In a time when cosmetic brands barely had enough foundation and concealer tones to match half the skin tones of ‘real people,’ Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty came in like a storm.
Launched in 2017, Fenty was a much-needed change. They offered 40 different shades to match many skin tones. The goal was to give Black women and women of color the makeup options they never had before.
Fenty has always emphasized inclusion, and they’ve aced this aspect of makeup. It has even prompted other major brands to diversify their products in response. And if you visit their social media accounts, you’ll see just how fierce Fenty’s marketing strategy is, considering the active posting and millions of followers.
In this blog, we’ll dive into Fenty’s social media strategy.
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Fenty Beauty came in strong and continues to maintain its top spot among make-up and skincare brands. Their social media accounts likewise have millions of followers and tons of interesting, relevant content.
Here are the total followers Fenty has on their main accounts:
- Instagram: 12.7 million
- Facebook: 1 million
- Twitter: 799.7K
- LinkedIn: 3K
- TikTok: 2.6 million
- YouTube: 906K
Rihanna also promotes Fenty Beauty across her main social media accounts. Since Rihanna’s Instagram has 152 million followers, Fenty Beauty’s social media campaigns reach even further.
The best part about Fenty Beauty is that the brand’s success does not solely rely on Rihanna’s tremendous star power. While that undoubtedly propelled the brand into the limelight, the quality and diversity of their makeup and skincare products is what won people over.
And Fenty’s content marketing strategy is a beauty to behold, pun intended. The millions of followers across all their social media accounts are given tons of phenomenal content that keeps them engaged and wanting more.
Fenty’s approach to online marketing makes use of the following key features.
1. Celebrating diversity in all their content
Fenty’s content marketing strategy stays true to the brand’s goal of being inclusive and celebrating diversity. Their ads, posters, and campaigns feature women of all ethnicities. One look at their Instagram page, for example, shows how they have a different makeup formulation for each skin tone.
Fenty promotes diversity on their social media not just in skin tones but also in body types and genders. For example, they often feature men using their makeup. This helps strike a chord with diverse audiences, drawing them in.
2. Including user-generated content
Fenty’s social media strategy makes use of a lot of user-generated content. Keeping with the brand’s tone, their content is trendy, youthful, and playful. It helps them add to the social proof of people using and appreciating their products.
User-generated content also makes their social media accounts more engaging and relatable to audiences and leads to tons of positive interaction.
3. Leveraging freebies and giveaways
Fenty’s marketing strategy uses contests and giveaways across all their social media accounts. Their Twitter account, for example, is always abuzz with some prize to be won or a contest that draws audiences in, prompting them to eagerly take part in the contests.
And they use holidays and themed events to ensure their contests are trending and on topic. Take their National Chocolate Day-themed “Boo Basket” giveaway, for example. The tweet encouraged audiences to follow, like, and comment, leading to 500k+ impressions and thousands of comments.
4. Sharing content in diverse formats
If Nike’s social media strategy is brilliant in the sports sector, Fenty’s content game is undefeated across a multitude of formats in beauty. They use reels, static posts, videos, shorts, carousels, polls, text-based posts, product ads, story highlights, and retweets.
Fenty’s content marketing strategy is evenly spread across different formats where there’s always something engaging for each person. They maintain their position as a prestigious and luxurious makeup brand by posting on various platforms.
For example, they often post on LinkedIn, a business networking platform, to reach their target audience and grab more eyeballs.
They even have a LinkedIn page called Savage x Fenty — their retail and fashion sister brand, which has over 50,000 followers. Even with a considerable following, Fenty’s marketing strategy makes them relatable and accessible to audiences.
5. Creating engaging and interactive content
Engaging and appealing content is at the core of Fenty’s social media strategy. Take their YouTube channel, for instance. They have tons of videos that feature tutorials, tips and tricks, and product updates.
This content appeals to anyone interested in makeup and beauty and keeps audiences hooked to their social media accounts. Using social listening, Fenty’s content marketing strategy focuses on trending topics and themes in videos and posts that also have utility and real-world application.
