Blogger Spotlight: Malika Isles, The Beauty Run

The Beauty Run was created in 2016 by Digital PR Specialist Malika Isles. Conceived as a platform to inspire and empower women through fashion and beauty, The Beauty Run is a blog and online boutique aimed at females on the go. In this spotlight, Malika, who recently featured in ‘11 blogs you need to follow in 2017‘, explains how working in PR has an influence on her content and working with PRs, how she engages with her readers, and reveals her plans for the future. 

The Beauty Run blog was created after the launch of The Beauty Run Boutique, an affordable online destination for women inspired by the catwalk. What inspired you to create The Beauty Run brand?  I’ve always wanted something of my own, and always had an entrepreneurial spirit. It’s funny, because the idea came to me as I was writing my dissertation back in early 2014 and it all just clicked. As a young twenty something year old who didn’t have much money at the time, and a lover of all things luxury, I realised that there was a real gap in the market for things I would see on the catwalk vs what I’d see on the high street; especially accessories. The ‘beauty’ signified the desire to find objects of beauty, and ‘run’ signified fast and quickly.

Since then, after launching the blog the brand has evolved so much. Writing has always come naturally and I realised I wanted to do so much more than just sell products to customers on a superficial level. I wanted the brand to empower women and make sure they strive for beauty both inside and out. Inspiring women to be the best possible versions of themselves was key – so now we aim to serve all things beautiful (‘beauty’) to women on the go (‘run’) through fashion, beauty and of course lifestyle.

Blogging is a very competitive market now. How do you make your content stand out in comparison to other beauty, lifestyle and fashion bloggers? I think standing out is all about creating content that resonates with your reader. You know, content that your reader may have experienced, thought or felt. For example, I wrote a post titled ‘Why you should wear the same outfit twice’, which struck a chord with a lot of our readers. There’s such a stigma attached to being seen wearing the same dress more than once with women, and I wanted to turn it on its head and basically let everyone know it’s more than ok! I think authenticity and keeping it real is the best way to stand out within the market.

Last year you attended the Bloggers Summer Hangout. What opportunities have been presented to you through blogging? The Beauty Run has opened up so many doors, and I’m so grateful. I’ve done collaborations with brands, reviewed products, been to events, and went to London Fashion Week. I’ve also been presented with opportunities to interview founders of brands such as cosmetic line MDM Flow and the fashion brand Mamas Boutique.

How do you define the success of your blog? Do you do this through the level of engagement with your audience or unique visits? Success for me is more than just about numbers. In this day and age, everything is a numbers game – from followers to page views. Although I do look at unique visits as a gauge, success for me is knowing we touched someone. So DMs, tweets, emails or even comments letting me know that someone enjoyed a post or was inspired by something we put out means so much more to me than just page views. How engaged our readers are is definitely key.

Aside from blogging, you also work as a Digital PR Specialist. How does this influence the content on your blog? Working in digital PR definitely influences the content on my blog. From a news point of view, as a PR specialist I know the types of stories or topics that are relevant or that would get a lot of interest from audiences in terms of both topic and style. However, I would say that working in digital PR has more so helped the way I run my blog – from knowing how to approach PRs I’m interested in working with for the blog, to understanding how campaigns work, and even what may be expected from a PR in a post I’m working on. Working on both sides of the fence has definitely helped.

How much planning, research and preparation do you need to execute your content marketing plan? I do have to do a lot of planning, research and preparation to execute my content marketing plan. I probably spend about five hours a week sourcing or creating images, scheduling tweets, planning the Instagram feed – making sure that the messages are all consistent with The Beauty Run brand. I probably spend another 5-8 hours a week researching topics to cover on the blog and writing up or editing posts. I try and keep a brainstorm of blog post ideas at the ready just in case I’m feeling less creative than usual.

It is becoming increasingly common for social influencers to pay for followers. What are your thoughts on this? A lot of social influencers feel they have to have large numbers in order for brands to want to work with them. I genuinely don’t agree with doing this, as brands can see right through this. If your follower numbers are high, and your engagement levels are ridiculously low it doesn’t add up. It’s best to be authentic and produce great content.

Are you open to working with PRs and marketers? What has been your experience with this so far? As a Digital PR Specialist by day, I’m more than open to working with PRs and marketers as long as the content/product fits the feel and look of my blog, and of course if it’s of interest to my audience. I genuinely feel as though it’s a two-way relationship – bloggers need PRs just as much as PRs need them – so I definitely look at it as a two-way relationship that should be respected both ways. I’m always happy to receive intros and pitches!

Where do you see your blogging leading you in the future? What is your ultimate goal with blogging? I’d like to eventually get to a point of having a full team of bloggers writing for the website. Long term, I’d love for the website to become a leading online destination for all women interested in fashion, lifestyle and beauty. Eventually, I also want to expand the boutique, selling more products. Another thing close to my heart is inspiring women to become the best versions of themselves, so would love to host some events and workshops in the future. So all in all, quite a lot!

The Beauty Run also encourages contributors to write for the blog. Is there any advice that you would like to share with any PRs who would like to work with you or aspiring bloggers? Advice I’d give to PRs who would like to work with me, would simply be to make an effort to establish a relationship – whether that’s over a coffee or a short intro prior to pitching. As I said before, building a relationship is key and works wonders. Also, actually taking the time out to read the content on the website is key. Happy to receive pitch emails so long as it fits the feel of the blog.

To aspiring bloggers wanting to write for us, I’d say is be passionate, and know how to communicate this well through your writing. We’ll actually be taking on some bloggers next month, so keep a look out or email in if you’re interested.