Beauty products … Got an idea for a business selling beauty products, such as … skin care, hair care or body products? Don’t quite know where to begin?
See others doing what you want to do, yet you’re somewhat timid, (scared as hell actually) about stepping out?
You’re not a celebrity, therefore you can’t get the publicity and backing to put you before an audience.
I know the feeling. You’ve got a great idea, yet don’t quite know how to get it beyond your mental space.
It’s time to do a brain dump! Get a spiral notebook and start putting your ideas on paper. Yes … you have to move your fingers and actually write with a pen or pencil.
You will learn, that as you progress with your brain dump, there are certain core elements that will come into play. We’ve given you a head start with the questions below.
Stay narrow in your product and audience niche. It’s easier to build a reputation this way. Ask lots of questions of the people you want to sell too. You have somewhat of an idea of what you want to sell. The key here is, does your market want to purchase it?
Once you know what your audience wants to purchase, keep your initial offering to no more than three products. This will give you time to concentrate on how to serve your audience and answer their needs.
Remember, it’s not about you at this point. It’s about your niche/audience. How can You, help them find a solution to their challenge?
The clearer the product/solution, the better you’ll be able to speak to your audience. For example: Acne … what can your product do that hasn’t already been done when it comes to acne challenges.
Or, is it dark circles around the eyes? Does your eye cream or oil blend help minimize this challenge? Your beauty product must rise to the occasion.
There’s nothing worse than selling something you don’t like. You won’t be able to talk about it with passion or be genuine in your conversation about it.
Remember, you’ll be spending ALL of your time talking about, showing, writing, and studying about your product. If you don’t have a passion or interest in it, it will show when you begin to talk about it.
One of the reasons you’ve decided to start this side or main hustle, is to walk away from a job that you’re not happy going to on a daily basis. So why would you start a business selling a product you’re not really in love with?
You won’t be able to genuinely help anyone, because you really won’t give a hoot about the results it offers.
It’s almost guaranteed that there will be someone selling what you want to sell. This is competition and it’s a good thing. It shows there is a proven market/audience that wants to buy such a product.
Instead of lamenting over the fact that “competition” exist, ask yourself “How can I do it differently?”
When people buy products, they’re actually buying the marketing about the products or the brand that’s been created.
They are buying you! They’re buying the way you express yourself about the product, your sincerity, you tone of voice, your delivery through words.
Your ability to be genuine when speaking about your product will outsell anything anyone brings to market.
Most of you think that marketing is the key to selling beauty products. It’s extremely important. However, the one thing that a lot of you seem to overlook, is the fact that you’re going to have to create content.
Why content? Content helps you sell your products as well as become an authority in your space, establishing you as an expert. The more you talk about your product, its ingredients, what it will do for your skin, hair or whatever the challenge, the more you will be looked to for answers.
None of this happens without your own website, which needs content. I get it … you think you can put it up on social media and sell it. You still need content.
Well … you might be able to move a few pieces/containers. You don’t own this space and if all the social media platforms begin an algorithm change, it could hinder your growth.
Social media is no longer an environment where you can just put your products up and expect to keep selling them. You have to pay to play now and this takes a steep learning curve to get it right. Otherwise, you’ll loose big time financially.
Having your own website is like buying a home. As long as you can afford the monthly expenses, you’ve got a place to stay. Social media is like renting. An algorithm change or going against their Terms of Service, unknowingly, could be equivalent to getting evicted.
Working with these few points will get you brain dumping and bring clarity to your idea for a business. Remember I said earlier there are core elements involved in selling your beauty products?
To delve deeper, we’re finishing up a book for you. We’ll let you know when it’s ready.
It will definitely get you started delving deeper, and learning more about how to set a foundation for your beauty business.
Tell us what other information you’d like to see more of. We’ll bring it to you each and every week.
That’s it for this week, as always …
Dedicated To Your Success,
Juliette & Robert,
Handmade beauty products. How many of you actually enjoy making your own skin and hair care products? It can be exhilarating! It’s like giving birth to a new creation… your creation.
Some of you enjoy the beauty of blending and formulating. Others of you are creating products because you haven’t found anything in the current offerings that have helped you with Your challenge.
It’s your therapy. And if you’re working with essential oils, you get the bonus of scent therapy. The aroma of a beautiful scent can be relaxing, calming, as well as uplifting.
And on top of everything you’re feeling, it actually works. In all of your excitement, you decide you’re going to try to sell it, on the internet, no doubt.
You’ll begin with small batches. One, no more than two products. Do your research and find out what’s being asked for. Does what you want to make and sell, fit into the mix of what’s in demand?
Don’t be so quick to share your idea …
Here’s a word of caution, especially where family and friends are concerned. Shhhh … Keep it to yourself.
But whyyy?
Because jealously is going to rear its ugly head and you can save yourself a lot of heartache and disappointment.
Okay, some of you won’t have this problem. Some of you will have very supportive people willing to actually finance your endeavor. A lot of you won’t. So, should you decide to share, know who you’re talking to.
You ask: Who’s going to help me test my product? There are plenty of ways to test your product without people knowing its yours. You don’t want bad energy coming into your well protected space.
Have a sample in an unmarked travel size container in your purse or gym bag.
In the beginning, do whatever you can to self-fund your precious business.
Once you get past your trial period and enough people have liked the way you smell, or the way that lotion you shared made their hands feel or better yet, they liked the way your skin looked as the months progressed. Now … you can claim your space and move it forward.
It’s time to consider how you will sell your product. Let’s face it, even before COVID, you needed an online presence. That’s even more true of today’s selling environment.
The internet has made it possible to sell everywhere, from local communities to having a worldwide presence. Your beauty product is no different. You can be part of a local beauty popup event as well as shipping throughout the world.
COVID has slowed the shipping of merchandise from country to country. However, it doesn’t mean you can’t continue to plan. As a matter of fact, it’s the best time to plan. Use any downtime you can get and work on your business.
