Brief #71: Here's where health and beauty marketing is heading

This content originally appeared on July 15, 2021 as part of the Future of Marketing weekly email series. Subscribe here.

Welcome to Future of Marketing.

Each week, we send you the most relevant trends, resources, and strategies in social and user-generated content (UGC) from leading marketers and brands around the globe.

Today, we're discussing…

• Predictions for health and beauty brands 🔮
• Creating excitement along the customer journey
• #BrandCrush: Le Labo 💘

Predictions for health and beauty brands 🔮

Did you know beauty products are the second-largest product category for engagement on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook?

We're seeing rising trends across the top 5 direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands, where their focus is to grow their brand online, use mass merchandisers (like Ulta and Sephora) to sell products in-person, and capitalize on the low overhead of eCommerce before committing to a brick-and-mortar. 

But what does this mean for the future of health and beauty marketing? 

Here are three predictions: 

1. Brands will launch more membership programs
2. More in-person experiences and shareable moments to increase user-generated content
3. Integrating technology to create personalized buying experiences

Thanks to social media, health and beauty brands are also tapping into UGC marketing. 

“After price, the major wins were ads that highlighted product quality. Whether it was up-close videos of putting lipstick on and not seeing it crack or user-generated content (UGC) – the advertising focused on the color payoff and how good the product looked.

It didn't matter if the ad was pretty. It mattered that it showed real people using the product.”

Michelle Luo, Growth Guide

Our take? Create experiences worth documenting – whether by having strong products or services, or by creating a user journey unlike any other brand.

Creating excitement along the customer journey

To create user-generated content, your fans and customers need to feel excited about your brand. Here are the three steps along the buying journey that feel most exciting for a customer:

1. When a customer discovers and purchases a product or service
2. When a customer receives their product or service
3. When a customer experiences the benefit of using the product or service

Each of these steps is a great opportunity to create an experience worth capturing a photo or testimonial about. After all, forty-eight percent (48%) of consumers claim that user-generated content is a great way to discover new products – while 3 out of 5 millennials agree they “often share screenshots or links of products [they're] interested in with friends.”

To create user-generated content, your fans and customers need to feel excited about your brand. Here are the three steps along the buying journey that feel most exciting for a customer:

1. When a customer discovers and purchases a product or service
2. When a customer receives their product or service
3. When a customer experiences the benefit of using the product or service

Each of these steps is a great opportunity to create an experience worth capturing a photo or testimonial about. After all, forty-eight percent (48%) of consumers claim that user-generated content is a great way to discover new products – while 3 out of 5 millennials agree they “often share screenshots or links of products [they're] interested in with friends.”

What we're learning

• The future of health and beauty marketing
• Hub and Spoke Events
• The shiny object syndrome is real… Twitter is shutting down Fleets
• Android users spend more time on TikTok than YouTube, Facebook, and Netflix
• The rumors are true... Clubhouse and TED have partnered to release exclusive content

#BrandCrush: Le Labo 💘

Each week in #BrandCrush, we highlight exceptional brands that are channeling their customers' voice to connect more authentically with their audience.

It's not easy to sell a product you can't demonstrate, but New York-based perfumery brand Le Labo took a creative spin to UGC and created a separate Instagram profile called @OverheardLeLabo. 

Through this Instagram account, Le Labo repurposes stories they overheard from their fans while shopping at their stores around the globe.

This is such a unique way to stand out and keep content exciting (especially for a brand that cannot show the benefits of their products). 

On their website, they also offer a “Proust Questionnaire” to understand people's personalities and have the brand's founders help them in the complex process of choosing a scent.

Now that's an experience worth talking about. 

Now hiring 👇🏼

In other news, L'Oréal is hiring a Coordinator for Social Media (Community Management), and Hyatt is searching for their next Social Media Manager and Associate Manager of Social Media Content. Rumor has it they'll be curating UGC. 

Thanks for reading. Until next time! 👋🏼