The beauty and cosmetics industry has been growing at a rapid pace. Look around and you will see more than just the legacy brands on social media - homegrown beauty brands, ayurvedic and natural beauty brands, paraben free brands and so on. While this definitely opens up the options available to consumers seeking beauty and cosmetics products, it also represents a whole lot of competition for consumer attention for each of these brands. That’s where WhatsApp marketing for beauty and cosmetics brands can come in as a game-changer! 

We’ve lately been exploring interesting ways in which different industries can use WhatsApp marketing. So we dug deep into the usual concerns, challenges and consumer preferences in the beauty industry, and found that there’s more than one way to entice these buyers. 

Why use WhatsApp marketing for beauty and cosmetics brands? 

As a beauty brand, we’re pretty sure you’re actively using social media, email, SMS, search engine and other channels to market your products. So why do we think WhatsApp marketing for beauty and cosmetics brands is a must-have addition to your strategy? 

• Wider demographics - As a beauty brand, you may be addressing different demographics of consumers based on age, gender, purchase power and other parameters. Irrespective of what your ideal customer looks like, they’re on WhatsApp - the one platform where everyone is. 
• Active user base - Studies have found that WhatsApp is the most actively used messaging platform. As compared to other channels, WhatsApp is used at least 27-28 times a day for personal and professional purposes. 
• High open and click through rate - Owing to its active use, WhatsApp is able to deliver an average of 99% open rate on campaigns - which also leads to higher click throughs to almost 45% if the campaigns are strategized well. 
• Better response - WhatsApp is a chat app, which makes it natural for consumers to respond to the messages sent by brands. This boosts the customer engagement rate on your campaigns, giving you the ability to understand buyers better. 
• Commerce features - While other platforms all primarily focus on driving traffic to the online store to enable a consumer to make a purchase, WhatsApp comes with commerce features. This includes the WhatsApp catalog, add to cart, checkout links and even the ability to take payments when you use a WhatsApp Business API solution like QuickReply.ai. 

Different ways to use WhatsApp marketing for beauty and cosmetics brands 

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There are several features of WhatsApp Business and the WhatsApp Business API that beauty and cosmetics brands can leverage to create engaging marketing campaigns. Let’s take a look at some different types of WhatsApp campaigns that these brands can benefit from: 

1. Promote your ongoing and upcoming sales 

The very first campaign you can include in your WhatsApp marketing strategy is one that promotes your ongoing and upcoming sales. Send a WhatsApp broadcast that highlights the deals and discounts available on products in your WhatsApp catalog or on your online store, or let subscribers know when something enticing is coming up! 

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2. Promote your lighting deals/ flash sales 

Since WhatsApp offers a high open rate, it is the best channel to get your time-sensitive messages noticed. Create a one-off WhatsApp broadcast campaign to promote your lighting deals or flash sales, highlighting how the discount is available only for a limited period of time. You can also create WhatsApp automations to follow-up on the broadcast to send reminders about the deal available. 

3. Create a conversational buying journey

WhatsApp offers interactive messaging types that can be used to create a two-way campaign with consumers. This includes interactive list messages and reply buttons. For instance, beauty and cosmetics brands can use WhatsApp list messages to give buyers the option to choose what products they’d like to see, creating an automated workflow that walks them through product discovery based on their responses. 

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Recommended read: How to use WhatsApp to personalize shopping experiences during a purchase

4. Send product recommendations 

While we agree that promoting deals and discounts is a great way to bring back customers for more, a more effective strategy is to leverage personalized product recommendations. You can set up WhatsApp automated campaigns to share product recommendations with customers based on their previous interactions and purchases, leading them to products they are more likely to be interested in. 

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5. Create WhatsApp newsletters 

Beauty and cosmetics purchases are usually not made on an impulse. Consumers want to do their research before making a purchase - from what suits them the best, what side effects it may have and how it will make them look, there’s a lot that they look into. This is where creating a WhatsApp newsletter promoting your blogs, lookbooks, videos and other formats of content comes in handy - this is an informational way of encouraging purchases. 

6. Introduce new products 

If there is a particular bestseller or a trending item available on your online store or listed on the WhatsApp catalog, ensure you get it noticed. Use WhatsApp broadcasts to introduce new products and collections available with your brand; but back it up with social proof like influencer collaborations, customer testimonials, media mentions and other similar content. This is a great way to upsell and cross-sell products on WhatsApp. 

7. Create custom bundles 

If a consumer has added a product to cart, use WhatsApp automated messages to recommend another they can bundle the purchase with. This often helps the consumer also cut the back and forth of purchases they will need to make for completing a look or a beauty routine they’re going for. 

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8. Take preorders 

You can also use WhatsApp broadcasts to promote an upcoming product on your Shopify beauty and cosmetics online store. With automated campaigns, you can create a build up around the product or collection that is going to be launched, and then take pre orders on the messaging app itself with an exclusive discount code and checkout links. 

9. Replenishment reminders 

If applicable to your products, you can also set up automated WhatsApp marketing campaigns that serve as reminders to your customers. This helps them keep up with a beauty regime or have their favorite cosmetics with them at all times, all without you having to restart the customer acquisition journey from scratch! 

10. Host giveaways and contests 

Another smart WhatsApp marketing campaign for beauty and cosmetics brands is running giveaways and contests. Create a WhatsApp broadcast campaign that is targeted at getting consumers to participate in contests that can get them freebies! 

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11. Send price drop alerts 

What’s more exciting than a discount? Price drops on products that have been trending and haven’t gone on discounts for a while. Use WhatsApp broadcasts to highlight price drops on your top-selling items to tap into the FOMO psychology of online shoppers. 

Recommend read: Game-changing WhatsApp eCommerce strategies you can run with automations 

Ready to use WhatsApp marketing for beauty and cosmetics brands?

WhatsApp makes for the perfect channel to not just promote your deals, discounts and offers. When used strategically, WhatsApp campaigns can be used to help you understand the interest, intent and purchase preferences of online shoppers. 

But to be able to put all of WhatsApp’s features to use, beauty and cosmetics brands need to go beyond just creating a WhatsApp Business account. They need the WhatsApp Business API to use all the features in custom workflows and automations across the customer buyer journey. 

That’s why QuickReply.ai has built 40+ eCommerce-specific automation workflows that can be used on top of the WhatsApp Business API. With the help of these automation workflows, beauty and cosmetics brands can create WhatsApp marketing campaigns that can boost customer engagement, retention and turn the messaging platform into a sales channel. 

Want to learn more about using WhatsApp marketing for beauty and cosmetics brands? 

Book a demo of QuickReply.ai today.