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Issue 78
DTC Diagnostics has re-entered the chat.
We’re back with our fan-fave series this week – and this time we’re diving into Magic Spoon’s Facebook ads.
If you’re new to DTC, welcome! You’re in good company with fellow newcomers from Hyatt, Poppi, Ulta, OXO, Lulus, Recover, and AMC (cue the Mad Men theme song). 🥃
🥄 A deep dive into Magic Spoon’s Facebook ads.
💰 TikTok and talking to your unsubscribers with Marea’s Monica Grohne.
🎨 Creative inspiration you must test.
Read till the end to access exclusive DTC swag. 😎
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🚨Job opportunity:DTC is growing, and we’re looking for content writers AND a social media coordinator who’s passionate about the DTC space.
If that’s you, send a note to Thomas (thomas@directtoconsumer.co) with your resume and why you’d be a good fit!
We’re back with brand breakdowns, and this time we’re analyzing a DTC brand you might be familiar with: Magic Spoon.
With help from Attest, we conducted a survey of 500 people in the United States and found that 80% were aware of the brand while almost 70% of the audience would consider purchasing at some point in the next six months.
Let’s dive into how Magic Spoon is crushing FB ads: 👇
This is a unique take on social proof that not enough brands are utilizing.
Magic Spoon created enough room so you can read the first paragraph of this Forbes article without feeling overwhelmed.
If you’ve ever been featured in a major publication, try this format yourself!
Influencer marketing is a huge part of Magic Spoon’s overall marketing strategy.
Here they’re utilizing dark posting, which means the ads don’t appear on the influencer’s timeline, page, or story.
The benefit of dark posting highlights the user perspective but in this case, it’s undermined with ad copy that feels like the brand wrote it.
This particular copy is used throughout various ads.
The Pilothouse team suggests trying a more organic headline and copy in the voice of the influencer.
We’re HUGE fans of this ad. The copy, creative, and headline are all spot on.
The milk or cereal first debate is something we’ve all had a heated conversation around. The four squares and eye-catching colors make this a scroll stopper, too.
They could take it a step further by running a poll with this ad and creating custom landing pages for each answer.
Each landing page could include copy that reads "We’re so glad you chose this route – we’re on your side. 😎"
The Pilothouse team has seen split frames like this perform extremely well. Try it for your brand.
We’ve seen brands have BIG success when leading with a testimonial.
The emojis do a great job of breaking up the text, especially the "X" which really draws the eye.
TIP from the Pilothouse team: Be careful when using the star emojis.
Facebook won’t let you put five-star emojis in a row, as they think you’re faking reviews.
If you’re a longtime reader of DTC, we’d bet you already offer upsells and cross-sells in your Shopify store (and if you don’t… we should talk!)
To make sure you’re acing your upsell strategy, we reached out to our friends at Digismoothie.
They created the best one-click upsell Shopify app Candy Rack, and they’ve shared with us their proven strategy for creating the perfect offer 👇
Digismoothie’s top tip: Keep it simple.
The offer has to provide a seamless user experience that is native to your store’s design, otherwise, your upsell will look less trustworthy.
🚀 Ready to increase your sales by 30% with upsells? Learn more about Candy Rack here.
Notice the flow of information and how Magic Spoon feeds the benefits into an action.
Your eyes are naturally drawn to the bottom third of the creative where the "Shop Now" CTA is placed.
It’s also a perfect headline, "Healthy Never Tasted Better."
We love the eye-catching use of pink and the inclusion of all four flavors.
While the cereal is the focal point, the eye is drawn to the boxes, which is exactly what you want 👊.
We’d suggest testing bullet points in the copy to break down what each type of cereal is.
This could help drive higher intent click-through with more information.
This ad has the classic Magic Spoon colors, but we’re not compelled to swipe right.
On carousels, the following slide is always cut-off so it’s key to make the left-half particularly enticing.
For example it could read "the only cereal that…"
Whatever you write, it’s crucial to keep users engaged and swiping until the end.
