4 Killer Ways MAC Cosmetics Use Content Marketing in 2018

4 Killer Ways MAC Cosmetics Use Content Marketing 

You don’t need to be a major global brand to introduce content marketing techniques into your marketing strategy. But I want to share some examples, of how some of the big brands use this technique to influence and engage with their customers to help inspire you to find new ways to engage with your target audience.

If content marketing is quite a new concept to you, The Content Marketing Association define content marketing as;

"The discipline of creating quality branded editorial content across all media channels and platforms to deliver engaging relationships, consumer value and measurable success for brands."

As content marketing continues to grow and become more important, some of the most powerful brands in the world are using this technique to grow consumer engagement and generate sales. This week's post will look at how MAC Cosmetics use content marketing to do just that.

About the Online Beauty Industry and  MAC Cosmetics?

According to The Street.com the online beauty industry was worth over 1.2 billion in 2016 and digital beauty sales rose by 14% during that year. With the growth and popularity of buying beauty products online, cosmetic brands such as MAC Cosmetics have had to step up their digital marketing efforts to capitalise on this opportunity. MAC Cosmetics are a leading global cosmetics brand founded in 1984. The brand turnovers more than billion a year and has over 500 stores worldwide. MAC has a strong social presence across all the leading social media networks, an app and use a lot of content marketing to tap into the growing online beauty market.

4 Ways MAC Uses Content Marketing:

1. Work with influencers – MAC Cosmetics understand that their customers are frequent users of social media and consume a lot of video content. So MAC create Youtube video's with beauty influencers to visualise the benefits of their products to customers.

They are currently working with Katie Jane Hughes to demonstrate how to use MAC’s products and help their fans to achieve certain looks. The recent Youtube video published on 23rd August has already generated over 665k video views and 762 comments. 

MAC could've simply chosen to have a page on their website outlining the benefits of their product. But instead, because they understand their audience like to consume video content,to gain their target audience's attention, they've teamed up with a popular beauty expert and used an educational video to gain interest in their highlighter range.

Katie Jane Hughes

2.Competitions – They‘ve recently teamed up with fashion Designer, Brandon Maxwell to invite people to create a video sharing what their dreams are. The two most inspiring videos will join MAC and Brandon Maxwell at New York Fashion Week this September. 

The competition had a dedicated hashtag #macithappen and activity drove visits to the company website, which resulted in 724 people submitting entries across social media using the dedicated hashtag.

#MACMakeItHappen

Mac Make It Happen Competition entries

This approach was great for driving traffic to the MAC website and enabled MAC to generate awareness of their brand and help build trust amongst new and existing customers of the brand without pushing sales.

3. Events – MAC are currently delivering free interactive events called #MACWorkshopCafe around the world at select duty-free stores allowing fans to interact with their brand. Travelers can personalise their lipsticks and enjoy lipstick inspired luggage tags. The events feature; live DJs, free giveaways, interactive lipstick bar, reality make-up apps, donut stands, hair braiding and tattoo printing and giveaways. 

MAC Workshop Cafe  promotion

MAC Workshop Cafe 

This brand activation approach is an entertaining way for fans of the brand to interact with MAC in a cool and engaging way and share with their social networks. It also resulted in lots of PR and SEO.

4. National Days – Aligning content with national and global days such as National Lipstick Day and Gay Pride to promote their products. This approach helps to reinforce the brand's values and reach audience segments who share a similar passion.

MAC celebrates National Lipstick Day

MAC celebrates Pride

Conclusion 

The great thing about the examples above is that MAC use a variety of different topics and content formats to encourage engagement. The above are just some examples of content marketing techniques which I hope you've found useful. The key with the examples above is that MAC Cosmetics have clearly defined content marketing objectives and understand how their target audience like to receive information, which they communicate with a strong brand tone of voice, underpinned by their brand values. 

Before launching any content marketing activities think about:

• Who you are trying to reach?
• What are you trying to achieve?
• What interests do they have?
• How can you interact with them? 

I'd love to know what cool content marketing strategies you've seen? Also, Neil Patel does a great Beginners guide for content marketing that you may find useful.

Thank you for dropping by, Nicola x