DTC722: Double Down Issue

Good morning,

Welcome to a special edition of DTC: Our annual Double Down issue! 🎉

We asked some of our past podcast guests and our friends at Pilothouse what worked so well in 2024 that they’ll be doubling down on it in 2025.

And…this year, we also asked them one mistake or lesson they wouldn’t want to repeat.

Scroll down for their candid responses and insights. 👇

💡 Advice from Brands like HexClad, Anyday, Manly Bands, and Salt and Stone

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John Ruggiero from Manly Bands

✅ It pays to hire the best.

It might sound obvious, but for a long time, we hesitated to bring on higher-paid expert talent, choosing instead to invest in leveling up our existing team.

In 2024, we decided to go all-in, and the results were transformative.

Don’t overlook the value of fractional hires—this approach allowed us to bring in world-class talent without the commitment of full-time salaries.

❌ Don’t launch a new product line without a solid marketing plan.

In 2024, we learned this lesson the hard way.

We introduced a new product line without thoroughly mapping out our marketing strategy, and it flopped.

Even the best products can fail without the right marketing to support them.

It was a tough but invaluable reminder: success requires a strong go-to-market plan.

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Dejan Rankovic from Salt and Stone

✅ Influencer marketing continues to pay off.

It allows us to bypass any targeting limitations on paid social by using talent with built-in audiences, established credibility, and natural charisma to deliver our brand message in the most impactful way.

We plan to invest in influencer marketing even more next year.

❌ Don’t underinvest in Amazon.

Running a premium brand, I sometimes get a bit cautious about sacrificing the customer relationship and brand experience when selling through Amazon.

This resulted in periods of underinvestment and focus on the channel, which ultimately limited its full potential.

Over time, I learned that the channel can work in harmony with DTC if used correctly because it reaches new audiences and functions as a brand discovery engine.

The plan for 2025 is to invest more in Amazon and become the top body care brand on the platform.

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Danielle Walsh from Anyday

✅ Great results from creator whitelisting testing!

We accelerated this in Q4, and it has yielded exciting results (a few seemingly scalable ads!).

We plan to allocate a much bigger budget to it in 2025 and will include whitelisting rights in each influencer agreement.

❌ We forgot to turn off a discount code.

Oops. We accidentally left a 15% off code that was leaked to coupon sites, which people applied to our already-great Black Friday sale pricing.

This year, we will carefully comb through our active discounts so there isn’t a repeat.

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Cam Bush, Head of Advertising from HexClad

✅ Leaning into CTV advertising.

This channel has a massive reach and an omnichannel impact.

TV is a massive piece of social proof, and commercial production is an important exercise in understanding your brand.

We tripled down on TV YoY and, while less measurable in a deterministic sense - drove massive growth to .com, Amazon, & retail.

❌ Excessive testing.  

Everyone worth their salt in DTC is running tests on every channel. Creative, destination, offer, etc., but a test without definitive results is just busy work.

Use the scientific method to frame every test. The hypothesis is equally as important as experiment design. Test for impact, not necessity. Test only ONE variable. Be precise.

There is no bigger step backward than a misunderstood test "learning" treated as gospel. And always, always, always put your gut/history to the test. New LP test won against the homepage in August? Test it again in October. Avoid making changes on incomplete data.

⚡ Avoid Overspending and Ways To Embrace AI

The Pilothouse team has solid DTC learnings for you, too.

Hear from their Google, Socials, and Amazon team what tools and tactics they will use to level up and some things they think you should leave behind in 2024.

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Dougie, Pilothouse's Head of Google

✅ Investing in automation and AI:

This includes third-party tools to improve data analysis, interpretation, and execution.

This change will help free up time and capacity to direct strategy and pull the levers that make the most significant impact on accounts.

Grayson, Pilothouse's Head of Socials

✅ Limit overspending with Meta Advantage+ Campaigns using customized inclusion and exclusion audiences.

We implemented systems to define ‘existing customers’ and used the power of ADV+ while mitigating the risk of non-incremental revenue and Meta overcounting conversions.

The result was scalable growth via an adaptation of our campaign structures.

✅ Brand building through persona messaging and audience segmentation.

We saw massive wins through developing personas and building unique content, messaging, and audience segments to speak directly to them.

✅ Setting unique benchmark KPIs for each persona group.

Over the years, we invested in speaking to that specific audience in a way that shifts consumer behavior and gets them to convert.

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Aves, Pilothouse's Socials Division Content Lead

❌ Don't become overly dependent on social media trends.

Lightning in a bottle performance is starting to die out, storytelling is coming back even within shorter-form videos and statics.

❌ Don't cannibalize your own audiences.

Be wary of overrunning retargeting pools with sale or scarcity messaging.

❌ Watch out for your average watch time!

When building Meta video content, be aware of your average watch time and make sure you are loading up your content with the right stuff at the right time.

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John, Pilothouse's Socials Division Manager

✅  Make sure your Ad Set Budget optimization cost cap is made up of winning TOF ads.

✅ BFCM Preparation is key: We work on stocking the pond in October to prepare for Q4.

The key is getting an audience that is engaged and ready to buy.

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Taylor, Pilothouse's Socials Technical Director

❌ Not setting your audience breakdowns in Meta: This will cause you to miss out on valuable data between top-of-funnel, middle-of-funnel, and past purchasers.

❌ Not thinking ahead: Whether it's your post-click routing, inventory, or how you'll maintain performance after a moment.

Rob and Clifford from Pilothouse’s Amazon team

✅ Leveraging Creator Connections program: We saw consistent and meaningful revenue driven through Amazon’s influencer program, Creator Connections, on several accounts.

✅ Used the Search Query Performance Dashboard to monitor impact of branded spend: Using this tool allowed us to dial back spend to the ideal level of branded defense, increasing efficiency and allowing us to invest that spend to drive more incrementality.

✅ Getting aggressive with placement modifier usage.

By looking at the data on each campaign and dialing in the modifiers, we could drive additional revenue and efficiency by focusing spend on where it was delivering the best results (typically away from product pages and towards Top of Search).

✅ Leveled up our subscription strategy: By offering a further discount on the first subscription order, we were able to significantly grow subscriptions for accounts.

This can be combined with reducing the ongoing subscribe and save discount to ensure subscriptions are more profitable.

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What are you doubling down on for 2025? Reply to the newsletter and let us know!