TIP: Feature a discount on the last slide as a reward for users who’ve swiped all the way through!
We’ll be back Saturday to break down Magic Spoon’s killer email strategy.
Stay tuned!
Creative
Check out this creative from Keepers, a sparkling coffee company.
It’s the perfect combination of a gorgeous product shot and scrappiness.
🚨 The blue writing is tough to read, which intrigues users and stops the scroll.
Test this combination for your own brand!
Go the Hydrant route: use Repeat. 🔁
CPG brands like Gleamin, Hydrant, and Youth to the People use Repeat to give their customers faster, personalized reordering experiences – from email, from text, from anywhere.
We could spend a bunch of time telling you about how it works, who else uses us, and all that, but we’d rather show you.
Click here and try a Repeat cart link yourself. It’s so good you’ll probably end up buying something.
We’re so confident that we’ll foot your second month’s bill… because we know you’re gonna stick around.
This week on DTC podcast, we welcomed Monica Grohne, Founder and CEO of Marea Wellness.
Monica created a drinkable multivitamin for women that focuses on targeting hormone imbalance symptoms.
With a subscription-based product, unsubscribes are bound to happen.
In the early days, Monica would personally send customized videos to unsubscribers asking for feedback.
If a subscriber was cancelling because they were trying to get pregnant, Monica would send them her favorite "nutrition for pregnancy" book from Amazon.
"In the last two weeks, we’ve had 50% of people resubscribe because their unsubscribe reason was just an issue that they were having that could have been resolved through a conversation."
The lesson?
Reach out and start a conversation!
Monica has taken to TikTok to be vulnerable and share her story in the hope of creating a community and sense of belonging.
Users in the TikTok period space initially became engaged through consistent organic strategy testing but have become a pipeline for Marea’s affiliate marketing program.
As an education-first brand, Monica focused heavily on SEO optimization.
As Marea grew, the spotlight shifted from blogging for SEO reasons to pulling 10-15 posts from a single long-form piece of content.
As the face of the brand, Monica had no hesitations in turning the camera on herself.
She’s currently spending two half-days per week on content creation.
"If you’re not going to show up, who is going to show up for the brand you’re creating?" says Monica.
Monica is a huge believer in segmentation.
She segments customers based on specific needs and sends follow-up surveys to collect feedback which helps customers navigate their symptoms.
👉 Biggest mistake brands make with email:
Not enough customization, and sending to customers at the wrong time.
Nobody wants a sale email for a product they just bought at full price. Don’t be that brand!
For Monica’s story of building Marea from the ground up and creating community, take a listen to the full pod here!
🔑 How year-old start-ups are trying to grow through the chaos.
🎞 TikTok launches new 'Re:Make' campaign to pay tribute to classic ads.
🛒 Walmart to sell its omnichannel capabilities to other businesses.
📌 Pinterest loses 24 million users as lockdowns ease and physical stores re-open around the world.
👉 Retailers are expanding online commissions beyond influencers.
👨👧👦 Facebook tightens ad targeting to protect the privacy of young users.
📈 Amazon ad sales jump 87% as companies emphasize new marketing, content offerings.
💰 Google ad revenue soars 69% as new bets in commerce and video pays off.
🏀 Reebok's new AR tool helps basketball players set up their own courts.
🚀 eCommerce skyrocketed during the pandemic. Now Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat want in.
👩💻 Marea Wellness scales menstrual health organically on TikTok and Reddit with Monica Grohne.
🍼 Organic influencers for the win with Co-founder and CMO of Lalo, Michael Weider.
✅ How Kellogg’s thinks about DTC and eRetail with Joe Harper and Jordan Narducci.
🥤Slashing Facebook ads in half with Olipop’s Steven Vigilante.
💇♂️Beardbrand’s Eric Bandholz and the DTC long game.
🌴 Product/market fit with Canopy Humidifiers' Eric Neher and Michael De Santis.
Don’t forget to rate the DTC Podcast on Apple (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
DTC Newsletter is written by Thomas Schreiber, Sadie Evans, and Rebecca Knight.
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