Document every detail of what you’re going through. It will help you when you need to recall how you got to where you are.
A lot of you feel that social media will be your go-to-platform for selling your products. Social media platforms are channels that will help you get in front of a given market. Hopefully the market you’d like to sell your products to.
However, you need a website. Why? Because social media platforms will change their algorithms and that change can strip you of a once attentive market.
The internet is a space that can seem and is often perceived as, well, somewhat cold. Your job is to create a selling environment that will be inviting enough for visitors to stay, purchase and return to and purchase more. This selling environment is your own store. A place you can interact with your customers and not risk losing them because of an algorithm change.
When you begin to create your store, if you’re new to this concept, it will be mind boggling. So much so, until you will want to hire someone to do it for you. That’s good. However, you will need to know what you want them to do. Once you have an idea, it’s time to get help.
What will you need to know in order to move your beauty products on the supper fast highway of the internet? What will you need help with? Web building skills, writing copy for your descriptions, the type of images needed, containers, labels, logo design, demographics, psychographics … and that’s just the beginning. Feeling Overwhelmed?
Of course, you are. Take a deep breath. It’s part of your learning curve. You will learn much as you begin your business journey. Not only about your business, you will learn a lot about who you are and what you’re made of.
Making your products is just the beginning. Once you’ve got it packaged and all prettied up, you’ve got to sell it.
Here’s where you will pull on your skills learned on your current or past jobs. You might have to do most of the work in the beginning. What skills do you have to get started and move your business forward?
▪ Were you part of a writing team? Now you learn how to transfer those skills to writing for the web. And yes, there is a difference between writing reports and copy for the web. You’ll need product descriptions, instructions on how to use, content for your market to read as it relates to your product helping them with their challenge.
▪ Served as part of the HR team? You understand how to look for good people that will help build your team.
▪ Worked in the graphic design department? Your skills can come into to play with logo design, color choices for branding your business.Ultimately, you’ll be hiring people to help you. When it’s time to pass the baton, you’ll know what to look for and what to avoid, in the person you bring to your team.
Can handmade beauty find its way in a super high-tech world? Absolutely!
To help you work your way through the mental maze you find yourself in, get a copy of our Free Worksheet: 9 Core Elements to Starting a Successful Beauty Business Online. It will act as a guide to help you think your way through the beginning phase of selling online.
That’s it for this week. As always, we’re …
Dedicated to Your Success
Juliette & Robert
Selling beauty products online? Yes! What’s next? You know that you need help. So, what do you look for and what do you avoid in a mentor? Seeking out a mentor to help you learn how to effectively sell beauty products online, can be exhausting.
Aside from a persons credentials, experience etc … You need to know what you want from such a professional. Even when you know what you want, it may not be what you need at that time. However, you will know where you want to begin and you can grow from there.
Most people get the first step wrong. Therefore, when hiring a professional to help you, have an outcome in mind.
Your outcome needs to be very clear and specific. If your outcome cannot be measured in terms of success or a lesson learned, you need to rethink it.
This is an important step, therefore, you don’t waste your time. Besides that, It will also help the person you’re considering, to know exactly what kind of advice to offer you.
Your mentor/coach will be of much greater assistance to you when you focus on one outcome and are clear on the outcome you expect.
This is also a great way to separate the great mentoring professionals from the average ones.
You see, there are some so-called experts out there in the beauty business. They’ve read about running such a business, yet never actually owned one.
This presents a problem. Why? Because these people are not skilled in many areas of running an online beauty business.
We’ve had some excellent mentors to help on the digital marketing side of being online. And because they were not specific or had little to no experience in the beauty industry as a whole, it often presented a problem. We found out, that we knew more than we thought.
We learned at that point, that our problem was more of not having confidence in what we knew.
In fact, they only had very general knowledge. If this person has not owned and operated a successful beauty business themselves, especially one with an online presence, they are not the right mentor for you.
If you have a measurable outcome and specific focus when you meet them, you will easily be able to know the real experts from the fakes.
Once again, please don’t waste your time and money with the wrong mentoring professional.
If you currently don’t really know what you need from a mentor, then you need to sit down and figure this out first.
Don’t leave this step out. It is actually very easy to do if you know what you need. However, if you find that you don’t have a clue, a strategy session with a mentor will be your next step.
Ask yourself where your business is in terms of its growth.
– Maybe you need help building a website?
– Do you need help with your metrics?
– Are you in need of help with Internet marketing?
– Do you want to create a new product or service?
– Will you need help with creating content?
– Do you need help building your list?
Whatever your outcome is, you need to be clear on it. Remember to be specific and have a clear deadline for your goal.
Once you have this step complete, check out a number of experts who fit with your intended outcome.
You can narrow your search down and give yourself a much greater chance of success.
In fact, when you do this step you are almost guaranteed a successful relationship with your coach.
There are literally thousands of mentors out there.
However, there are only a few mentors that have success and willing to help you. These are the ones that you want to work with.
Think of it like this…
When a sports star wants to increase their success, who do they look for?
They look for people who have already accomplished what they want to have.
The best people in every profession model themselves on those that have succeeded in the past. They don’t settle for the first person that comes along.
This is the same way that you need to approach your own coach or mentor. Don’t fall into the trap of believing hype or clever sales copy.
As such, you need to find out about the level of success they have had in the past.
If they currently have an online business, take a look at how they’ve set themselves up. One thing to keep in mind, is that there is a lot of internal work that goes into setting up an online store.
There’s more to it than meets the eye. For instance, you cannot run a business purely on social media. Social media is a tool used to make people aware of who you are.
And just because you don’t see a business on a certain platform, doesn’t mean they are not successful. Everything boils down to where your market/customer is found. For some, it will be Facebook, others will find a better flow with Pinterest. And while Instagram is the new darling in social media, doesn’t mean it will work for you.
