How to Increase Brand Awareness for Your Skincare Business

Brand awareness represents how target audiences engage with your skincare brand. High-awareness brands are often ‘trending’ and are invariably the ‘talk of the town’.

There is no obvious metric to determine brand awareness or value. Nonetheless, brand awareness is incredibly crucial for commercial viability. The higher the brand awareness, the higher the familiarity with your skincare packaging, colors, logo, messaging and products.

Why Does Brand Awareness Matter?

Helps with Trust-Building

Today, consumers use extensive research and opinions to make their buying decisions, including ratings and word of mouth. To this end, brand trust is everything – especially for the skincare industry, as they are trusting your brand with their health and appearance!

Once consumers establish a bond with a skin care brand, the higher chances of them engaging in repeat purchases increase. And with minimal forethought, the divide between trust and loyalty gets bridged.

Awareness is merely knowing something or someone. Over time, it can result in trust and loyalty. The efforts render a unique persona to the brand!

At Aventive Studio, we create memorable brand identities to help you build brand awareness and make more skincare product sales! View our full suite of brand strategy, skincare packaging design, & website design services here.

Helps Build an Ecosystem Through Association

For instance, you might have heard or used the phrase “Just Google it” or “Facebook me”. Better yet, I need a “Xerox” of this document. Sounds about right? Most likely, folks unknowingly throw these phrases at your friends or associates.

However, do notice the capitalized words above. Also, do not forget that these are brands and not nouns or verbs. In reality, Google is a search engine, and Facebook is a social media platform. And Xerox is a copier, for which the technical term is photocopying.

Sometimes, the subconscious refers to the brand itself. The technical term ends up playing second fiddle, even if one is not referring to the specific product. That is the power of brand awareness. In this way, common words get replaced with branded terms.

Brand Equity

Now, this is complex and tricky. Brand equity describes the value determined by consumer experiences and overall perception. Positive perceptions and experiences lead to positive brand equity and vice versa.

A few instances of positive brand equity:

• Higher perceived value commanding higher prices (including consumer surplus)
• Increased stock market valuations and prices
• Possibility of business expansion through product or service line extensions
• Profound social impact

Yet again, the stepping stone for building brand equity is awareness. Positive associations and brand equity shall eventually make the brand a household name or consumer staple. However, this journey is arduous, heeding considerable time and effort. Utilizing custom mailer boxes can serve as a tangible extension of your brand, creating memorable experiences for customers as they interact with your products. These boxes not only protect your merchandise but also serve as a canvas to reinforce your brand identity and values, further solidifying your position in the market.

If your skin care company is ready to scale to the next level, grow your brand awareness, and make more product sales, explore Aventive Studio’s past client branding projects here. We can help you create a brand strategy & memorable designs to achieve your business goals.

Ways to Increase Brand Awareness

There are umpteen tactics and techniques for increasing brand awareness. However, the simplest solution is to embrace the opportunities and power of digital.

This brings us to the gamut of digital marketing. People today devote considerable time to online shenanigans – over six hours per day. This aspect shows that the internet is the holy grail for those looking to bank on brand awareness.

The trick here is simple! Brands need to go to their customers and leverage all the exciting opportunities in the digital world.

Side Note: Size Does Not Matter

The internet has been a blessing for all enterprises. It is a democratic medium. Notwithstanding the size of the business enterprise, the digital space has a lot to offer for small- and mid-sized entrepreneurs. Let’s dive in now.

Publish Long-Form Content

Long-form content pieces resonate far better than their shorter counterparts for organic searches and SEOs. As per a SEMrush study, the top three positions on Google content ranking were 45% longer than the content on position 20.

Note that content length is not a Google ranking factor. Hence, marketers must refrain from adding fluff. Here, the priority is the quality of the content.

Since skin care falls under the “your money, your life” (YMYL) category of content, this long-form content also caters to the Google “expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness” (E-A-T) criteria. In this regard, quality content shall feature a considerable volume of information and transactional keywords.

Focus on Ingredients

After all, you are operating in the beauty and wellness space. So, it should come as no surprise that skincare consumers are picky. Since these are sensitive items, prospects tend to devote considerable time to pre-purchase research, especially if they have skin issues that need fixing.

Therefore, it is in your favor to have quality ingredients and stress that in your content. You can also join allies with your creative side. Next are some tactics.

• Polish your product descriptions by highlighting the impactful and best ingredients and their impact. Also, explain how and why the specific product cleanses the skin or helps remove wrinkles and fine lines.
  
• Create a quiz and spice up the engagement and interests with your audiences. This lets customers find the best products to embed in their skincare routine. Include explanations of how specific ingredients bring the desired results in the responses.
  
• Word up with vocabulary by creating a glossary. This one should list and explain the skin care ingredients used in the product offerings. Ensure that the glossary is emphatic and that it highlights specific types of ingredients – natural or hypoallergenic. People generally watch out for these! Now, you can also focus on gluten-free and vegan.

Leverage Social Proof with User-Generated Content (UGC)

About 79% of online users regard UGC as highly impactful and influential toward purchase decisions. A beauty and cosmetics brand that has nailed UGC is Lush. It does an excellent job of putting its clients at the forefront of its Instagram branding. UGC is simple! It is ideal for making advocates and ambassadors.

