In 2023, Rare Beauty had 406,000 TikTok videos using the hashtag #RareBeauty.
Zero of them were paid.
Every single one was a real customer, posting because they loved the product and wanted to share it. That is not a fluke. It is a system, and it is one that small beauty, wellness, and retail business owners can build too.
You do not need Selena Gomez’s following to make it work. You need a process.
Here is the truth about your marketing strategy that most business owners miss: every beauty, wellness, and retail business owner can turn their happiest customers into their most powerful marketing asset by following three simple strategies.
Strategy 1: Make It Easy to Share
Most customers do not post about your business because it never occurs to them in the moment. They are in the middle of an experience, getting a treatment, trying on a dress, finishing a facial, and sharing is the last thing on their mind.
Your job is to create the moment and remove the friction.
Think about what this looks like in your specific business:
- A spa puts a ring light next to the treatment chair and a small sign that says “You’re glowing. Share it.” with your Instagram handle.
- A boutique installs flattering fitting room lighting and hangs a hook with a handle sign that says “Tag us for a chance to be featured.”
- A wellness studio creates a milestone moment: a wall, a plaque, a branded corner, that marks a customer’s first (or 100th!) class, or goal achieved.
According to Forrester, 68% of consumers say user-generated content is the most authentic format of content they see from brands. Your customers already trust it more than anything you produce. The question is whether you are making it easy for them to create it.
Your action step: Walk through your customer experience and identify the single most joyful moment. Then ask yourself: What would make someone want to take out their phone right there?
Strategy 2: Ask for It Directly
This is the strategy most business owners skip entirely. Not because they forgot, but because it feels awkward.
It is not awkward. It is just unfamiliar.
Consider how Tower 28 founder Amy Liu handled this in the early days of her clean beauty brand. Every time a customer posted about Tower 28, Amy personally reached out. She thanked them. She asked permission to repost. She sent them another bottle of the product they loved. And then she shared their content with her audience.
No ad agency. No content team. Just a founder who understood that her happiest customers were her most powerful marketing asset, and who had the presence of mind to ask.
The best time to ask a customer for a review, a photo, or a tag is at peak happiness, the moment right after they have experienced your service and the feeling is at its highest. That is when they are most likely to say yes.
It can be as simple as this:
“We love to your [result/look/haul]! If you post, tag us, and we may feature you on our page! It means so much to us and helps other women find us.”
Two sentences. That is it. You can also follow up via text or email within 24 hours with the same ask.
According to Nielsen, 92% of consumers trust peer recommendations over any form of branded content. Your customers are more persuasive than your best ad. You just have to ask.
Your action step: Write one script for an in-person ask and one for a follow-up text or email. Practice the in-person one until it feels natural.
Strategy 3: Actually Use What You Get
Here is where most business owners leave money on the table: they collect customer content and never deploy it.
A customer tags you. You heart it. It disappears into your notifications and never gets used again.
That is not a content strategy. That is a missed opportunity, and it happens hundreds of times a year.
Emma Bridgewater, the beloved British pottery brand, built an entire community around customer-submitted photos of their collections displayed in real homes. Those photos became their website, their emails, their social feed. The customers became the campaign.
You do not need a full community strategy. You need a simple rule: every piece of customer content gets repurposed within two weeks.
That could mean reposting to your Stories, adding it to your website testimonials section, including it in your next email, or using it as a before/after. According to Bazaarvoice, customer reviews and photos increase conversion rates by up to 74%, and 55% of shoppers hesitate to buy without some form of user-generated content.
The content is already being created. The only question is whether you are using it.
Your action step: Set a recurring reminder every two weeks to gather, organize, and repurpose any customer content from the last 14 days.
Your Customers Are Already Talking. Are You Listening?
You do not need a bigger budget, a content team, or a viral moment to build a marketing engine that works.
You need to make sharing easy. You need to ask. And you need to actually use what your customers are already giving you.
The brands that win at this, from Rare Beauty at scale to Tower 28 in its early days — did not stumble into it. They built a system. And so can you.
Which of these three strategies is the biggest gap in your business right now? Drop it in the comments. I read every one.
P.S. Here are three resources I love on this topic:
- Tower 28 Beauty — a great example of a founder-led UGC strategy done right
- Rare Beauty — the gold standard for community-driven content at scale
- Building a StoryBrand — the framework that helps you position your customer as the hero
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