Tuesday, December 21, 2021
We’re switching things up this week because of the holidays.
As a result, ya got DTC going up on a Tuesday…😎🚀
Look out for DTC on THURSDAY as well.
And don’t worry, we’ll be back in the New Year with our regular schedule PLUS a little something extra. 👀👀👀
If you’re new to DTC, welcome! You’re in good company with fellow newcomers from Coca-Cola, Brightland, Zenyum, Jimmy's Iced Coffee, TAPP Water, and Spacestation. 🚀
In this newsletter, you’ll find: 👇
💌 Email pop-ups to convert customers – part 1.
🤰 Paul Singh from Bump Health on becoming a distribution company and the road to $200B.
🤷♀️ What the heck is EGC?
📦 Looping in your customers on supply chain issues.
Read till the end to access exclusive DTC swag. 😎
👉 If a pal forwarded this to you, subscribe so you never miss out, and be sure to follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.
A pop-up masterclass
Welcome: A welcome pop-up triggers when a visitor first lands on your website and after the site content loads.
Exit: An exit-intent pop-up will trigger when a visitor's mouse hovers toward the top of the page (where they close the site tab) and capture visitors before they decide to exit your store.
Scroll: After a visitor scrolls to a specific point of the webpage (25%, 50%, etc.), you can trigger a pop-up to appear.
Time-based: Set pop-ups to appear after a visitor has spent a certain amount of time on a page. For example, if they’ve been sitting on the homepage for 25 seconds, you can trigger a promotion and lead capture.
Interaction-based: These pop-ups trigger when a visitor lands on a specific page or clicks an element on your website. For example, if a customer clicks into your accessories category, you could trigger a pop-up that offers a coupon for all accessories.
👏 Pop-up design best practices
According to Michael Wadsworth, Partner Marketer at Justuno, pop-up design depends on the type you’re creating.
And no matter what, it’s always best to be visually engaging and showcase your products and services.
🎇 Imagery: Visually grab shopper’s attention with engaging images.
Showcase products, add decorative elements, and use shapes to create an eye-catching design that highlights essential information.
✅ Separate your pop-up text into clear sections: Pop-ups with small text squished together aren’t attractive to visitors, and they won’t want to share information in case your emails have the same design (yikes).
Break your pop-up text into sections as you would on a landing page (e.g., headline, body copy, and CTA button).
📸 Leverage UGC: "UGC (especially alongside reviews) can elevate your on-site messaging to a much greater degree," said Michael.
You can easily use UGC content in pop-ups, so visitors have insight into what your product looks like, which helps them decide to convert.
⚪️ Use ample whitespace: Whitespace means leaving areas without text or decoration to avoid too much on-page noise that distracts visitors from taking action.
Make sure your pop-ups have enough whitespace to make your design attractive and readable.
📕 Follow brand guidelines: Pop-ups aren’t meant to alarm visitors. You don’t want them to feel like they’re being transported to an entirely new site.
Keep your branding and colors consistent with the rest of your site to avoid confusion.
🎉 Make your CTA pop: Your main value prop and CTA button should be the two elements that stand out the most.
Customers need to easily understand what value they’re getting and where to click to get it.
Use engaging copy and eye-catching color.
Here’s a great example from Bryan Anthony’s where the pop-up button is interactive when visitors hover over it.
The action is sharing their email address for an incentive (early access to product drops, a discount, a guide, etc.) The need is to explain why customers need to take the offer at that exact moment.
Use command words like "get," "subscribe," "see," or "buy" to provoke visitors to act immediately - especially if you add a deadline for the offer.
When writing copy for your pop-up, think "less is more."
Avoid busy walls of text and stick to a single message: the offer and the benefit.
Adding multiple messages in such a small space will confuse readers, and they won’t understand why they should share their info with you.
Jlo Beauty’s pop-up is super concise, yet the language is engaging and actionable:
People don’t want to be sold to. Period. Instead, find a way to give visitors value for the info they share with you.
Talk to your customers like a friend rather than just a target buyer.
Here’s an impressive example from Glossier:
We won’t leave you hanging… Check out part 2 in our next newsletter!
BFCM Do's and Don'ts: Consumer Edition.
Klaviyo compiled the BFCM top tactics consumers loved ❤️ and loathed 👎 this year.
And you might be shocked by what’s on the list.
Turns out, shoppers weren’t a fan of the "surprise" sale extension…
💬 "Good morning to everyone except brands trying to convince me they spontaneously decided to extend their sale today." –@almcpeak
But they did love seeing brands go live on Instagram or Facebook to talk about their sales.
💬 "✅ Using Instagram Live to talk about the sale and highlight/sell some of your top products." –@m0llybecker
So, did your brand crush the "do’s"?
