Complete Skin Makeover wanted to create genuine connections with their audience. We did just that by developing a brand personality and vibe that speaks to their customers and finally feels aligned.
Lacey and Keith are the founders of CSM, and honestly they’re a total power couple. When they landed in the JW world, we hit it off immediately. I was personally 100% on board with their dream to create natural skincare that actually works, to combat the shady sh*t in the beauty industry, and to give conscious consumers the transparency they deserve.
Seriously though… These products are amazing and I use them daily now.
Complete Skin Makeover is the change the industry desperately needs—a business that truly cares about their customers.
When they came to the JW team, CSM was killing it on Amazon. But they wanted something MORE than those sales. Lacey and Keith shared that something was still missing. Keith shared the following…
“Before working with Jill, we were primarily based on Amazon with our sales and as such, that sort of led to more of a transactional relationship with the client. Even though our goal has always been to be a holistic skincare brand, and to have longer conversations with the client, we didn’t really have the opportunity to do that as much.
But then once we started working with Jill, we really found our voice—and Lacey’s voice for getting messages out regarding skincare and how to take care of yourself with clean products. So we went from maybe having a more transaction based relationship with the client to a more genuine relationship with them.”
Lacey and Keith wanted a deeper connection with the customers. They wanted to build relationships that were open and helpful. They wanted to spread the word about all the nasty ingredients that cause harm, and become the go-to friend and expert consumers need.
Because CSM is about more than the bottom line. ← And that? That’s something Team Wise can stand behind.
The following is an overview of the challenges, strategies, and results that Team Wise created with and for CSM.
Challenges
Complete Skin Makeover wanted the following:
- To connect deeper and more authentically with their clients. But they didn’t know how to create more opportunities to do so.
- To lean into their expertise just like they do in real life relationships. Holistic, low-tox living changes lives—giving the gift of the truth to others fosters connections.
- To show up online fully in alignment with their vision. They had worked with other creative marketing services in the past (funnel builds, blogging, etc.), but weren’t quite happy with the results.
Solutions
Together, we strategized and executed the following:
- Removed the barrier between the business and their clients. Created an on-brand, helpful, and welcoming experience via the website and marketing channels to build stronger relationships.
- Continuously educate and connect on value points beyond selling products. Instead of constantly pushing promotions, the goal shifted to spreading the word about what matters to them as a brand: People living better and treating themselves to better products.
- Personality-rich copy that establishes the brand as its own entity, but still leverages the founders’ personal brands. By considering their long-term goals, personal values and mission, and more, we were able to nail down a personality that finally feels authentic—not icky or overly salesy.
Challenges
Forge a deeper connection with customers.
CSM grew quickly on Amazon, and is still thriving on this platform. However, focusing all sales through a third party site meant they were limited in how they could show up for their customers. Being successful on Amazon is fantastic, but ultimately they wanted more autonomy for the brand as well.
On Amazon, interactions with customers are purely transactional. Because of this, they shared that it felt like some authenticity was missing. They wanted to show customers who they were and connect in a deeper way than sales alone. Things like educating customers around harmful chemicals in all areas of life, sharing low-tox living inspiration, and standing up to the dark sides of the beauty industry were important to them—so that became a priority going forward.
Leverage unique knowledge + experience of low-tox living.
The beauty industry is rife with harmful chemicals and flashy marketing buzzwords that mislead consumers. Lacey and Keith didn’t feel like it was enough to just have a natural skincare alternative. A major pillar behind CSM is helping others—giving them the truth even when it isn’t the popular thing to say.
This mission isn’t just about skin care either. Holistic living goes beyond skin deep, and they wanted to make a bigger impact in the lives of their customers.
But that meant they needed a way to show off who they really are and what they stand for.
Show up online fully in alignment with their vision.
Lacey and Keith wanted CSM’s brand to feel in alignment with who they are as real people. But they had never been able to find a copywriter who just “got it.” So the messaging attempts prior to working with Team Wise never quite hit home.
