Wednesday, November 16, 2022
Oops, #WebDevFail. Don’t be caught with your marketing pants down this holiday season. Check your pages!
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If you’re new to DTC, welcome! You’re in good company with fellow newcomers from Deciem, Children's Factory, CookUnity, and Natalie Marie Jewellery. 💍
In this newsletter, you’ll find: 👇
📦 The Google version of Facebook Ad Library
📦 Effectively leveraging first-party data to boost your marketing campaigns
📦 Puppy Dogs and Ice Cream: Jason Kutasi, performance marketing children’s books to eight figures
📦 How to own a bigger piece of the pie this holiday season
Read till the end to access exclusive DTC swag. 😎
👉 If a pal forwarded this to you, subscribe, so you never miss out.
Deck The Halls With Content Inspiration
Do you ever wish upon a star that other platforms had their own equivalent to Facebook Ads Library? 👀
If you’re:
Today is your lucky day!
💫 Here’s a free Google alternative to get your fix of competitor ads:
1️⃣ Navigate to Google and search the brand you’re keen on seeing.
2️⃣ If an ad appears on search, you’re ready to rock and roll! Simply click the triangle on the right side of the headline (or three dots if you’re on mobile). This hack doesn’t work for all companies in all regions yet, make sure to check a few if you’re not seeing what you’re looking for!
3️⃣ After clicking, navigate to ‘See more ads by this advertiser.’
Once you’ve clicked through to see all, you’ll be able to see all ads a brand is running on Google for images, video, and text! 🎉
This is the closest hack to a ‘Google Ads Library’ we’ve found!
Happy spying! Do you have any more hacks to see competitor ads? Send us an email outlining your process!
When life hands you iOS14.5 (🍋), make lemonade (with BlackCrow AI)!
Like many DTC brands, when iOS 14.5 struck, ezpz lost real-time visibility across channels. And everything from audience data to generating lookalikes became less profitable.
But not for long. ⏳
ezpz quickly started working with Black Crow AI to turn things around, effectively leveraging first-party data to boost their marketing campaigns.
Black Crow AI uses first-party data to build highly targeted marketing audiences for brands to use across all platforms. Then, brands can effectively target customers who are most likely to buy. 🎯
With Black Crow AI, ezpz saw:
👉 Read the case study now to learn how Black Crow helped ezpz, and how they can help you too!
🎧 On the latest episode of the DTC pod, we got real with Puppy Dogs & Ice Cream founder and CEO Jason Kutasi.
Highlighting topics such as emotional learning, loss, and gratitude, Puppy Dogs & Ice Cream prioritize publishing meaningful and educational stories for children to help them grow into the best versions of themselves. 🧒🏼
The takeaways 👇
📚 Books need hooks
Having a great story is a must, but just like DTC ads and landing pages need a killer hook, Jason talks about the importance of children’s books following the same formula. Why should consumers buy this book? What makes this book different from other books?
“The best way to sell is by sharing an experience or telling a story, and the consumer needs to see themselves in that story. Is that a problem that they have had? Or like, ‘Yes, you were talking to me. I'm resonating with this, so tell me more.’”
🏗️ Building brand loyalty
Most established DTC brands operate in highly-competitive markets.
This means there’s more required of brands than having a great product and being able to sell it effectively.
To thrive in this dynamic, brands must apply strategies to get consumers to return to their site and repeat their purchases. For Jason, one of those strategies revolves around customer service.
“One thing I'm very proud of as a business owner is that we are obsessive-compulsive about customer service. Our customer service scores are off the charts, and I think you will always have a problem when you hit a certain size or scale [but]... if you treat those customers right, it makes them more loyal to the brand.”
💰 What Jason would do with an extra $50K:
Jason is thinking in terms of efficiency and growth.
“I would probably put the money into tech. One of the things that we've been spending a lot of time doing is building out all these micro apps… I'm also thinking about what's next, not necessarily for the company, but the evolution of our growth.”
👉 Listen to the full episode with Jason Kutasi here!
Fostering Sales This Holiday Season and Beyond
🎵 Jingle bells, it’s time to sell
The holidays present countless opportunities to market your products. We’ve all heard of these before, but what we should be doing is taking a closer look at several marketing strategies to see where your brand can offer something truly special for your customers and market ‘indirectly.’
