Good morning,
Google’s share of the global search engine market fell below 90% for the first time since 2015. 😮
While 89.73% is still a significant amount, this decrease shows how the rise of AI answer engines and other platforms are gaining traction with audiences.
You’re reading this newsletter along with new subscribers from: Wilson Lane Apparel, Planet Curls, and Karmaceuticals. 👋
💡 How To Turn 404 Errors Into An Opportunity
Every site has encountered this problem…
404 errors.
This pesky error often happens when the URL of a link gets changed, moved around, or deleted, resulting in a less-than-stellar user experience.
While these should be fixed, they are easily missed, so avoid frustrating visitors by creating a custom 404 error page instead!
💡 This is a great opportunity to show off your brand personality and humor while leading customers back to your PDPs.
Let’s look at this creative 404 page by the drink brand Juvee:
Their custom 404 page acknowledges that this is a dead end but offers something fun for customers to do in the meantime.
Visitors can play an interactive game using a can of Juvee to capture different floating flavors above.
Afterwards, visitors can click on a bold orange CTA button to continue shopping.
Instead of causing customer frustration, the experience surprises and delights visitors by making them feel like they stumbled upon a ‘secret game.’
The takeaway?
Design a custom 404 page so customers become more familiar with your brand.
Think of it as an opportunity to entertain customers with an interactive game or as a way to provide links to other pages so you can direct them back to shopping.
🫢 What if Your Next 100 Conversions Came From $0 Ad Spend?
People aren't just shopping online anymore – they're living online. Following recipes, watching unboxings, discovering products through their favorite influencers.
The feed is their new shopping mall. 🛍️
Look at brands crushing it right now: Obvi, Salud, Graza, HexClad.
What’s their secret?
👉 Building communities of influencers who genuinely love their products, share authentic, engaging stories, and drive consistent sales.
But finding these influencers, managing relationships, tracking results... it's overwhelming. 😵💫
That's where SARAL comes in. Find brand-aligned influencers, ship products, share tracking links, and get content – all in one place. Easy.
The best DTC brands are already building their influencer armies.
Want to know how they do it? 👀
* sponsored
🍇 Incorporate These Low Hanging Fruit Ad Angles ASAP!
Have you heard of the term low hanging fruit?
These are easy opportunities brands can take advantage of with little effort but can have great impact.
The Pilothouse Meta team shares this goes for ad angles and styles too.
Here are some top low hanging fruit opportunities that can thrive in brand accounts.
1️⃣ As Seen In: This angle is all about promoting your brand or product mentions and using good press to your advantage.
👉 Find the specific publication that resonates most with your audience, you can iterate by creating an article screen shot style as creative.
2️⃣ Social Pull: Sure you can always boost a social post but what about introducing the creative in an ad format as well?
Everything used on organic social media should be tested in paid media as well.
You’ll be surprised by what performs well in ads isn’t always the same as what performs organically. Test and iterate!
3️⃣ Founders Content: People like knowing the people behind a brand.
👉 Take a simple shot of your founder with the hero product or a selfie video style of a founder walking around and telling their story.
4️⃣ Unique Selling Point (USP) Callout: Split up each unique selling point of a product into their own ad creatives.
👉 Test them against each other to see which USP is the strongest for converting. Again, it might not be what you think it is.
5️⃣ Behind the Scenes or Warehouse: Consumers love getting a peek behind the curtain, showing them what it's like to fulfill or create the product.
👉 Simple shots like mixing, making, or boxing go a long way on paid media.
Don't be afraid to show the real side of the brand.
🌐 IN THE SOCIAL SPHERE
This might be our favorite ad campaign this month. 😂
The workout app Ladder created a villain called Karl, the Quitter’s Day Fairy to get people pumped up to work out.
In the video ad campaign the hilarious villain encourages gym goers to quit, taunting and insulting them for setting unrealistic goals.
By creating an antagonist, Ladder is hoping users will band together to complete challenges on the app to defeat him and earn limited edition badges.
Ladder’s campaign quickly went viral on social media and was praised for their creative take on gamifying the workout experience.
⚡ QUICK HITS
💰 How much are you spending on your current tech stack? Check out Swap's ROI Calculator to see how consolidated operations can boost your business — and your bottom line. Try the calculator for free. *
🤔 Your influencer strategy needs an update. Join SARAL and DTC’s webinar this Jan. 29th and learn how to craft a successful influencer program that drives sales and gets you endless UGC. Reserve your seat here. *
💸 MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS
📰 NEWS
📥 Got a B2B Biz?
Join dozens of B2B companies finding demand-gen success through our niche community of 150k brand leaders and founders this year. Talk to our team to learn more.
Have you heard our latest podcasts?
Don’t forget to rate the DTC Podcast on Apple (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
DTC Newsletter is written by Rebecca Knight and Frances Du. Edited by Eric Dyck.
Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here.
Please note that items in this newsletter marked with * contain sponsored content.
.svg)
.svg)
.svg)
.svg)
.svg)
.svg)