Lacey said…
“I felt like I was just treading water in a way. We were trying, but it wasn’t really coming out in the right way. We would hire other copywriters that never really understood us.”
Solutions
Remove the barrier between the business and customers.
Step 1 in our work together was to establish a solid foundation or home base for the brand to live—one that was separate from their Amazon shop.
To do this, we started with a full brand messaging overhaul. This included customer interviews, messaging research really digging into what their ideal customers want, need, and feel is missing from their skincare lineup. We clearly defined their mission, vision, values, and positioning within clean skincare.
From there, we outlined a new website from start to finish: All product descriptions, educational touchpoints, the founders’ story, and more. The result was personality-rich conversion copy that finally feels authentic and on brand. Now, browsing the website feels like you’re walking into their virtual shop. They want to help you make the best decisions for your skincare needs, prioritizing educating you to make those informed decisions over pushing sales.
This not only helped the brand identity come to life by actually speaking to their customers, but brought the co-founders personality into the mix in a distinct and strategic way. Lacey and Keith are very much present in their business, and their customers told us they appreciate this, so they now have a clear presence.
Lacey shared…
“The process really just felt like I was finally being heard and being able to say the things that I really can’t eloquently say—Jill did it perfectly. And it’s really, really just made the brand come to life the way that I’ve always envisioned it.”
This tactic allowed us to leverage both their personal brands and the business’s brand ongoing to keep building connections. Alongside our work together, they worked with a trusted design team for visual branding, new packaging design, and website design. Everything came together… And honestly? It was pretty magical to see happen.
Educate + connect beyond selling products.
From the beginning of our time together, Lacey and Keith shared that they wanted to use CSM as a platform to educate on all things holistic living. They wanted to show people that clean skincare was just the start of a new way of living. With their new website and branding, education became a pillar of their brand so they could leave the door open for discourse about more than just clean beauty.
We started with auditing the current customer experience and coming up with a strategy that would make this journey feel just as helpful and welcoming as Lacey and Keith are. This included reviewing the shop automations inside Klaviyo, identifying gaps, and coming up with a plan to make every single flow feel on brand.
Lacey and Keith were happy with the process too. Lacey told us…
“There was a lot that I wanted to say. And I didn’t know the right way to say it, or even how to deliver the message because there was so much to talk about—it’s not just skincare, but holistic living. And so Jill has been able to do something that I wanted to do from day one, eight years ago. It’s something that I thought was going to be years and years down the road because it just is such a big project. But she’s able to take it, break it down, and make it come to life which is just amazing to me. It would have taken me years to get it really done and I would have never done it as good as still.”
By the end of this second phase of our time together, they had a handful of new automations running for their shop. These included delivery emails, a welcome sequence, feedback requests, return buyer flows, and more.
After all these foundations were in place, and the new website was nearly ready to launch, we looked at their marketing strategy. We identified 2 key areas that Team Wise could support the brand ongoing: Email marketing and search engine optimized blog content.
Projects completed through these efforts included:
- List re-engagement campaign prior to the website launch. They had ghosted their email list prior to starting the brand and website overhaul.
- Email list launch plans to maximize traffic to the new website from past customers—proven buyers that would ideally love the new experience.
- New funnel copy with the goal to sell a surplus of a specific product post website launch.
- Ongoing email marketing designed to educate and inspire subscribers. Be the experts in their inbox, but always push traffic to the website.
- Blog content that discusses topics others aren’t willing to touch because the truth is extremely important to CSM.
- Skincare challenges with the goal of engaging customers, collecting UGC, and increasing subscriber counts.
- So much more!
The biggest win of all of the above was opening the door for CSM to have real conversations with customers.
On brand copy that resonates with who they are + their vision.
Through all of our work together, maintaining the authentic brand voice was our constant priority. We pushed limits of topics covered, showed up consistently on the chosen channels, and always always always tried to speak in alignment with the defined kind, empowering voice.
