You might know her for her song, or dashing cutting edge style, or even her sensational performance on screen, but a bigger part of Rihanna most often pushed aside for the glam part is her smart business acumen.
Goosh, this woman is smart, and when you want to talk about celebrities that have been able to blend their personalities with their business sides, no one does it quite like Rihanna.
She is the face and brain of her billion-dollar brand, FENTY and she isn’t letting you forget it anytime soon, neither am I.
So, let’s dive right into her genius content marketing strategies amongst other groundbreaking marketing skills she uses for her beauty brand, FENTY BEAUTY.
- Preview content: For her Fenty releases, Rihanna will usually release a product preview video about the beauty item she’s releasing. Here she talks about the ingredients used in making the products, the benefits, how it ties into their sustainability and vegan values, how it makes your sin looks etc. So, literally, as the consumer, you know what you’re buying before it hits the shelf, she has built anticipation for the product with you, you’re looking forward to it already etc.
- Influencer marketing: Here’s a truth you need to know, influencer marketing isn’t going anywhere, anytime soon, they deliver for brands, and that’s because people trust people than they trust brands. Think of it this way, as a customer, will you buy based on the recommendation of your friend or a billboard you see on the road? I’m sure your friend’s recommendation flies higher right? Exactly, and that’s the same thing that happens when you use influencers, they already have an audience base that trusts them and you as a brand are coming in to tap into their audience base to sell your products.
For Fenty, Rihanna distributes her products to various influencers on all platforms, weeks before it’s released for sale. Everywhere you go, I’m sure you’ll see a Fenty review, these influencers on Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, Facebook, or Tiktok will use these products on camera, review it, give you their opinions and share them how you can get it. It works all the time, that’s why the products sell out immediately they’re released. She leverages on influencers (more on influencer marketing coming up soon).
- Email Marketing/Pre-order List: Here’s a secret you need to get on board with, sell-outs are made possible with emails pre-order list. Not sure how it works, well let me clarify that for you here. The first thing you always want to do when you have a new customer is to get their name and email details, even if they don’t buy from you the first encounter, give them a redeemable discount code they can always use later in exchange for their information. Then follow up with welcome messages that build a connection with them, introduce them to yourself and your brand. This relationship you’re building ensures that when you have product releases ahead, you can always start your prelaunch activities with your email. Start with an educational content exclusive look into your production floor, discounts, special invites, etc. If you properly do these, I bet you, your products can be sold out even before you launch. Rihanna does it with Fenty, Kylie Jenner does it with her releases and many more brands.
Just the application of these 3 strategies is guaranteed to shoot up your brand sales like never before, it works for a billion-dollar brand, so why not yours?. Look for ways to contextualize these strategies for your brand, create educational content that tells people what they’re buying, the ingredients, the benefits and what they’ll be losing out on if they don’t buy it. Engage influencers in your product launches and re-engage your email list to sell out with pre-orders.
Which of these strategies are you applying immediately for your brand?