Welcome back 👋

I’ve been looking at brands that do community right, not just for engagement but for real growth.

Blume stood out. They didn’t just launch another skincare brand.

They built around women’s wellness and pulled in 7 figures in their first year, with a c.40% repeat purchase rate.

Here’s a breakdown of how a community-first approach helped them scale fast and sustainably.

The Case Study

Blume sells gentle, eco-friendly skincare, but their real edge is the way they’ve built a community around women’s health and self-care.

Instead of just pushing products, they focused on de-stigmatizing the conversation around wellness and used smart retention and email plays to scale to 7 figures in their first year.

In this edition, I’ll cover:

• How Blume grew fast by turning UGC into a self-care movement

• The quiz funnel that helped them build a high-converting email list

• A 40% repeat purchase rate powered by loyalty, not just discounts

Let’s get into it 👇

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BUILDING TRUST WITH YOUR CUSTOMERS
Authentic and Personalised Content

Breaking through in the saturated wellness space where consumers are skeptical of product claims.

It’s tough to break through in the wellness space. With everyone fighting for attention, consumers have become increasingly skeptical of product claims by DTC wellness brands.

To combat this, Blume priortized UGC and super real content over polished ads to build a genuine relationship with their customers.

Tactically, they focused on these key plays:

• Real Customer Transformations: Showcased authentic before/after stories from actual users

• Direct Testimonials: Featured unfiltered customer voices across all marketing channels

• Conversational copy across their emails and comments across socials

This had a direct impact on their marketing results, helping them achieve:

• 5% conversion rate on website pop-ups (vs. industry standard 3%)

• Higher trust scores in the sensitive wellness category

• Stronger differentiation from conventional beauty brands, which helped them scale to over seven figures in year 1.

GROWING AN ENGAGED EMAIL LIST
Drive Email List and Product Sales Through a Quiz Funnel

Quizzes create a tailored experience, making customers feel understood and valued. According to a 2024 Epsilon report, 80% of consumers are more likely to purchase from brands that offer personalized experiences.

Blume’s quiz funnel contributed to a significant increase in email list growth and product sales.

They launched an interactive “Skin Quiz” on their website, where visitors answer a series of questions about their skin type, concerns (like acne, dark spots, or sensitivity), and lifestyle habits.

Based on the responses, the quiz recommends a personalized skincare routine and specific Blume products, along with educational content relevant to the user’s actual needs, avoiding any generic sales pitches.

The entire customer journey feels personal, which helped drive up engagement. Customers who took Blume’s quiz spent 2x more time on the site compared to those who didn’t!

Blume built trust by offering actionable and relevant advice, helping capture valuable first-party data that drives repeat purchases and better conversion rates.

GETTING PEOPLE TO BUY AGAIN
Retention through Automation and Loyalty

Having a robust retention strategy has helped them get to and maintain an average 40% repeat purchase rate while growing at the top of the funnel. If you’ve been in the industry long enough, you know that’s not an easy feat.

This is how they attract & activate high LTV customers:

Welcome series → Implementing a multi-email welcome series introducing the brand story, best-selling products, and educational content. It’s also a driver to deliver first-time discounts and hero their engaged community.

Incentives → Incentivising sign-ups through trend-driven campaigns backed by their strong branding

Blumetopia → an engaging loyalty program combining subscriptions with a points system that rewards purchases and social media engagement.

Personal offers → Sending personalised offers via SMS through conversational and community-focused campaigns. They also use personalisation and reactivating old subscribers by running ‘win-back campaigns.’

Post-purchase emails → flows that deliver product education, usage tips, and personalised cross-sell recommendations.

Their goal is simple: to attract customers with a high lifetime value (LTV)rather than just focusing on higher return on ad spend (ROAS) or revenue. An approach that’s helped them with:

• Higher retention

• Predictable sales forecasts

• Better management of inventory.

FINAL TAKE
TL;DR

Blume shows how important it is to build a strong brand and keep customers coming back.

Without the fundamentals in place, you'll lose customers as fast as you gain them, making it feel like you're working hard but not really growing.

The best brands I've worked with do this well and have experienced big growth when it all finally comes together.

Let me know how you found this breakdown below, and thanks for reading!

Talk Soon!
Dev 🤙

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