There is a night and day difference between a good mentor and a great mentor.
Here’s why. A great mentor can give you many of the shortcuts they’ve based on their vast experience. They can literally save you hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars.
This alone makes the mentor a worthwhile investment.
A great mentor will also understand what you need to know at what time. They will understand the long-term implications of each action in terms of setting up and growing your beauty business online.
The great mentor will have systems that you can easily plug into your own beauty business and transform it very quickly.
All of this means that you can begin to make (or increase) profits in a far shorter time than with a mediocre mentor.
Of course, this is the whole purpose of a mentor. If they don’t make you more than your investment, then you need to find someone else. The key to this is how quickly You Do the Work.
While the profit you make with their ideas and advice is important, more often than not, they can help you find direction. This can result in greater value than income earned when you’re lost and confused.
Mentoring is the process where you pay for advice and help from someone with experience who’s achieved what you want to achieve.
The basic idea is very simple. The mentor helps you increase your beauty business’ visibility and bottom line. If the mentor doesn’t help you gain knowledge, clarity and understanding of what you’re doing, then he or she is actually costing you money.
You can hire a mentor to work on any aspect of your beauty business.
For example, you can hire an Internet marketing expert who can help to drive more traffic to your website (and increase your sales). A marketing expert to help you with your marketing.
You can also hire an offline mentor. This could be someone that you meet with and apply advertising methods offline.
You may also want to hire a mentor that can advise you on how to redesign your beauty studio or premises. Again, the outcome needs to increase your profits.
Generally, you will meet with your mentor once a week. During this session, which often lasts one hour, you will plan and discuss what actions you have taken over the previous week.
You will see how they have helped you with your business.
You will also discuss what will be done in the next week.
All mentoring sessions should revolve around action steps. If you only speak and talk in general terms, then you will get little from the relationship.
Your beauty business mentor should push you beyond your comfort zone. This is part of holding you accountable for the assignment given the previous week. This is a key aspect of mentoring.
If you just keep doing the things that you are currently doing, your results are NOT going to change.
Your business mentor should only be concerned with helping you with your business. This is how your relationship starts out at least. Overtime, after working together on multiple projects, they can often become a friend and confidant.
Selling beauty products online is not easy. At times, your mentor may need to be brutally honest. They will hold you accountable and keep you on track. Even when you have good sounding excuses, you will need their honesty.
This is the way to make fast progress and reach your goals much faster.
Your mentor should preferably have owned and operated a business in the beauty space, especially online.
Think of your mentor as a long-term investment in your business. They should help you to set up a system that makes your business grow week after week.
Don’t expect your mentor to be overly sensitive. I have found the most successful mentors are solely focused on the outcome. Remember that your mentor has his or her own reputation to uphold also (e.g. they work with winners).
For this reason, you need to find a mentor that fits your personality type. Many people cannot handle such a focused mindset and don’t like to be held accountable.
So … you need to get clear on what matters most to you.
Do you want to feel comfortable or do you want a successful online beauty business?
I advise you to find a mentor that pushes you and challenges you to be the best you can be. Don’t settle for second best.
Take action today.
It is important that you know if the mentoring you paid for was successful.
If it was successful then you will want to hire the mentor again for another month or more.
For example, if your online beauty business just generated an extra $2000 in profit, then you need to keep applying what’s working.
On the other hand, if you gained no quantifiable results then you need to end the relationship and move on.
So the way you measure success is very important.
Set a very specific, quantifiable goal at the start of the mentoring agreement.
For example … My business will be launched and collecting data by a given date. My email list will have grown by a certain number by a given date.
In many cases, you can find mentors that you pay based on results. This is an option for you.
In such cases, you don’t pay the business mentor unless they bring you a certain number of new clients, leads or sales.
Many mentors like to work on results as they can ask for a percentage of the sales increase. You need to work out if this is a good deal for you.
Other mentors like to work for a fixed price. They often give you a price per month. Other mentors might ask you to pay by the hour.
At the start of the relationship it’s a good idea to tell them your desired outcome. Make this very clear to them.
The best mentors will appreciate this level of honesty and focus. Others might try to change your goal. If this is the case, then you should be wary of them. Unless your goal is unrealistic). Say twelve million dollars in 6 months … that’s an unrealistic goal, especially for new beauty businesses.
In some cases, you can amend the goal a little, but ensure that you both agree on the outcome before you send them any money.
You also need to take full responsibility for your own actions during the relationship. The mentor cannot increase your business without you taking repeated actions.
You need to act on the information and advice that you are given.
At the end of the mentoring period, check your results and measure the success of the mentoring.
Good luck!
This depends on your circumstances and personality type.
Let’s look at the benefits of both group mentoring and one-on-one mentoring.
As part of a group, you are going to see business problems and experiences that other people in your market are going through. These can be very good learning experiences for you.
Often seeing the problems of other beauty businesses gives you a new perspective on your own situation. You might figure out a way to grow your business by listening to other people in your group.
This is probably the biggest benefit of group mentoring. You get fresh ideas from a number of people, as well as your mentor. Just hearing the comments of other people can give you new insights that can increase your profits.
Communicating with other people in your marketplace lets you exchange commonalities. Often you will find out how other businesses have dealt with issues that you may have.
It’s a good time to make new contacts in the market.
Networking is very important in any business. In many causes your business may benefit from knowing others. You may have products or services that you can sell to others.
Other businesses might have products that you can refer to your current customers. This is another way to increase your profits very easily.
Having a mentor give personal advice for your beauty business is the fastest way to increase your business. In a group setting, a mentor can only give you a small chunk of his or her time.
With one hour each week, you can plan and implement many more strategies into your business. You will have the undivided attention of your mentor.
This is almost like having an extra member of staff with you.
Ultimately, speaking to a mentor one-on-one, is more dynamic and intimate than any group session can offer. You can really get down to the details of your beauty business.