Good copy communicates your mission and message clearly, but it actually sounds like you. Even though the goal is of course to increase sales, it’s about humans talking to humans—and that’s what we always wanted to do for CSM.
Results
Before coming to me, Lacey and Keith weren’t happy with their messaging. No matter what they did, something always felt off. When asked about this time in their business, Lacey said:
“I was just treading water. We were trying but it wasn’t really coming out in the right way. We would hire other copywriters (just freelance) that never really understood us.”
Myself and the team bought into their vision immediately. As soon as I met Lacey and Keith, I knew that their message was going to be the thing that brought their business to the next level. It’s safe to say that we were superfans from the start.
Around here, we only work with dream clients—I try to vet every lead and only commit to those who I’m excited about. I’m not shy in my marketing and messaging about what I stand for, and the clients we bring on are the same more often than not.
CSM shares a similar style of drawing that line in the sand. They care about their customers, and it shows.
The really amazing thing is that even though this is business, I genuinely give a damn about their business. I want to see them grow. I get excited to see clients on Zoom because they often feel like friends after the first couple of calls. It’s really cool. From there, we’re productive and on the same page.
Lacey shared the following about our Zoom meetings…
“I think what I love most is that when we have our zoom calls and are talking about the quarterly planning, it’s just fun that we’re bouncing off ideas. And then it just all happens so fast. Like she’s already given us the outline, and then she starts working on it, and it’s like… This is perfect. This is amazing. This is exactly what we should be doing. And she just gives us the space when we do have our calls, where we bounce off ideas and come up with incredible things to create.”
When you combine their passion for the business with my marketing brain and our genuine connection, it creates not only an amazing working relationship, but results.
Through our time together, I had the pleasure of learning and growing alongside the brand. CSM is totally different from when we first met in 2021.
A brand that lives and breathes as its own thing—in alignment with Lacey and Keith.
The personality and mission was always the focus. That’s how they stand out online. They already have amazing products, we just wanted to connect with the right people in a genuine way.
Lacey’s personality is present everywhere online. Now, they’re fostering deeper connection and have created the opportunity to live the vision. They’re not JUST an ecommerce business. They’re a holistic lifestyle brand that goes beyond skin deep.
Lacey shared that we’ve achieved that together…
“We’ve really opened that door where people feel like there’s more of a community. Like they can come to us and not feel like how some companies do. Like you would never think that you can send an email to them and get a response.”
Established as a trusted resource their customers can rely on.
IRL, people love Lacey and Keith. Their customers trust them not only for good products, but as resources for all things holistic living. Their goal is educating over making sales, sharing what they know about holistic health in general.
It’s not about pushing only their products, but helping customers understand how to avoid harmful products and practices, so they can live better. CSM does the thorough research and asks the hard questions so their customers don’t have to.
A trusting relationship with a copywriter and team that’s dedicated to their success.
When Lacey and Keith first came to me, they thought no one could share their story in the right way.
“There was a lot that I wanted to say. And I didn’t know the right way to say it, or even how to deliver the message.” —Lacey
I’m so glad they came to me, because now things are totally different. When asked about her experience working with me, this is what she said:
“I was finally being heard and being able to say the things that I really can’t eloquently say—Jill did it perfectly. And it’s really, really just made the brand come to life the way that I’ve always envisioned it.”
*Cue the blush.
Get support to grow and scale with marketing words that feel like you—and your way.
For a lot of people, their business isn’t just about money — money is often only part of a larger goal. As a brand and marketing strategist, I see this all the time. Website designers or creatives who want to share cool shit with cool people. Coaches who care more about the impact they have in their client’s lives than their bottom line. Ecommerce brands looking to shake things up in their industry.
Growing your business is great, of course. But impactful businesses are more about sharing a bigger message with the world.
For Lacey and Keith, their vision of their business had a powerful side effect: more sales. Because authenticity = connection.
“Since we’ve relaunched the website with new copy and image and a focus on new products, our average cart value is quite a bit higher. Probably 600%.” —Keith
Myself and Team Wise are honoured to be part of their journey.
