Social Media Marketing For Makeup Artists: 14 Steps To Do It Right

Can social media marketing for makeup artists be a real thing? Most people believe that by simply posting on social media, somehow, something magical will happen and their business will grow.

But in reality, growing your business on social media requires commitment and dedication to be better than your competitors. It’s a highly competitive space. The good part is that it’s not expensive.

Not to mention that in this day and age, some businesses can’t survive without it. It’s the new word of mouth. So when it comes to marketing for makeup artists, social media is essential.

Why is it a great starting point for marketing your makeup business?

For most of us, social media is an abstract term that defines different things, depending on who you talk to. But at the same time, everyone agrees on one thing: It deals with visuals. It may not have been as such since the beginning, but this is what it has become during the past few years. A visual representation of what we would like our lives to look like.

A makeup artist sells the same things but in a more tangible way. An enhanced visual of who we are or of whom we’d like to be.

If you combine the two perspectives, the main idea surfaces right away: Social media marketing is a must for anyone who deals in looks. And makeup artists take the lead.

How to actually promote yourself on social media?

Well, there are many things you can do on social media, depending on the goals and target audiences. I will try to discuss the most important tips I can come up with and, of course, give you some reference and visual examples as well.

Let’s start our journey and see what the steps are toward achieving social media success as a makeup artist.

1. Create a business page or a separate business profile

You can promote a makeup salon on social media with your personal account, but I suggest doing something different as a starting point. Sign up for a different account or for a business page to promote yourself as a makeup artist.

Instead of combining your personal and professional life, separate them and avoid mix-ups, misunderstandings, and whatever other issues may appear. Not to mention the fact that personally, you are a lot more than what you do as a professional, and your posts, pictures or links may not always be compatible with your two different goals.

2. Experiment with different channels

Doing what you like is great and reaching out to your fans wherever you feel more comfortable is even greater. However, sometimes, you need to expand your reach and look beyond the familiar horizon of your favorite social media platform. Start with whatever feels more natural to you, be it Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube.

However, there’s no reason to settle for this comfort. Get out of your comfort zone and start to experiment with other platforms. For instance, a YouTube channel may help you reach out to a significant part of your target audience but don’t forget that not all of them are YouTube users or regulars. The same could be applied to Instagram or Facebook.

You can show your best achievements on Instagram, share some tutorials and “How-Tos” on YouTube and be part of Facebook groups where people with the same interests share their opinions. You can create a Facebook page to promote your makeup artist business.

3. Post often and show off your work

Don’t be afraid to post often and promote yourself as a makeup artist on social media. Take every opportunity you have to show off your skills and the latest work. Post pictures of your clients; if they approve, post pictures of yourself, of your salon, and of anything that could interest your audience, such as tips about makeup.

Just make sure that when you post photos showing off your work, those pictures are of great quality and that the makeup looks are on point.

4. Use hashtags when you post

And, use them plenty. Hashtags are not only for reference. They can also help you reach out to people who follow specific topics and, why not, turn them from viewers into customers. Do not overuse, however, as you don’t want to target everybody. Instead, target your own niche. It may be hard at first, but in time, you will learn exactly what hashtags your niche follows and use them in your MUA social media marketing strategy.

To make it even simpler, you can create a strategy based on three simple outcomes when it comes to hashtags:

• First, you need to talk about yourself and refer directly to your brand or something that you consider important for your campaign. A personal hashtag for which you can also work on branding.
• Secondly, you can use another hashtag to specify the subject matter such as #smokeyeyes, #Fashionamekup, etc., and thirdly, one that fits the community in such as #makeuplovers, #makeupenthusiasts, etc.

Check out this video to learn more about how to use hashtags:

5. Add a “Book Now” button to your social media profiles

Let’s not forget that your final goal when it comes to promoting yourself as a makeup artist on social media is to get more appointments. And for that, you need people actually to book appointments. In today’s day and age, you must offer your clients the most convenient booking methods possible. If you don’t, your competition will.

If you use the Goldie online booking system, you can link it to your social media profiles so your customers can book from there. If you don’t, you can read more about how to create an online booking system for a small business. Plus, you can ask clients for deposits and full payments directly from the app.

You can download it without any worries from the App Store or Google Play.