In a group setting, you are less likely to give up personal or confidential information. Often it is this information that makes all the difference in your business.
One-on-one mentoring gives you much faster growth opportunities. You can grow at a much greater speed when you have an expert spending time to analyze and improve your business.
One-on-one mentoring is how the world’s best businesses grow so fast. They get personal advice from the leading experts in their field and put it into action.
What’s Next? … you need to think about what level of mentoring is best for you right now and then make your decision based on that.
Take action now and move forward.
For your beauty business, one of the best things you can do is get a referral from a friend or someone you know.
Why are referrals so powerful?
A Poor mentor is never to going to get personal referrals. Why? Because they don’t want to be associated with the reputation of a poor mentor.
However, they will want to recommend someone who’s helped them. One that created a successful relationship and helped increase their business growth and profits.
This is why a referral is the best way to find the top mentors in the beauty business world.
In essence, you need to get a referral from a trusted source. Not all referrals are created equal.
The next point is very important. Always go to trusted sources for your referrals. If you find that, your friends, family members or close associates don’t have any referrals for you, then you need to look elsewhere.
This is where it can be a little tricky as you need to rely on the unbiased view of the person giving the referral.
Bottom line, you need to look at respected people in your business. You can often find these people in your city or online.
There are many very helpful people that give out free advice via forum boards. Again, look for those that are successful and want to help without having a side agenda.
Don’t accept referrals from associates of the mentor.
It is very easy for mentors to set up referral systems with other people in different industries. All they have to do is refer readers and customers in return for a reciprocal benefit.
Sometimes you might think a referral is genuine. It coud be an established relationship. Be wary of this.
Get referrals from people you know personally and trust. This is the number one way to find a great mentor for your beauty business.
Look for referrals from people who have a strong reputation and trusted in the industry.
If you use these two methods of finding referrals, you will be well on your way to finding a great mentor for your online beauty business.
Mentoring is an unregulated field. Be slow to hire and quick to fire.
Search locally and via the Internet.
Set up Zoom meetings. This will break the ice.
More importantly, with COVID – 19, the power of the Internet is your best choice. The internet makes it possible for you to even work with an international mentor using free communication software.
This really gives you a huge advantage over other businesses as you can find the best mentor for your online beauty business anywhere in the world.
The best mentor for your online beauty business is one that is involved in running one. Or used to run an online beauty company. They will know how to guide you through the good, the bad and the ugly of online sales.
It’s best if they were involved in selling beauty products online. If your mentor has done it, this the type of information you need to know.
That’s it for the time being. If you want to learn more about how to start and market a business that sells beauty product via the internet, check us out at beautybusinessblueprint.com.
Get our Free give-a-way: 9 Core Elements to Starting A Successful Beauty Business Online. It will get you thinking and we can help you fill in the gaps.
As always …
Dedicated To Your Success,
Juliette Samuel,
If you don’t think you need a promotional calendar for your beauty business … Think again! Without a planning instrument your business will not have any organized structure to it.
Promotional calendars help you set up launches of new products and promotions for the year. It can act as a road map or system for your beauty business. The promotional calendar is also for setting up your planned income for any given year.
For instance, let’s take a look at Valentines Day. Do you have a promotional plan for Valentines Day? If so, have you set it to your calendar? When are you scheduled to begin your promotion?
Okay, most people would think that a Valentine Promotion should begin in Mid January. Not necessarily. The promotion to your email list will begin in Mid January but the actual planning phase should begin by July and that’s late in the year.
Why? Because depending on what you promote, unless you ordered your inventory for Valentine’s Day when you ordered your inventory for Christmas, you’ll be placing orders in Mid November for your Valentine Day Promotion.
Sounds like a lot to do? Not really. Your calendar should really be planned a year out.
By the end of every year, as a business owner you should have worked on a plan of how you’re going to approach the coming year. Not there yet? Begin where you are!
What do you want your business to look like a year from now? How will you plan it out? What promotions will you launch to get you there? Does your business allow you to promote your product for Holiday’s like Christmas, Mother’s Day, and Valentine’s Day? Better yet, can your product open up doors for you to promote Spa Week, or Grandparents Day?
Once you decide what promotions you’ll do during the year, what will you offer? What inventory will you need for each campaign that you promote?
These questions are just the beginning of what will become the template of how you sit down and plan out your year of promotions for your beauty business. A successful campaign can be done over and over again with tweaks here and there.
If you rolled out a campaign and it didn’t give you the results you wanted, take a look at what worked and what didn’t. Keep the good and recreate another approach for the ugly.
There is no bad here, just great information for you to pull from after you’ve done a promotion for your beauty business.
Setting up a promotional calendar doesn’t just apply to your holiday promotions. One of the most neglected items promoted is your content. Do you write and post content to your website? If you don’t you should. If you do write and post, do you promote what you write and post?
For years, we didn’t promote our content. We were diligent in posting weekly to our blog and at least twice a month to our website. Yet, aside from a weekly newsletter to out list, we did not promote the content. Posting to Facebook and Twitter has allowed us to gain more eyeballs on the content we post.
Whenever possible we also try to get guest post on other related websites, so that we can get before relative readers on other peoples platforms.
As a woman working from home, you set up calendars every week. Whether you have children or not, you’re always planning activities that you are involved in. Shopping, working out, cooking, after school activities, hair appointments, Friday night dates and the list goes on and on.
If you’ve come out of Corporate America, you’ve always worked with promotional calendars. It’s now time to bring those skills into your beauty business and watch it sore. That’s it for this week. As always …
Dedicated to Your Success
Juliette & Robert Samuel
Who’s going to start a beauty business in a down economy? Plenty of people! Heck … we’ve done it. You can do all the research you want. Until you launch, fear and all, you’ll never know what you’re capable of doing.
