Since its inception, Sigma Beauty has always been a social media-forward brand. In fact, the company got its momentous start on YouTube back in 2010 when a popular YouTube personality uploaded a review of an early Sigma Beauty brush set. Since that time, Sigma Beauty has maintained its status as one of the top social media beauty brands, with its largest community on Instagram where 2.6 million users follow the cult beauty brand. Sigma Beauty was deemed a top Instagram brand in 2016 by notable outlets, such as InStyle, WWD, Glamour and the Sunday Times, among others. To this day, Sigma Beauty's Instagram is a platform to empower beauty enthusiasts of all types; inspire diversity and uniqueness in the beauty industry; and showcase all the creative ways its products are used by talented beauty enthusiasts, influencers, makeup artists and everyone in between! As a historically e-commerce driven brand, Sigma Beauty leverages the highly visual Instagram platform to allow its audience to experience the products without ever touching or feeling them in person. Most commonly recognized for curating the best user-generated content in the industry, Sigma Beauty was actually one of the first brands to utilize UGC, with larger, mainstream beauty brands following suit. Today, Sigma Beauty remains an early-adopter to the latest Instagram trends and changes, most recently with its participation in Instagram Live where the brand is able to engage with its followers in a more authentic way than ever before.
Sigma Beauty monitors hundreds of posts on a daily basis to curate the most creative and unique content created by its diverse audience of beauty enthusiasts. As part of this strategy, Sigma Beauty is dedicated to establishing and fostering relationships with the most talented influencers and professional makeup artists in the beauty industry. From micro-tastemakers to Instagram-famous influencers, the brand works with a diverse group of more than 3,000 affiliates worldwide. Sigma Beauty's commitment to diversity shines through in the UGC they share on Instagram. The brand's goal is to promote content that resonates with their millions of followers across all corners of the globe. The affiliate marketing program is mutually beneficial to both parties, as the affiliates receive commission on sales generated via unique tracking links, while Sigma Beauty gains access to high-quality content created by its affiliate partners. Sigma Beauty was one of the first-ever beauty brands to adopt affiliate marketing, which greatly supported the brand's Instagram strategy and led to its rising presence on the platform in 2016. Providing influencers and professional makeup artists with the right products allows for organic third-party content that Sigma Beauty is able to share with its millions of followers on Instagram to celebrate all the different ways people use the brand's line.
In addition to UGC, Sigma Beauty is sought after by millions of beauty enthusiasts all over the world to stay up to date on the latest beauty trends, such as the holographic lip trend sparked by Sigma Beauty's Lip Switch campaign in the fall of 2016. The viral sensation exploded after several top-tier fashion and beauty publications covered the product, such as Teen VOGUE, Seventeen, Allure, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, InStyle, Buzzfeed, POPSUGAR and Refinery29, among many others. The craze then took to Instagram where the brand managed the high demand by directing users to the waiting list that now has nearly 10,000 people waiting to purchase the product when it's restocked.
Much of Sigma Beauty's growth on Instagram in 2016 was also largely due to its community management efforts. Not only does the brand respond to all customer service-related comments, Sigma Beauty strives to foster a positive and encouraging community on its Instagram channel. The brand is continually improving and tailoring its content in response to its audience's feedback.
In addition to its focus on UGC, Sigma Beauty also values brand partnerships on Instagram to host enticing giveaways for its loyal followers. Co-branded giveaway campaigns in 2016 included partnerships with top fashion and beauty brands, such as Fossil, Kate Somerville Skincare, T3 Micro, Lulu & Georgia, Vogue, COOLS, Baublebar, Murad and more.
Sigma Beauty's Instagram following grew organically by 40 percent in 2016, resulting in a total of 2,621,211 followers at the end of 2016, an increase in 743,000 followers between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2016.
User-generated content grew to 413,686 uses of the #SigmaBeauty hashtag by Dec. 31, 2016, with more than half of that cumulative number generated in 2016 alone. 284,500 posts utilizing the #SigmaBeauty hashtag were generated between Jan. 1-Dec. 31, 2016.
Other notable Instagram statistics from 2016 include:
Total Organic Potential Impressions in 2016: 6.8 billion
Total Organic Interactions in 2016: 44.2 million
Total Outbound Clicks on Like2Buy in 2016: 341,700
Total Visitors on Like2Buy in 2016: 290,700
Total Visits on Like2Buy in 2016: 364,200
