Skin Care SEO Keyword Density

Keyword Density is the percentage of keywords compared to the rest of the text in your skin care Web page. This metric is important because it gives you a tool to compare a skin care Web page or site to that of similar pages with higher rankings. You can see how your use of keywords compares to theirs.

If you see a comparable keyword density between skin care sites, chances are their higher ranking is due to inbound links and/or inherited page rank. If their keyword density is higher than yours, there’s a good chance you can increase your ranking with some careful keyword placement for organic search optimization.

Use one of the following free keyword cloud tools to check your skin care site’s actual keyword density:

Visual Results
Use font size and bold-face to get a quick visual of what words have the highest density on the pages you search (without the actual statistics).

Keyword Cloud from webconfs
http://www.webconfs.com/keyword-density-checker.php

Keyword Density Checker from iwebtool
http://www.iwebtool.com/keyword_density

Statistical results
These tools give you actual number of occurrences, percentages of density and other key metrics by keyword.

Keyword Density Tool from SEO Tools™
http://www.seochat.com/seo-tools/keyword-density/

Keyword Density from Link Vendor
http://www.linkvendor.com/seo-tools/keyword-density.html

Compare two sites
Use this tool to see how your site compares to another.

Keyword Density Analyzer from KeywordDensity.com
http://www.keyworddensity.com/

What do you do with the information once you have it?

• Get a good understanding of what keywords are strongest on your site. You might be surprised that your organic content is pointing search engines in a direction you didn’t expect. Evaluate that and decide if you need to modify your copy and tags/titles, or if it’s something you should use to your advantage and build upon.
• Take a new look for competition. Try searches on the top keywords in the major search engines and see who shows up. Take a look at their sites and see if they truly are competition. Review their offers to see how they compare to yours. Also be sure to read the search engine results set for their site compared to yours…whose is more compelling? How can you change your copy to better grab the potential customer’s attention if your results were to come up side-by-side
• Compare keyword density with your known top competitors. This might give you an idea who’s more likely to come out on top in the major search engines (of course, keyword density is only one factor in the mix – don’t forget that incoming links, overall relevancy, etc., also determine page rank). Use the results to help prioritize the copy you need to tweak in the future, or maybe set your goals to build some new content pages that will make you a stronger competitor in those areas.
• Target online directories where you can submit your site and increase incoming links. To ensure you get approved for inclusion, have a blurb that clearly ties your site to that directory.

Skin Care Press Release Submission Websites

Skin care press releases are becoming a successful way of Internet advertising for the skin care industry. These not only provide valuable inbound links for skin care ecommerce, but also increases traffic and thus your chances of getting located by search engines. But, all your efforts will get waste if the press release is not newsworthy or if it is distributed via a non-credible PR distribution site. There are only a few PR services providers who can provide you maximum visibility and credibility on the Internet. Follow these guidelines while choosing a press release distribution site for your skin care business:

• You should use a site that has a Google pagerank of 4 and above because sites with no pagerank will lower the credibility of the PR.
• Approach a site that allows you to optimize the press release for search engines by using header tags, tagging, anchor text and other SEO techniques.
• Keep away from sites that use NoFollow tags. These tags are inserted into website code in order to stop the search engine from finding the site.

So, here are a few press release sites that provide both free and paid distribution services. The list will help you in finding a reliable PR distribution service provider who will get you maximum visibility.

1. PRLog.org – Pagerank 5 / Alexa 16,551- It is an ordinary and functional looking site but results are good. It gives free distribution service for Google News and other search engines. Inbound links are allowed and the site is also properly optimized for search engines. You can schedule the press release.
2. Free-Press-Release.com – Pagerank 5/ Alexa 3,547 – Good Alexa ranking makes this not so good looking site really good. The best part of using it is that you can place banners on the press release that will point to your website. The paid service offered by this website has better ranking and many SEO benefits.
3. OpenPR.com – Pagerank 5 / Alexa 42,088 – This service distribution site is based in Germany. It provides free submission and distribution along with SEO benefits.
4. PR.com – Pagerank 5 / Alexa 27,482 – The domain name is superb but you can say the services are not so appealing. The site has one free basic service and two paid services of $199 and $499. You can give full company profile by taking paid option.
5. NewswireToday.com – Pagerank 5 / Alexa 51,449 – The design of website is not good and you will difficulty in navigation also. It offers common free distribution tools and the premium service will enable you to give logo, product picture and insert other features in the press release.
6. EcommWire.com – Pagerank 4 / Alexa 107,600 – This site has low traffic but it is really good for e-commerce related press releases. You can add three keywords, image and pass a link with the anchor text.
7. 1888PressRelease.com – Pagerank 5/ Alexa 58,760 – The site has good page rank and also gets good traffic. Active links are allowed. If you opt for their paid service, the placement will be better and you will get features like image galleries & permanent archiving.
8. PressMethod.com – Pagerank 4 / Alexa 66,727 – The site gets good traffic. There is a limited list of features for free PR distribution. There is no point in spending additional money to get paid service.
9. PR-Inside.com – Pagerank 4 / Alexa 17,995 – The only reason for which you can use this site is that it is one of the few PR distribution sites that are focused on Europe.
10. I-Newswire.com – Pagerank 3 / Alexa 69,619 – You get free PR distribution option to sites and search engines. If you opt for premium membership, the only difference is that you can add graphics on the PR.
11. 24-7PressRelease.com – Pagerank 4 / Alexa 46,460 – This free press release submission site provides limited distribution service. Active links are allowed.
12. Free-Press-Release-Center.info – Pagerank 3 / Alexa 56,516 – It is a clean looking site and the increasing traffic level will increase the pagerank soon. You can do PR submission and distribution, include one link with the anchor text while availing free service. The paid service enables you to give three links, permanent archiving and has many more features.
13. TheOpenPress.com – Pagerank 4 / Alexa 64,691- You will get free distribution service in plain formatted releases. If yo want HTML-coded release, go for paid option.
14. Merinews.com – Pagerank 5/ 49,687 – It is more of a online news journal that also provides press release distribution service.
15. PRUrgent.com – Pagerank 3/ Alexa 80,402 – You will surely get some useful advice on writing press releases. This site is good looking and poor Alexa rank.
16. Press-Base.com – Pagerank 3 / Alexa 389,117 – If you want a press release distribution site where you can get on the front page and under the category of your choice, go for this one.

