BACKGROUND
The Elements Beauty Bloggers campaign leveraged a diverse set of influential bloggers to reach a new audience for ElementsBeautyShop.com. From a frugal fashionista to a high-end beauty lover to a melanoma survivor and skin cancer prevention advocate, blogger partnerships exposed the Elements brand to new customers. These results were increases in awareness, event sales, social media following and overall online sales.
PLANNING
With a goal to increase overall sales by 30%, we set out to find blogger partners. We leveraged social media, searching keywords and diving into the local online beauty community. We chose people who were looked to as experts – those already using and recommending the types of brands/products we carry. We took a nimble approach and added new bloggers as they surfaced throughout the campaign.
IMPLEMENTATION
The bloggers were approached via email with a sponsored post opportunity. They were given an overview of Elements, the brands carried and a high-level explanation of our goals and reason for reaching out. They were also given a proposed timeline and list of requirements. After bloggers agreed to participate, they were each given a survey to complete aimed at understanding their unique preferences. This data was used to customize a kit for each blogger with personalized beauty samples.
As the sponsored posts went live, blogger content was integrated into marketing messaging and amplified through Facebook advertising as well as on Twitter and Instagram. Each blogger was given an exclusive discount code, which allowed us to directly track which bloggers were increasing sales most. We saw which blogger partnerships were getting results and increased our investment in those partnerships, negotiating additional, customized content based on past performance. As an extension of the online content, bloggers were featured at in-store events. A private Facebook group connected the bloggers and created a sense of community.
RESULTS
Our greatest measure of success was a 48% increase in overall sales, year-over-year. The surprising bonus was the 90.5% increase in in-store event sales from bloggers support. The hashtag, #elementsbeautyblogger(s) was used over 160 times. Richmond Magazine also covered our unique approach to marketing in the piece, “Bloggy Beauty.”