Our goal with this business is to share what we’ve learned as an e-commerce business in the world of beauty, over the past decade. Is it scary? You bet it is. So much has changed yet, the basics remain the same.
Then the question became, how do you tell people to start a business in the midst of uncertainty? You just do it. There is no perfect time to start.
Women in particular, are starting more businesses in general, because they have to. They’re also starting them because they figure … why not? If not now, when? You’ll be filling the gap and pain of disconnect as women feel the loss of their favorite stores.
As of this writing, Bath and Body Works is closing 50 Stores in the U.S. alone. Victoria’s Secret is closing 250 stores between the U.S. and Canada. Sephora, Ulta and most major retail and boutiques have not reopened their doors.
They are prepping to make the shift to having a complete online presence.
So can you!
There’s nothing to lose by starting now. There will be plenty of people who need and want what you sell.
A lot of you already own businesses that sell beauty products. You had boutiques, pop-up shops and kiosk in malls. Some of You had wholesale accounts as well. You’ve watched your business dry up because you had to close your physical doors or pull your inventory from boutique’s that carried them.
What’s left? You, your inventory and the internet.
Some of you already have a website or Etsy store. It’s time to start promoting your online business, so that the world will know you exist.
Content and lots of it. It’s your selling tool. It will guide and influence readers and buyers alike to come back to you and your store.
Content will present you as the expert. It will give you an edge over those that don’t create it. After all, it’s a lot of work to sit down and write about or talk about what you love … or is it?
Soaps, candles, perfume, skin care, or hair care, you’re going to find that there is indeed a spot for you to fit into.
Your job is to find your space. It’s known as a niche. It’s that cubby that you are comfortable in and know a whole lot about.
An Etsy store perhaps? Will this be where you set up shop to sell your beauty products? Others of you will choose a website of your own. One that you control. It’s a good idea for all of you to eventually have a store you own and control.
Anything other than that, and you’re on rented ground.
Just remember, if Etsy goes down, so does your business. If you control your store, you’ve got full blown access and control to what takes place. The only thing to knock you out of business, other than you, is the internet itself not working.
I don’t see that happening anytime soon. Why? Because they’ve put a spell on you and me. We’re hooked!! It’s how we’re doing everything these days. It’s our lifeline to the world.
Use it to communicate with clients, via content. To display your products via a website, preferably one you control.
A List of Potential Clients to Sell to – You’ll need a list of people to communicate with about your products. Guess what? Your content will help you build your list.
You’ll create a cheat sheet, guide or something else of value in exchange for their name and email address.
You will send your potential clients good, relevant information weekly. You’ll talk about the ingredients in your products, how to use them, the benefits and problems they solve.
Yes, this is all content. It’s a way of soft selling your goods without shoving them down the throats of potential clients. Give them all the information they need and let them make the decision to purchase.
This is the beginning phase of using the internet to run your business. Don’t get it twisted. This is not a quick way to get cash. There’s more to come and much to learn. We’re here to help you as you make the decision to become a successful e-commerce business selling beauty products online.
Allow the internet to become your source of revenue. There’s no better time than now to start your business selling beauty products online.
That’s it for this week. As always …
Dedicated to Your Success
Juliette
Your beauty business … What’s one of the most important skills to have for your beauty business? Digital Marketing! For your business to run like a well-oiled machine, you must know and understand marketing.
A great product will go nowhere without it. When selling beauty products online, you’re entering into the world of digital marketing.
What is digital marketing. It’s the ability to leverage different channels such as search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing), social media, email and other websites in order to connect with existing and prospective customers. You’ll use these channels to educate, engage and market your products to potential buyers.
Hang in there. It took me a minute to wrap my head around it too.
We’ve got the channels, now what?
Well … there are different types of digital marketing.
There’s:
With so much to consider, you’re going to need a strategy. While a marketing strategy is needed, there’s a difference between a digital marketing strategy and a marketing strategy.
A marketing strategy is a plan for reaching a specific marketing-related goal. It will take into consideration what your business is currently doing well and what you need to improve on or what is missing.
A digital marketing strategy is a plan that helps you and your business achieve a specific digital goal. You’ll do this via carefully selected online marketing channels. These channels are known as paid, earned and owned media.
A paid channel is when you use paid advertising from places like Google Adwords, Facebook Ads or advertising on someone else’s site that’s in front of your market.
Earned media is when your content or product is shared with other websites. It can be in the form of a guest post, a press mention or people sharing it on social media.
Owned media is an asset you own such as content that you create and publish on your website, blog or share on your podcast.
You’ll want to understand the basics of marketing to get your business that’s selling beauty products, off to a good start.
Marketing Basics Using An H and the 4 W’s
This is where you find the commonalities between marketing and digital marketing. They both use the basics when it comes to speaking with your niche.
How will you bring your content to life?
Who have you chosen to sell your beauty products to?
What content will you create to communicate with them?
Where will you distribute your content online?
Why digital marketing?
Whether you’re starting from scratch or well into your journey, you’re going to need a website that’s easy to navigate and has a clear message.
You’ll need a social media presence and some form of advertising. These are the basics.
Without these basics you have no business online. The How, Who, What, Where and Why set your foundation. Answering these questions will help you create the perfect foundation for your business.
That’s it for this week. As always …
Dedicated To Your Business,
Juliette & Robert Samuel
Welcome to the beauty business! It’s one of the best times to start your venture. Why? Well, the beauty business was valued at $532 billion(2017) and according to market experts, the trajectory is estimated to only go upwards! The United States alone consumes 20% of the beauty market share, followed by China at 13% and Japan at 8%. Yes, the growth projection is certainly not static, but as we said earlier, it is estimated to go only upwards!
Although the world is in crisis right now, with the Coronavirus and COVID-19, there’s still a way to bring beauty products to market. The internet is your vehicle and Segway into the market and world of beauty.
