The beauty industry is incredibly competitive and has been for decades: new, emerging, and established brands are constantly vying to win the attention of their target audiences. A creative and well-executed PR strategy is an effective way to stand out from the crowd, define your position in the market, raise brand awareness, and stimulate demand for your products and services. Whether you’re a major brand, rising star, or new face in the beauty industry here are eight beauty PR tips to boost your PR activity!
What is Beauty PR?
PR stands for Public Relations and our favourite definition is:
“PR represents what other people say about you (or your brand) when you’re not there.”
PR is all about reputation! How do others see your brand or products? What have people heard from others or seen in the media about you? How can you influence conversations about your brand, when you’re not in the room? An effective PR strategy will help answer these questions and showcase your brand in the way you want it to be seen. PR is a must for any brand which is serious about getting the attention of the media, industry professionals and of course, potential customers.
Beauty PR simply means public relations for beauty brands and products and is a niche sector of the industry with dedicated beauty PR experts, like our team at Kendrick PR, who specialise in beauty and wellbeing communications.
The benefits of a good beauty PR strategy
When it comes to promoting your beauty brand and products, developing a long-term PR strategy is essential and should never be treated as a temporary activity. A consistent beauty PR strategy can help to:
- Raise brand awareness
- Build trust and credibility
- Position your brand against the competition i.e. stand out!
- Create a buzz around new products or special event
- Nurture a good brand reputation
- Attract and engage new customers
- Present and publicise key messages i.e. new products
- Increase demand and sales
Each of the above benefits are with your brand’s target audience which includes everyone who touches your business such as prospective and existing customers, press, influencers, suppliers, employees and industry peers.
PR options for beauty brands
There are two ways for beauty brands to develop and deliver their PR strategy:
- In-house with a dedicated PR manager or PR team. The level of experience you can recruit into your team is dependent on your budget which will also impact the results you will see. PR is all about reputation and relationships which can take years to build.
- Outsource to a PR partner, such as a PR agency or PR consultant. This option can save you time, money and stress! We recommend working with a specialist beauty PR agency who know the UK beauty industry, can demonstrate great results, and have a solid network of quality contacts. They should also have a fantastic reputation!
With small or start up brand, the responsibility of PR may belong to a marketing lead or even the CEO – this is fine for the early days but it can be challenging as PR is time consuming and requires a specific skill set. In contrast, at major brands it is common for inhouse and agency teams to work side-by-side for many years delivering great PR results. Every beauty brand is unique and once you find the right approach, you’ll stick with it for the long-term.
8 Beauty PR tips for products and brands
In crowded industries like beauty and wellbeing there are many voices shouting to be heard. Below are eight beauty PR tips which you can factor into your brand’s upcoming PR activity and give it a boost:
1. Create a PR outreach plan
You can expect to secure great coverage by sending one press release. To gain press attention you need to share timely press releases with the media, PR Is not a pick up and drop activity – you need to build and maintain momentum with your contacts. A great way to do this is with a PR outreach plan, start by listing the key messages you’d like to share with the beauty industry over the course of 6 months and then map these to the contacts who you’d like to promote your message.
2. Invest in high-quality photography
The beauty industry is very visual and creative, only the highest quality images are shared in magazines, newspapers, and across social media. When you invest in quality images for your brand you are much more likely to make a great first impression with journalists, editors and influencers who in turn may want to promote and endorse your brand. We recommend working with a photographer to create a set of product images on a white background as well as a more creative lifestyle shoot to bring your brand to life.
3. Publish strong press releases
The beauty industry is cluttered with messages and breaking through the noise is tough – but first, brands need to break through the noise in a journalists’ inbox! Here are few topics you could consider building your upcoming press release and media pitches around:
- new product launches.
- current and upcoming seasonal events such as New Year New You, Spring, Wedding Season, Valentines, Christmas etc.
- interesting stats and information such as consumer habits, industry trends, regional insights etc.
- industry expert or KOL (Key Opinion Leader quotes)
- celebrity and VIP customers
4. Build a social media presence
If your brand doesn’t have a presence on social media now is the time to start. It’s highly likely that as a beauty consumer your target audiences are active on social media and looking to discover new brands.
When it comes to sharing content ensure that it resonates with brand values and authentically represents your brand and its products or services. Social media marketing is a great way to humanise your brand and share its personality, get creative with your content and create a schedule of timely posts. Before you start posting make sure that your brand profiles are aesthetically pleasing and present a consistent first impression across all social media platforms.
Tip! Do your research and find out which platform(s) is the most popular amongst your target audience and focus your resources there.
5. Build strong media relations
Strong media relations sit at the heart of every successful PR strategy and they can be built directly between a brand and the media and/or via an appointed agency. In the beauty industry savvy brands invest a lot of time and effort cultivating media relationships with editors, journalists, and influencers. Their goal is to become the person the media turn to for credible story ideas, product placements, interesting comments, and more! To learn more read our building media relations guide in our PR Essentials series of articles.
6. Create some buzz
A brand launch or PR event is a great way to build buzz around your brand particularly with the media, influencers, VIPs and your target audiences. From intimate dinners to yoga retreats, and immersive new product launches to interactive workshops, there are so many exciting and engaging ways you can bring your brand to life and get the right people talking about it. For maximum beauty industry buzz, We recommend consulting with a beauty PR team who specialise in creating memorable and have an enviable ‘little black book’ of contacts to help you plan your dream PR event.
7. Invest in PR packages and samples
Sending out product samples or invitations for a complimentary treatment can make a lot of difference when trying to grab the attention of the media, influencers, and VIPs. However, it can quickly become not very cost-effective if you start giving freebies to everybody. We recommend setting a sample budget and the create a priority list of publications and influencer profiles where you’d love your brand to be seen.
Tip! Be smart with your budget by offering a sample and waiting for a request before sending it.
8. Appoint a specialist PR agency
We now know that PR is a valuable long-term business strategy used to build and grow your brand visibility, trust and engagement – and of course, sales! However, to ensure that you adopt an effective approach and reap the many benefits of PR you should consider working with a PR partner, such as a specialist beauty PR agency. In addition to great results appointing the right PR agency can save you time, money and stress.
The team within a beauty PR agency spend years nurturing relationships with key press, influencers, and VIPs to create influential and valuable networks for their clients to leverage.
Tip! Always request examples of campaign results and look out for client case studies which demonstrate an agencies expertise and capabilities.
Book a free discovery call
At Kendrick PR, we thrive on creating winning formulas of strategic and tactical support for premium beauty brands, aesthetic clinics, practitioners and entrepreneurs. We lead with our values: passion, professionalism, and authenticity!
Founded in 2015 by award-winning communications expert Julia Kendrick, Kendrick PR are an experienced and passionate team who thrive on creating tangible success for every client. Since launch, we have delivered outstanding results for some of the industry’s most innovative brands and exciting entrepreneurs, such as ALLÉL, Altrient, Debbie Thomas, The Private Clinic, Oxygenetix and Medik8 – and we’d love to support your brand. Please do get in touch to book your complimentary discover call with our expert team.