How ColourPop Is Leading the New Community-Driven Era on Social

ColourPop’s Challenge

ColourPop skyrocketed to global fame by harnessing the power of social media hype to showcase its high-quality and affordable products — and many indie beauty brands and startups now follow its blueprint. This is a testament to ColourPop’s success, but also a new challenge for the brand.

With the beauty industry becoming crowded and social platforms plateauing, ColourPop stands out by building a dedicated and engaged community around its brand. An early adopter of Dash Hudson, ColourPop leverages the social media tool to build a content strategy optimized for entertainment and engagement — captivating audiences and sparking interest and anticipation around each product launch.

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Campaign Strategies for the New Era of Social

ColourPop exists at the forefront of social media trends and pop culture. With a keen finger on the pulse of emerging ideas, the brand engages its community by constantly experimenting with new ideas. ColourPop strives for a better understanding of its audience and the types of content that resonate most. In this new era of social, defined by the infinite scroll and unpredictable content algorithms, learnings backed by insights become crucial. The brand uses every experiment as an opportunity to optimize its content and outsmart social.

ColourPop uses Dash Hudson’s reporting tools to see what’s performing best across channels, all in one place. The brand saves more than five hours a month in reporting by using this all-inclusive dashboard. Additionally, the insights provided by the platform empower the team to make data-backed decisions, enhancing campaign performance and increasing community engagement.

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We are very metrics driven. We look at metrics regularly, tracking engagement, video views and growth across all platforms. But that’s just numbers. We also measure success if we’re trying new things, pushing the envelope and being innovators on social.
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Lucy Landry,
Senior Social Media Manager at ColourPop

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Championing the Creator-Led Paradigm Shift

ColourPop understands the importance of creators and UGC. The brand's creator strategy has remained a constant pillar since its meteoric launch to social media fame in 2014, as it has an underlying belief that a community-first approach and genuine relationships with viewers form the heart of a successful social strategy. The brand makes an effort to partner with a broad range of creators, acknowledging the unique value each of them brings to its inclusive community. ColourPop’s advantage is in its refusal to stick to one aesthetic. Its content strategy encompasses everything from simple looks, to artistry, to everything in between, with the goal of cutting through the noise and empowering viewers with authentic content.

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ColourPop uses Dash Hudson’s Relationships tool to track the value of more than 2,000 creator relationships. To date, the brand has experienced more than $159 million in Earned Media Value, while the average Engagement Rate of 6.1% for its UGC outperforms the average Engagement Rate for Beauty brands on Instagram by more than 30x. The brand’s focus on giving voice to its community results in significantly more engaging content, as no one knows how to sell beauty fans on a product more than beauty fans themselves.

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The Link Between Community Management and ROI‍

Beauty shoppers are more informed than ever, and educational content has emerged as a top-performing content pillar. The brand offers radical transparency, taking audiences backstage to witness the creation of their favorite products and, ultimately, enhancing their sense of connection. ColourPop brilliantly weaves its community into every narrative to turn fans into an intrinsic part of the brand and its campaigns.

The brand uses Dash Hudson’s Community Manager to tap into its audience, with a mission to action feedback faster than other brands. For example, when the once direct-to-consumer brand received a lot of comments from customers that they wanted to see it in more accessible places, it expanded to Ulta Beauty and Target. When customers are vocal about restocks of popular products, the brand brings those items back faster. ColourPop understands that social media is the predominant forum for consumers to engage with brands, and every comment section serves as a focus group for emerging trends and product feedback. The brand takes pride in being able to quickly put insights into action.

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ColourPop really cares about its community and listens to what they have to say. We are a social-first company, and our community is very vocal with feedback, and we make sure to take it into account. Previously we had team members go through comments manually a couple of times a day to get key callouts, but it’s hard to do things manually.
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Lucy Landry,
Senior Social Media Manager at ColourPop

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