In 2020, coronavirus destabilized the beauty industry—and the industry is still in flux today. From 2005 to 2019, global beauty revenues grew steadily, according to a McKinsey report. In 2020, though, they dropped 9.7% YoY, according to an IBIS report. With only essential businesses operating, people obviously went out less–and wore less makeup.
Another seismic shift? While they stayed in, people downloaded TikTok. It was the most-downloaded app of 2020—and it accelerated and decentralized beauty trend cycles.
How should beauty brands approach marketing in this wildly fluctuating demand landscape? By leaning on vetted freelancers from on-demand talent platforms. MarketerHire, for example, connects brands with top-shelf freelance marketers, quickly and with no long-term contracts.
It’s hard to ignore such an agile option amidst ongoing pandemic uncertainties and ever-changing TikTok beauty trends.
Still not sure? Here are five key reasons that freelance marketers just make sense.
1. They can help your products go viral on TikTok.
TikTok’s superpower might be marketing beauty products. Look at skincare brand The Ordinary: It had some major successes on TikTok—like a viral user-generated before-and-after duet highlighting the power of its $8 peeling solution, which got more than 600,000 likes. TikTok traction like that can drive down customer acquisition costs (CAC), according to Doe Lashes’ CEO Jason Wong. “Our CAC on Facebook is $27 [at Doe Lashes], and our blended CAC is $8 because of TikTok,” Wong told MarketerHire. “[Organic] TikTok drove our customer acquisition costs down by 60%.”
Thanks to the platform’s near-prophetic algorithm, other beauty brands can see similar successes with organic and earned TikTok. A freelance social media manager can help you test the channel (or audit your current strategy) and see for yourself.
2. They can make paid social convert faster than you can.
If your paid social strategy is still a work in progress—or if it got derailed by Apple’s privacy updates last year—a freelancer can help. Just ask Drishay Menon, co-founder of men’s skincare brand Bottlecode. In the company’s early days, he and his fellow founders tried to DIY their paid social strategy. It was harder than it looked. “How do you learn from these channels when you are constrained by cash?” Menon said to MarketerHire. “It was really tough to be able to understand: Are we doing this right?”
Freelancers don’t face the same challenges. They work with multiple clients, and have varied, recent data points on performance benchmarks and optimal targeting. So Menon hired a freelance paid social media marketer through MarketerHire—and got results fast. Bottlecode’s revenue proceeded to grow 18% MoM for five consecutive months.
3. They’ve worked for beauty giants like Glossier and Curology.
“A much better marketer will freelance for you than will work for you at 99% of companies,” MarketerHire CEO Chris Toy explained. That’s especially true for beauty brands hiring through MarketerHire’s network, which includes vetted freelance marketers who have worked with Glossier, Curology, Elizabeth Arden, and more. Hires like these have worked on national campaigns and know the beauty landscape like the back of their hand. With their help, you can refine your positioning and messaging until it resonates. Measurably.
4. They can drop in for key one-off projects, like product quizzes.
Prose hit $100 million in revenue in 2021 selling custom shampoo, conditioner, and styling product blends, formulated based on online quiz results. First-party data from beauty quizzes like these can get quite granular; Prose’s quiz, for example, asks about the user’s hair texture and family history around hair loss. This kind of information can inform not only personalized products, but personalized email and SMS retention campaigns. With the right data architecture and strategy, a quiz can pay dividends for years to come—and a freelance marketer can stand up for you in a flash.
5. They’re available on-demand.
Hiring a full-time candidate can take months. MarketerHire can match you with a freelancer in as little as 48 hours. “On-demand is a really powerful concept,” said Chris Toy. “With MarketerHire, the goal was to take some cues from other important tech players like the streaming and transportation industries to achieve continuous innovation.” Beauty trends move fast, and with MarketerHire, you can too. They’ll match you with a freelance marketer custom-selected for your needs in as little as 48 hours.
Get started with MarketerHire today. With code Beauty500, you can get $500 off your first hire with MarketerHire.
