Before the rise of Instagram influencers, beauty vloggers could be found on YouTube creating unsponsored content you’d kill for today. Now more than ever, they prove to be some of the most valuable creators to partner with and establishing relationships with beauty YouTubers can supercharge your presence in the beauty sphere. Brand recognition among their subscribers can lead to a lot of buzz around your brand, which can generate sales. Here are 6 ways to approach collaborations with beauty YouTubers.
People are 3 times more likely to search for a tutorial than read the instructions. If your product is complicated or takes time to work, it’s essential to have content about how it works and the results it produces. People want to know if your product will work for them before they buy, and if that info isn’t available your competitors may be winning your customers over.
This is where a collab can be useful. Encourage your selected beauty YouTubers to create tutorials or lifestyle videos showing how they personally use the product. If your product takes time to see results, give your influencers the product ahead of time so they can show the progress immediately when the product or campaign launches.
Instead of compensating beauty vloggers upfront, many of them will agree to partner with brands and receive a percentage of the sales they help bring in. This type of collab is perfect for e-commerce brands because applying an influencer code at checkout is way easier to implement online than in-store.
Whenever a customer buys something on your site using the influencer code, the influencer will earn a percentage of the sale (usually 10%). You can keep tabs on how profitable the relationship is by tracking the number of sales through the code and the influencers will get regular compensation for expanding your customer base. Sounds like a win-win, right?
Giveaways are great for boosting awareness for your brand and engagement for the influencer. As the brand, you provide the products for the YouTuber to give away on their channel. The size and quantity of the products is up to you, so you can decide to give away one large bundle of products, or a single product to multiple winners.
You can collaborate with your influencer on the rules for the giveaway. These can include requiring the viewers to follow the influencer and your brand on a specific social platform, commenting on the video answering a specific question, etc. These rules are set up to help both parties expand their follower base and engagement rates.
Viewers love supporting their favorite influencers in their creative endeavors. Team up with an influencer whose personality and audience vibes with your brand’s to launch a product collab! Whether you are working with an influencer to design a new product, curate a makeup collection, or have them put together a seasonal bundle of their favorite products, the influencer’s followers will be invested in making the collab a success.
Let’s take M.A.C. Cosmetic’s collab with YouTube sensation Patrick Starr. In 2017, they announced that he would be partnering with M.A.C. to release several seasonal collabs in 2018. The buzz surrounding the collaborations was featured in numerous publications and articles, including an interview in Teen Vogue. The launches were a big success and brought in a lot of sales for M.A.C. and new followers for Patrick.
A fun and unique way to collaborate with beauty YouTubers is to celebrate a fun holiday together. Sure, the standard major holidays are great for posting themed content on social, but why not mix it up with unique, lesser-known holidays? Beauty YouTubers are perfect for this type of collab because they’re known for their creative content.
Have them create a makeup look inspired by one of their favorite characters using your products on National Book Lovers Day. Or maybe have them showcase how your products help them wind down on Lazy Day. The opportunities to create fresh and engaging content are endless.
Take a look at these great holiday options to add to your social media calendar!
While these are expensive to orchestrate, they give back to the influencers and generate a lot of user-generated content (UGC). The best way to implement this type of campaign is to determine if the influencer aligns with your brand before inviting them to the event. You wouldn’t want to waste money on reaching an audience who might not care about your brand at all.
When you invite influencers to an event or trip, they’re likely to share the experience in a vlog on their YouTube channel and on Instagram. These events can be large or small, but your brand should cover all transportation, housing and food expenses for the influencers and guests, if you allow them to bring anyone.
For example, In 2018 Sephora took their influencers on a roadtrip across the country to host meet and greets with their customers. With $15 in makeup purchases, fans could get a free gift and a wristband to meet the influencers.
Daniel Wellington, an Instagram famous watch company, invited 84 influencers to a Grecian holiday aboard 14 yachts and generated some gorgeous UGC. I mean, Greece+yachts+high-end watches could only lead to some seriously dreamy vlog shots and Instagram posts.
Whether you’re planning an event or trip, you need to establish guidelines before influencers agree to come. Like all influencer content guidelines, these should be minimal and not controlling. Their followers will be able to tell if the content seems inauthentic.
As you can see, collaborations with beauty YouTubers can take many forms. Be creative, listen to the influencers you’re partnering with and always keep your target audience in mind while you strategize. If you’re ready to collab with YouTube’s beauty stars, we can help guide you through the process. Contact us today to chat with one of our influencer marketing specialists.