Skin Care Paid Press Release Distribution Sites

1. BusinessWire.com – Pagerank 8 / Alexa 16,730 – It is mostly used by bigger companies to meet SEC full disclosure requirement. Prices are not disclosed and can be known via application.
2. PRWeb.com – Pagerank 8/ Alexa 9,822 – This site has a good reputation when it comes to distributing local news in a single region. The prices for service start at $80 and go up to $360, depending on the visibility you want to get.
3. PRNewsWire.com – Pagerank 8 / Alexa 7,508 – This not so good looking site is used by many journalists. The annual subscription price is $195 and you will have to pay additional price for more exposure.
4. PRLeap.com – Pagerank 6 / Alexa 55,935 – The site is said to deliver reasonable results. It is nice and clean. The price of press release starts from $49 – $149, depending on the level of service you have opted for. The distribution is done on search engines, RSS feeds and newswires.

Getting media coverage is the best form of marketing, but you need to make efforts to get good coverage. Choose the press release distribution site carefully, especially when you are paying for the service.

Skin Care SEO Marketing Resources

The sheer number of resources available on search engine optimization can be overwhelming. There are many sites, tools, and conferences to choose from. Here is a list of good, credible resources for skin care marketing. Marketing skin care ecommerce, websites, blogs, and products online.

Information

These are sites that have general information on search engine optimization and search engines. They offer news, information, and search engine optimization tips.

Search Engine Watch
Marketing Terms – This dictionary will help you understand all of the search engine terms you come across.
Search Engine Relationship Chart – This chart shows you which search engines are connected to each other so you know what search engines to submit your site to and optimize for.
Search Engines – Tips on search engine optimization and promotion.
Google SEO Guidelines – Google’s brief information on search engine optimization.
SEO Beginners Guide – Rand Fishkin writes a detailed guide on search engine optimization for beginners. It is a long read, but well worth it.
ISEDB
Search Engine Guide
Pandia
SEO Chat
Search Engine Colossus – This is a directory of all of the search engines in the world. If you are looking to target other countries, it is important to get familiar with the search engines in that country.
Thread Watch

Tools

Here is a list of tools that will be useful if you are looking to do search engine optimization. Some of the tools give you insight on search terms and others give you an idea of how well optimized your site is. These tools are great for research or for improving the optimization of your website.

SEO ToolSet
GoogSpy – If you are interested in finding out what search terms your competition is ranked for or is adverting on, then this site will be a great tool for you.
SEOMOZ’s Tools
Wordtracker – This is a keyword research tool that tells you the popularity of certain keywords across the major search engines. It also gives you suggestions on other related terms that are high and low in traffic.
Search Term Suggestion – This tool comes directly from Yahoo and it gives you an idea on how popular search terms are. This gives you good input on what terms you want your site to be optimized for. Be careful because the total number does not mean that a high ranking for that keyword will get you that amount of traffic.
Meta Tag Analyzer
Google Toolbar – If you want to find out your site’s Google PageRank you will need to install this toolbar. It will show you your PageRank, but be careful because it is not frequently updated.
Marketleap Link Popularity Checker – This link popularity checker will show how many sites link to you for each search engine. It can also show you the number of sites that link to your competitors. They also have a neat feature that shows the growth or decline in your link popularity over time.
Digital Point SEO Tools
SEO Chat Tools/
We Build Pages SEO Tools

Blogs

You may want to pay attention to blogs if you are looking to keep up with daily search engine news, information, and the latest search engine optimization tips. Blogs provide a constant update of news and information about the latest ideas. This space is constantly changing, so it’s important to stay current with what is going on.

