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Issue 230
Wednesday, September 14, 2022
Live action shot of clipping videos for creative iterations. 🎬
If you’re new to DTC, welcome! You’re in good company with fellow newcomers from Papa & Barkley, Joovy, Dash Water, Evive Nutrition, and Skin at Peace. 🕊
In this newsletter, you’ll find: 👇
📦 Disco's Benjamin Smith on nailing your product market fit with creative, offer, and landing page.
📦 Get real-time insight into campaign performance, so you can make adjustments and maximize your ad spend with #paid.
📦 The pre-Q4 promo offers you should be testing NOW.
📦 Give yourself the gift of targeting customers who want to buy with Black Crow AI
📦 Relating to your audience on an emotional level.
📦 How to generate $250k in additional sales on TikTok in 30 days.
Read till the end to access exclusive DTC swag. 😎
👉 If a pal forwarded this to you, subscribe, so you never miss out.
🎧 On today’s episode of the DTC pod, we’re talking to Benjamin Smith, CEO and founder of Disco, about his company’s growth journey and the several factors that contributed to its success thus far.
Here’s the bottom line: men have skin too (*gasp!*)
Tired of sifting through brands that didn’t speak to his own skin problems, Benjamin founded Disco, a company that is breaking down the barriers and filling in the market gap for men’s skincare.
The takeaways 👇
Starting with a great brand
Good branding is the heart and soul of a company. A great brand is what distinguishes one company from another. It's what makes them memorable. Nowadays, it's not enough to have a good product or service; it's also important to have a solid vision, mission statement, and values that people can identify with.
Your brand is the first impression that you can make on a consumer and we asked Benjamin what he thinks qualifies a company as having a good brand. Here’s what he said:
Focusing on the fundamentals
Success in all of its forms can be broken down to consistently focusing on and applying fundamentals. To Benjamin, it’s not about the newest, flashiest widgets and upsell/cross-sell apps, but about figuring out what works in your current marketing funnel and executing it consistently.
“I think a lot of people… Spend more time focusing on distractions like ‘what’s the latest upsell app or cross-sell app or live chat app’ whereas they really should be focusing on the fundamentals, which are like the basic part of a marketing funnel.”
A note to remember: Progress and growth more often than not hide behind basic solutions and underused insights!
💰 What Benjamin would do with an extra $50K:
Benjamin’s plan splits the grant into three spending segments:
👉 Listen to the full episode with Benjamin Smith here!
It’s Not Gambling If You Know You’re Going to Win!
Q4 influencer marketing budgets are in. And now it’s up to you to place your bets and turn that advertising budget into more revenue for your company. 🤯
Thankfully, you have an ace up your sleeve. You’ve already partnered with #paid, and you’re seeing high ROAS.
You know your creator marketing campaigns generate positive results, but the real power comes from understanding HOW and WHY.
#paid has your back. 😤
#paid is the creator marketing platform that arms you with a unique campaign measurement suite. You get real-time insight into campaign performance, so you can make adjustments and maximize your ad spend.
Ready to take these nifty insights back to your CMO and confidently explain how you made your DTC brand more money?
👉 Then, the time is now to check out #paid’s measurement suite.
Pre-Q4 Promo Testing
September?! A-a-already?! 👀 It’s time ya’ll. Time to get promo testing, that is. ⏰
Q4 is right around the corner, and September/early October are PRIME months to test different promo structures for brands who are newer to testing offers or want to shake things up.
The most prepared and marvelous Meta team we know are currently working with brands internationally to test offer structures on Facebook as we head into a prosperous Q4.
Here are a few offers they’re testing:
🤔 $ vs % off offers
Dollar and percent off can be perceived differently! We recommend testing both – even if the value is nearly identical – to understand what resonates with your audience.
🤑 Tiered discounts
Consider offering a percentage or dollar amount off orders over a certain price point!
Tiered offers can work well to combine free shipping (eg. Save up to $100 PLUS enjoy free 1-day shipping).
🎁 Gift with purchase offers
Find a gift that’s relevant to your flagship product and offer it for free to purchasers. People LOVE free stuff.
🕒 Gift card/promo code with purchase
The Pilothouse team recommends promo codes with an expiration date to push urgency and drive repeat sales XX days after the initial purchase.
🆓 Free shipping offers
If free shipping isn’t already included with all purchases on your site, test it out!
Why all the testing now? 🤨 It’s best to head into BFCM knowing that your offer will hit instead of testing mid-November and pivoting at the last minute.
This way, you can take the winning offer and:
And ultimately, crush Q4 💸💸💸 Happy testing! 🔬
Tis’ The Season...
..to give yourself the gift of targeting customers who want to buy! 🎁
Black Crow AI is the magic marketing tool that helps you spend your holiday advertising budget wisely by using one-click AI to group your customers into profiles based on their intent to buy.
Then, it turns those profiles of likely purchasers into handy lists for you to use in your marketing campaigns.
Over 150 DTC brands, like Alleyoop, SKIMS, Liquid IV, and Cotopaxi, have already turned to Black Crow AI to increase ad performance and ROAS—even with tighter holiday budgets.
Now, it’s your turn!
Marketing is never the same from one year to the next. Customers’ needs and wants change, and your advertising angles and brand voice should reflect that!
Matt Kerbel, director of Strategic Brand Planning at Turo, took to LinkedIn to share Monopoly’s new campaign. 🎲
It’s rooted in realness and showcases what most families go through while playing. Let’s be honest, we all know someone that’s flipped the board after losing all their money. 🥲
✨ The takeaways:
What new angles have you been testing for your brand? Reply to this email and let us know!
🚨 How ex-Linkedin data scientists are crafting the perfect customer segmentation tool for your brand.*
🚀 Discover how companies like Songfinch, Inc.'s 166th fastest growing company, have been able to generate $250k in additional sales on TikTok in 30 days working with Pilothouse. Get a FREE 30-day trial, including a media buyer and implementation strategy. Only 3 spots left, offer ends September 2022.
🔎 YouTube’s experimenting with new search and engagement insights to help guide your content strategy.
🔒 Deterring scraping by protecting Facebook identifiers.
📍 Pinterest takes up social media negatives like doomscrolling in campaign.
*Sponsored
🕺 Disco's Benjamin Smith on Nailing Your Product Market Fit With Creative, Offer, and Landing Page.
🆕 Overcoming the New Normal With a Content Creator Network, Crossrope's Srjdan Popovic Returns!
🌸 How True Botanicals Became the Fastest Growing Luxury Beauty Brand with Tresl Segments.
👟 Kuru Footwear Scales Meta Ad Spend 350%! Sean McGinnis on How They Did It.
📈 Are You Measuring Your Actual Growth? Rockerbox's Ron Jacobson on True Incrementality.
Don’t forget to rate the DTC Podcast on Apple (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
DTC Newsletter is written by Rebecca Knight, Kate Gullett, and Jordan Gillis. Edited by Claire Beveridge and Eric Dyck.
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