Latest / The Marketing Funnel Podcast with Fexingo: Awareness, Interest, Decision, and Action Stages / How a Tiny Skincare Brand Mastered the Marketing Funnel
Transcript
- Lucas: So there's this skincare brand called Dieux Skin. You've probably seen their Forever Eye Mask pop up on Instagram or heard someone on Reddit raving about it. What's interesting isn't just the product — it's how they built a marketing funnel that most small brands can only dream of. Luna: I've actually tried that mask. But I didn't find it through an ad. I found it in a Reddit thread where someone posted the full ingredient list with explanations for every single component. Lucas: And that's the key. Dieux didn't do what most direct to consumer brands do — throw money at Facebook ads and influencer gifting. Instead, they leaned into radical transparency. The founder, Charlotte Palermino, used to be a beauty editor, and she started by just being incredibly honest on Reddit and Instagram about what works and what doesn't in skincare. Luna: So the awareness stage wasn't about reach. It was about trust. Lucas: Exactly. They focused on a very specific community — the skincare-obsessed folks on Reddit's r/SkincareAddiction. Instead of a polished ad, they posted ingredient breakdowns and even shared their formulation process, including the failures. That built credibility. And when they launched the Forever Eye Mask, they didn't just put it on a website. They created a waitlist. Luna: A waitlist for an eye mask? That seems counterintuitive for a product people don't usually think of as scarce. Lucas: Right, but it worked brilliantly. The waitlist did two things. First, it turned the product into something desirable — if you have to wait, it must be good. Second, it let them control the conversation during the interest stage. While people waited, Dieux sent emails with more ingredient deep-dives, user testimonials, and even videos of the manufacturing process. They kept feeding the interest. Luna: So the waitlist wasn't just a sales tool. It was a content engine. Lucas: Exactly. And the numbers show it. They reported a conversion rate from waitlist to purchase of about 40 percent. For context, the industry average for an email list converting to first purchase is usually around 2 to 5 percent. Forty percent is insane. Luna: What about the decision stage? How did they move people from interested to ready to buy? Lucas: They built what I'd call an 'ingredient calculator' on their website. You can compare their formula side-by-side with competitors. They list every ingredient, its concentration, why it's there, and what studies back it up. That transparency makes the decision feel informed, not pressured. It's the opposite of traditional skincare marketing, which relies on vague claims and celebrity endorsements. Luna: And they also rejected influencer gifting. That's a huge deal in beauty. Most brands send free products to hundreds of influencers hoping for a post. Dieux basically said no. Lucas: Right. They said they'd rather have a smaller number of genuine reviews from people who actually bought the product. That built more trust. Their customer acquisition cost ended up under ten dollars per customer, compared to the typical DTC average of thirty to fifty dollars. That's a direct result of skipping the paid playbook. Luna: And the action stage — the actual purchase — what made that work? Lucas: Part of it was the scarcity. The waitlist created a sense of 'I need to act now.' But they also made the unboxing itself a moment. The packaging is minimal but designed to be shareable — a simple, elegant box with a thank-you note that's handwritten-looking. People post it. That generates user-generated content that feeds back into awareness for free. Luna: So the funnel is really a loop. Awareness from Reddit, interest from the waitlist content, decision from the ingredient calculator, action from scarcity — and then the unboxing creates more awareness. Lucas: Exactly. And the loop is key because it means they're not spending money to acquire new customers over and over. Their existing customers become their marketers. And that's especially powerful for a small brand with limited budget. Luna: That approach — building a marketing funnel that relies on community participation rather than paid media — is something we've seen work for others like Glossier and Liquid Death. But Dieux did it with almost no funding. Lucas: It's a reminder that the marketing funnel isn't just about spending more at each stage. It's about creating genuine value at each step so that people want to move forward. Dieux gave away so much knowledge for free — on Reddit, on Instagram, through their emails — that by the time someone hit the decision stage, they already felt like they knew and trusted the brand. Luna: And I think that's a lesson that goes beyond skincare. Any small business can look at their own product and ask: what information can we give away for free that builds trust before asking for the sale? Lucas: Yeah, and it doesn't have to be a physical product. A consultant could do a free mini-audit. A software company could publish transparent benchmarks. The principle is the same. Luna: Speaking of giving away value for free — that's exactly what we try to do with this podcast. We deliberately don't run ads. And if you find these marketing conversations useful, there's a way to support that choice. Lucas: It's buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. No pressure, just a small way to keep the show ad-free and focused on cases like this one. Luna: Right. Now, back to Dieux — one more interesting detail. They recently launched a second product, a moisturizer, and they used the exact same playbook. Another waitlist, another ingredient calculator, another community-first launch. Lucas: And it worked again. They sold out in hours. The question is whether they can scale this model without losing the authenticity that made it work. That's the challenge for any brand that grows from a tight community to a broader audience. Luna: Do you think they can? Lucas: I think so, as long as they keep the transparency core. The moment they start acting like a big corporation, the community will notice. But for now, they're a masterclass in how a tiny brand can dominate the marketing funnel by being radically useful.