This is your wholesome meme of the day. Happy Friday! 🎉
In this newsletter, you’ll find: 👇
📦 Delivering value in your welcome email
📦 How to supercharge your most valuable customers with a mobile app
📦 The importance of developing a brand tone
📦 Subscription baby clothes, Starface skincare, and Sibeiho hot sauces
Read till the end to access exclusive DTC swag. 😎
👉 If a pal forwarded this to you, subscribe, so you never miss out.
Welcome back to the brand breakdown series with our pals on the Pilothouse email team! We have the 1-2 punch of an all-star marketing team and ad campaigns from the biggest brands to examine winning strategies and highlight industry secrets. 👏
We continue our journey with Dr. Squatch and their emails for some April Fool’s fun, the impact a small badge can make, and some much-needed simplicity. Pilothouse, the doctor will see you now. 👇
🤫 Shh, it’s a secret
Dr. Squatch is a seasoned brand and, just like in our last email breakdown with SKIMS, we can tell they know what they’re doing. In an email strategy, brands typically focus on one of two things:
Well-established brands with products that serve a clear purpose, like Dr. Squatch and their soap, don't need to write much to get either of these points across. Simple and straight-forward copy exudes confidence and that confidence leaves a lasting impression on the audience.
Notice how this welcome email drives traffic by highlighting the featured offer and only the featured offer? A smaller brand without an established audience doesn’t have it so easy. There’s a ton of brand awareness to establish first before following in the steps of Dr. Squatch. 👣
The secondary message is a clear breakdown of how easy and flexible their subscription model is. The reader gains:
Dr. Squatch should expand on the savings and offer information in the merchandising section. These products are on sale, so adding a badge at the top of each product with $25 off or 20% off would drive more traffic and build up a necessary level of urgency.
We also included an image of the pop-up offer above because it’s a really unique way to generate new subscribers. 👍
After testing Meta ads that contain mystery or secret offers, we noticed that they tend to do well. Brands should expect a higher click-through rate (CTR) because people are intrigued by what they’re seeing (or what they’re not seeing!).
People are motivated by the idea of becoming the lucky one who ‘found’ the secret. It’s the same reason we buy lottery tickets! The mystery offer leverages the natural curiosity of new subscribers who likely won’t know much about the brand yet.
A great website is fast…
But an app is *instant.*
Mobile apps put you at your customer’s fingertips 24/7. 🤳 Send top customers real-time notifications, drive immediate traffic, and a purchase can be made in 3 taps!
That’s why mobile apps are the second highest-grossing revenue channel for brands like Princess Polly, Kaged, Obvi, VRG GRL, and Chubbies – driving 2-3x conversions on average.
Tapcart can turn your Shopify store into an epic app. No coding required. That's what we like to call ✨ instant app-ification. ✨
Plus, as a DTC subscriber, you get your first month free!
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🤗 You’ve got a friend in me
We enjoy reading the way Dr. Squatch speaks to their audience because they frame themselves as a member of their own community. They‘ve created a sense of virality both on-site and on social media. It seems like everyone loves their product! 😃
This email is a personal invitation to develop the relationship between the reader and the brand. And that little SMS section? 👀 It’s the key in eliminating any bias to give people a choice between signing up for emails or SMS.
Some prefer a text because it feels more personal. Others prefer to keep everything in their inbox to stay organized. If you go down the SMS route, always consider people’s time and privacy so you don’t overstep – otherwise you're just spamming them. Leveraging SMS responsibly puts your brand in direct contact with your customers when it’s convenient for you. 📱
🤔 What’s in it for me?
This is another strong email (with some drawbacks!) that utilizes both icons and illustrations. The digestible copy sells the value of being a subscriber. Brands should always try to communicate savings in the merchandising section to keep it top-of-mind.
The top half of the email is focused on ‘Subscribing Now’ while the bottom is focused on shopping bundles. This separates the email into two different messages. Keep it consistent with one clear message and curate a simple CTA to match.
☝️ Keep it simple
Not every email has to be a work of art. This reads like an email from a friend or colleague. It doesn’t overstep with an ambitious sales pitch and just feels more personal. 🤝
All it asks of the consumer is to click the link and enter a phone number for a free brick of soap. With some urgency thrown in for good measure, it’s a great way to encourage SMS engagement. You could even frame an email like this as a note from a founder to make it even more personal.
Sprinkle text-only emails into your campaigns to when it feels right to communicate the last hours of a promo, a reminder, a new product launch, or in this example, a CTA when it feels right.
📣 More to come
We’ve got so much more to share next week as the Pilothouse email team dives even deeper into the makings of a successful email campaign. Stay tuned for tips on how to bundle your products, CTA advice, and St. Patty’s Day promos.
Has Dr. Squatch piqued your interest with these ads? Let us know what email campaign your brand is drafting next and if Dr. Squatch has inspired you to make a change!
Brands
👶 UpChoose: It takes a village to raise a little human – that’s why UpChoose takes the hassle out of finding the best organic clothes for your baby and delivers them through an innovative subscription service.
⭐ Starface: Say goodbye to pimples forever! Starface has your skincare routine covered from exfoliating night water to outer space body cleansers!
🔥 Sibeiho: All-natural, local hot sauces from Sibeiho are ready to add a little kick to any dish. Get a taste of the amazing flavors from Singapore in any of the three signature sauces.
🌲 TAXA Outdoor, Garrett Finney: Digital meets dealership, NASA Architect goes out of home for real.
🐶 Pet Health Comes Home with MySimplePetLab's Jen Hagness.
☠️ Liquid Death Mountain Water: Hamid Saify - Death, Beverages, and the Attention Economy.
🟥 Mid-Day Squares: Jake Karls and Nick Saltarelli - Rainmaking, Fundraising and "One word: F&%^ng Crazy."
🧖♀️ Bushbalm's David Gaylord goes B2B, Enters US retail bigly, and rides the Vajacial wave on DTC.
💡 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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