While it might sound complicated, it’s actually quite simple. The booking system is a web page where your customers can book appointments themselves based on your schedule. This is how your online booking page could look like; this is what people would see after clicking “Book Now” on your Facebook or Instagram page.

6. Create and share tutorials and how-to videos

Even though your customers and fans will not manage to mimic your skills entirely and become self-sufficient when it comes to makeup, it’s nice to see and learn how everything takes shape. Knowledge is fun and entertaining in this industry.

You can even create a specific brand for your shares, like Nikki Tutorials, and bring it to life via Instagram and YouTube:

She created a great social media plan for her makeup business and executed it perfectly. She successfully combines the two platforms into a single branding item that brings fans and customers together into an online environment created just for them.

If you want to start creating similar social media content, don’t forget that first of all you have to implement and schedule an Instagram post strategy. An increased number of followers on your social media platforms will guarantee your online business success.

7. Organize contests and giveaways

Freebies are always effective in collecting new fans and customers, especially when you give them via contests on social media. They may help you maximize your reach.

For example, the winner of a free makeup session, if satisfied with the results, may turn into a regular but at the same time, they might also share pictures with friends, talk about your skills publicly and help you collect even more followers. Of course, not all your followers will become regular customers but some of them will.

8. Share your skills in your posts

What better way to advertise your skills than through testimonials, reviews, or even mentions? Don’t ask for compliments, wait until one of your customers shares a photo or a video related to you respond immediately. You give them attention and at the same time, you can get a lot of attention because this is the best advertising method: by a good review.

Here’s an example from Mario Dedivanovic uses a video with Kim Kardashian to show off his techniques.

9. Set-up a selfie station at your salon

People love to take selfies and share them on social media, especially when they look at their best. And, where else could they shoot that perfect photo if not at your salon, right after a make-up session?

I must be honest, when I first read about a selfie station, I was a little bit intrigued. I thought, is this a thing? However, later, after spending a lot more time on this issue, it ultimately came to me: yes, and if not, it should be. Why? Well, I think I answered the question right at the start of this section.

For a lot of people, social media is a vivid picture of how a perfect life should look like. We share our best moments, our best looks, our best thoughts, etc., we validate each other from these points of view and try to live up to the expectations these channels set at a very high standard.

What do you need for a selfie station that will be popular among your clients?

Well, the first thing to consider is space. You need good lighting (natural lighting preferably) and a clean wall for the background. It may not be up to you how those images will look when posted on social media accounts, who will choose to process them, and who will share them as they were. However, it’s up to you to ensure everything goes well on your end, and to do that; you need to stage the environment carefully.

And, since we’re at the “staging” topic, consider creating a sign or a decal with your own brand and maybe, your Instagram hashtags/name you are using for self-promotion. This idea is great because you cannot always rely on your customers’ sharing these details. Maybe they don’t feel like it, maybe they forget, maybe they just don’t care. You need to care for yourself and do everything possible to promote yourself as a makeup artist on social media. It’s the key to success.

How will you benefit from the selfie station?

Well, the answer is quite obvious: PROMOTION. Free social media promotion from your customers who, maybe not at first, or at least not all, will find the idea of sharing their new looks a great one. They will eventually see it as a great opportunity since it’s right out of the box, before sweat, rain, heat, or whatever could ruin it.

However, if we think about it, many of your customers will be young people who practically live in a social media environment. A social media corner would be the perfect set-up for them by enabling their fondness for sharing their moments.

Plus, effortlessly, you can build a great portfolio for your brand, a portfolio that comprises of real testimonial pictures shared by your customers who were pleased with the outcome of your work. There’s no better way to build trust and expand the pool of customers than through the happy faces of those who left your salon already satisfied. They will come again, and maybe, their friends, colleagues, or acquaintances will too. Just think about that and set up your station!

If this idea captured your interest, check out this video about how amazing selfie booths will be in the future.

10. Always reply to messages from your fans/customers

The best social media marketing tip for makeup artists is that communication is the most important part of all your strategy. Social media is a two-way street, as are the reviews on social media. Don’t forget to answer those, whether they are good or This is something that counts in the long run. I’m talking about etiquette. Whenever someone leaves you a comment, it is nice to take some time and reply, especially in the beginning, when you need to develop your personal brand.

