Latest / Community Marketing with Fexingo: Discord, Slack Groups, and Brand Communities / How Glossier Built a Community That Sells Itself
Transcript
- Lucas: There's a stat that I think about a lot. In 2018, Glossier — a direct to consumer beauty brand founded by Emily Weiss — had something like thirty employees in its community team. That was more than a third of their entire staff at the time. Luna: Wait, a third of the company was community? Not engineering, not marketing? Lucas: Exactly. Not marketing. Because Glossier's thesis was that community was their marketing. They didn't run traditional ads in the early years. They didn't need to. They had built something more powerful: a network of customers who treated selling the brand as a social identity. Luna: So how did they actually do it? Because everyone talks about Glossier's community, but I feel like the playbook gets romanticised. Lucas: It does. And the real story starts before Glossier even existed. Emily Weiss started a beauty blog called Into The Gloss in 2010. It was essentially a series of interviews where she'd go into women's bathrooms and photograph their products. 'The Top Shelf' series. It built an audience of about a million monthly uniques by 2014. Luna: So she already had an audience before she had a product. That's a huge advantage. Lucas: Huge. But the key is what she did with that audience. She didn't just say 'here's my new brand, buy it.' She asked them what they wanted. Literally. Into The Gloss readers were commenting, emailing, sending in product wishes. Glossier's first product — a milky jelly cleanser — came directly from reader requests for a gentle, non-stripping face wash. Luna: That's the co-creation angle. But I've read that Glossier's real innovation was in how they structured the community feedback loop. Lucas: Right. They had a system internally called 'Skinlex' — it was basically a Slack channel where the community team would funnel product feedback directly to developers. By 2019, something like thirty percent of new product ideas originated from community requests. That's not a focus group; that's a product engine. Luna: And the community felt ownership. When you suggest a product and it hits shelves, you're not just a customer anymore. Lucas: Exactly. But the other piece — and this is where people get the strategy wrong — is that Glossier didn't try to control the conversation. They didn't build a branded forum or a private Slack group for top fans. They let the community exist on Instagram, on Reddit, on Tumblr. Their job was to surface and amplify the best user-generated content. Luna: So they were curators, not managers. Lucas: Yes. And it worked because the content felt authentic. When a regular customer posts a photo of her Glossier products with a caption like 'my holy grail routine,' that's more convincing than any influencer campaign. Glossier's Instagram was essentially a feed of customer photos. They didn't even have a professional photographer on staff for years. Luna: There's a famous case of a customer named Emily — not Weiss — who posted a photo of herself wearing a full Glossier face and the brand reposted it. That photo became their most-engaged post that month. Lucas: Right. And that's the flywheel. Customer posts → brand amplifies → customer feels seen → posts more. But it only works if the product is actually good and the brand voice is consistent. Glossier's voice was always warm, slightly nerdy, never pushy. They spoke like a friend who loves beauty, not a corporation. Luna: I want to push back on one thing, though. Glossier had a massive cultural tailwind — the rise of the 'skin first, makeup second' trend. And Emily Weiss was already a known figure in fashion media. Can a brand without a celebrity founder replicate this? Lucas: It's harder, but not impossible. The principle is about building a feedback loop before you have a product. If you're starting from zero, you can build a community around a problem, not a brand. Think of how Notion built a community of productivity enthusiasts before they even had a polished product. Or how Figma grew through designer advocacy. Luna: So the blog first, product later model is one path. But what about existing brands trying to add community? Say I'm a mid-size B2B SaaS company. Lucas: Good question. For B2B, the playbook is different but has the same core: listen more than you talk. Glossier's community team spent 80 percent of their time reading and responding, not posting. For a SaaS company, that might mean having a community manager who actively monitors support tickets, product feedback forums, and social media to feed insights back to product teams. Luna: And you have to actually close the loop. If a customer suggests a feature and you ship it, you tell them. That's the Glossier move. Lucas: Exactly. Glossier had a program called 'Glossier Reps' — early customers who got early access and a small commission. But the real value wasn't the commission; it was the insider status. They felt like part of the brand's inner circle. That's hard to replicate, but you can create that feeling with transparency and recognition. Luna: Did Glossier ever monetize the community directly? Beyond product sales, I mean. Lucas: Not really. They never charged for community access. No paid membership tier. The community was always a free, organic layer. The monetisation came through increased customer lifetime value — community members bought earlier, bought more often, and referred friends at a higher rate. In 2019, before the pandemic, Glossier's customer base of about two million was generating an estimated $100 million in annual revenue. Luna: That's a $50 average revenue per customer, which is actually low for beauty. But the referral rate must have been huge. Lucas: It was. And that's the metric that matters for community: not engagement for its own sake, but referral-driven acquisition cost reduction. Glossier's customer acquisition cost was estimated to be a fraction of the industry average, because most new customers came through word of mouth. Luna: So the lesson is: build a community that gives people a reason to talk about you. Not a reason to hang out in a private chat room. Lucas: Exactly. And if these conversations have sparked something you've actually used in your own work — maybe a new way of thinking about customer feedback or a different approach to user-generated content — that's exactly why we do this show. We deliberately don't run ads on these episodes. If you want to support that choice, the link is buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. No pressure, just an option for folks who find value here. Luna: Yeah, and it keeps the show exactly what it is — no sponsors, no scripts, just us digging into what actually works. Lucas: Alright, back to Glossier. One thing I didn't mention: their pop-up stores were essentially community hubs. The first one, in 2017, was designed like a magazine — literally called 'The Glossier Showroom.' It had no cash registers. You'd walk in, try products, and buy later online. The point was to create a physical space where the community could gather, not to transact. Luna: That's brilliant for building loyalty, but risky for retail metrics. How did they measure success? Lucas: They measured dwell time and repeat visits. And it worked. The showroom became a tourist destination. People would come from other cities to visit. Eventually they added purchase capability, but the initial strategy was pure community building. Luna: It reminds me of the Apple Store genius bar concept, but for beauty. Less about selling, more about being a resource. Lucas: Exactly. And that's the takeaway for any brand: if your community strategy starts with 'how do we sell more,' you're doing it wrong. Start with 'how do we help our customers feel heard and connected.' The sales follow. Luna: I think the biggest challenge for most brands is that they want to control the narrative. Glossier was willing to let the community shape the brand. Lucas: That's the hard part. You have to be comfortable with imperfection. Glossier's early Instagram was not perfectly curated. It was a mix of customer photos, product shots, and behind the scenes. It felt human. And that's what built trust. Luna: So if someone listening wants to start building community today, what's one actionable step? Lucas: Go find where your potential customers are already talking about your space. Don't create a new platform. Go to Reddit, Twitter, existing forums. Listen for a month. Write down the top ten complaints, wishes, or questions. Then answer them publicly, without promoting your product. That's how you earn the right to later invite them into your community. Luna: That's the Into The Gloss playbook, basically. Just listen and create content that helps. Lucas: Exactly. And if you do that consistently, you'll have an audience before you have a product. Then the community builds itself.