trends
In the UK, only 43% of people trust businesses. Brands need to use their content to build trust with their customers. Creating content that is authentic and honest. Consequently, brands need to prove it, e.g., by offering proof and correctly citing claims. This helps build trusting relationships between a brand and its consumers.
Beauty marketing works when you understand what information your customers need from you and when you tailor your content to them. 78% of consumers believe that customised content leads to better relationships
83 % of internet users are more likely to trust a brand if it’s been recommended by someone they know. Obviously, this isn’t easy online, as it’s largely anonymous, but one thing that can help is the use of influencers. Beauty marketing is a particularly suitable area for influencer marketing:
“The power of beauty influencer marketing continues to grow, with women flocking to social media for tutorials and product reviews. Most women follow beauty influencers to learn more about trends, and the use of influencers can shorten the learning curve while minimizing the risk often associated with buying beauty products online.”
– Alison Gather, Beauty & Personal Care Analyst
Beauty Marketing & Technology/Resource Trends
In beauty marketing, connecting with customers involves creating a personal and customised experience. In part, you can achieve this with written content, such as relevant blogs and news articles, but there’s more to it than that.
Here are some of the latest trends emerging from the beauty marketing industry:
- Cisco predicts that video will account for 82% of all IP traffic by 2022 and beauty marketing is particularly suitable for visual content. In particular, live video is set to grow 15-fold in the same period. The use of live video is a great way to create unique content and early adoption will help brands get ahead.
- Another area of growth identified by Cisco is the use of virtual reality and augmented reality. Augmented reality is the pinnacle of personalised marketing. Here are some examples of big brands getting on-board with this trend:
- Sephora’s ‘Virtual Artist’ app, which allows you to “try-on” different make-up products, is the pinnacle of personalised marketing.
- The ModiFace apps, including a hair colour studio to see how you suit different coloured hair and a virtual makeup app.
The technology might be prohibitively expensive for now, but there are open source platforms and developers who will build beauty apps for your brand.
The key to creating beauty marketing content is to make it personal, interactive, and memorable. These technologies can help you do this.
Take Away
The beauty industry is in a position of rapid growth, with many associated trends. Understanding these trends will help you to deliver the right content, at the right time, in the right way.
Get in touch with Lion Spirit Media if you would like help with your beauty marketing strategies. We have the knowledge to help you get ahead.
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