It’s no longer just celebrities who have the power to influence the products and brands we want and buy. Since the 2010’s, social media platforms from Instagram to TikTok are buzzing with influencers whose lifestyle we follow and opinions we trust. Brands in the aesthetics, beauty and wellness industry must develop an influencer marketing strategy and find the right influencer partners to create exciting collaborations that enhance their overall consumer strategy. Influencer marketing is one the most accessible PR and marketing strategies and it can deliver great results such as increased brand awareness, media attention and product sales.
In this article, we explain the role of influencer marketing and share practical guidance to help you develop an influencer marketing strategy for your aesthetics, beauty and wellness brand or business.
What is influencer marketing?
First, let’s define the “influencer”. Typically, these are individuals who have a dedicated following on social media and are viewed as experts or specialists within their niche by their followers, peers, and brands. This specialism or expertise may be backed up by professional qualifications (e.g. a dermatologist or GP) or by a focused approach to their topic or area of interest (e.g. makeup artist, beauty specialist, journalist or lay person who has a passion for the topic).
“Influencer marketing” is a type of PR and marketing activity where brands use endorsements and mentions from influencers. This kind of partnership can be paid or unpaid – for example, sending product samples or experiences in the hope of the influencer posting a positive review to their followers, or entering a specific contracted activity where you can control the messaging, agree affiliate purchasing links (or swipe-ups), content creation that meets a specific brief and so on. Influencer marketing is an effective strategy because of the high amount of trust and ‘social proof’ that they have built up with their following, and in the case of paid collaborations, the impact on sales, interest, brand engagement etc can be directly measured as a result of the interaction with that influencer.
The benefits of an influencer marketing strategy
Influencer marketing presents many benefits to brands and is being actively embraced time and time again especially within the aesthetics, beauty, and wellness industries. Below are the top reasons brands are investing their PR and marketing budget into an influencer marketing strategy:
- To increase brand awareness: The most common goal of an influencer marketing strategy is to increase reach or brand awareness. Why? Established influencers have spent time building their following or audience, and have built up authority, credibility and trust – which the brands want to benefit from in an authentic and often creative way. The opportunity to reach new audiences and build new brand fans and customers is huge!
- To build trust: The audiences or followers of a particular influencer often do so because they trust their opinion and love the quality and type of content they share. The most credible and trusted influencers will only collaborate with brands they believe in and share values with – these influencers can provide endorsement for your brand, service, or product in an authentic way and help you to build trust with your target audiences.
- To drive sales via education and creating need: Beauty and wellness influencers are great at showcasing the look, feel and experience of products and services an engaging way to deliver brand messaging/education, prompt enquiries and /or drive sales. For brands, influencer marketing is an effective way to shorten a prospective customers’ consideration process and push considerers through to a purchase. Influencer sales can be unprompted and organic, but many brands give influencers an added incentive to push sales such as an exclusive discount code or commission via an affiliate link which can then be used to determine the ROI of working with that particular influencer, allowing them to further hone their strategy depending on the successes of the campaign.
- To target specific niche audiences: Brands must find the right influencer with the right audience to be able to deliver their desired campaign results. For example, if you want to target a very specific niche audience persona there will be an influencer or set of with that exact audience. Once you find the right influencer(S) you can ensure your brand connects with its PERFECT target audience.
Common PR tactics within influencer marketing
Influencers are super creative and the opportunities or possibilities for brands when it comes to creating exciting and effective partnerships are endless. Below our beauty PR experts explain the most popular ways influencers supports brands:
- Product launches: If you’re new to a particular market, influencer collaborations can be an effective way to quickly spread the word quickly about your new product’s best features. Influencer products endorsements are one of the best tactics to get people to trust your products, followers of influencers with a niche audience are more likely to hear their credible endorsements and want to learn more or buy.
- Collaborate with influencers who love your brand: Is an influencer already talking about your brand or product(s) without any sponsorship? Great! They like your brand values and have an audience who are likely to engage with your brand’s content. Reach out and invite them to collaborate with your brand on something bigger and really connect with their audience.