SEOMOZ
Search Engine Blog
TopRank
Search Engine Roundtable – This is one of the more unique blogs out there. There are search engine conferences that go on every couple months and they write about each session. It’s like being at the conference and listening to the speakers.
Search Engine Watch Blog
SEO Book
Matt Cutts – This is the blog by one of Google’s engineers. He is their most popular engineer and writes about Google, search engine optimization, and gadgets.
Search Engine Journal
Search Engine Lowdown
John Battelle’s Search Blog
Google – Blog News Channel
Traffick
SEO by the Sea
Cameron Olthuis
Google Blogoscoped – Covers the ins and outs of Google. Sometimes they have information about Google before it is released to the general public. There are also interviews with Google employees.

Search Engine Forums

Forums are a great resource if you need help, input, or are just looking for information on search engine optimization. You post your questions and can expect a response from other people with their thoughts. This is great for finding information and getting help.

Search Engine Forum
High Rankings Forum
I Help You Forum
Webmaster World – Unlike most of the search engine forums, this is a paid forum and you have to pay yearly fees to be part of it. There are thousands of members and they discuss search engine optimization, news, tips, and general Internet-related topics.
Search Guild
SEO Chat Forum
Digital Point Forum
Cre8asite Forum
Search Engine Watch Forum

Conferences

Conferences are a great way to take your learning to the next level and get deeper into the industry. Conferences allow you to listen to experts in the field, meet them in person, and talk to people from the major search engines.

Search Engine Strategies – They hold conferences every couple months all over the world. They have sessions for beginners and you can also meet people from the major search engines.
PubCon – This is a search engine related conference that covers everything from general information to search engine optimization tips. They have conferences every couple months and the price is cheaper than Search Engine Strategies. The downfall is that the conference is smaller with less attendees.

21 Ways to Promote Your Skin Care Site Online and Off

Offline Promotions

1. Always put your URL on letterhead, business cards and in e-mail signatures—wherever potential visitors are likely to see it.
2. If your employees wear uniforms, put your URL on them so every one of your customers sees a walking advertisement of your Web site.
3. Include your URL on all promotional items you give away—coffee mugs, T-shirts, keychains and so on. A daily reminder is a good way to get people to visit your site.
4. Be sure to include your Web address in all press releases you send out to members of the media. By having it at their fingertips, they may be more likely to include it in articles they write about your company.
5. Don’t forget to put your Web address in your Yellow Pages ad. That’s one place people see it every day.
6. Do you own any company vehicles? Be sure to put your URL on the side of any car or truck that’s out there delivering your products.
7. In addition to listing your toll-free number, put your Web address on the bottom of every page of your catalog so customers have easy access to your online store.

Online Promotions

8. Hone your search engine submission process so you can get the best exposure possible.
9. If you’re still itching for more exposure, you can explore search engine marketing, wherein you pay to have a text ad appear when visitors search for certain keywords.
10. Launch a sweepstakes that offers anyone who registers on your site or subscribes to e-newsletters within a certain time frame the chance to win a free gift.
11. Send out a weekly e-mail newsletter to registered site members that offers tips and news related to your company or industry with links back to your site.
12. Offer free content to other sites. It’s a win-win situation: The other site gets free articles to beef up their offerings and you get a link back to your site and the cachet of being an expert.
13. Send a well-planned, customer-focused e-mail promotion to a targeted list of potential visitors and offer a credit toward the purchase of anything from your site. Spend time on your e-mail’s look and content: You want to offer value to customers and not have it appear to be spam.
14. Create your own link exchange by asking sites complementary to yours (but that don’t compete) to put your link on their pages and you’ll do likewise.
15. Hook up with Web affiliates—hundreds of sites that all link their traffic to yours—and get visitors from sites with related content.
16. Get active in online discussion groups and chats and always include your URL in your signature. (Don’t do any hard selling, though. Most groups frown on such behavior and will think you’re spamming the group.)
17. Any time someone orders a product from your site, include a catalog with their order to get them coming back for more.
18. Inspire your visitors to spread the word for you with viral marketing techniques, from the aforementioned newsgroup participation to including an “e-mail this link” on every page of your site.
19. Not sure what your customers want? Try creating an online survey to get their crucial opinions on how well your site is selling to them.
20. When creating your own ads, make sure you understand who you’re targeting, the goal of your campaign, and how to creatively use the ad confines to get viewers to click on your ad, not away from it.
21. Use other selling venues like online classified advertising or online auction sites to increase exposure to your site and products.

10 Steps to Building Your Skin Care Marketing Muscle

Marketing your skin care products is crucially important, but these days most skin care companies have less time, fewer resources and often a smaller budget to work with. At the same time, their objectives are as aggressive as ever. What’s the solution?

Here are 10 tips on how to maximize your marketing muscle without increasing your budget.

