1. Intro
There are two main types of beauty website:
Well, if you’re a makeup artist or someone who sells beauty products and have a website that people can find on the web, here’s an overview of all the cosmetics brands you need to know about.
Each brand has its own line of products, each with its own unique features. You might like using one brand for all your makeup needs or maybe you prefer buying individual products from different brands for different uses.
The following list is a brief description of each brand. But it is not exhaustive and we strongly suggest you visit their websites and browse through their product pages to get a feel for what they have to offer.
2. Do You Need to Use Social Media
This post is actually a little bit long-winded, and I may have taken a bit of advice from the author, but it’s a relatively simple one. You can do most things in social media if you keep your eye on the ball.
I think this post is about keeping an eye on the ball for a different reason: to figure out what’s going on in the market and to assess whether you need to use social media or not. This post will look at how various companies use social media (including how they reach their target audience) to build brand recognition and maximize their profits.
The first question I ask myself is: Do you need social media? The answer, contrary to popular opinion, is definitely yes. There are two reasons for this:
• Consumers are more likely to remember and engage with products that they like & trust. People are more likely to click on your link if they know that you are actively trying to sell something (which also means that they take an interest in what you’re selling). Facebook’s recent changes in its algorithm made it much harder for anyone who isn’t “friends” with someone else (meaning, their friends list can only be seen by “default” friends — people who aren’t part of some other group). You don’t want everybody knowing about your product; instead, you want people who are interested in it — people who have something specific in mind that you can offer them. For example, let me show you just one example from my personal life:
I go here regularly for my makeup needs. I usually make sure when someone comes into stock at Ulta that I ask them if they need any help finding their perfect shade of lipstick or eyeliner — because I want them to be more than satisfied with their purchase and not feel like “just buy me whatever color I want!” That leads me up onto facebook where I post a status asking people if they need help finding the right shades of lipstick or eyeliner:
If my friends react well then its great because now we have a mutual interest which makes me feel more confident — so now when someone comes into stock at Ulta that doesn’t know where exactly they want some makeup then they come over and say “hey can i see any lipstick please? Or can anyone recommend some eyeshadow? Or maybe lipstick is your thing? Whatever! Thanks
3. All Dolled Up Cosmetics on Instagram
I am not a beauty blogger, but I’ve spent some time on the subject of cosmetics.
It seems to me that whilst it is true that a lot of consumers are wild about makeup, there are also a great many who aren’t. They don’t like how their face looks when they put it on… or didn’t think it was worth the effort.
I feel that it is very important to define exactly what makes a good cosmetic and then work hard to convey this through your marketing as well as advertising and selling your products. If you can do this, you will be able to easily differentiate yourself from your competitors and sell more of your product.
That said, I am not one of those people who thinks all cosmetics are bad (they aren’t) nor do I think all makeup brands are bad (they aren’t). However, I will say that unlike most beauty bloggers who use the Instagram platform to showcase their products, I use it to promote my content and let everyone else decide what they want to see in there (and hopefully find useful information too!).
The majority of makeup brands fall into two categories: those that cater mostly for women and those that cater mostly for men. Whilst both are valid in their own right, the former have had an easy time getting past the first phase — where people were willing to spend money on their products — whilst the latter hasn’t managed this phase at all (and never will).
This leads me onto my second point: we need to be careful about who we target with our marketing efforts and make sure those we target know exactly why they should buy our product (or not). There is no point targeting customers if you don’t know what product goals they have or what value(s) you provide them with. In fact, when brands start targeting customers based on demographics instead of actual needs or wants, they tend towards being “regulars” rather than “prospects” — which means they significantly decrease their chances of finding new customers and reaching profitability.
This might seem very obvious — but make no mistake: this is important in any market at any time! Every brand should take this into consideration when deciding whether or not to target specific demographics in particular markets/geographies… especially when it comes down to price! The cost of targeting specific demographics can often be higher than targeting general audiences; yet if done correctly with proper research strategy this could actually be
4. How to Use Instagram for Business
Instagram is a hugely popular, easy-to-use social media platform and it’s great for sharing, but it’s now also being used to promote and sell products. Particularly in Asia, Instagram has been used to promote all kinds of products (from makeup to accessories to food), and it’s easy to see why — there are millions of opportunities for users to use Instagram as part of their job search and networking activities.
However, without a solid understanding of the basics behind what makes Instagram so powerful for marketing purposes, you may find that your posts don’t get the attention they deserve.
Here are some basic tips on how to effectively use Instagram:
1) Be honest: be open about who you are and what you do on Instagram. Consumers want brands that are authentic and transparent; they hate brands that only market through pictures. For example, if you regularly post selfies with your dog, people might assume that your company sells dogs or dog accessories.