6. Using celebrity partnerships
Needless to say, Rihanna herself is an icon and the biggest celebrity factor behind Fenty Beauty. But her brand does not stop at just using her fame and clout. Fenty Beauty frequently collaborates with other celebrities, influencers, and noteworthy brands.
For example, on YouTube, several tutorials Fenty features are by other influencers and celebrities, helping the brand use its audiences. Kidd Kenn, who himself has thousands of followers on Instagram and YouTube, did a Fenty Face Tutorial that got 36,000+ views.
7. Posting regular product updates
As a beauty and skincare brand, Fenty Beauty meticulously posts updates on its products and new launches. They ensure people know when a new product drops. Their advertising and marketing campaigns online focus on millennials and Gen Z audiences.
Where product updates are concerned, Fenty’s social media strategy is consistent across all their accounts. Since they exclusively sell at Sephora, Harvey Nichols, and chemist Boots UK, these outlets also promote Fenty launches on their social media accounts. And, as they are very tuned into social media trends, they incorporate viral themes in their updates.
8. Showing that they care
Fenty Beauty has been an industry champion for inclusion and diversity. The Clara Lionel Foundation (founded by Rihanna in honor of her grandparents), spreads awareness and raises funds for climate change and education. What’s more, this is a worldwide initiative.
Fenty’s marketing strategy promotes its social initiatives and campaigns on its online platforms, showing people that they care. These updates also help people understand their work and how they can contribute, leading to engagement.
Fenty has nailed their social media strategy to keep themselves current and trending. They reach millions of audiences worldwide with their many social media accounts and engaging posts.
Let’s see how that translates to actual engagement.
1. Fenty Beauty on Instagram
Fenty Beauty has 12.7 million followers on Instagram, and they keep this huge number occupied with multiple posts per day. For example, in the past month, they posted 60 times, leading to a ginormous 1,243,605 number of engagements.
Their National Chocolate Day post featuring a giveaway contest had the most engagements, at 59,714. With Halloween in October, this post’s clever marketing of ‘boobaskets’ added to the audience’s appeal and interest.
2. Fenty Beauty on Facebook
Considering their target audience is mostly Gen-Z and millennials, Fenty does not focus their social media strategy on Facebook. In fact, in the last year, they’ve posted just 40 times. But even so, they garnered a total of 51,555 engagements in this period.
3. Fenty Beauty on YouTube
Fenty Beauty’s YouTube game is strong. Their videos and shorts have a total of 144.60 million views. They post regularly, focussing more on quality and relevance. In the past month, they posted 16 times and landed a total of 413,406 engagements. This proves how effective Fenty’s content marketing strategy is.
Fenty Beauty’s video promoting their oil blotting product has the most views at 7.3 million. The catchy and playful tagline makes it tempting to click on and view.
4. Fenty Beauty on Twitter
Fenty Beauty is active and responsive, particularly on Twitter. They have an almost equal balance of replies and tweets, with text-based posts being their most frequent media type.
While videos only make up 13% of the media types they post, Fenty’s content marketing strategy is very effective here. Videos are the most engaging media type, giving them an average of 1,964 engagements per video.
In the six years since Fenty Beauty launched, the brand has revolutionized makeup and skincare, forcing other leading brands to up their game. Their social media presence covers all major platforms, and they excel at marketing themselves.
The salient features of Fenty’s marketing strategy are:
- Using social listening, monitoring, and social media tracking to create and curate content that is relevant and trending
- Staying true to promoting and celebrating diversity and inclusion across all their social media platforms by featuring models of different ethnicities, genders, and backgrounds
- Posting a variety of engaging content, including giveaways, user-generated videos and reels, theme-based marketing, and influencer partnerships
Is your audience primarily Gen Z or millennials? Does your product and service have a more universal appeal?
You, too, can excel at social media marketing with access to savvy tools and nifty reports that can save you up to 6 hours each week.
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