1. Keep it down. Most small companies operate with annual marketing budgets under $1 million and spend disproportionately on internal resources. A good rule of thumb is that no more than 10 percent of your total marketing budget should be put towards internal resources/overhead. That means if your budget for the year is $400,000, it should be managed by no more than $40,000 in salary. Any time that you spend directly managing these efforts, as well as additional internal costs for benefits, should also be factored into the equation.

2. Buy from brokers. Direct purchasing of some outsourced services (such as printing) is often more expensive than going through a broker. A good broker has the expertise, contacts, buying power and personal relationships to optimize production efficiencies, which results in lower costs for you. Usually, this translates into fewer hassles for you and a higher-quality end product.

3. Negotiate everything. You don’t need to be Coke or Pepsi to have negotiating power in the marketing industry. For example, most advertising/marketing agencies are concerned with securing regular, ongoing work. Ask to see cost differences between project work and a six-month or even one- or two-year contract/retainer (don’t worry about over-commitment, there’s usually a 30-day-out clause). Also consider paying for some services up front. Don’t underestimate the power of “cash flow” to help you secure discounts and/or price breaks.

4. Use other people’s money. Partnering can really pay off. Look to your current vendors/suppliers to see if there are ways to magnify your co-marketing opportunities. Not only do manufacturers and suppliers often have specific budgets available for co-op programs, but you can be creative as well. For example, if a photographer’s bid on a project is too high, ask if he’d be willing to trade some of his fee for a marketing credit in your materials. You’ll be surprised at how far this can stretch your marketing dollar.

5. Tie yourself up. Large consumer brands do it every day, yet it’s amazing how few companies take advantage of tie-in opportunities. Which other non-competitive companies are trying to reach the same target market as you? Open things up for discussion. If the fit is right, you can very quickly multiply your marketing budget by simply aligning yourself with others with similar interests.

6. Be a big fish. You can find a wide range of marketing resources in size and capabilities, from single freelancers working in their basement to multi-billion-dollar conglomerate agencies. Once you’ve found the right size for you, consider going a step smaller. Odds are you’ll still get the resources you need, but lower overhead usually means lower cost to you. It’s OK to be the big fish in an agency roster, just try not to exceed 20 percent of their overall revenues.

7. Befriend the media. If public relations is an important part of your marketing plan, there is a great way to ensure that you’re getting the most for your money. Target the sources you most want and work backwards. For example, contact the editors of the top two or three publications in your industry and ask them what types of articles they’re looking for, what kind of input they want from companies like yours, etc. Building relationships with the media and becoming a contributing “source” can pay dividends down the road when you need to get a certain message out. Editors are also a good source for recommendations if you’re hiring PR resources (as employees or external vendors).

8. Measure yourself. You’re shooting in the dark if you don’t clearly establish evaluation criteria to measure the success of your marketing efforts. Make sure that your criteria are quantifiable and share these yardsticks with your entire marketing team (including other vendors/agencies). Incorporate any feedback that you receive to ensure you have buy-in up front and hold everyone accountable in the end.

9. Go East, young man. If you have the turnaround time required, consider sourcing some of your work overseas. Asia’s very low labor costs make it an attractive resource for production and manufacturing of premiums, and India’s well-educated English-speaking workforce make it a growing hub for customer service/telemarketing and development work (great for your Web site and any interactive materials). Costs can be as little as 10 percent of what you pay in the U.S. for similar products/services.

10. Get others to sell for you. There’s money sitting right in your Rolodex or PDA just waiting to jump into your wallet. Often your contacts, customers and suppliers make great salespeople for your company because they already know (and presumably approve) of what you do. Talk to them about the mutually beneficial opportunities that exist when they act as an agent and/or referral for your company with their network of business/personal contacts. There are several creative ways to provide referral fees or commission structures that would allow you to increase your new business while at the same time helping them build their business.

Quality Links You Can Build Today To Improve Your Skin Care Website Visibility

One of the easiest was to start building links for skin care websites is to submit your site to leading general web directories and directories in your niche.

Don’t just think of directories as being places that accept websites. Some of the best directories represent business partnerships and exist on sites like manufacturers you sell for, local government sites, or your local chamber of commerce.

For example, Google lists some of the most popular Google Checkout business partners
http://www.google.com/checkout/m.html

• Would some of your business partners be willing to link to your site?
• Are there any trade organizations or local business organizations you can join?
• If there are no relevant organizations, could/should you create one?

Web Directories

Here is a list of some of the most well trusted online web directories

• Business.com – $299 per year for commercial listings.
• Yahoo! Directory – $299 per year for commercial listings. Free for non-commercial listings.
• BOTW - one time $299 fee
• JoeAnt – one time $40 fee
• DMOZ – also referred to as the Open Directory Project or ODP. Free submission, but it may take a long time to get listed as it is ran by volunteers.

