What Makes You Beautiful: Lessons Learned at a Beauty Start-Up
The beauty world is rapidly growing before our eyes; with the innovation of social media, the beauty industry has innovated how we express ourselves through make-up and has come a long way from the overly bronzed foundations and metallic eyeshadows from the early 2000s.
For the past six months, I’ve been interning at beauty start-up LashBeePro in Center City Philadelphia. LashBeePro’s primary mission is to manufacture the best supplies for eyelash extensions so eyelash extension stylists can practice their craft with premier products. From adhesives to lashes and tweezers, the brand is consistently striving to develop the best products for eyelash extension stylists
In the months I’ve been interning at LashBeePro, I’ve been fortunate enough to learn how beauty brands build an identity in an industry that’s growing at an exponential rate. Here are the top three things I’ve learned about the beauty industry and its marketing tactics from my internship experience thus far!
1: Building a community is the key
Since beauty and its different segments are niche interests, brands often place an emphasis on building a sense of community between themselves and the consumers they’re marketing their products to. This rings especially true within brands manufacturing products within the eyelash extension industry; brand CEOs are recognized at networking events, and brand loyalty is strong between eyelash extension stylists and the products they use. At LashBeePro, we make a point to personalize notes for each of our loyal customers to convey that sense of appreciation. Making sure your brand conveys a sense of belonging is key in the beauty industry; it keeps your customers coming back for more!
2: Know your social media
Social media marketing is normally the first strategy that start-up brands try to implement when they’re beginning their advertising efforts. However, with the way social media has evolved, knowing the right network to use is the most important part for implementing your social media strategy. At LashBeePro, we’re most active on Instagram because the beauty industry relies heavily on aesthetic visuals to market the products that are being sold. Pictures of full, fluffy lashes submitted by eyelash extension artists using our products and playful infographics grace our feed because our customers love to see our products in action! Alternately, our brand doesn’t have a strong presence on networks such as Twitter or Facebook that rely more on the written word; with lash extensions especially, it’s difficult to capture the audience’s attention if pictures and videos aren’t the platform’s primary form of media. Knowing where your audience exists online is the key to having a successful social media strategy, and will help maintain and expand a brand’s following.
3: Put a face to your brand
Within the beauty space, some of the most popular brands have a strong following thanks to implementing a company executive as their brand’s representative. All of our strongest competitors use their founders and CEOs as the predominant subjects in their marketing materials, and often have them responding to comments and questions on social media platforms. The reason this is key in the beauty industry is that it further helps consumers feel connected to the brand that they’re supporting. By putting a founder at the forefront of a business, customers feel like they know whose business they’re supporting and it builds brand loyalty since customers become enamored with the personalities behind these brands and what their lives look like!
In the few months I’ve been interning at LashBeePro, I’ve developed a new grasp and appreciation for the beauty industry. It’s one thing to discuss beauty trends from a consumer perspective, but this internship has given me the opportunity to analyze beauty trends from a professional perspective as well. Learning the ropes within this quickly growing industry has been valuable to my professional development, and I cannot wait to continue my growth as a young professional in a booming beauty scene!