Skincare entrepreneurs can follow the simple steps below to promote your brand via UGC:

• Begin by encouraging customers to share their product experience on social media posts, stories and feeds
• Create a catchy and captivating branded hashtag
• Organize content around traditional and festive holidays like Halloween.

Note that this is a time-consuming endeavor. If your brand finds it hard to get noticed, take the helping hand of incentives such as discounts. Also, UGC is an excellent way of putting newcomers onto the market.

The highlight of UGC is it helps build trust with audiences. The reason is that the content gets created by users and customers. This also makes your skin care brand feel more authentic and authoritative.

User-generated content is a powerful and robust form of social proof, showing people using and enjoying the products. This can also go a step ahead and solidify your digital marketing message. So, wherever possible, highlight UGC — be it on your website, social media or ads.

Ready to work with a branding agency that can take your skincare business to the next level? Reach out to Aventive Studio here to schedule a call with our creative director and learn how we can help you grow your business.

Dialogue Through Interactive Content

Interaction is the way to go! Interactive content helps educate audiences and makes purchase decisions exponentially valuable, especially in the beauty and skincare sectors. The skincare business comprises a robust visual aspect.

An example of note and inspiration for skincare entrepreneurs is Ulta Glam Lab Tool. This digital tool enables prospects to visualize through the extensive range of makeup, hair colors or eyelashes.

Yet another instance that can serve among the pantheons of interactive content is the “Bleach Hair Party” platform by Bleach London.

This platform acts as a digital salon wherein consumers can engage in live conversations with the brand’s creative director and other guest speakers. Here, professional colorists offer guidance and assistance to customers through the hair dye process.

Personalize Your Skin Care Brand

This is to say, putting a proverbial face to the brand name. An ideal analogy is befriending a new person.

When doing so, one likes to enquire about hobbies, passions, likes and dislikes and much more. Also, one heeds attention to the body language, topics of conversation and what fuels their fire for inspiration. Similarly, brands too should determine and promote their traits.

In leaving an impact on audiences, skincare brands should work toward defining themselves more than a company that sells things.

One way is showcasing your company culture and inner workings on social media through reels, live videos and vlogs. This shows the corporate and brand personality, making it easier for prospects and customers to bond and forge a connection.

Forming meaningful connections requires considerable tact and thought. And it goes beyond a single purchase. Brands and enterprises can try socializing and networking.

For example, the summers are about enjoying the sun-kissed mornings and the breath of fresh air. To this end, skincare brands can personalize their lotions, oils and body butter.

About 89% of shoppers admit loyalty toward brands that share their values and emotions. Emotional branding has become mainstream by taking on an entirely new school of thought. For instance, the Jenn Im video sponsored by Skinceuticals features the fun transformation of Im’s appearance.

In putting the proverbial face or voice, small to medium-sized skin care enterprises can also partner with like-minded micro-influencers. These have a niche fan following and are lighter on the budget. Going ahead, skin care enterprises can seek out mascots and ambassadors.

Other positives are that micro-influencers tend to have higher ROI and establish a closer relationship with the brand and its target audience, rendering considerable influence and authority to the brand value.

Also, brands can provide beauty bloggers or writers with samples of newly released lotions and face oils. In return, they can promote the same by using the branded hashtag.

Content Restructuring

The varied formats and options mark excellence for skin care brands for elevating their ROIs from existing content.

For instance, a brand could transform a long-form blog post into a series of YouTube videos. This renders a visual take on the same information. Better yet, the videos could embed throughout the article. Another tactic is to convert Instagram posts into an illustration (or look) book.

Omnichannel Experience

The beauty and skincare industry is primarily about offering experience. While the product performs its course, the enterprise and brand can add layers through omnichannel integration.

Note that customer buying journeys are not linear! Given the myriad options and avenues, customers often bounce among stages, channels and mediums. For instance, a customer might read a blog, follow it up with a YouTube video and return to the company website to enquire about specific aspects.

Hence, creating the best and most comfortable experience cannot happen without integration. Also, the skincare promotional materials and brand messages must get customized for each avenue.

One brand that has marked considerable success using this strategy is Sephora. The website comprises a slew of beauty guides and “best of” sections.

The brand also has a Beauty Insider Community. This community gets riddled with interest-based groups, a forum, a Q & A section, and a photo gallery. These together make Sephora’s approach a spellbinder for customer experiences, let alone forge deeper connections. 

Wrapping It Up

As lucrative as these avenues appear, making them work for you is no easy feat. Brands must regularly measure and evaluate their content performance and results. It is crucial that brands realize, early on, the tactics that work for them and the ones that do not, let alone any amendments and adjustments deemed necessary.

The metrics vary and depend on the type of content. For instance, the amount of organic search traffic is ideal for blog posts. It renders insights into the time spent on the website and whether visitors clicked through any product pages.

Better yet, newsletters signups or enquiries. As for video-oriented content, the metrics of measure starkly differ. These include views, average watching time and percentage of viewers at every stage.

At Aventive Studio, we create custom brand-building strategies that transpire into the desired levels of brand awareness, equity, and recognition for your skincare company. To learn more about how we can help you build brand awareness and sell more skin care products, contact us and get on a quick call with our creative director.