25 Tips for Marketing Skin Care Blogs

With so many skin care brands, skin care blogs are being created every day, it’s a mystery to many skin care bloggers how to make their blog stand out. There are many types of blogs or purposes for blogs and a certain number of tactics are applicable to just about all of them. Some skin care companies choose to hire a blog consultant, but others like to try things internally. For those skin care companies and individuals interested in practical tips for marketing and optimizing a skin care business blog, try out the following list of blog marketing and optimization tips:

1. Decide on a standalone domain name www.myblog.com or directory of existing site www.mysite.com/blog. Sub domain is also an option blog.mysite.com. Avoid hosted services that do not allow you to use your own domain name!
2. Obtain and install customizable blog software – WordPress and Moveable Type are my favorites.
3. Customize blog look and feel templates – aka design.
4. Research keywords and develop a glossary – Keyword Discovery, WordTracker, SitePoint, SEOBook Keyword Research.
5. Optimize the blog:
   • Template optimization – RSS subscription options, social bookmark links, HTML code, Unique title tags, URLs, Sitemap
   • Add helper plugins specific to WordPress or MT
   • Create keyword rich categories (reference your keyword glossary)
6. Enable automatic trackback and ping functionality.
7. Create Feedburner Pro account and enable feed tracking.
8. Setup a Google account for Sitemap, validate and prep for future submission.
9. Identify authoritative blogs, web sites and hubs for outbound resource links and blogroll.
10. Format archived posts, related posts.
11. Enable statistics for tracking – Google Analytics, ClickTracks.
12. Submit RSS feed and Blog URL to prominent RSS and Blog directories / search engines.
13. Engage in an ongoing link building campaign.
14. If podcast or video content are available, submit to Podcast and Vlog directories.
15. Submit blog url to paid directories with categories for blogs – Yahoo, BOTW, bCentral, WOW, JoeAnt.
16. Optimize and distribute a press release announcing blog.
17. Request feedback or reviews of your blog in relevant forums, discussion threads. If you have a resourceful post that will help others, point to it.
18. Research and comment on relevant industry related blogs and blogs with significant centers of influence.
19. Post regularly. If it’s a news oriented blog, 3-5 times per day. If it’s an authoritative blog, 3-5 times per week, but each post must be unique and high value.
20. Monitor inbound links, traffic, comments and mentions of your blog – Google Alerts, Technorati, Blogpulse, Yahoo News, Ask Blogs and Feeds.
21. Always respond to comments on your blog and when you detect a mention of your blog on another blog, thank that blogger in the comments of the post.
22. Make contact with related bloggers on AND offline if possible.
23. When making blog posts always cite the source with a link and don’t be afraid to mention popular bloggers by name. Use keywords in the blog post title, in the body of the post and use anchor text when you link to previous posts you’ve made.
24. Use social networking services, forums and discussion threads to connect with other bloggers. If they like your stuff, they will link to you.
25. Remember when web sites were a new concept and the sage advice to print your web address everywhere you print your phone number? The same advice applies for your blog.
    If your blog’s goal is to promote you as an authority, interview other prominent bloggers in your industry. Your own credibility will improve by association.
26. Build out your online networks through services such as MyBlogLog, Twitter and Facebook and leverage them to promote particularly useful content on your blog.
27. Once your blog has 1000 or more subscribers, show your Feedburner badge
28. Host images with Flickr making sure to include an anchor text link in the image description back to the post where the image is used.
29. Use your blog to gain press/media credentials at relevant industry conferences and use the event to create content, connections and increase your knowledge.

Skin Care Marketing – A Shift Toward Simplicity Impacts Skin Care

The economic turmoil that has continued into 2009 has greatly intensified consumers’ anxiety, and the end does not seem near. The most important implication we anticipate is more evidence of how consumers will learn to cope. Consumers will be increasingly prone to relishing simple pleasures—re-evaluating their priorities and revising their purchasing habits accordingly. The economic realities will bear real incentives for consumers to discover novel ways of enjoying what they have, rather than the uncontrolled, conspicuous consumption of the last decade.   At the annual National Retail Federation convention, former Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott warned against expecting a buying spree when the economy starts to recover. He noted that consumers are giving up habits such as eating out and shopping, but there is one difference about this recession compared to the past: consumers are talking about how good they feel about their own pullback in spending.

In our caseload at LPK, we’ve observed that many consumers are also beginning to re-examine their skin care habits, and Gen-Y consumers will continue to drive the anti-consumerism movement, purchasing only what is truly essential or even making their own skin care formulations. Gen-X consumers will spend with caution, perhaps looking for discounts or incentives or innovative offerings like hybrid or multi-use products. A growing number of baby boomers will postpone visits to a cosmetic surgeon in favor of less-expensive fixes such as Botox, Reloxin (a new Botox rival), products such as the NV Perricone Light Renewal Therapy or stronger topical treatments instead. From this adversity will flow opportunity. Well-managed manufacturers of skin care products will have the cash flow to continue their focus on innovation and research.

