Friday, March 3, 2023
Makes the list for ‘Top 10 marketing betrayals.’
In this newsletter, you’ll find: 👇
📦 Do all brands need an offer in their welcome email?
📦 How to get custom push notifications rolling for your brand
📦 Communicating your value props and evergreen offers
📦 Should your brand be considering TV advertising?
📦 Double-cushioned socks, plant-based French-inspired desserts, and dog subscription boxes
Read till the end to access exclusive DTC swag. 😎
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Welcome back to another week of DTC’s Brand Breakdown series! This is where we call up our pals at Pilothouse to give us the inside scoop on the biggest marketing wins from your favorite brands.
Last week, we looked at Kim K’s SKIMS Shapewear and their Meta Ads library, so let’s see what secrets Pilothouse can pull from their emails. 👀
☂️ The high-level scoop
Let’s start with some high-level observations. Given the caliber of brand SKIMS has become, we’re not surprised that their emails are of such high quality. Every element, from design to copy, is refined and truthfully represents the brand’s vision and aesthetic. 🙌
They play by their own rules. With a high level of brand awareness, the product sells itself, so typical industry tactics aren’t always needed.
SKIMS uses a confident brand voice that consumers are likely to trust. Inclusive language is the key here. You’ll notice that SKIMS uses “our” when referring to the brand and “you” when speaking to the consumer. Touching on the consumer’s emotional relationship to the brand emphasizes their knowledge of how people feel in their products.
🤗 Welcome to the club
In the welcome email, we see strict adherence to their brand guidelines. It’s a fantastic introduction to the brand, but there’s no welcome offer. 🤷♀️ Honestly, it’s to be expected with a brand of this size.
Even though it’s not communicated here, SKIMS has one evergreen offer you can find with a little digging, but we’ll clue you in. It’s free shipping on orders over $75. 🚢
This shows that consumers want this product because of its reputation and not because it’s on sale.
SKIMS communicates the added value of signing up, including:
We feel welcomed into a strong female-led community with diversity in the spotlight throughout the email.
By using tailored messaging and call-to-actions (CTAs) that directly address the consumer, we are much more engaged with their products and language than we would be with more generic CTAs like “Shop Now.”
SMS at scale can mean $$$. But with mobile apps...
👀 When it comes to getting your customer's attention, push notifications are the best retention tool. So why isn’t your brand using them?
It's time to build an attractive mobile shopping app for your fans.
📲 Custom push notifications from Tapcart can cover everything from news to product drops increasing the overall LTV of every customer.
Less churn + More conversions = More revenue. It's that simple.
Don’t believe us? Streetwear brand RipNDip increased their total sales by 52% in the first month – and then another 43% the next month! 🚀
It gets better – 92% of mobile users engage with push notifications because they want to hear from you.
Send product notifications, limited offers and special news straight to your customers. Tapcart even allows you to have UNLIMITED push notifications at no extra cost, regardless of the size of your subscriber list (unlike SMS's extra $$$).
👉 Enjoy unlimited connections with your VIP customer segment using Tapcart!
🤨 You or me?
Even with such a fabulous design, we’re still left wondering who this email is for:
The message could be intentionally vague, appealing to the widest audience, but this feels more like a “treat yourself” email that isn’t effectively communicated.
We can’t imagine they have a large male subscriber base, so we’re still on the fence about this one.
📢 Loud and proud
If you haven’t purchased from SKIMS before, they do a great job of communicating who they are and what they're about. This simple and clean email shares their value proposition and the USPs (unique selling points) of their products.
Take note of the evergreen offer of free shipping on orders over $75 featured here. This should be a staple in all of their emails. 🤔
😍 Spreading the love
We have another Valentine’s email that doesn’t address any group in particular. Vague messaging leaves this one open to interpretation like before so we’ll just leave at that for now.
They clearly have a wide variety of available products, new releases, and include some urgency as these items could sell out very soon.
That added gift section is a great way to cross-sell their items — we hope to see more of that in the future! 🏆
🎨 Expertly crafted
The design of this email is straight fire. 🔥
Using the word “viral” alludes to a popular in-demand item that was just restocked. “Back in stock” terminology implies that this product has sold out before and creates urgency to generate those extra sales.
That added value messaging to highlight some features and benefits of the product is a nice touch. The mix of lifestyle and product imagery brings some welcomed variety into their portfolio as well!
TV advertising is a serious option for your brand, and these 5 case studies prove why.
😭 From iOS updates to an unpredictable economy, social media and search marketing have been rocky lately. Brands like Fiverr, Calm, Fabletics, Onewheel and Truebill have turned to an old friend to help boost sales and drive lower-funnel performance.
TV 📺
"Did they just say TV?"
Yes, we did. TV marketing isn't what it used to be -
Tatari helped these brands crush their acquisition goals on streaming and linear TV, and they have the case studies to prove it.
👉 Don't believe us? See the case studies yourself!
💪 Stay the course
There aren't too many new things going on here… but we can pick out a very effective campaign angle that reminds us of popular items and restocks.
🚶♀️ Walkin’ the walk
It’s so refreshing to see a big brand create trust through social proof rather than rely on their reputation to do the work.
We love the way they communicate an overwhelming amount of 5-star reviews and pair that messaging with UGC. This is not just another trending product but a product that shoppers trust.
🔮 The fortune teller
This email uses a predictive merchandising section (shown above) that pulls from a catalog. While this is a great idea, it isn’t optimized for dark mode and ultimately detracts from the whole experience.
A significant portion of users view their devices through dark mode, so always make sure that every email is optimized for both light and dark viewing. ◼️◻️
🪂 Get your drops!
This is another product drop email that aligns with the original messaging in their welcome email. We appreciate them being true to their word! By prefacing your content strategy like this, you can send tailored content around your initial value proposition without guessing what content the consumer wants from you.
SKIMS communicates a pain point, “Tired of wires?” and introduces a solution by reiterating their USPs (unique selling points).
Some brands would be inclined to just introduce the product without any further context, but SKIMS wants the consumer to know exactly why they should purchase this product.
✌️ That’s a wrap!
SKIMS is at the top of the email game, and with Pilothouse to guide us through it all, we’re confident that any brand can pull a winning strategy from the best of the best. Stay tuned to DTC’s Brand Breakdown series for a deep dive into SKIMS Google Ads next week!
Brands
🧦 Doublesoul: Is your sock drawer still holding socks from the early 2000’s? If so, it’s long past time for a revamp. Doublesoul’s comfortable everyday socks provide ample cushioning in stylish colors.
🇫🇷 Petit Pot: Craving a taste of French desserts without all the heavy ingredients? Petit Pot has you covered with their plant-based dessert pots in ample delicious flavors.
🐶 Barkbox: Everybody loves getting mail (as long as it’s not bills), and Barbox thinks your pup would too! Their monthly boxes are customizable with on-theme toys and treats.
👀 Ronak Shah - Obvi Collagen - Obvi's biggest blunders (and how you can avoid them) - C-Suite Mentor Preview.
🚀 BattlBox John Roman - The Subscription with the ~$1000 LTV and the Netflix Rocket Ship.
👟 Kuru Footwear’s Turnaround Playbook: Sean McGinnis On The CRO Tactics That Doubled Revenue (C-Suite Mentor Preview).
🧑🦲 iRestore Hair Growth System: Kevin Chen - The True Impact of Costco.
⚔️ Mini Katana: Karly McFarland on $100M in Email Sales and Why She Sold Her Agency and Turned to the Brand Side (C-Suite Mentor Preview).
💡 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 and Michael Venditti. Edited by Claire Beveridge and Eric Dyck.
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