DTC660: Glossier’s Locked Mailers Pre-Launch Strategy

Good morning,

Brace yourselves—dockworkers across U.S. ports have gone on strike, demanding higher wages and a fair contract.

As imports slow to a crawl, ecommerce businesses are facing a looming challenge. If the strike continues for more than a few weeks, expect rising shipping costs and potential inventory shortages just in time for the critical Q4 shopping season.

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Here’s what you’ll find in today’s DTC:

🔒 How Glossier drummed up excitement with this ‘locked mailers’ product seeding tactic.
🔮 Will this year’s BFCM be record breaking? Peek our expert’s prediction below.
⚡ And…this new integration makes it easier to streamline design workflows for your Q4 campaigns.

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You’re reading this newsletter along with new subscribers from: La Mer, SuckerPunch, and Asahi Beverages. 👋

🚀 Free Webinar: Optimization from First Impression to Final Checkout

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• To create a repeatable marketing system that you can depend on?

If you answered yes to any or all of the above, you need to be optimizing. ✅

Join Pilothouse Co-Founder Kyle Hitchcox and Director of Innovation Brett Turner on October 16th at 10am PST/1pm EST as they walk you through optimizing your ad account and site to find more profit this Q4 and beyond.

From ads to site, gain insights and tips on finding and converting customers this Q4. Limited spaces available…

‍💗 Glossier’s Brilliant Mystery Product Seeding Campaign

The cosmetic brand caused quite a stir last week when influencers started sharing videos of the mystery PR packages they received from Glossier. 👀

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Here’s what the package looked like:

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A selection of influencers received ‘locked’ mailers and a message that read ‘a passcode will be sent in a few days’, a week before the official product launch.

It didn’t take long for the speculation game to begin.

Customers voiced their excitement online about what the mystery product could possibly be, generating lots of social engagement for the beloved beauty brand.

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Why this product seeding strategy is brilliant 👇

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Creates more engagement: We all know how gifting new products to creators and influencers can help build awareness on social media, but Glossier’s clever tactic of sending a locked mailer creates suspense and speculation on what it could be.

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More Content! By delaying the unboxing experience, the brand gets creators intrigued and more willing to film additional content around the mystery package.

First off, what could it be? And then ways to ‘break the lock’ and finally filming their joyful reactions when they finally reveal the package.

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The result?

After a week-long guessing game, the brand delighted fans, exceeding expectations by dropping not one but two new fragrances that remix their cult favorite scent, Glossier You.

What do you think of this pre-launch tactic?

🔮 Will This Be The Biggest Black Friday…Ever?

Despite the uncertainty around the U.S. election and the state of the economy, it still looks like customers are consuming and more are gravitating towards the DTC space.

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The numbers 👇

Following an unexpected increase in August (+1.0% MoM, driven partly by unusual activity in used car sales), U.S. Retail Sales were anticipated to drop in August (-0.2% MoM), with Bank of America forecasting a decline of 0.3% MoM.

However, similar to July, the reported retail sales for August surpassed predictions, rising by 0.1% MoM (with July's figures revised upward to +1.1% MoM), largely due to gains from Direct to Consumer purchases. 📈

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What does this mean?

This rising trajectory supports a possible record-breaking Q4 season for ecommerce brands.

If you haven’t started or streamlined your product in the DTC space, now is the time.

🌐 IN THE SOCIAL SPHERE

Good news for brands that use Klaviyo for email marketing. The platform now integrates with Canva, making it easier than ever to design snazzy emails. Just in time for Q4 mailers.

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📥 Got a B2B Biz?

Join dozens of B2B companies finding demand-gen success through our niche community of 160k brand leaders and founders this year. Talk to our team to learn more.

Have you heard our latest podcasts?

• 💯 AKNF 442: Unlocking Premium Amazon A+ Content
• ✨ The Art of Storytelling with Niclas Bornling from Craft Sportswear
• 👻 AKNF 441: Crush Your Halloween Campaigns on Meta!
• 🍃 Driving 5x Digital Growth: How Salt and Stone Optimizes Sales
• 💰 AKNF 439: Maximizing Google Ads Profitability
• 🏜️Dosso Beauty Tackling Hair Deserts with Hypoallergenic Products

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Don’t forget to rate the DTC Podcast on Apple (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

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DTC Newsletter is written by Rebecca Knight and Frances Du. Edited by Eric Dyck.

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