🎧 In the latest DTC pod episode, we got more than skin deep with Danielle Gronich "The Acne Guru" and Kayleigh Christina, founders of CLEARSTEM Skincare.
CLEARSTEM is a next-generation anti-aging and anti-acne skincare line that utilizes the power of stem cells with no hormone disruptors or toxins. This fast-growing brand has also won multiple beauty awards and been featured in Forbes, Poosh, Entrepreneur, Buzzfeed, The Zoe Report, Refinery 29, and more.
In this podcast, you’ll learn why doing things that don’t scale in the beginning can make you more successful later and the power of podcast appearances for building a cult following.
The Takeaways 👇
📈 Education: start scrappy, then scale:
Since the beginning, Danielle and Kayleigh have focused on growing the brand with free value.
Even their original influencer strategy was focused on education, offering one-on-one skincare advice and free products–without asking for anything in return.
“We truly just exchanged value for products. Those early-day influencers [have] ended up being our biggest ambassadors now.”
But as they’ve grown, they’ve had to scale past one-on-one efforts. Here’s what they do now to continue to offer free value:
- Purely educational email flows
- IG Lives where customers can ask questions
- Free masterclasses/webinars on a topic, end with a Q&A
They’ve also built an educational course, called Ditch Your Acne, that they often use as a cross-sell, upsell, discounted offer, or even as a free gift (no overhead! 👌).
“I would highly suggest to any brand out there that has education around your product…build some type of a course.”
🎙️ Building a cult following with podcasts:
Podcast appearances have become a major part of their marketing strategy.
“We would see a massive increase in sales every time we were on a podcast.”
Makes sense. It’s a platform where they can share their story, educate, and provide immediate value to listeners – which has helped them grow quite the cult following.
💡 Danielle and Kayleigh also dropped one gold nugget of podcasting advice you should know about:
Running ads on a podcast that you haven’t been interviewed on might be a waste of money.
Podcast ads are notoriously tricky and take time and money before they pay off (if they ever do). When you run your ads on a show you’ve been on, the audience is more familiar with your brand and thus, the ads are often much more successful.
Solid advice!
💰 What Danielle & Kayleigh would do with an extra $50K:
They would devote the $ to booking two major “perfect fit” podcasts, as well as scaling Pinterest and TikTok.
Aaaaand they might also spend some of it figuring out how to party with Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively.
PS: CLEARSTEAM is looking for a Head of Growth, as well as a role for Projections/Supply Chain. If you think you’re a good fit, shoot them an email at hello@clearsteamskincare.com!
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