An Experticity How-To Guide

Growing your brand with influential experts

Beauty version 01

no. 37The Experticity Resource Library

Getting Beauty Experts Talking About Your Brand

We know your experts. Do you?People who work in the beauty industry have a difficult task before them: Helping other individuals look and feel their very best. They need to stay up to date with the constantly evolving technology and products, and they need to keep their skills honed. Whether they’re hair stylists, estheticians, or makeup artists, they are the people consumers turn to when advice on which dry shampoo works for their hair type, which skin care line suits their needs, and which brush will give them the perfect winged liner. They’re experts, and building a relationship of trust with them is worth it: They can be a powerful voice for improving brand awareness and growth.

What’s Inside

1. Meet your match Your brand already has advocates and experts. Let’s talk to them.

2. Hear what they have to say Find out what this important community has to say about your products and brand.

3. Help them talk the talk Connect with your experts so they can make informed recommendations.

4. Don’t forget walking the walk The more experience they have with your products, the more they can say about them.

5. Gather and share inspiring content Lucky for you, experts have big, inspiring lives — and the social posts to match.

6. Case studies See experts in action.

amuserouge.com

Getting Beauty Experts Talking About Your Brand

1. Meet your matchAfter nearly 15 years in the beauty industry, Tera Clyde describes her passion as enhancing someone’s natural beauty. She believes that when makeup is done right, it makes a woman look and feel alive. She carries that same philosophy now, both as a freelance artist and as a La Mer counter manager at Nordstrom. “I love that you can make a really big difference in somebody’s life,” Tera says. “I feel as though I genuinely help people be more confident, go for that new job they’ve wanted, or feel even better about themselves.”

Foster trustInfluencers are everywhere you look — and we don’t mean the influencers you have to pay to talk about your brand. We mean the people you interact with every day: your friend whose makeup collection is a borderline addiction, your colleague who spends her weekends styling hair in her basement salon, even your dermatologist. They’re the people you trust to provide you with the best advice when it comes to buying beauty products. When these people give their opinion, you know it’s authentic and not just another paid promotion. Experticity connects you directly to these people — who we call “authentic experts” — as the first step toward building a trustworthy relationship that benefits you both.

Insights

Experts like Tera have

19xmore buying

conversations a week than the average consumer

of people who receive a recommendation from a passionate expert or someone who works in the industry are highly likely to follow it

82%

Getting Beauty Experts Talking About Your Brand

2. Hear what they have to sayExperts are opinionated. They want to share their insights on your products and technologies. They love providing feedback, and you’ll love getting first-hand information from the people who use your products every day. So before crafting an engagement strategy, don’t forget to survey these potential advocates. Ask thoughtful questions and truly listen to what they have to say. Not only will you build brand affinity with a loyal crowd, you’ll gain valuable insights you can use to improve both your product and marketing strategies, too.

Find out what these experts are seeing and thinking, and how they perceive the latest trends. Are they recommending you already? Why or why not? Experts can provide valuable input on product features, materials and uses long before you’re even ready for market. Your consumers trust experts. You should, too.

Insights

Even after just one online session with a brand on Experticity, influential experts like Tera are:

4xmore likely to recommend a brand

87%more than their peers

Proven to sell

amuserouge.com

Getting Beauty Experts Talking About Your Brand

3. Help them talk the talkIdentify your brand’s most influential experts, then offer them regular insider access to engaging content and products that keep them coming back for more. Whether it’s gratis on your latest line of humidity-defying hair products or education about the latest technology in your latest anti-wrinkle skincare line, nothing inspires passionate beauty experts more than being the first to know. It all adds up to a loyal, lasting connection — and passionate experts who can’t stop talking about your products.

Quick Tip:

Keep them on the cutting edge.Tera has seen the industry shift as beauty bloggers take center stage with consumers, but she’s still a go-to for advice. “My family and friends ask me for recommendations because it’s always more comfortable to ask someone you know about which product is better,” she says. “They trust my opinion.” Want a place in that conversation? Connect with experts like Tera authentically and give them first-hand access to your products and people. Educate them on what sets your brand and products apart, and let them dive deep into your technologies, product lines and even brand culture through interactive and video content.

amuserouge.com

Getting Beauty Experts Talking About Your Brand

4. Don’t forget walking the walkThe most trusted recommendations come from people who’ve had first-hand experience with a product — even better if those people happen to be influential experts. Experticity can help you get more of your products into the hands of the very people who are most trusted for their advice on what to buy. In the process, you’ll be giving them much more to say about what you sell.

Seeding products to these top experts — either free or at a deep discount — and then getting their authentic feedback is a great way to build both word-of-mouth credibility and excitement around new products.

Insights

2/3rds of social buying conversations happen offline83%

of WOM recommendations are tied to personal experience

with a product/brand 5xAn offline buying recommendation is

more likely to drive a purchase

Getting Beauty Experts Talking About Your Brand

5. Gather and share inspiring content

Stand back and let influential experts do what they do best: inspire others to love your brand. Whether it’s word-of-mouth recommendations for your new ionic hair dryer or authentic UGC posted to social media that features your brand front and center, experts can drive engagement. They can also craft honest, credible reviews for your online sales channel to provide recommendations on why they use your makeup primer every morning.

For example:Skullcandy invited experts in the Experticity network to field-test new products and provide honest reviews. Sure enough, 82% of the experts who participated in a product pre-launch shared reviews on the Skullcandy website.

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Taylor Jenni Raymond

Getting Beauty Experts Talking About Your Brand

6. Case studies

The North Face® surveyed industry experts on the styles and features they’d like to see in future product lines. Their product team has now received 275 valuable expert insights.

StriVectin rewarded beauty expertise with insider content and exclusive access to its products. Sure enough, experts were 2x more likely to recommend the StriVectin brand after engagement.

KitchenAid offered exclusive product and brand access to trusted retail experts at a top housewares retailer — and found that the more they engaged, the more they sold. Store locations with seven or more engaged experts sold 97% more KitchenAid products than those who didn’t engage with KitchenAid content on Experticity.

Find out what experts can do for youExperticity is the world’s largest network of trusted experts whose passion, experience and knowledge makes them powerful brand advocates. Join the more than 500 brands who already use Experticity’s solutions and connect with experts who authentically build brand awareness to help you sell more.

business.experticity.com/learn-more/

amuserouge.com