It would be great if you could keep track forever of all the comments you receive but let’s not exaggerate. If you receive hundreds of messages every day, it becomes increasingly harder and harder to read them and almost impossible to reply to all.

11. Share something more

Sometimes, you’d want to do more than just promote your makeup artist business on social media. A personal/professional blog may be of help in this case, especially if you want to have your own place where everything is yours, unlike social media, where the content belongs to the platform of your choice. You can combine the two elements and connect social media with a blog and, if you feel really confident in yourself, share a weekly update via newsletters, just like Lisa Eldridge.

She understood the power of good, original content. So, she shares a lot of fun stuff on her personal website, a newsletter, a video channel on YouTube, and an Instagram account. She’s everywhere her fans and customers may be, and this is awesome from a marketing point of view.

12. Learn how to edit your social media visuals

A professional setup takes a little effort, especially in this industry where everything should look flawless. You create new looks and new images for your customers, who expect nothing less than perfection from you.

The pictures your post on Instagram, Facebook, etc., must reflect the perfection you are trying to attain with your skills. This means you might need some edits here and there and not just post in bulk, whatever the camera shots. Sometimes, add some extra elements to a photo to make it more appealing to your fans. What can you do?

There are a lot of options in this case. Let’s take a quick look at some of the best:

Canva

Not everything you post on your social media accounts will be straight-out pictures of your best achievements. And, when you want to create something more, visually speaking, Canva may be the best free solution.

You can create banners, flyers, Instagram stories, and posts, combine images with texts and graphics, and amaze your followers. It only takes a few minutes of your time to create something great.

Beauty Plus

Unlike Canva, Beauty Plus is one of the best solutions for image manipulation and editing. It is a photo editing app that lets you make small modifications to portrait photos, making you look even fresher than you already do.

The most relevant things you can do by using BeautyPlus as a makeup artist are to smooth out complexion, add more light to the eyes, brighten the face, narrow the face contour, brighten or tan the skin, and generally make the person appear in the photo more attractive. So, if you want a quick fix, shoot the photo, edit it with Beauty Plus on your mobile device and publish it on your social media account of choice.

Photoshop & other similar software

Yes, the obvious first choice for photo editing is the classic Adobe Photoshop. It may seem difficult initially, but if you learn to master it, you’ll learn to love its features. There are plenty of free tutorials out there.

Whatever tool you choose, don’t forget: the success of your social media marketing for your makeup artist business depends on these photos.

13. Think outside the box

This may be harder, especially until you come up with something original, something to help you stand out from the crowd. Once you get there, the sky’s the limit.

Why do you need this? Well, social media is already oversaturated with good looks and styles. Your beauty salon may be the best in town but don’t imagine that you are alone. Your competition is fierce. You post and share your best pieces of art, but at the same time, so do they.

So what can you do about this? Be original, even if you don’t advertise looks that your customers will immediately ask for. However, do it in style and focus on your skills like Rebecca Swift does, with her cartoonish celebrity imitations through makeup.

14. Promote your social media channels on your blog and vice-versa

If you’re interested in mastering social media for your makeup artist business, consider mixing your social media content with the content on your website. It’s going to really maximize your exposure and engagement across all your channels. For example, Lisa Eldridge’s personal website is not only inviting to everybody but also full of valuable information and appealing visuals. She is also active on YouTube and Instagram, two of the social media channels where she shares some of her best creations, reviews, and advice.

If you want to at least aim for success, do the same. Get to work and reach out to as many people as possible, regardless of the platform you are using, to get in touch with friends or family. And, if you are running your own business, it’s best to create, maintain, and constantly update a professional blog or website as well.

This is a lengthy process. Marketing your makeup business on social media is time-consuming, but it’s also incredibly worthwhile.

Conclusion

Social media marketing for makeup artists may seem like an endless effort, but it doesn’t need to be this way. It may help you reach out to your fans and customers and create/build a brand you will all profit from.

Be original, come up with something new every day, and share your best achievements and creations, and you will get closer and closer to your goals with every day that passes with every new post and share. Don’t forget to plan ahead when drafting your social media strategy, as this is a long-term game. But well worth it.

Keep it real, keep it true, and success will follow!