For some skin care brands, the guiding principle will be the performance/price ratio; i.e., Which products and services in a given offering (premium, mid-tier or value) provide the most capacity for real performance at a reasonable price? How can the performance component be emphasized without drastically raising the cost? According to an Information Resources, Inc. (IRI) report titled, “Shopper in Crisis” (Nov. 6, 2008), 52% of consumers at all income levels said they tried to make personal care products last longer. Will manufacturers create more concentrated skin care products, similar to what’s happened with laundry detergents? Will larger sizes be demanded by consumers in an attempt to cut down on shopping trips and get a better price per ounce?

As consumers look for shopping strategies, what will they seek out? Will they be looking for skin care products with ingredients that are comforting and familiar to them, perhaps those with good-for-you ingredients like vegetables from the produce aisle?

Spinach appeared as an ingredient in two beauty products in 2007. This year it appears in at least 10—including CosMedix Purity Clean Exfoliating Cleanser and MAC Studio Moisture Cream.  Will consumers buy more multi-use products because they are starting to question if they really need all of those products in their bathroom? Lush’s Seanik Solid Shampoo is one multitasker that can be used for hair and body, Revolution Organics’ All-Over Body Balm touts more than 20 uses, and Philosophy offers a high-foaming shampoo, shower gel and bubble bath in one SKU.

Multitasking products deliver on many manifestations of value: saving money, time and/or space (in bathroom/shower) and reducing environmental footprints. Consumers are exhibiting more support for the environment, a positive side effect during this recessionary time, than during any other time in history. Consumers are proud to proclaim, “I’m saving money and being greener.” Skin care manufacturers that downsize packaging and pass the cost savings on to the consumer or increase the use of biodegradable/recyclable packaging could attract elusive buyers.

What will manufacturers learn during this recession? Will manufacturers with a narrow portfolio of products outpace market averages because they are easier to sustain than a larger portfolio of products? The strategy seems to be working for Beiersdorf AG. A recent news release indicated that its three major brands—Nivea, Eucerin and La Prairie—had achieved double-digit growth on a worldwide basis. Will we see a resurgence of dormant brands or products that don’t advertise often and/or don’t get frequent media attention? One product that has made its way back into the headlines is Unilever’s Vaseline brand. A recent Superdrug poll conducted with 2,000 British women, published in the Telegraph, named Vaseline Petroleum Jelly the number one beauty product women cannot live without. The study surmises that the reason this simple petroleum-based moisturizer is tops is because it is a familiar, trusted, reliable brand with an inexpensive price tag. Another notion to consider during this downturn is whether to focus more on offerings and engaging the customer in grocery stores or online stores such as Amazon.com and Drugstore.com, which have been reporting solid revenue growth of late.

A Matter of Self-reliance

According to IRI, many U.S. shoppers are settling into self-reliance strategies to save money—45% of shoppers earning $35,000–54,000 annually agree with the statement, “I go to hair salons or spas less often.” Those in higher income brackets are also spending differently than before. According to a recent Forbes article, “How The Luxury Consumer Will Spend in 2009,” these consumers will seek concentrated, high-potency and increased-efficacy products that may also have a social or ecological benefit.

P&G’s Olay is one brand with a strategy to lure luxury brand shoppers with its new Olay Professional Pro-X line—squarely positioned as a professional skin care line for the mass market. Starting at $42, it has been called “a savvy buy in a down economy” by beauty care analysts due, in part, to its trusted brand name among consumers. The Pro-X line is the brand’s most potent formula, utilizing a proprietary peptide ingredient for increased hydration and to help build collagen and elastin. Olay is betting on the credibility of its authority and the three years of development, which included a panel of beauty experts and skin care professionals in dermatologic practice, for success with the Pro-X line.

A Global Issue

Skin care is taking a beating around the globe due to the financial crisis. Europeans are scrutinizing prices more closely, reining in their spending. In the U.K., for example, decreased skin care sales in back-to-back months has been the trend. The British are stating that they are taking this opportunity to look back on the austere postwar years with pride.

In addition, foot traffic in European and U.S. department stores is decreasing dramatically, and retailers are reassessing their product offerings—while customers are thinking harder about what products provide the best value. Asia is fairing the best, enjoying surging growth in recent years—after its own financial crisis—that has expanded the ranks of middle-class consumers. Asian consumers are being cautious and tightening the purse strings on luxuries, but have generally done a better job of budgeting and have less credit card debt than the West. In South Korea, estimates indicate that as many as 30% of women aged 20 to 50 had surgical or non-surgical cosmetic procedures in 2008, but these procedures are currently experiencing a decline. Although research indicates that Asians save anywhere from 40–70% of their salaries, job losses, forced retirement and pay freezes/reductions are affecting these consumers as well. In an attempt to decrease the impact on the economy, some Asian countries have provided economic stimulus vouchers to their neediest citizens.

