Latest / The Marketing Funnel Podcast with Fexingo: Awareness, Interest, Decision, and Action Stages / How Glossier Built a Marketing Funnel on User-Generated Content
Transcript
- Lucas: So Glossier. At its peak, it was valued at one point eight billion dollars — a direct to consumer beauty brand that basically rewrote the rules on how you build awareness and interest without a traditional ad budget. And the engine was user-generated content. Luna: Which sounds obvious now — everyone talks about UGC — but Glossier did it in a way that made the customer feel like a co-creator, not just a billboard. Lucas: Exactly. And it started before Glossier even existed. The founder, Emily Weiss, launched a blog called Into The Gloss in 2010. It wasn't a brand — it was interviews with interesting women about their beauty routines. Think 'The Top Shelf' series, where someone like Karlie Kloss or a random dermatologist would show you their medicine cabinet. Luna: Right — you got access to real products they actually used. No sponsored posts, no affiliate links at first. Just genuine curiosity. Lucas: And that built trust. By 2014, Into The Gloss was getting over a million unique visitors a month. Weiss had a direct line to a highly engaged audience that was already having conversations about what they wanted from beauty products. So when she launched Glossier in 2014 with just four products — a cleanser, a moisturizer, a face mist, and a balm — she didn't need a big launch campaign. She just asked her readers what they wished existed. Luna: That's the top of the funnel — awareness — but it's organic and it's earned. People were sharing the blog post because it felt like insider knowledge, not marketing. Lucas: Let me give you a specific example. One of their early products, the Milky Jelly Cleanser, was literally crowdsourced. Weiss asked her community what their ideal cleanser would do — non-drying, gentle enough for contact lens wearers, a specific jelly texture. She got thousands of comments. Then Glossier formulated it, sent free samples to the most engaged commenters, and those people posted photos of themselves using it before it even launched in stores. Luna: So the product itself became content. And that content drove interest — the middle of the funnel — because it wasn't a polished ad. It was a friend showing you a new thing they love. Lucas: The numbers back that up. Glossier's internal data from around 2018 showed that customers who engaged with user-generated content on their site — like a photo from another customer in the review gallery — were ninety percent more likely to convert than those who didn't see any UGC. Ninety percent. That's not a small lift. Luna: That's insane. And that's the decision stage — you're looking at a product page, you're on the fence, then you see someone who looks like you using it, and you buy. Lucas: And Glossier engineered that. They didn't just hope customers would post. They made it a core part of the experience. Every product page had a 'Real Glossier' gallery — customer photos, no retouching. They ran campaigns like '#glossier' where the best customer photos would get featured on the brand's Instagram, which at its peak had over two point seven million followers. Luna: But they didn't pay people, right? No affiliate program, no discounts for posting. It was all social currency — the chance to be seen by the brand and by other fans. Lucas: Right. And that's the interesting tension. By not offering a financial incentive, Glossier kept the content feeling authentic. But it also meant they had less control. Anyone could post, and eventually they had to deal with moderation at scale. By 2022, they were getting thousands of photo submissions a week, and the team was spending hours just screening for quality and appropriateness. Luna: So the action stage — purchase — was strong, but the maintenance cost was real. Did it ever become a problem? Lucas: It did when they tried to expand too fast. In 2019, Glossier opened physical stores in New York, LA, London, and a few other cities. The stores were designed to be Instagrammable — pink walls, mirrors, photo-ready displays. But foot traffic didn't always convert because the in-store experience was more about content creation than education. You'd go in, take a selfie, maybe buy a balm, but not the full routine. Luna: So the funnel got leaky at the bottom. Awareness and interest were high, but the decision to buy a full set wasn't happening in store. Lucas: Yeah. And then in 2022, they had a bigger issue. The brand had grown so reliant on that user-generated engine that when the novelty wore off — when it became normal to see a Glossier product on Instagram — the content started feeling less special. The authenticity faded. And that's when you saw competitors like Rhode and Tower 28 eating into their share, using similar UGC strategies but with newer, fresher brands. Luna: So the same tactic that built them became a commodity. How did they respond? Lucas: If today's episode actually gave you a useful framework for thinking about user-generated content and the marketing funnel — maybe you're running a small brand yourself, or you're in marketing and you're thinking about how to build that trust — the way we keep these conversations going, ad-free, is listener support. You can find us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It's a simple way to say this was worth your time. Luna: Yeah, it really helps us keep the focus on what works and what doesn't, no sponsors to answer to. Lucas: Okay, so back to Glossier's response. They made two big moves. First, they pulled back on the ugc first approach in their owned channels and started investing in original content — think longer-form video tutorials, interviews with the product developers, that kind of thing. They wanted to be the source of authority again, not just a curator of customer photos. Luna: Which makes sense. If everyone is doing UGC, the signal gets noisy. You need to differentiate at the top of the funnel. Lucas: Second, they relaunched their loyalty program. It used to be called the Glossier Rewards program — pretty basic, points for purchases. In 2024, they replaced it with a new program called 'Glossier You' that's more experience-based. Instead of just discounts, you get early access to products, exclusive virtual events, and a direct line to the product team for feedback. Luna: So they deepened the relationship at the interest and decision stages, moving beyond the transactional. Lucas: Exactly. And early data from the first quarter of 2025 showed that members of the new program were spending an average of thirty percent more per order than non-members. So it's working. Luna: I think the big takeaway here is that user-generated content is incredibly powerful, but it's not a set-it-and-forget-it strategy. You have to evolve as your audience evolves. Lucas: And the funnel itself has to adjust. At the top, Glossier used the blog and organic social to build awareness. At the middle, they used customer photos and reviews to build interest and trust. At the bottom, they made the purchase seamless with a simple website and a strong return policy. But when the middle started feeling generic, they had to rebuild the top with original content and deepen the bottom with a loyalty program. Luna: So the funnel isn't static. It's a living system that needs constant tuning based on where the brand is in its lifecycle. Lucas: And that's the lesson for anyone listening. If you're building a brand around UGC, ask yourself: what happens when your customers stop posting? How do you keep the top of the funnel full without relying on them? Glossier is still figuring that out — but they're a great case study in how to build a funnel on trust, and how to pivot when that trust becomes expected. Luna: I think that's a good note to end on. Next week, we'll look at a brand that went the opposite direction — all paid media, no UGC — and see how that funnel compares. Lucas: Sounds good. See you then.