In fact, most independent market research says that, business owners who have invested in a beauty brand, can expect to get a return of 5%-to-7% compound-annual-growth-rate.
And at this rate, the total market will reach $800 billion by 2025 and most of the transactions will happen online!
So your decision to start selling beauty products online is definitely a step towards a beautiful future. There’s no better time to launch your beauty business than now.
Now, at this point, you might be thinking, ” Juliette, if a beauty business is so profitable then why do some people fail?” Because there’s something they don’t know.
It’s a fair question and a great place to start. It shows you’re on the right track to becoming a successful entrepreneur.
Question every number, question every possibility. Trust me this will help you a lot in the days to come. And yes, you’re right. The beauty business is definitely a promising one, there’s no doubt about it, however, not fail-proof. Is anything?. You must understand that there’s no such thing as ” easy money”.
The opportunities a beauty business offers is huge. This is the reason this industry draws a lot of spectators. Hence the increase in the business competition of this field. If you do not know the way to success, you will be lost as others have been.
You’ll spend a lot of money searching and looking for help from people who haven’t owned any type of business. Let alone a beauty business.
Fortunately, we’re here to help.
I’ve often heard people say they wished they’d had someone to lay it out for them before they started their beauty business. I’m one of them! I had no clue of what I was doing.
I was transitioning from the apparel industry into the beauty world. What a learning curve. My experience had mostly been working in retail environments, teaching courses or working as an image consult.
To step into the world of beauty, especially running a business online was indeed a shock.
What had I gotten myself into?
Before doing anything, know your business niche first. A Beauty Business as a whole, is part of a large and diverse industry and you cannot serve every one of them.
The segmentation works like this:
So, if you plan to sell skin care products online or want to sell hair care products online, then you have a much greater audience to sell to. This in essence will draw more revenue.
Again, before investing even a single penny, study market trends. Remember how Warren Buffett started his first business? No? Time to do some research on Warren Buffett to see how he approached getting started.
That’s another thing. Study successful people who’ve started businesses in general. There will be plenty of things you can learn from them when it comes to the world of beauty.
If you do not know how to sell and market beauty products online, you will find difficulties to stay afloat. There are, however, many institutions and online destinations who are ready to teach you the “ins and outs”.
So if you have a lack of knowledge in how to run a beauty business, take that as a challenge and join classes, trainings or groups before you begin your venture.
While you are learning what to do, remember to write down everything and don’t forget to do your homework!
Before getting into a beauty business, you must know the cosmetic regulations of the FDA. FDA regulates cosmetics under the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act). Study and memorize the rules carefully or get help from people who are involved in this business for a long time.
Get the permits needed to launch your business. This process depends entirely on state jurisdiction. However, generally, you will need a DBA certificate, employer identification number and sales tax permit.
More than 70 % of US consumers say their shopping decision is affected by the packaging design. According to Forbes, 60 to 80 % of customers do not go back to the same brand if they weren’t satisfied while opening the package.
Yes, packaging plays a great role while selling anything. You won’t believe how many people buy cosmetics based on the aesthetic rather its performance. But it doesn’t mean that the performance has to be bad!
Elegance isn’t limited to the packaging of your product. Your website is your boutique, business card and brochure. These three factors are what sets your brand a part from other businesses online. Think carefully about how you want to be represented and perceived online.
Marketing is crucial for your business success. The traditional way of marketing has pretty much changed. Now businesses rely heavily on digital marketing.
The thing that could give you an edge, is to incorporate older marketing concepts such as flyers, brochures, postcards and business cards into your marketing strategy. Strategically place them into environments where your potential customers will frequent.
With businesses slowly opening back up, salons, barber shops, yoga studios, gyms … these are all places that you can cross market your products to. Talk with owners of these establishments and see how you can help one another grow as we move out of this global pandemic.
This is known as offline marketing. Yet when incorporated with social media and other online strategies, it can give you a greater reach into your niche.
Social media marketing would be the go to strategy for most businesses. The reason? Well, if you do a market study, you will find out that most of us are spending a lot of our free time scrolling through social media feeds.
The United States currently has a total population of 327.9(estimate) million. Out of that, 230 million or 70% are active social media users. If you can own your prospect’s social media feed through strategically placed promotion ads or content, you will notice dramatic changes in your overall sales numbers.
If you don’t know how to set up a digital marketing plan that delivers, you can always talk to us and get help.
Okay, this post is a bit longer than usual! However, it was necessary for aspiring entrepreneurs like you to hear what you’re up against.
To summarize, to start a beauty business, you need time, marketing expertise, dedication, a willingness to learn and a can-do attitude.
Building a beauty brand is not child’s play. You have to find a creative way to overcome the challenges to ensure your business is successful.
Remember, when you hit a point of feeling this isn’t going to work … breathe. Know for sure that nothing is a failure. It becomes a great learning experience for you to grow from.
So good luck and get moving. Your business isn’t going to launch itself, right?
Years ago, when we first launched our beauty business, we came across many challenging and unique situations which took a lot of effort and resource to overcome. More than likely you will face those problems as well. And from our experience, we can say that you will have countless sleepless nights on the way!……… Feeling Scared? Don’t be!
We have been on that path and we know exactly what to do to bypass those obstacle and reach the destination. What’s the sense in having knowledge if you’re not willing to share it with those in need… right?
Throughout our successful and some not so successful years in business, we’ve gained a lot of experience in selling beauty products online. We can help you steer clear of many of the barriers lying on the path to your business success. We’re an email away. We’re here to help
That’s it for this week. As always, we’re …
Dedicated To Your Success,
Juliette Samuel
Can you sell awesome beauty products using email marketing? There’s a huge misconception that email marketing is an old marketing method from a bygone era. Although it predates Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat, email still remains a crucial part of a successful marketing strategy.
Your beauty business will thank you for it. When selling beauty products online, it’s the perfect way to communicate with your audience.
