Male grooming marketing has exploded in its application in recent years.
In fact, it is predicted that the global male grooming market itself has grown by a massive $13.46 billion since 2012. This is testament to an increasing trend for men taking their appearance and grooming regimes seriously.
No longer is male grooming seen as a small and insignificant niche in the wider health and beauty market but is rapidly becoming a major, profitable industry in its own right.
With this popularity comes competition, from shaving foam factories to moisturiser manufacturers only businesses that take the most innovative approaches to grow their brand will see sustainable success.
Many male grooming businesses seek the support of industry professionals such as Make It Mana to grow and remain competitive. That is why we have put together this guide, calling on our experience with top male grooming brands to help you get to grips with the fundamentals of digital marketing in the male grooming space.
Male Grooming Marketing: Strategy First
Did someone say cost-per-click?
Hold up…before we get into the details of what tools work well for male grooming brands we need to start with the fundamentals.
Marketing can take up a huge amount of money, time and effort. So you need to make sure you are heading in the right direction before you charge at it headfirst.
The likelihood is that you already have some sort goals for your business outlined. Whether those are growth targets or otherwise. If you don’t, you need to create some…now!
These top-level business goals should sit right at the top of your male grooming marketing strategy with marketing goals (or key performance indicators) and how you plan on achieving them sitting below it. To give a (very oversimplified) example:
Business goal: To increase market share by 2%
Marketing goal: To increase brand awareness
Marketing tools used in plan: Social ads (impressions), influencer marketing, organic social media growth.
By starting with the business goal in mind you ensure that all actions you take (social ads, influencers etc) are all geared towards achieving that goal. This, in turn, ensures that little effort is wasted along the way, this is especially important for resource-strapped startups.
Tools
So, now we have our business and marketing goals all lined up we need to know what we can do to achieve them.
Website
Your business website is an incredibly important part of your male grooming marketing toolbox.
Think of it as THE destination for your brand online. The majority of your digital marketing efforts will be focused towards getting people onto your site where you can convert them into paying customers.
This is especially important if you plan on selling your male grooming products direct to customers through your site. If you spend a lot of time and effort marketing, encouraging people to visit your site, but your site is failing to convert those visitors, then all that effort is wasted.
If you are starting from scratch you can use sites like Squarespace or Shopify to build a temporary base whilst you get off the ground. However, as time goes on you will likely find the need for greater customisation and functionality which these platforms may not facilitate.
At that point finding a reliable and experienced web developer or agency will allow you to take your site to the next level. When picking a partner for web development, make sure you spend time reviewing their portfolio. This will give you an idea of whether they will produce something in the desired style and with the right functionality.
Male Grooming Marketing Specific Tip:
Finding a provider that has previously worked with male grooming brands will also go some way to ensure they have a thorough understanding of the industry and the challenges you face.
Organic Social Media
Social media has completely changed the marketing landscape. No longer do businesses broadcast messages, but instead can have two-way conversations with their customers, gathering first-hand real-time feedback.
Social media also produces a unique opportunity for up and coming male grooming brands. By providing a free platform to reach their target audience they level the playing field with the big players.
For those brands that can produce compelling content and communicate in a personable way, social media can create sustainable growth…for free…
Accessibility to social media audiences is on a goliath scale:
Facebook: 2.2 billion monthly active users
Instagram: 1 billion monthly active users
Twitter: 336 million monthly active users
Snapchat: 301 million monthly active users
With these sorts of figures, betting is that at least a large portion of your brand's target audience is active on social media.
Male Grooming Marketing Specific Tip:
Do your content research. Find other brands or influencers that are targeting a similar audience to you. See which of their pieces of content produce the best results and weave that way of thinking into your own content strategy.
“The male audience are actually best targeted in this way (social media) – it’s a fast and effective way of pushing your product onto an audience who perhaps spend less time researching and reading up on their products via traditional media streams.” Evie Cowen, Dr Jackson.
Paid Social Media
Paid social media gives you instant access to the right people with the right message. Although most social media platforms offer advertising in some way. The functionality and targeting ability of Facebook and Instagram are unmatched.
However, paid social does indeed cost money and this should be taken into consideration when using it. One excellent way to do this for e-commerce brands is to measure results based on their actual monetary value to the business.
This may be done theoretically. For example, if 25% of visitors to a product page make a purchase and that purchase is worth £10, then arguably any cost per click under £2.50 makes you a profit. Setting bid caps at or below this marker ensures you never pay more than you make.
“In 2015 Facebook influenced 52 per cent of consumers’ online and offline purchases” The Drum
Alternatively, using a smart bit of code on your website, called a pixel allows you to track those that have made a purchase as a direct result of your ad. Making it even clearer how valuable that paid ad is to your business.
Male Grooming Marketing Specific Tip:
Platforms like Facebook Ads Manager allows you to target specific audiences with your ads. For example, you can advertise directly to those in a specific location, age group or gender. By detailing your target audience as best as possible you can increase ad effectiveness and limit wasted costs by eradicating advertising on those with little interest in your brand.
There are some obvious wins here. For example, targeting only males and only those in locations your product is sold in. You may also target based on common interests that may match your products, for example, fashion or fitness etc.
Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is a hidden weapon for most male grooming brands, with few tapping into its true power.
With so much contradictory information out there on what products and ingredients are a good choice, confused male grooming enthusiasts are turning to influencers for a better understanding of what is available.
“Influencers generally build their audiences by creating hyper-relevant and professionally produced content in their niche area. This means that properly selected influencers should be producing the best possible content specific to your brand audience.” Owain Williams (Founder at MAKE IT MANA & Editor at BetterBusinessTools.co.uk)
These influencers hold a massive amount of…well, influence…over their audience and can make powerful advocates for your brand.
Male Grooming Marketing Specific Tip:
Aim to only work with influencers that genuinely like and would use your product. Those that push products that don’t appeal to them lack authenticity…this makes content widely stale and fake, which will have a negative impact on your brand.
Written Content
Written content can span from anything including web page copy, social media ‘captions’ to on-site blog post. This aspect of digital marketing is so important for a number of reasons.
The most widely known purpose of written content is search engine optimisation (SEO). By using a combination of techniques you can improve your website's presence on search engine rankings for particular keywords.
Despite the importance of written content for SEO, it holds another purpose that, is equal in importance….education.
Male Grooming Marketing Specific Tip:
Male grooming is a relatively new and rapidly growing industry. Education of the customer should play a key part in your marketing strategy. This allows you to explain the importance of key aspects of your product. It also allows you to become the go-to location for advice. Bringing repeat visitors to your website and increasing your brand image.
In this guide, it has become apparent that there are many digital marketing tools and techniques that can and do work for male grooming brands. By starting with your business goals in mind you can develop a thorough plan of how to achieve them.
If you want to learn more about these techniques and tools, need help in developing a strong and comprehensive marketing strategy or just need some support on key aspects such as influencer marketing, content writing or social media get in touch: hello@makeitmana.com