Alternate Strategies

For retailers, private label consumer packaged goods continue to be a strategy to gain market share, and private label brands continue to evolve in their sophistication and availability. Private label options do provide good quality at a good value; however, trusted brands provide certainty in terms of expected product quality through time-tested research and technology.

Skin care brands that will experience sustainable growth will be those that bond and form allegiances with consumers that are more than skin deep—the value proposition must be real, authentic and honest. With continuing revelations of corporate and political greed and misdeeds, cynical consumers are demanding consistency, accountability and authenticity. This will be a difficult barrier to overcome since some manufacturers will still have to create breakthrough products with some degree of restricted resources—a reduced workforce, frozen or slashed advertising budgets, or other outcomes of the economic crisis. The strong will survive—the brands that have longevity are backed by companies with flawless reputations for how they are managed financially, how they treat their employees and their level of responsibility as genuine corporate citizens. Skin care brands will need to work overtime to prove they are authentic; a fleeting change in tactics or simply dusting off the last recession playbook is not going to suffice. There must be a profound, strategic shift that builds closer, stronger relationships with consumers that will survive long after the recession subsides.

Skin Care Business Marketing on Mobile – Mobile Marketing and Advertising

The world we live in gets easily bored and craves novelty. Smart skin care marketers look for new ways to put a twist on old standby marketing and advertising techniques. Marketing through television and radio channels has been done to death and has more nuisance value than anything else as far as the audience is concerned.

For skin care marketers seeking new ways and means to expand their reach anywhere their prospects are – the future is here. Smart skin care marketers and advertisers create a personal touch in their ad campaigns. This is one of the reasons why mobile advertising is rapidly increasing in popularity as an effective marketing tool for the skin care industry. And the astonishing use of mobile devices leveraged this trend.

There are over 1.5 billion mobile phone users worldwide according to the International Telecommunications Union with the highest growth percentage coming from emerging economies like China, Russia and India. The US has about 200 million mobile subscribers. Skin care marketers are tapping into the potential to reach their prospects as they’re on the move. Mobile devices are practically a permanent attachment for people under age 34.

Mobile Advertising is delivered in a number of formats. Text messaging, mobile internet advertising and mobile radio advertising are some of the common advertising formats. Out of these, text messaging (SMS) is the most widely used format.

According to the joint Mobile Advertising Report (MAR) released by Limbo and GfK Technology, text message usage is about 74% in India, 48% in the UK and 22% in the US. Projections predict in the near future mobile internet advertising will surpass text message advertising (FierceWireless).

In June 2008, Nokia launched the Nokia Advertising Alliance that aims to make mobile advertising easier for advertisers. This particular program includes services like providing marketing strategies, geographic targeting and related technologies to enhance customer captivation. Now advertisers can work in conjunction with Nokia to expand the coverage of mobile advertising with emerging mobile technologies for more powerful ad promotions.

The best part about mobile marketing for the skin care industry is mobile devices are more heavily used than traditional PCs. Mobile skin care advertisements are delivered to the customer no matter where they are. Even with these advantages, mobile advertising is still in its “early adopter” stages with a long way to go. The main obstacles are in the form of data tariff structures, handset and mobile internet interactivity and quality of subject matter.

Like the early days of the Internet, there are more advertisers than quality content. Add to that an acute lack of tools to assess the performance of mobile ad campaigns. Even though most of these difficulties will be solved in the future, mobile advertising will still face competition from other advertising and marketing methods. Google, Microsoft and Nokia are the prominent players in mobile advertising. The future holds a huge potential in terms of revenues from mobile marketing spend.

According to a report released by Informa Telecoms & Media, it is estimated that marketing on mobile will generate USD 1.72 billion in 2008 and will rise to USD 12 billion in 2013. The report also advocates the use of banner ads as an effective tool in mobile advertising. The report highlights the significance of focusing on the long run and not the short term stumbling blocks.

Yahoo jumped on the bandwagon in June 2008 when it partnered with Publicis to integrate Publicis mobile advertising agency (PhoneValley) with Yahoo’s mobile developer platform language (Blueprint). The partnership is aimed at developing brands, reaching customers and maximizing sales through new techniques. It also aims to initiate cutting edge advertising strategies in the future.

Since the potential market for mobile advertising is huge, a few companies are exploring new horizons and expanding in new territory. For example, Millenial Media Inc., is venturing into Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Millenial develops ads for cell-phones and mobiles. Its CEO Paul Palmieri says “There is a tremendous growth opportunity for advertising on mobile on a global basis, as evidenced by a rich and active mobile direct marketing industry, as well as surging demand from top brand advertisers.”

The media industry and brand advertisers are slowly catching on and making use of mobile advertising to increase market penetration for the skin care industry. Mobile advertising has added support from applications like ringtones and pictures. Bluetooth advertising is also growing in popularity. Here, a company can advertise its products or services over a fixed area.

