The global skincare market is growing rapidly and, by 2025, it is predicted to be worth $189.3bn, according to Mood Dust Agency. Previously, our biggest demographic buying these products were middle-aged women. However, in recent years the skincare industry has benefited from new interest from younger customers, desperate to delay their ageing. Nowadays, teenagers are spending $40bn annually on beauty products.

Fortunately, the internet is here to help your skincare brand reach this younger audience. To make the most of this opportunity and stand-out from the ever-increasing numbers of small-scale competitors, your beauty brand must employ well-thought-out and innovative digital marketing techniques with unique messaging, imagery, and creative digital strategies. In this article we will explain some of the key aspect’s digital marketers at small skincare brands need to consider, why and offer some helpful digital marketing tips. 

1. Specific Keyword Targeting
   As with all large markets, that have many small businesses operating in the same space, SEO can be hard to get right without a good strategy and plenty of time and resources. Unfortunately, this means SEO is even more difficult for small businesses with limited resources who must compete against much larger and well-established skincare brands. However, most successful small brands usually have a selling point unique enough to allow for targeting keywords that they are capable of appearing at the forefront of Google’s results.
   
   The industry is currently amidst a huge surge in popularity for organic and natural products. In fact, more than 80% of consumers from Generation Z are opting for organic and natural skincare products, according to Mood Dust Agency. When your small skincare brand is considering their keyword strategy, focus on specific keywords relating to the natural and organic elements of your products.
   
   Here’s a quick example to explain this strategy. If Google displays 868 million results for a generic search term like ‘face cream for women’, it shows that the term is featured on many webpages indicating a high amount of competition for those seeking to appear high up in the results for those searches. On the other hand, a search for ‘organic face cream for women’ displays 202 million results, and ‘aloe vera face cream for women’ 182 million results indicating how the competition is likely to substantially decrease the more specific you are with your keyword targeting. Not only this, appearing high in these more specific keywords means you are reaching the right type of audience who are interested in your specific product’s selling point.

2. Skincare on Social Media
   For small skincare brands, visual content is always going to be that much more relevant, engaging, and able to show the results of your product. So, whether you are trying to sell your products directly, reach a wider market, or build brand recognition there are plenty of social media platforms and tools to help you.
   
   Leading skincare brands targeting consumers mostly focus on Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook, as these are the most visual social channels for reaching customers. To be successful, social media needs to be innovative, engaging, and consistent. It also helps if you have a story to tell and engaging content to share, which leads nicely into our next section on content marketing. 

3. The Key to Content Marketing
   Content marketing has quickly risen to be one of the most important elements of digital marketing. Having a consistent supply of new, original content relating to your brand and product means you can improve your SEO, position yourself as an industry expert, grow a following on social media and, ultimately, raise brand awareness and generate more sales.
   
   The content you produce can be anything, from a brand film or video commercial to blogs, infographics, and webinars. However, as Oberlo explains, video has quickly become the most important type of promotional content with 54% of consumers wanting to see more video content from a brand or business they support and 87% of marketing professionals are using it as a marketing tool. For Skincare brands, video works especially well and can be inexpensive if needed be. A quick flick-book-style video with images of models using your products or an animation style video look great on social media and can be achieved quickly, easily and with minimal investment.
   
   However, your content marketing does not have to be limited to only selling your products. For many consumers, your brand story is just as important. After all, 92% of buyers claim that they would be more loyal to a skincare brand if it supported environmental or social causes, according to Disturb Me Not. If your brands relate to these areas why not produce a short video, infographic or blog explaining why you do what you do. Approaches like this make it easy to create shareable content while positioning your brand as modern, conscientious and a step above those cosmetic companies famous for testing their products on vulnerable animals. 

4. Competitions and Giveaways
   Competitions can be a great way to boost your social media, demonstrate the benefit of your products and inspire interest in your brand. Here’s a couple of ideas that work particularly well for skincare brands.
   
   Ask your users, through social media and email campaigns, to send product reviews and before and after photos of themselves for the chance to win a prize. With permission, these photos can also be used on social media or turned into case studies of your product’s successes.
   
   Use display advertising and tag and like to win social media advertising to inspire entries into a competition for free samples to grow your social media following and win customers.

Conclusion 

Although these are only a couple of digital marketing tips for small skincare brands, the above is the perfect place to start and should be key priorities for small brands looking to secure sales and make a name for themselves. There are plenty of options for those looking to take digital marketing a step further, check out this article for more tips on marketing sustainable brands.

Author: 

Claire Williams is the owner of Meadows Skincare, who handmakes natural skincare fresh from her dairy farm and manages all her own Digital Marketing.