For marketers and formulators alike, designing and selling skincare products requires cultivating a delicate balance between playing to trends within the industry and drawing on the less glamorous world of scientific skincare.

As shoppers have come to expect brands to include both exotic botanicals and proprietary compounds in new products, efforts to build excitement for new launches can no longer rely solely on promoting the product’s star ingredients.

In response, companies have embraced more creative campaign strategies to build buzz and create hype around new ventures. Read on for three marketing paradigms that successful beauty brands have used to prime the market for new collections.

1. Partnerships With Influencers, Celebrities and Experts

Social media and influencer marketing aren’t going away. Companies need to be where their audience is, and 95% of adults 18-35 claim to follow at least one brand on social media.

Within the beauty industry, it’s even more important to be active on the social platforms where customers spend their time since nearly 70% of shoppers seek recommendations from influencers. Since there are so many brands on social media fighting for market share, however, it can be challenging for new or emerging brands to find the foothold they need.

One of the most effective ways for companies to connect with an audience quickly is to launch with a well-known, influential partner at their side, as makeup brand Nudestix did when the company expanded into the skincare market.

Nudestix designed the new line, called Nudeskin, with the input of Dr Jason Emer, a celebrity dermatologist in Los Angeles. Not only does a partnership with a board-certified doctor make the line appear more credible to consumers, Dr. Emer is a star himself on Instagram, with over 300,000 followers.

Nudeskin’s partnership with him allows the company to introduce their new offerings to his audience as well as existing fans of Nudestix, increasing the new brand’s visibility online.

2. Video Marketing, Eye-Catching Imagery and Viral Trends

Many of the latest trends in skincare aren’t based on new laboratory discoveries or rare botanicals. With visual-first platforms like Instagram so central to the modern beauty industry, the photo- and video-friendliness of a product can be the deciding factor in its success.

Sheet masks patterned with cute cartoons or designs; leave-on treatments that bubble, peel and glitter; and macro lens photography of products artfully smeared on white backgrounds to show off texture all increase demand for new products because of their strong visual appeal.

Brands can also find a space in the crowded social media playing field by basing their promotional imagery around a single aesthetic and tightly editing the style of their digital marketing efforts. By taking the assistance of professionals for video production Sydney, or from elsewhere, brands can improve their visual storytelling, making it more engaging and shareable. Well-crafted videos can be important in highlighting the unique features and benefits of products, making them stand out in a saturated market.

Many skincare and beauty companies gravitate toward a simple, elegant photography style featuring white or off-white backgrounds, clean-faced models, and botanical accents that reference the ingredients used in their products.

While the same style won’t work for every brand, it’s essential to have a coherent visual theme. Uncoordinated imagery and videos make brands’ social presence seem poorly planned and amateurish, and a brand design that doesn’t mesh with influencers’ tastes won’t net the partnerships necessary to build buzz.

3. Earned Media, Content Marketing and Public Relations

It’s no secret that customers are turning away from advertisements. The mainstreaming of adblockers means that about a third of internet users won’t see any ads on at least one device.

Frustrated with the ubiquity and intrusiveness of targeted advertising, customers say that just seeing a brand’s ads can make them like that brand less. Unfortunately, this is a difficult position for companies trying to connect with customers who might benefit from their products or services.

With so much anti-advertising sentiment online, many beauty brands are raising their profile in other ways.

Brands with a more scientific focus have doubled down on content marketing with blogs, videos, and social media posts that serve to educate customers about skincare and the brand.

Others have succeeded by cultivating extensive social media networks, in which hundreds of preselected individuals receive products before they’re available for sale and post reviews to build anticipation for a new launch.

Social affiliate marketing, in which brands partner with trusted social media personalities who actively promote the brand’s product and receive a portion of the proceeds as compensation, has also seen growth in recent years.

These diverse approaches are united by the way that they capitalize on customers’ trust in influencers and providing value, rather than intruding.

The beauty industry is one of the market’s most competitive spaces. With thousands of different brands vying for customers’ attention and the decreasing usefulness of advertising, companies are unlikely to find capturing market share an easier task in the years ahead.

A creative, social-first approach to marketing new products will be indispensable for helping brands cut through the noise and connect with new customers.