Wednesday, April 28th, 2021
We were looking for something monumental to commemorate DTC’s 50th issue, then Apple released iOS 14.5.
Buckle up!
There’s a lot of information floating around and lots of bright new colors and notations dancing around your interface… but we suggest focusing on what you can control.
First, break out Android and iOS and see how they perform differently.
These campaign breakdowns will give you a clear picture of how your ads are being affected by the roll out.
We can now officially say "later" 👋 to the 28-day conversion attribution window. We’ve been optimizing for 1-day conversions pretty exclusively for a while, but we can’t be sure how this change will affect the data upstream. Products with longer consideration cycles may be more affected by this deprecation than others.
Facebook’s new conversion modeling system is kicking into high gear to compensate, so you’re going to see some odd footnotes explaining that your results may not contain conversions from people who’ve opted out.
Initial audits of our accounts – comparing Facebook conversions to what
Shopify displays – show that so far Facebook’s statistical modelling may not be too far out.
On most of our accounts, today’s data looks to be closely aligned with previous days.
We’ll report on this closely in the coming weeks.
If you’re new to the newsletter, welcome! You’re in good company with new friends from Glamnetic, Bite Toothpaste, Scullcandy, Spark Grills, Bee Kind, Grill Kilt, Sunday Lawn Care, and Thing Testing.
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In this edition of the DTC Newsletter, you’ll find:
📦 Our conversation with Huron CEO Max Mullenax, where we get into SMS and product replenishment strategy.
📦 How to train your Facebook pixel for high ticket items.
📦 Thinking about selling your eCommerce business? Join this free webinar from Empire Flippers.
📦 Tips for Amazon, Google, and creative that you can action on today.
📦 A special offer for DTC subscribers – a free set of ads from D2C Design.
Our three-day FREE Amazon Growth Guide workshop starts today at 1 pm PST! It’s not too late to join – register now!
This week on the podcast we have co-founder and CEO of Huron, Matt Mullenax.
Huron is a men’s skin and shower care brand built on the premise that guys’ morning routines haven’t changed a whole lot since puberty.
Queue the big shower energy. Let’s dive in!
🎯 Huron’s jumbo strategy:
Huron created jumbo sized body washes and placed them in the showers of gyms.
"That’s one of the atypical wholesale strategies we had. Where are guys naturally exposed to these products? And how can we be front and center?"
However, when covid-19 struck and gyms closed, the jumbo products started collecting dust at the fulfillment center. The Huron team needed to sell the product, so they emailed their list.
"We had anywhere from four to six months worth of inventory on hand for those products. [We] sent one email and sold out in eight days."
"We quickly got back into production and sold out again in two weeks. We were playing inventory catch-up for most of 2020."
The Jumbo product strategy was a perfect fit for Huron’s low-hassle audience. Allowing men to make one purchase, and then not worry about grooming products for a long while.
🛠 The tactical sweet spot
"Imagine a venn diagram, and one of the circles is what other brands can’t do (maybe they’re too large, there’s too many hierarchical structures etc). And then the other circle is what other brands won’t do (it’s perceived as too taxing, too time-consuming, etc).
If you can operate in that sliver and find ways to do things that other brands can’t do and other brands won’t do, I firmly believe that there’s a lot of value and a lot of opportunities."
Matt and the Huron team LIVE in that sweet spot.
"Last summer in New York I would hop on CitiBike and hand deliver every order that came in on Fridays."
"I’d spend five or ten minutes with the consumers. Ask how did you hear about us? What products would you like to have us make? What about your current products don’t you like?"
"Getting that one-on-one IRL interaction has become a thing of the past - especially in the era of a pandemic. But transcending and being a brand that operates in real life, in person, I think is really really important."
"We were able to activate super-users because they were the recipient of a home delivery, and they viewed that as being pretty cool – something that other brands weren’t doing."
💪 Activate your community
Huron sends out quarterly surveys to figure out what’s working and where there’s room for improvement.
They also have a Slack community of over a hundred committed customers where they ask for feedback and do monthly recaps.
"We would ping consumers who would have greater than five purchases, and invited them to the Slack channel."
"We’re probably oversharing, but it’s cool. Consumers like to feel that they get an inside look at a brand and understand what’s happening from a day-to-day perspective."
"We ask very technical questions as well – why don’t you subscribe? What would be more attractive for a subscription offer? If we were to make this product, what size would you like to see it in?"
💰 Free Product
"We would much prefer to lean into free products as a lure versus a dollar or percentage discount."
"We’ll bundle three or four items and make a fourth or fifth product free"
"And that benefits us in two ways. One, there’s like an aura around a dollar off/percent off that we don’t necessarily want to build for ourselves. But also, bundling gets the customer to explore more of our line.
🙌 Respecting SMS and Email
"One of the pledges that we’ve made internally is "respect the digits."
"Let’s not use this to constantly be ringing the cash register, but internalize whether or not we’re providing value with every single message that we send, whether its email, SMS, whatever."
