Despite massive store reopenings in 2021, it seems that more and more customers are interested in buying beauty and skincare products online. As a result, revenue for Amazon’s Beauty & Personal Care category grew 58% year-over-year (YoY), bringing in $2 billion more than last year as of July 2021.

If you have a beauty and skincare brand, then you’ll want to capitalize on this growing trend. But boosting your online sales entails a complex process and requires knowledge and insight into how Amazon works. 

Based on our experiences, we’ve found that many Amazon sellers ignore the importance of PR in building a successful eCommerce brand. In fact, PR is vital for building your brand and long-term prosperity. Below, we’ve summarized the top 4 PR tactics you should use to support your Amazon sales.

Ready to take your brand to the next level on Amazon? Reach out to us today, and let’s discuss your goals and how we can make them happen. 

#1. Smart Media Pitching

Media pitching is one of the most essential components of a sound PR strategy. But it can be an incredibly high-pressure process for many people, especially if they don’t have connections in the field. 

So, how can you go from zero to media-pitching-hero?

You need the right list.

Before you start pitching, research the current crop of media giants covering the beauty category. Some public relations softwares like Cision can provide the information you need. 

For the example, the top media companies in beauty & skincare category such as Allure, Refinery29, ELLE, Instyle, Vogue, are good to start with. 

Other than top media companies, you also want to check out their editor’s personal blog. Blogs like Into the Gloss have an astounding number of followers and high online traffic. 

Try to collect as much information as possible and set it as your master list.

Next, you need a good understanding of your target editors.

Media pitching takes time. But a good outreach plan can help you control the pace and set reasonable expectations. 

Usually, we start with our own connections. Then reach out to a targeted list built from the master list. Next, try to follow the targeted editors’ blogs and social media to get a good grasp on their preferred styles and the topics they’re interested in. 

Based on the information you’ve collected, you’ll know how to add exciting hooks in your messages that are relevant to their interests and grab their attention. 

Be prepared for every step in the media pitching process. 

We recommend sharing news like new product launches, new product features, and recent industry data for pitching an angle perspective. Or, if you have a popular brand ambassador, that’s also an excellent point to communicate and leverage. 

Consider sending the editor some product samples and thank you notes along with your pitch. Remember to be patient. Building connections takes time. You may not receive a response for months after your first message. 

We also highly recommend avoiding mass pitching. Instead, you want to send personalized messages only. If you follow these steps and are patient, you’ll eventually reach your goal. 

#2. Strategic Brand Partnerships

Establishing strategic brand partnerships is an excellent way to leverage your message. 

Most media have their own co-op channel. For example, Refinery29’s How Stuff is Made is a series of videos that shows how a beauty product is manufactured. 

Thanks to this show, people can better connect with their favorite brands and new companies, too, when they get to know the story behind the scenes.  

Like media pitching, you can contact a target’s brand partnership team directly to ask about collaboration. Since brand partnership is, generally, a paid collaboration, it’s much easier to obtain than media pitching. 

Pro tips and caveats:

Considering the relatively high cost of brand partnership, we recommend you prepare to invest in excellent content. People like to consume authentic stories. So, don’t try to hard-sell your product in brand partnership content or make the content too promotional. 

People like to be treated as friends. The real story is more touching and memorable.

Our second tip for this PR tactic is to clearly understand your target audience before reaching out for collaboration. 

Different media have different target audiences because of the diversity of beauty products and customers. Please choose the media that best matches your brand message. 

Besides co-op channels, there are many other channels for establishing brand partnerships. For example, some media outlets send a beauty box to their members to help customers try new and trending products. Getting your products added to a beauty box is an excellent way to build brand awareness with your target audience.

Take your time researching, and you’ll get the best possible result. 

#3. Get a Better ROAS with Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing is already a popular and common PR strategy for many brands. But making this PR tactic more efficient for a beauty and skincare brand on Amazon is vital. 

You need to find the right influencer that best matches your brand and target audience. Our tip is don’t take the number of followers as the only metric for choosing an influencer.  

Do thorough research on loyalty, engagement rate, style, and vibe. Collaborating with the right micro-influencers can get great results for beauty & skincare brands on Amazon if you plan properly. 

For example, one of our clients planned a promotion campaign for their new product. Instead of looking for top influencers, we did in-depth research on specific categories related to the client’s brand message. We collaborated with a micro-influencer with only 97k followers. But their vibe was a good match with our client. 

It turned out that the ROAS is 200x higher than collaboration with macro-influencers with over 500k followers. 

#4. Enhance Your Social Media Strategy

Social media is one of the most direct ways to connect with your customers and target audiences. But how to gain the right followers quickly is incredibly challenging for marketers in this highly competitive field. In this fast-changing world, we need to keep exploring and trying new things. 

Here’s what we suggest for this particular PR tactic:

Do more interaction with your customers

Plan giveaways, dollar deals, and other campaigns to encourage followers to try your new products and share their thoughts on social media.

Build your own community

Many brands build their VIP Clubs to share exclusive news and activities with their fans. That’s a great way to grow your customer loyalty on social media. 

Partner with related communities

Partner with similar communities that are related to your target audience. For example, we helped our client to reach out to a K-pop community and partner with them to send our client’s brand ambassadors autographed photos as gifts. This campaign helped our client gain a massive group of fans. 

PR Tactics for Beauty and Skincare Brands on Amazon: Punchline

In the highly competitive cosmetics market, we can explore many PR tactics to boost your beauty and skincare brand on Amazon. Besides the strategies we’ve outlined above, we can also explore other possibilities, such as applying for awards to get industry endorsements, attending industry events, trade shows, and more.

Nowadays, simply owning a natural beauty brand with great products is not enough. You’ll have to work hard to tell your unique story and make sure the right audience is exposed to it. So implement some of the tactics above and let the magic begin!

Ready to take your brand to the next level on Amazon? Contact us today, and let’s talk.