Or fall short with some of the surprising "don’ts"? 😬
👉 Get Klaviyo’s full rundown of Cyber Weekend wins and misses so you can be prepared for next year!
Bump is much more than eCommerce; they’re a collection of businesses that span consumer subscriptions (Bump Consumer), corporate wellness (Bump Wellness), DME & Telehealth (Bump Medical), life & property/casualty insurance (Bump Life), and growing.🤰
Here’s how they plan to own the business of baby bumps and achieve their goals of reaching 2M moms.
This episode was a real call to action for entrepreneurs to think bigger about their businesses.
"Not enough people across the DTC community are thinking big enough… Every company, DTC and otherwise, starts product-centric…
What I think is not discussed often enough across the DTC community is… then what? When and how do DTC entrepreneurs make the conscious shift from being product-centric to distribution-centric?"
Time to think big. Like Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon big.
"The future of DTC belongs to the companies that are ambitious enough to want to own the entire affinity group… In the worst-case scenario, those multiple business units do insulate you against various risks to the company; and in the best-case scenario, they all compound."
Paul’s tip for hiring: Find the most relentlessly resourceful, most self-aware people possible. Skills can be taught, culture can’t.
And make sure to relentlessly align everyone around a larger vision.
"The people that can help you build these large ideas are motivated by large visions."
Not sure what yours is yet? 🤔
"Just pick a North star – whether that’s a conversion rate, transaction number, revenue goal – and put it up on the wall."
Bump’s vision started out as the words "$20M in 2020" written on a whiteboard that’s still in their office today (and, btw, they crushed that goal).
"Capital is not the differentiator that you think it is."
According to Paul, speed is the only intellectual property and differentiator that DTC companies actually have.
"The reason we dominate our verticals is because we move faster in a given time period than anybody else."
👉 Put your Big Vision Pants on and listen to the full pod with Paul here!
Increase your ROI on ad spend with Triple Pixel
Even before Apple’s iOS changes, how confident did you feel that you were spending efficiently on ads? Or that you had an accurate picture of new customer acquisition? 😕
Luckily, there’s a new solution for better-than-ever ad visibility: Triple Pixel by Triple Whale. 🐋
Triple Pixel bridges the gap that Apple's privacy policy created between your website and digital ad platforms and gives you the ability to accurately attribute ad clicks to real conversions.
Here’s how Triple Pixel helps you make better decisions:
Plus, a lot more insights to help you scale winning campaigns (make $$$) and turn off the duds with more confidence (save $$$).
👉 Try Triple Pixel today and be one of the first 200 stores to get early access at up to 40% off.
What the heck is EGC?
We all understand the importance of UGC to create trust between customers and potential customers, but EGC (employee-generated content) goes a step further by diving into the value and story behind the brand.
EGC is re-shared up to 24x more when initially shared by employees vs. the brand and gets 8x more engagement than branded content.
Additionally, 59.8% of marketers share/promote EGC on their social media, helping to expand reach and build community.
"EGC helps establish the brand’s identity and makes for great organic social and ads content," says the Pilothouse UGC team.
Creating a ‘Founder’s Story’ is crucial to building a human connection, especially during the beginning stages of the brand.
1) Beardbrand founder, Eric Bandholz: The Starting Vision
2) Mid-Day Squares: The founding story
3) Underwear brand Huha shares team member stories
Build that EGC alongside your UGC!
The Pilothouse team plans to double down on EGC in 2022, especially in Facebook ad creative!
Make sure your customer is in the loop on supply chain issues!
Send an email like Blume did… It will go a longgg way in increasing your customer/brand reputation and keep your customers happy 😀
💸 Feds increase scrutiny of buy now, pay later.
✍️ Twitter adds auto-captions for all video uploads in Tweets.
😇 These 10 DTC darlings helped pave the way for digitally native brands. Where are they now?
🥳 Instagram surpasses 2 billion monthly users while powering through a year of turmoil.
📈 The 2022 Instagram trend report.
📦 How to prepare for shipping rate changes in 2022.
🐦 Twitter publishes 2022 planning guide to assist in your tweet strategy.
🤰 Paul Singh from Bump Health on becoming a distribution company and the road to $200B.
🐶 Chippin Pet CEO Haley Russell on Crickets, Carp, and Global Warming.
🥜 Crunch Differentiation in CPG with Daily Crunch Snacks Founder Laurel Orley.
❄️ How Josh Elizetxe Would Build Snow Oral Care if He Were Starting Today.
Don’t forget to rate the DTC Podcast on Apple (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
DTC Newsletter is written by Thomas Schreiber, Kelsey Hess, Tina Donati, and Rebecca Knight.
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