The three major search engines: Yahoo, Google and Microsoft have already realized the potential and the possibilities of the mobile advertising market. MSN uses banner ads on MSN mobile pages. Earlier MSN’s mobile advertising was confined to countries like France, Japan, Spain and UK. Recently it expanded coverage to include the US. Google also launched mobile image ads. When the cell phone browser is opened these image ads are displayed on the screen. However, the ad size is much smaller as compared to those for web pages. These image ads are connected to a web page and they follow the price-per-click model Google AdWords uses.

Advertising on mobile is one of best forms of mass medium advertising. It’s personal, and has a wider reach than any other form of advertising. It’s still early to comment on exactly how big or how successful it will prove to be. However, by all indicators “the future’s so bright you gotta wear shades.”

The predictions about the future revenues generated through mobile advertising optimistic. A skin care brand advertiser, a mobile advertising company and the consumer will have different perceptions of mobile marketing. However, advertising on mobile also comes with its fair share of drawbacks. Mobile ads are sometimes viewed as another form of spam and the advertisers as spammers. To resolve this issue, there are programs developed to give subscribers free talk-time for performing certain activities related to viewing ads. As far as the opinions of consumers are concerned, it’s a mixed bag. This is because people are simply not accustomed to being paid to view ads. Even if they are paid to view them, many still view the ads as a nuisance. It doesn’t make sense for the advertiser to pay a consumer to view ads if there are no conversions.

The debate continues. In the end the mighty dollar will decide. Most everyone agrees mobile advertising is here to stay.

Skin Care Marketing and Advertising Mistakes to Avoid

The terms “marketing” and “advertising” seem to overlap in the minds of most Americans. However, marketing and advertising are actually two distinct processes, where marketing is the process with a broader scope. However, the two processes do correspond in many ways and do overlap in actual practice. The process of advertising for instance can benefit from typical marketing processes especially during pre-phase advertisement stages. The marriage of marketing and advertisement is a powerful combination that can yield significant ROI for skin care companies.

Four Reasons Advertising Can Fail and Why “Marketing in combination with Advertising” is More Effective for Skin Care Companies

According to an online article, 10 Rules for More Effective Advertising, there are numerous ways that even ad professionals can knowingly or unknowingly make a flop of an advertisement campaign for skin care.

Some of the unfortunate techniques include the following:

1. Using information presented in an A-Z format, without interlacing the information in a story that people can relate to.
2. Not being explicit about the purpose of the advertisement. Subtle advertisements aren’t necessarily a good thing. Advertisers should make the call to action apparent.
3. Failing to “speak” to the emotions of viewers. According to the article, “There are eight basic, universal emotions – joy, surprise, anticipation, acceptance, fear, anger, sadness, and disgust.” The article also states that, “An added bonus is that successful emotional appeals limit the number of exposures required for audiences to understand, learn, and respond to the calls to action – people may only need to see emotionally compelling scenes once and they will remember those scenes for a lifetime.”
4. Using inferences and conclusions that are too complex. Advertisements are not meant to be complex. Otherwise the convenience of advertisement wouldn’t be convenient any longer, would it?

I would also add that a big marketing and advertising “no, no” is avoiding the foundational element of market research for skin care businesses. Without market research, an advertising agency may even bypass the advertising mistakes mentioned above and still fail to stimulate action among a specific audience.

Market Research: Start a Marketing Advertising Campaign for the skin care industry the Right Way

An advertiser doesn’t have to be a marketer to realize that knowing his or her audience (i.e. his or her market) is effective for better advertisements. Besides avoiding the mistakes mentioned above, advertisers or marketing advertising experts need to know their market as thoroughly as their budget and energies will allow, as some commercials (even with all the recommended elements) may fail to stimulate an audience to action. Take the Burger King “Herb the Nerd” commercial (see MSNBC’s 10 Worst Super Bowl Ads of All Time) as an example of what doesn’t work. The commercial, (though it may have contained most of the requirements inversely inferred in the list above), was a complete flog since many of those who viewed the commercial were annoyed by the actor who played Herb the Nerd and were perhaps also uncomfortable with the emotions that the commercial tried to evoke in the first place. With a bit more market research perhaps Burger King’s agency could have avoided a million dollar fiasco.

Even amateur marketers and advertisers are aware that market research can be extremely valuable but many are not willing to expend the time and effort it takes to find a successful direction for a  commercial. Especially since marketers may have a sneaking suspicion that even when viewers say they like one commercial, they might actually respond more readily (or emotionally) to another commercial. Market research, according to allbusiness.com can be conducted with any or all of the following techniques:

• Surveys
• Focus Groups
• Personal Interviews
• Observation
• Field Trials

Market research can also include a history of the skin care company’s own advertising projects. Campaigns that were responded to well in the past may simply need a remake.

A Final Check on the list for Skin Care Marketing Advertising Techniques

After all is said and done it seems that the humor and the simplicity of an advertisement can contribute to a major commercial success. 8 The Windex Birds Commercial9 may be a good example of humor and simplicity for the Windex buying audience.

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