2) Find hot topics: when posting about a product or service that’s hot right now (like dogs or cosmetics), make sure to tailor your post towards the target audience who would be interested in seeing it (or buy it). As an example, instead of posting a “My favourite lipstick is…” image, try posting “my favourite lipstick colour is…” instead. Also make sure you catch the eye with interesting hashtags or images like #instadog or #dogsofinstagram . You can tag relevant hashtags from this list in any post you create on Instagram as well: #dophoto ; #dogsofinstagram ; #dogsofamerica ; #singaporedogs ; etc.
3) Be consistent: like most social platforms there are three basic ways you can share content — photo-heavy posts vs short video clips vs short text comments — so if an Instagram user wants more visual content they want only one option: Stories . Stories will show them a selection of images curated by Top Dog over a period of time. They can then choose which photos they want to watch over (which can be up to 30 minutes), which one they want more information about (which can be up to 5 minutes), or what follows them next (which is done automatically). The first time users open Stories, Top Dog will load all five images into the app as soon as possible so as not to disrupt their flow during their first visit
5. Best Practices for Brands on Instagram
There are a lot of things to look out for when it comes to branding when you’re on Instagram, ranging from the use of hashtags and custom photos to the design of your profile page. This is an absolute beginner’s guide.
You don’t have to have a business account to follow Instagram, but if you do, you need to know that there is a very specific set of best practices with regard to branding in the social media sphere, and your brand will be on the receiving end of some serious criticism if you don’t follow them! A lot of these are fairly self-explanatory. Others may require more explanation.
Hashtags: Hashtags are basically short keywords created by users in order to identify themselves as part of a group or hashtag that they belong to – or as someone who has shared content with other people within that group or hashtag. The most common use for hashtags is in search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo!, where they can help find content related to a particular hashtag and are used in combination with other keywords like “#Fashion” or “#fashionblog”.
They can be used both globally (in search results) and locally (when searching within certain countries). But their importance varies according to context: I find myself using hashtags less than I did about four years ago because I realize what they are for now, but still sometimes feel compelled to use them as I once did because I feel like it gives me some sort of authority in my community – which is actually just a lazy way of saying “I am good at this so I deserve credit for it.” But really, only if you have something unique about yourself that warrants being broadcast throughout the internet does this work well for your brand.
If your brand has more than one product line (like Lenslounge), it is important not only for its products but also for its users that all products come under the same umbrella tag #LENSLOUNGE – otherwise they might think they belong on different products rather than together under one tag #LENSLOUNGE .
Similarly, we would recommend using tags #PROJECT , #TRAINING , #REALM , etc., instead of just #PROJECT or #TRAINING . This can make tagging much easier later on when everyone knows how many projects each project belongs too. In fact, Tagology already has quite a few
6. Conclusion
One of the least-known and most powerful marketing channels is the one that happens just behind the scenes. It is often overlooked, but it’s where an organization’s marketing efforts really come into their own.
It’s not about buying a lot of advertising, or even much in the way of direct mail. More often than not, you can reach far more audience simply by existing in their world and letting them see what you do for a living.
This is where brands engage with their customers on the social web — through connections they already have and relationships they already built. In many cases, it’s truly just a case of doing your part to make sure your potential customers know who you are and what you do.
Some brands go further than this: they might use social media as a way to create an entirely new brand for themselves, one that transcends traditional categories and becomes one of their own — like Kroger does when it posts videos from its grocery drones on Instagram Stories (which are also available to download). Others use their social presence as an opportunity to run contests or sweepstakes that will help foster better customer relationships (like getting people hooked on buying beauty products via Instagram Stories).
One study found that if you could convince 100 people to share your brand’s hashtag with 150 friends, each friend would spread the word across 8 Facebook pages, 10 Twitter accounts and 26 Instagram accounts. And if each person wants to connect with 150 friends on social media — that adds up to more than 1 million connections per month! While this is all very cool in theory, there’s no guarantee it will work out in practice; many brands don’t get great results from simply advertising on Instagram or Facebook (and should probably avoid spending big money building a large following overnight!). But if your company’s main purpose is personal branding rather than market share (or even just getting some good PR) then there really isn’t any need for all those followers/friends/likes/likes-to-followers ratios either; at least not unless you want to be perceived as creepy or weird!
At its best (and believe me, I think we can do better), engagement with a brand on social media can be really powerful for creating loyalty. People may never pay any attention to those who aren’t part of their community — but once people start talking about things they hear about from other people who are part of the same community then that conversation turns into more