Since it began, email has continued to evolve. It transformed from being a means of a simple message between academics to a global communication channel. According to Statista, global email users to date is 3.9 billion and the number will grow to 4.3 billion in 2022. That’s half of the planet’s population we’re talking about here! These numbers obviously justify that email marketing is a crucial marketing channel and you can’t afford to be left out.
There are countless benefits that come with email marketing that your business should never ignore. Certainly, we won’t be able to list them all in a single post. However, we can discuss the top 5 benefits of email marketing that every business owner must be aware of. So, let’s dive straight in!
Knowing what works is great. By using email marketing, you can analyze campaign metrics by making use of various analytic software. You can effortlessly test different content, template, images, and subject lines to determine which one works best. This enables you, the marketer, to optimize future campaigns which increase the campaign effectiveness.
The most often measured metrics among campaign users are open rate, bounce rate, click-through, and conversion rate. However, if you are looking to measure more crucial numbers such as ROI, subscriber lifetime value or revenue per subscriber, you can do that effortlessly as well.
If you see an email with a great click-through rate, you can analyze the data for your future campaigns. For instance, if you find out an email with a particular subject line is performing really great, you can write similar subject lines for your next campaign for drawing similar results.
Don’t worry, the language might sound like a bunch of rhetoric and confusing at first. It will all fall into place and become like a song once you use it over and over.
Insight is key to determining what’s working and what needs to be improved upon. And out of the multitude of online marketing strategies, email marketing happens to be the simplest and most accurate way to measure campaign data.
When it comes to communicating with a business, customers tend to prefer email most of the time. According to studies conducted by Marketing Sherpa, more than 55% of prospects prefer email as the most favored way to receive promotional content or business updates from companies with which they are interested in doing business. Less than 25% of participants preferred social media, and about 17% prefer SMS.
The number definitely suggests that it is logical for businesses to invest resources into concentrating more on email marketing. In fact, according to Salesforce, 74% of marketers are already using email to drive more sales and 21% of them are considering starting within the next few months to drive more revenue. If you’re still neglecting email marketing, you are making your competitor’s life easy.
This one is perhaps the most appealing benefit of email marketing for a business owner. You don’t have to carry any print cost, no advertising rate, and no media space costs to reach your clients. The cost of email marketing is much lower than compared to other forms of marketing methods.
Besides low cost, the return on investment of email marketing is massive. A well developed and strategically placed email marketing campaign will help you to earn more cash, hands down. According to Nielsen for every dollar spent on email marketing, a business owner can expect to receive $32. This was the figure in 2018. Isn’t it massive? There are more notable benefits of email marketing, however, this one definitely tops the chart for keeping your business afloat and profitable.
Open rates are the most reliable ways to determine how great the email marketing strategy is working. The average email open rate is about 20.81%. On the other hand, the average open rate for welcome email is 82%. Why the massive change in numbers? Well, the thing is, welcoming messages are more personal and clients love personalized emails.
According to Lifecycle Marketing, emails which hold personalized subject lines generate 50% higher open rates. So a great email marketing tactic is to add a personalized subject line and greeting messages. By adding the recipients name you can guarantee better open rates.
Global warming is real and people are scared about what the future holds. Email marketing is better for the environment and can help to reduce global warming.
How? Well, more than 90% of papers comes from cutting down a tree which has a tremendously negative effect on the global environment. However, when you’re using emails, nothing is getting printed. Users getting the content in virtual space so no tree is dying for your cause.
There are numerous benefits of email marketing. Mainly, it all boils down to the fact that this marketing method is affordable. Above all, it offers incredible results. With email marketing, you can enforce your brand’s presence, grow your business and drive revenue without breaking your overall marketing budget in one single stroke.
Email marketing is efficient and effective. This should be an integral part of your business marketing strategy … not an option.
That’s it for this week. As always …
Dedicated To Your Success
Juliette & Robert
Start an awesome beauty business. While the economy might be challenged, and that’s putting it mildly, there’s no better time than now, to start your awesome beauty business. After all, you’re going to start at some point in time. Why not here and now?
They’re following their passion … looking for a way to help others … running feverishly to get away from managers that have gotten a little clout and abuse it.
A lot of you were toying with the idea of starting a business before you were ordered to shelter in place and work from home.
You’ve chosen the field of beauty.
Have you already started dabbling … making products, selling products that others make? How do you want to enter into this space known as the world of beauty?
Sit down with pen and paper.
Yes… step away from your electronic devices. Sit in the sun and begin to write down what you see for your business.
There was a time when lipstick was the go to product in a recession, depression, down economy … however you want to phrase it. We’re working our way through a global pandemic which has stopped the world in its tracks. The global economy has come to a halt. It has forced the wearing of mask every time we exit our doors.
What does this mean for lipstick?
You guessed it. No one will be wearing lipstick for a while with the Coronavirus and Covid-19 still very present in the world. Mask are part of the new normal. So … starting a company that sells lipstick, will not be the best product to offer at this time.
Pivot your focus. What about lip balms and moisturizers? Lips still need attention under all those mask people are wearing.
Not only has the beauty industry changed, the clients you serve have changed. Take a look at what’s being written in the beauty space. The language is about clean beauty, organic and natural ingredients, a basic skin care regimen.
This is suggesting that caring for the skin is more important at this point that wearing a lot of makeup. If make up is worn it will have to fit into the categories mentioned above.
Pivot, turn your attention to offering a product that will better the condition of your potential client’s needs. Lots of research will need to take place before you take your leap, especially starting out now.
Don’t let it scare you though. Keep moving towards starting your business. Know that it will need to be digital. This presents another learning curve for you.
Taking your business online will allow you to sell outside of your immediate environment. It presents you with an opportunity to gain feedback from visitors and purchasers alike.
They will tell you what they want. Your job is to listen.
There are many steps to going digital with your business. In the beginning you will wear many hats. A down economy requires that you be very frugal with your resources. Any economy does actually.