Hear us out on this one…
☝️ FOMO no mo’
We know you have some awesome promotions lined up. Whether it’s free shipping, discounts, or referral programs, consider extending these promotions into the new year and avoid the FOMO trend.
While FOMO is a proven strategy, it needlessly limits your growth into Boxing Day and New Year’s Day.
You don’t want a marketing strategy to work against you. With more conservative budgets, consumers are looking for the best deals and will take their time in doing so. Time could be the one barrier between you and a new customer.
Gift cards and exchanges both present opportunities to upsell a gift purchased before the holidays. Extending your promotions for the new or hesitant consumer starts your new relationship on positive terms.
🔥 Things can go wrong, and that’s okay
Let’s face it. The holidays are stressful for everyone, so a little reinforcement goes a long way. 🤷♂️
Say hello to holiday-specific FAQ pages.
Crafting an updated FAQ for holiday shoppers not only empowers your support team with additional resources but also saves shoppers time, as all the answers to their questions are in one handy place.
Remember what we said about marketing ‘indirectly?’
FAQ pages communicate trust and exude confidence at times when customers may feel uncertain. While you’re not advertising a product, you are selling your brand’s knowledge and culture. 🧠
A customer who has a positive impression of your brand’s culture after a single purchase will likely return to purchase a gift for a loved one if they trust your brand and the product aligns with that individual.
🤔 That brand I saw one time in that one ad…
Personalize your campaigns to align your brand with customers and those on their holiday shopping list.
To build on those ‘indirect’ marketing strategies, consider that shoppers have themselves in mind and their friends and loved ones. 💑
Are you able to communicate so effectively that your campaign could spread by word-of-mouth?
Engaging this hypothetical ‘dad’ figure is the unspoken marketing superpower of the holidays. Your ads must be concise and have your brand name clearly visible. Write out your brand name if possible because it will be much more memorable than a simple logo.
Ad real estate isn’t cheap, but you won’t always be marketing to your loyal fanbase during the holidays, so cater some ads to be clear and concise with only essential information.
🫂 Like a group hug
Skincare, beauty, food, hygiene, health, petcare… is there anything audiences won’t subscribe to?
Subscription programs allow you to lock in audiences for continued growth — as long as you outline how your brand can be flexible.
For example, customers may find that they have too much of your product, so offering ways to alter the subscription and fit the temporary needs of your customers will reduce your churn rate. Advertise how flexible your program can be!
A push into the subscription-based business model can provide consistent revenue and brand loyalty into the new year and beyond. 📈
Send us a reply to this email with any marketing hacks you’ve discovered that build on your existing holiday strategies. ‘Tis the season of giving after all!
📸 To celebrate the launch of Pilothouse Studios, they are offering free content for your Shopify site, Amazon store, and/or Meta ads. Claim your spot! *
🍎 Apple faces a new lawsuit over data collection practices.
🐤 More cuts and additional verification elements are coming to Twitter.
🤠 Jeff Bezos says he plans to give away most of his wealth.
🌳 Amazon plans to lay off thousands of employees.
🪙 Sam Bankman-Fried's downfall sends shockwaves through crypto.
🧑🏻🤝🧑🏽 Expanding opportunities for Indigenous communities.
*Sponsored
🪄 MagicLinks, Aleks Chojnacka: Influencer Marketing State of the Union (Plus the future of Live Shopping)
👻 Every Man Jack, Troy Petrunoff - Spooky Retention, Segmenting Gift Buyers, and BOOGO Gamified Sales.
📈 Scaling SPF and Finding Your Most Affluent Customers Ahead of the Recession with Supergoop and Lexer.
🏆 VKTRY Gear, Drew Arciuolo: How to Achieve Saturation with Your Target Market.
💧 Bryan Alston, Greater Than - How Greater Than Became Inc’s #198th Fastest Growing Company In the US.
💡 Listen to the Biggest Marketing News Stories Today.
Don’t forget to rate the DTC Podcast on Apple (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
DTC Newsletter is written by Rebecca Knight, Kate Gullett, and Michael Venditti. Edited by Claire Beveridge and Eric Dyck.
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