We are often asked how we have grown theSkimm and our userbase. The answer is word of mouth.
We mean that very literally.
During our first week as a company, we started getting emails from people saying ‘I love theSkimm!’ We clinked champagne glasses. Then during week two, we started getting emails from people saying ‘I never write into anything, but I really love theSkimm. ’ We drank some more and we would write back ‘thanks!’
About 3 months later, we told one of our advisors about the large volume of user emails we were receiving and she suggested we ask them to share theSkimm….
So we would start writing back ‘Thank you, we’d love if you can share us with 5 friends.’ It was a genuine ask and it worked.
Then these Skimm’rs would write back and say ‘just so you know I’m basically a brand rep for you.’ So we started calling them Skimm’bassadors. Then they started telling us they were getting together with other Skimm’bassadors for a little Sip & Skimm. And so a program was born.
When we first took in our seed funding, we intentionally made our first hire a reader. Her mandate was simple: we have all these people writing in and calling themselves Skimm’bassadors, help us turn this into something.
We spent about 5 months throwing a bunch of things against the wall to see what stuck. Not much. At first, we focused only on college students but turns out their vacation and midterm schedules aren’t as fun for those of us not in school. So it was hard to stay organized and keep the momentum up. Then we tried establishing a group of “Super Skimm’bassadors” — people so dedicated to the brand they wanted to be in a very small Facebook group. And then we had “Super Super Skimm’bassadors” But that ended up just being confusing and long to write out.
In May, we pivoted. We had 80 Skimm’bassadors and a lot of people asking how they could become one. We thought about our goal for the program: Grow theSkimm base organically, develop a community, give back to those individuals who have helped us get this far.
We opened up the program, changed the user flow, started providing more and more resources. Today we have over 4,000 Skimm’bassadors around the country, and two full time employees, all committed to passing on theSkimm mission.
Our Skimm’bassadors are not paid. They are volunteer brand reps who each have a different motivation to being a part of the community (career networking, just love the brand, want some Skimm swag, want to be a part of the growth of an early stage startup).
We view our Skimm’bassadors as a part of the fiber of our company. We like to say that we have grown by word of mouth and our Skimm’bassadors are the biggest mouths. Our goal is to encourage them to continue to grow theSkimm, recruit other Skimm’bassadors, and become a focus group for us as we test products, work with brands, and continue to iterate.
We hope to be able to give back to our Skimm’bassadors. Without them, there would be no ‘bassador.
P.S. If you’re interested or know a Skimm’bassador-in-the-making, email us skimmbassador@theskimm.com
Originally published at blog.theskimm.com.
