How This Brand Grew by Thinking Bigger Than Its Size
- Vanesa Lalo
- 11 minutes ago
- 2 min read
In this episode of The DTC Insider, Brian Roisentul sits down with Mary McMahan, Brand Marketing Manager at WithSimplicity, to discuss how the clean beauty brand grew by staying resourceful, building genuine relationships, and putting community at the center of its marketing.
Mary shares how WithSimplicity strengthened its online presence with a limited marketing budget, explaining how website improvements, owned and earned channels, affiliate marketing, and creative ideas like augmented reality makeup filters helped the brand grow.
They dive into affiliate marketing, community building, customer retention, email marketing, and why treating creators like people rather than marketing metrics can lead to stronger partnerships. Mary also shares how WithSimplicity grew 130% in one year, how the brand manually finds affiliates through Instagram, and how one of those relationships evolved into an upcoming product collaboration.
Plus, they explore the importance of creating a brand customers can genuinely connect with, why behind-the-scenes and founder-led content performs well, when growing brands can benefit from agencies and external partners, and why AI still requires human knowledge and oversight in marketing.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
• How WithSimplicity grew year over year despite working with a small team and limited marketing budget.
• Why improving the website and focusing on owned and earned channels became an early priority.
• How WithSimplicity used augmented reality filters to let customers virtually try on makeup during the pandemic.
• Why being resourceful can give smaller brands an advantage over larger competitors.
• How affiliate marketing helped WithSimplicity grow 130% in one year.
• How the brand manually finds potential affiliates through Instagram and builds relationships through DMs.
• Why finding creators who already share your brand’s values can lead to stronger partnerships.
• How treating affiliates like people instead of marketing metrics helps build a genuine community.
• Why asking affiliates how they want to communicate can strengthen long-term relationships.
• How an affiliate partnership evolved beyond driving sales into an upcoming product collaboration.
• Why Mary defines a brand by how customers feel every time they interact with it.
• How email marketing and loyalty programs help WithSimplicity strengthen customer retention.
• Why acknowledging customers’ real-life priorities can build more trust than constantly trying to sell.
• Why marketers can benefit from understanding every part of the business, from product development to fulfillment.
• Why behind-the-scenes and founder-led content performs well for WithSimplicity.
• When growing brands can benefit from agencies and external marketing partners.
• Why AI still requires human knowledge, judgment, and oversight in marketing.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Sponsor for this episode:
This episode is brought to you by BSR.
BSR helps 7-figure+ brands build and optimize strategic growth systems that unlock hidden revenue and scale profitably, without adding chaos, channels, or unnecessary spend.
To learn more about BSR, visit their website or book a call here.
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