- Encourage creativity: Save yourself and your team time when it comes to brainstorming creative ideas and leave it to your team of influencers, they love creative freedom so encourage it – you will likely be pleasantly surprised. This open approach is likely to result in long term partnerships as you may become a brand they love to work with.
- Brand ambassadors: Hosting repeat campaigns with influencers is an effective way to build trust with their audiences vs a one off “flash” campaign. Many brands in the aesthetics, beauty and wellness industries have been collaborating with the same influencers for many years. So provided that an influencer’s niche and interests align with those of your brand, consider recruiting them as a brand ambassador and long-term collaborator.
How to build an influencer marketing strategy
The ultimate goal of influencer marketing is to develop a targeted strategy which pairs carefully selected influencers with your brand, creating an authentic relationship which delivers over and over again. Below our PR experts share 5 steps to follow to create an effective influencer marketing strategy:
- Define your PR and marketing goals
Every great PR strategy begins with a clear set of objectives and goals. Consider this: what do you want to achieve from your influencer marketing strategy? Be specific when you list out your goals. For example, increase awareness of product X amongst audience Y, is a much more effective and attainable goals than simply increase brand awareness or driving sales. NB. Don’t forget to define the audience persona(s) you are trying to reach!
2. Find the right influencers
Finding, choosing, and onboarding the right beauty influencers for your brand can feel overwhelming and it is time consuming but partnering with right influencers is critical in every influencer marketing strategy. At this stage you may wish to appoint a PR agency who specialises in influencer marketing and has relationships with the top influencers in your industry, like Kendrick PR who specialise in PR for aesthetics, beauty and wellness brands. When researching influencers the most important factors to consider are:
- Relevance – do they have an audience that aligns with your target audience? Do they share content relevant to your industry?
- Reach – how many people could you potentially reach through this influencer? Small audiences and partnering with micro-influencers can also be really effective.
- Resonance – what potential level of engagement can this influencer create? Big audiences don’t mean strong engagement.
3. Start a conversation
Now that you’ve compiled your shortlist of influencers, we recommend that you start engaging with their content online (e.g. like and comment on their recent Instagram posts). When you’re ready to suggest a partnership contact them via direct message and/or email. Ensure that you personalise your message and never send a mass email or generic DM, the extra time you spend here is likely to earn a warm response. At this stage you can share information about your brand and what you’re hoping to achieve but don’t be too salesy.
4. Collaborate to develop the best content
Influencers are content creators and welcome freedom within brand collaborations, your brand will get the best value from their work by allowing them to showcase their skills. However, it’s important to provide guidelines and/or some do’s or don’ts. Ensure you schedule a conversation early on to discuss and share ideas.
5. Set clear deliverables
To ensure you get value for money and are satisfied with the results of an influencer partnership you must clearly define the deliverables and budget before you start. Every partnership differs and most influencers have rate cards. Don’t forget that your goal is to build a strong partnership so you can work together again and again – don’t harm your relationship with unclear or impossible expectations.
The key rule of influencer marketing
Authenticity and transparency is critical with influencer marketing – audiences do not want to feel misled and there are specific rules to follow in most countries to ensure than audiences are not being misled. For the most part, influencers just need to be clear and upfront, so viewers understand when one of their posts is sponsored by a brand in any way. A common way to do this is to use hashtags such as #ad and #sponsored to give sponsorship disclosure however, they need to be highly visible (i.e. at the start of any content) and not just tacked on to the end of a long string of tags.
This transparency rule is great for brands and influencer as it adds to the trust built with audiences.
Kendrick PR specialise in influencer marketing strategy
At Kendrick PR, we have a proven record for creating and delivering bespoke influencer marketing campaigns in an authentic, credible, and creative way to support brand profiling and sales. Our accomplished team has a wealth of A-list celebrity, VIP, and influencer connections in the aesthetics, beauty and wellness industries which we leverage as part of a strategic approach for our clients.
For further support to tap into the power of influencer marketing with a considered and strategic approach please do get in touch and schedule your complimentary discovery call with one of our accomplished PR experts.