Starting out, you will need to test the waters so to speak, even if you know your product was selling before the global economic shutdown.
What typically stops most people from starting a business is fear. It makes you start second guessing yourself. Nothing will be perfect, even after you’ve been in business for years. You’ll still have doubts and frustrations, but it’s okay.
That’s it for this week. As always, we’re …
Dedicated To Your Success,
Juliette & Robert
Beauty Business Blueprint
Keywords are the foundation for building your beauty business. If you’re working towards launching a blog, website or an e-commerce site in the beauty space you’re going to hear certain terms over and over again. One of those terms is “keywords”. No content, no copy, advertising or product descriptions are written without the inclusion of keywords.
If you look at a basic definition of the term “keywords”, it’s often defined as a search term for search engines and words that identify the content of a given website. Sounds like tech talk, right?
While you may not fully understand what keywords are, you have in one way or another, influenced the choice of keywords of random websites on the internet.
Everyone who uses the internet has. When people go to Google or any other search engine and enter a query, let’s say, “best beauty product ideas”, that query is technically a keyword.
Another way of defining the term “Keywords” is that they are words or phrases that are used on blogs, websites and e-commerce sites aimed at you, the internet user. As a website owner, you’ll assume the possible words internet users might type in when searching for their products/services and use them.
If they choose the right words (keywords), then they stand a good chance of being found by a lot of people who are searching for your products/services.
Keywords Can Boost Your Website’s Rank on SERPs. SERPs (search engine results pages) are the pages delivered to you once you type in a “keyword” or “keyword phrase” in the search box.
Google is the number one search engine on the internet, therefore, make sure your website meets Google’s standards. The only way internet users will find your site, is if Google can find it. While there are more than 200 factors Google considers when ranking a website, what will make Google find your website is the keywords you use. Google is all about giving its users relevant answers to their searches which is why it depends (not exclusively) on keywords to find websites or web pages that are relevant to the queries users enter.
Therefore, using the right keywords can make Google bring up your website or web page anytime people search for words that are related to your keywords. In other words, using the right keywords is part of optimizing your pages and can make your website appear on the first page of search engine result pages (SERPs). Google rewards websites that use keywords that are relevant to users’ queries by boosting their rank on search results pages.
When your website ranks on SERPs, it gets seen by more people and many of them will click on your website. These people will be added to your website’s traffic. This means that keywords can also increase the number of visitors your website gets.
Think about what your brand stands for, who your ideal customer is, what they need, and how they will search for your products or services.
Then create a list of possible words and phrases your ideal customer can use when searching for your products/services.
If you already have a website and some customers, you will learn a lot about the language your customers use by simply asking them. You can carry out surveys or A/B testing to learn more about your customers. Secondly, if your website has a search button where customers enter their queries, you can use a data-collecting tool to record the terms they use. You can also use a data-collecting tool to record the term “visitors” who were redirected from SERPs used.
What keywords are mostly used in your niche industry? What keywords are your competitors using? Do your research to find out.
Keywords that are popular in your industry are automatically right for you. And if your competitors are ranking on SERPs for particular words, that should tell you that the same words or phrases can also be right for you.
Some popular keywords used in the beauty industry are: acne, dark spots, hyperpigmentation, SPF, skin care, skincare, natural, organic, eco friendly, clean beauty … you get the picture.
Type any one of these words or phrases into your Google search box and you’ll see the SERPs (search engine results pages) that have been chosen by Google.
If you don’t want to go through the stress of keyword research, then you can use keyword research tools to find good keywords. There are many of them both free and premium, do your research to find out which tool is best for you.
Examples of keyword research tools would be, Google keyword planner, Ubersuggest, or keyword finder.
The first thing you should know about using keywords is that it doesn’t guarantee that your website will do well on SERPs. There are other factors such as quality of content, page load speed, bounce rate, etc, that determine how a website is ranked on SERPs. Therefore, they should be used along with other practices that can grow your website.
One of the reasons why using keywords became so hard is because marketers abused it. They manipulated their use to deceive Google’s algorithms and eventually got punished for it. Now, Google will flag your website if you abuse keywords. What does it mean to abuse keyword use?! Using the same word five or six times in one three-line paragraph is a good example. This is known as a form of keyword stuffing.
So, make sure that your keywords blend well with the rest of your web content. Use those that are relevant to your web content and Website-at-large to avoid misleading visitors. Avoid keyword stuffing.
Always input relevant keywords in your elements. One of your website elements is your URL. Use your primary keyword here. It represents the entirety of what your website is about. If your niche product is colorful lipsticks, your URL could be colorfullipsticks.com. This tells your visitors that your website is all about colorful lipsticks.
Title tags: use relevant keywords in your article titles. Using them in your titles will influence your click-through rate.
Images and videos: As you upload images and videos on your website, change the automatically generated nonsensical name. Using the name of the article is always good. Input a relevant keyword here. You should always transcribe your videos and include relevant keywords in the transcripts.
Other elements that you can input keywords in are; schema markups, alt tags, alt attributes, ARIA tags, meta tags, internal links, link anchor texts, subheadings, and lots more.
You’ll learn more about these terms as we delve deeper into getting your website ready to sell your beauty products.
The aim of using keywords is to rank on SERPs and grow your web traffic. It wouldn’t make sense if you don’t monitor them to see how they perform.
This is also why you need to have keyword tools. You want to find out which of your keywords are bringing in traffic, which ones are increasing your click-through rate, and which ones are doing poorly.
It’s like an experiment, you keep doing what’s giving you your desired results. You fix the ones that aren’t. Or stop using them.
Start your keyword research now if you are yet to launch your website.
I know … it’s a lot to take in. You’ll get there in due time. You can’t rush the process. However, you can be consistent in your approach.
That’s it for this week. As always…
Dedicated To Your Success
Juliette Samuel,