This "respect the digits" mantra is especially important to SMS, a platform Huron is still testing.
Right now their team aims to send two to three SMS messages a month, with a balance of transactional and value-ad content.
"The rough ratio we’ve come up with is 3:1. For every bundle or transaction we have to send three that are non-transactional."
"A gif of UGC photos of us picking up new products, blog posts, educational content, that’s where we can actually create value. So we want to lean in on that and pull away from the pure transactional stunts."
Listen to the entire podcast here!
💰 Discount: Matt is offering DTC subscribers a discount on Huron products. Check it out here!
Hey DTC crew!
Greg from Empire Flippers here. If you didn't catch our last message, this is just a warm reminder that we'll be hosting a free live webinar this week on the Three Secrets to Selling Your Online Business.
I'm going to go deep over all the benefits you get once you sell, such as finally being free of algorithms, the doors of possibilities you open up, and how you can start acting like private equity.
Selling a business can be a life changing sum of money.
It'll likely be the largest capital windfall you've ever gotten.
And the best part is… you'll never need to worry about algorithms taking that money away because you've cashed out. Nothing can touch that capital. And instead of your business demanding all your money, you get to demand your money.
You'll get a brief lesson on how eCommerce stores are valued, why buyers WANT you to sell privately (and why it's often a bad idea) and so much more.
Whether you're wanting to sell or not, I invite you to come onto the webinar. I've seen hundreds of businesses over my career – a common theme for the best-run businesses is that the entrepreneur built them as though they were going to sell, whether or not they do.
You can register for the webinar here and we'll be going live at 2pm EDT, April 29th.
Talk to you soon, hopefully literally – as there will be a live Q&A at the end of the webinar!
Steal This Idea
Check out this cute & clever filter from Cariuma:
Here’s what the Pilothouse team had to say: 🚀
P.S. We have more Cariuma content coming your way in this Saturday’s newsletter! Stay tuned. 😉👟
Amazon
How to structure a high-performing Sponsored Brand ad with a headline that leads directly to a relevant store page
Webber Naturals’ headline reads "Heart Healthy Supplements" and the ad leads to a page directly speaking to the benefits of their Omega-3 supplements. Great work! 🙌
Take this to the next level:
If they wanted to up their game, trigger the ad so it only displays when shoppers specifically search for "heart health" or use keywords including "heart" with "omega."
Webber Naturals could then run a different headline and store page with more broad appeal for the keyword "omega-3."
Are you tired of underperforming social ads that keep losing money or only break even? You work too hard in your D2C brand for that kind of result.
Get your creative game on point with D2C Design. They’ve already designed top-performing ads for DTC readers and brands alike. Readers had a great experience, which is why we are bringing them back!
Schedule a VIP Session for Your FREE Set of Ads Here.
Whether you’ve already got a full in-house design team or you’re a solo founder doing everything in Canva, D2C Design can save you time, money and accelerate your DTC brand growth.
They can create unlimited DTC ads, emails, website/landing pages, social media, and anything else you need for a fraction of the cost of a full-time designer – for a flat monthly rate.
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They specialize in crafting a compelling modern digital brand story through design that highlights your brand, is consistent with your values, and converts customers and sales.
D2C Creative has designed top-performing ads for category-leading DTC brands like Rope.com, Dropps, and Drink Monday, as well as DTC readers like you!
Right now they’re offering DTC subscribers one free set of FB ads personalized for your brand.
Get your creative game on point. D2C Design is the design team you’ve been missing.
Schedule a VIP Session for Your FREE Set of Ads Here.
The Pilothouse Google team often runs multiples of the same ads on search, display and video but in different ad groups (e.g. for different audiences).
Determining how the ad performs across different ad groups or campaigns is crucial to knowing whether to continue it or not.
Assigning each ad a label helps your ease your decision process: 👇👇
Once the labels are set up, use the Reports 👉 Predefined Reports 👉 Labels 👉 Labels Ad Report to group everything together.
This will provide you with a combined performance report!
Now you can easily see the performance of your ads and make smart decisions about whether they should continue or not. 👊
D2C Design is offering readers one free set of FB ads personalized for your brand. Get your creative game on point!
🛒 Amazon gives brands new ways to email customers with ads and offers.
👻 Snapchat released its Q1 earnings report. The app has 280 million DAUs.
🐊 Inside Croc’s influencer strategy.
🍎 Apple is finally releasing AirTag, a competitor to Tile.
👗 Pre-order is catching on as a solution to fashion’s overproduction problem.
👖 Madewell’s head of sustainability on accountability and public-facing commitments.
🧐 A deep dive into the history + business model of Product Hunt.
🐦 Twitter tests new 'super follow' and tipping buttons for profiles.
🏡 Clubhouse announces exclusive content deal with NFL, its first official sports partnership.
🛍 Why Shoppable UGC is the Future of eCommerce Experiences.
🎮 GameStop CEO leaving with $160m+ pay package.
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