When it comes to beauty brands entering the international market, it can be very challenging especially if you’re doing it for the first time. That said, if you want to make a name for yourself and do well within the international space, the best decision you’ll ever make when going international/global is going local.
Sounds counterproductive right? No worries, we’ll explain exactly what we mean. Keep reading!
When we say ‘to go global, you need to go local’, we’re talking about localization. Now localization is the process of converting your website along with all your other online platforms, to match both the linguistic and cultural norms of a particular target market. By localizing your content, your beauty brand captures a unique human element that is necessary to connect with your users in a particular geographical location.
When localization is done properly, your beauty brand stands the chance of making a unique and valuable connection with your target audience. This, in turn, commands their trust and positions your brand to have an authoritative voice within the international space.
Day Translations offers exceptional localization services to suit your brand’s voice and style, therefore helping you connect with your newly found localized audience. Of course, we’re available 24/7 to help you get started.
Now it’s time to dive in and explore how your beauty brand can use localized marketing to promote its products. Let’s look at an example of how a beauty brand went about localizing its content and then we’ll get into some tips.
The story of Vogue
The year was 1982, the country – The United States of America; at that time Arthur Turnure had an excellent idea – to publish a weekly newspaper. He would call it, Vogue. Of course this was only the beginning of what is today an international fashion magazine, publishing worldwide in many different languages.
Today, Vogue is an international fashion icon and is the perfect example to use when talking about localization and how effective it’s strategy is when it comes to fashion and beauty brands.
Vogue Magazine prides itself in its dedication to investing time and effort to produce its magazine in every local language it has for its editions. This immaculate magazine manages to consistently resonate with all the social and cultural changes of each region it is in. That fact and so many others have shaped fashion as we know it for the twentieth century.
Vogue’s localization strategy is done through a global campaign, hiring fashion specialists who are specifically recruited to deliver stories tuned to international standards all while creating content in the language specific to their target market’s local populations.
Vogue’s determination to become a great local company has worked exceptionally well in it’s favor. By implementing localization as part of its marketing strategy this company has been able to leave its mark on people, along with the fashion and beauty industries within their target area. Collaborating with a seasoned beauty marketing agency can offer fresh perspectives and innovative strategies to enhance localized content.
Tips for marketing your Beauty Brand on Social Media
International beauty brands generate millions of dollars in revenue yearly. That said, up and coming beauty brands must step up to the plate, cut through the noise and market their brands.
Here are a few marketing tips your beauty brand can implement in a localized market successfully:
- Influencer Marketing – Influencer marketing has taken over the beauty industry and has indeed yielded some positive results. With the growing popularity in using social media to reach audiences, platforms such as Instagram and TikTok have taken over the scene and set the standard for how influencers use their voice and platforms to impact their audience.
Influencer marketing is simply a collaboration between your brand and a popular person within your geographical location of interest, who complements your brand’s voice mission.
The content an influencer produces for your beauty brand can range from any of the following:
- Photos of your product/s with a relatable caption explaining all positive things about it
- Short videos unboxing or using your product
- Going live on social media with that influencer
- Using localized hashtags – As long as you’re going the route of localizing your content, translation must be part of the process. When translating your content, the hashtags you have as part of your strategy must be translated too.
- Practice constant and relatable engagement – Engaging your followers on any social media platforms constantly makes a world of difference. By keeping your audience engaged, you humanize your brand and make it more relatable. This will in-turn drive sales and more awareness to your beauty brand. Share their reviews and highlight their mentions; all interactions breed positivity for your brand.
- Don’t forget to create written content – Content writing for your beauty brand will never go out of style or lose its relevance. There are countless topics out there you can write about to engage your audience and get great reviews. The best part about written content is that it can be repurposed for use on various social media platforms in many different ways.
- Develop a content calendar – Planning your social media content weekly, bi-weekly or even monthly helps to keep you on track and more organized. Your content calendar will have when, where and what you will post; whether it be status or story updates, promotions or on-going sales, article or video excerpts, the announcement of partnerships. Whatever the content, using a content calendar helps you to get things in order.
- Do Giveaways! – Who doesn’t love the chance to win something great? Entice your followers and keep the excitement buzzing. You have the opportunity to be creative with what you want your followers to do to win. They can create review videos, post them to their page and tag your brand. You can even send them a swag box with your merch to further increase your brand awareness. You can allow people to vote for the best form of content creation from your followers as well. Not only will thi engage your audience, it will also yield a definite return on investment.
Localized Content Marketing is key
We hope you’ve been able to keep up with us and that the tips we’ve shared so far will help with marketing your beauty brand. Now, we’ll explain why localized content marketing is key.
The key to creating great content for a localized market is research. Before launching your beauty brand within any geographical area through research and the proper translation must take place. After this is done, you can begin creating localized content for your audience.
Effective localization strategies convey customer behaviors, give insight into their buying habits and understand their cultural differences. In addition to this, each target market you’re trying to reach may have a different perception of your beauty brand. So what will you do then? Focus on relationship building.
One way of seeing relationship building through is by investing in localized customer service. Your customers need assurance that help is available to them when they need it. This means that they will receive help in the language they speak; that way their expectations and requests are met faster with more attention being paid to detail, leaving them satisfied.
L’Oreal Paris – The largest Beauty Brand in the world
L’Oreal is a french cosmetic company that is known all over the world for building beauty brands fit for many cultures. The brands range from Lancome, L’Oreal Paris, Garnier, Maybelline, Softsheen-Carson, Giorgio Armani, The Body Shop, and Shu Uemura. These brands are spread over 130 countries with the majority of their revenue coming from outside of the United States and Europe. But how did L’Oreal manage to be this successful?
We think you know what our answer’s going to be; and if you guessed localization, you’re right. This company’s success comes from investing in employees who have multicultural backgrounds and who are invested in the mission and vision of the company. L’Oreal also went the route of being extremely responsive to the local preferences of each location/country.
L’Oreal also stays relevant by consistently producing new products and staying ahead of the international game by staying relevant to the cultures they have found themselves to be part of. By having a multicultural team, L’Oreal set itself up for success because they have a diverse team that’s fused with different cultures, languages, and norms for a global yet local market.
To Conclude
Our initial statement holds true based on all the tips and examples we’ve just explored; that going global means going local. In our fast-paced ever-evolving digital age, marketing your beauty brand comes second place to none when wanting to get the word out there. That said, understanding and doing your research in localizing your product for a chosen target market is an excellent place to start.
Don’t forget that the Day Translations team is here 24/7 to help you get started with translating and localizing your website and social media platforms along with any other element that’s necessary for you to succeed within this space so you can get things going for your brand internationally.