Social media and the natural beauty industry are a match made in heaven.
In fact, natural beauty brands constitute some of the quickest growing active accounts in Instagram.
And, not surprisingly, those are the same brands expanding their customer base with proven social marketing strategies and techniques.
Enthusiatic, engaged followers that are highly receptive to the brand’s message. What more could a brand ask for?
Of course, the opportunities for natural beauty brands also indicate just how competitive the space can potentially be.
And while there’s lots of attention to go around on social media for natural beauty brands, developing that type of committed, cult-like following demands meticulous attention to detail.
That’s why we’ve broken down social media suggestions and strategies to help natural beauty brands who want to make their mark and succeed.
Clean Beauty Social Media Content
Marketing for natural beauty brands provides a wealth of creative freedom.
Brands are encouraged to display jaw-dropping visuals while addressing their audience in a unique brand voice that feels anything but formal.
As a result, the natural beauty brands flourishing on social media aren’t the ones aimlessly posting deals and dull product photos.
Below we’ve listed some intriguing ideas that will help you level up your natural beauty business on social.
How To’s + Tutorials
Sure, the bulk of natural beauty content on social media is product-centered, but what prevents this from being objectionable is the way these brands also attach value for their followers.
Brands educate their audience with How To’s and tutorials which offer and engaging medium to display products in action. But instead of depending on exhaustive tutorials, and social media, the natural beauty industry focuses on captivating, pocket size how-tos.
This tutorial from One Love Organics, describing an easy upgrade to your evening skincare routing, is a succinct example of the kid of share-worthy content natural beauty brands compile for their followers.
The creative opportunities for how-to’s and tutorials are virtually limitless on social media as brands are continually brainstorming new ideas.
User-Generated Content
Natural beauty brands are very much aware that their followers are frequently their best billboards.
Consequently, user-generated content is the cornerstone of social media and the natural beauty industry. Lush featured their customer’s product snaps on Instagram – which serves as peer-to-peer recommendation for new followers and potential customers.
It’s no coincidence that numerous brands’ social consists primarily of user-generated content.
Giveaways and Contests
Natural beauty brands are evidence that social media contests aren’t disappearing anytime soon.
As a means of building new followers and rewarding their existing ones, giveaway posts are not surprisingly the most liked and commented-on for countless brands.
Check out the Instagram post below from Kopari Beauty.
Contests and giveaways are brilliant strategies for brands to immediately introduce themselves to completely new audiences.
Regular giveaways give an audience a reason to stay involved and keep tuned in about what you’re going to post next. These one time interactions can plant the seeds of sustained loyalty.
Personable Posts
Besides promoting products, successful natural beauty brands also recognize the value of community.
Namely, speaking your audiences’ language and engaging with them on an intimate level.
That’s precisely why text overlay posts, inspirational quotes, and memes are sprinkled across so many natural and clean beauty feeds.
These provide a chance to present your brand voice while taking a break hitting your followers over the head with a sales message.
Whether inspiration or amusing, they’re a fantastic way to display the human aspect of your brand!
Natural Beauty Industry Social Media Marketing Trends
With plenty of brands competing for new followers, the trends revolving around social media and the natural beauty industry are always changing.
While the content underscored above is a good starting point, what particular strategies define the leaders in the natural beauty industry?
Investing in Video Marketing
Influencers are a vital component of the social media and the natural and clean beauty industry.
Joining forces with influencers is often a win-win situation.
Brands can introduce themselves to heavily involved audiences, while the influencer gains authority from collaborating with an established brand.
Influencer content typically performs well for the same reason that user-generated content does. That is, their posts feel organic and show off your products in a compelling way.
The key is to find influencers that align with your brand, goals, and budget.
Here’s the good news…you don’t have to spend a fortune on influencer marketing for it to pay off!
Lesser known micro influencers with a smaller list of followers may not necessarily look as impressive as larger influencers but can sometime surpass larger names in regards to engagement.
In any event, brands interested in influencers should experiment first before ramping up their influencer marketing efforts.
Highlight a Distinct Brand Voice
As noted earlier, a distinct brand voice is a must-have for any natural beauty brand.
Followers appreciate when brands get real with them.
Keep this in mind when creating captions and developing content that addresses your followers on a personal level. Rather than just “playing it safe”, don’t hesitate to get bold with your audience.
Think to yourself: what are you saying that’s going to help distinguish you from your competition?
Strategic Tagging
Branded hashtags are fundamental to social media and the natural beauty industry.
Despite that, even the largest natural beauty brands recognize the power of leveraging tags besides their own.
For instance, nice hashtags such as #radiantbeauty and #rootedinnature can be evntual goldmines for brands looking to introduce their products to a new audience.
With the aid of social analytics, you can zero in on hashtags that are logical for you brand and track your growth. This allows you to adjust your tagging as time goes on and simultaneously test new ones.
Constructing an Asset Library
Natural and clean beauty brands work with a great deal of content. Between product photos and user-generated content and promotional announcements, asset organization is a big advantage in running your campaigns.
Together with social scheduling and maintaining a content calendar, natural and clean beauty brands can benefit from putting together an asset library.
A tool we use at Social Styles is Sprout Social which provides a thorough way to organize, schedule content and manage our campaign. If you would like to learn more about our experience with Sprout Social and how it can help your business, as an agency partner, please contact us.
Having templates and creatives saved in one location saves time and reduces stress associated with enhancing your social presence.
Promoting Social Beyond Social
Social media has become necessary for just about any natural beauty brand.
However, even big brands like 100% Pure don’t increase their follower count by luck.
If you want to give your follower count a big boost, you need to be proactive about promoting your social channels apart from social media itself. This is essential to transforming one-time shoppers into life-long followers.
As an example, the welcome email from Glossier places their Instagram presence center stage.
Acquiring those followers is priceless for brands who want a constant channel of communication.
And with that, we finish things up!
What does the future hold for social media and the clean beauty industry?
There are not many spaces more dependent on social media than the natural and clean beauty industry.
Because of so much competition and a vast number of creative options, a solid game plan is a matter of “when”, not “if” for brands in this space.
We hope this guide was a needed shot of encouragement and inspiration for what an effective social strategy in the natural beauty space looks like.