Most industry professionals know that ad placement for publication in September beauty magazines, is the most crucial time for your brand to be seen. As online media continues to strengthen, now is a good time to come to understand how you can maximize your brand’s exposure through Blogging, viral marketing and digital magazines dually with ad campaigns in the leading print magazines. Print magazines and online media sell a relationship with its readers, as well as, an opportunity to reach them in a time of intense focus and receptivity.
Here are some Beauty PR tips that may help your brand stand out:
Understand your competition:
How you can understand your competition begins in their ad campaigns. What you can learn:
+ What magazines/blogs they are pitching their products to.
+ Which demographic they are going after and if it changes depending on the magazine/blog they advertise in.
+ Are they focusing on color, scent, packaging or trendiness?
+ What is their approach? Which key words are they using to get the readers attention?
Learning these key points helps you to decide how to better your current/future campaign with a product that may be along the same lines as your competitor or how to present the same type of product effectively in a different way.
Know The Trends:
Follow the editorial calendars of the books that you want your product or service to appear. The editorial calendars are often featured on magazine Web sites. These give advertisers, readers and writers a heads up regarding planned issue themes.
Even if your product wasn’t originally intended for a particular season or holiday, figure out how you can spin it to make it fit. Study your chosen publications, and determine the types of stories each of them seems to favor—then use them as starting points for your own ideas. Look for patterns, trends, and points of discussion. Pinpoint the best editor for your idea. If need be, call the magazine and ask which editor is best to contact, and how he or she prefers submissions (via e-mail or conventional mail).
Creating a relationship with beauty editors is also key and helps in knowing what beauty editors are looking for months ahead of time. It helps you to prepare your story line and potentially get your product before the eyes of your target audience.
Green Is Good:
One way a non-green brand can become part of the green trend is to donate to a green charity. Brands can do this by becoming a sponsor for a green event, such as Earth Day, or hold a promotion with a percentage of the proceeds going to a particular green charity. Don’t count yourself out simply because you are not organic.
Some campaigns to learn from:
+ Lancome & Carbonfund.org
+ Diesel & StopGlobalWarming.org
+ Bank of America & it's green initiative
Pro-age vs. Antiwrinkle:
If you have anti-wrinkle products, give them a makeover with new wording or new packaging. Breathe new life into them so that they lose the negative connotation that “anti” brings about. Use creativity in the words used on the products and in ad campaigns to promote a more positive feeling about aging when using your product.
Embrace The Concept of Blogging:
Stand out and begin a blog surrounding your brand. When Blogging remember to:
+ Come across as a source of information.
+ Be a problem solver.
+ Remember that Blogging is more about your customers needs than your own.
+ Build relationships with your readers.
+ Allow for interaction between your readers and your brand—keep your comments section open, but moderated to weed through the spam.
+ Be patient. Building readership and trust takes time. The average time for a blog to build a consistent loyal readership is 6 months.
+ Show your brand’s personality. No one wants to read a cold lifeless blog. They want warmth and a personal connection to the brand.
Start Your Own Fan Club:
Spread the word about your product through Beauty Bloggers. The benefits of pitching your products to Beauty Bloggers:
+ They captivate your target audience.
+ Their readers enjoy reading a personal review of your product without any sales hype or brand bias.
+ Reviews of your product creates buzz throughout the blogosphere and among potential customers reading them.
+ Makes readers feel they are “in the know” about your brand.
Idea for pre-launch promotion:
If you have a product that is about to debut, send it out for review 3-4 weeks prior to launch. This will: Get a Beauty Blogger excited to promote your brand because they get first dibs on trying a product before it goes public; Builds curiosity and buzz among the readership. Many times offering a promotional discount to select Beauty Bloggers to post for their readership will create sales and referrals prior to going public.
There are rules of engagement and protocol that should be followed when contacting a Beauty Blogger. It is in the same manner as you would approach a beauty editor at a leading magazine and it all boils down to respect. See my post on how to pitch your products to Bloggers here.
The New Beautiful:
Unearth what language, print and online placement attract consumers. A good example is Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty. Their message resonated a feeling that many consumers could relate to which in turn, combined with their viral marketing of their 75 second fast-motion film, created an 8,000% increase in visits to their website. Lessons learned from this “New Beautiful” campaign: Be unique, know your consumer, and differentiate yourself from your competitors.
Have Tenacity:
Don’t take it personal if a story about your product doesn’t make it in the next edition of the magazine you pitched it to or it takes a long while for a Blogger to review your product. Depending on the magazine and the theme they have for that month, your brand’s story or theme may not be the right fit. The same holds true for Beauty Bloggers. Not all products you pitch may be something they feel fits in with their blog. Don’t give up. Continue to send in your PR pitches regularly keeping your brand before the eyes of that beauty editor and Blogger.
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