DTC560: Why Customer Avatars Aren’t Always Effective

Good morning,

Temu is taking a step back from the U.S. market.

After seeing what’s happening with the TikTok ban, the ecommerce giant is now wary about investing all their dollars to become a success in the U.S. and is looking at other countries for business growth instead.

What does this mean? Potentially less competition when it comes to Meta Ads. A relief for SMBs who have had to deal with sky-high CPMs the past few months.

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

👀 Why your ideal customer might not be part of your highest converting audience.
🌴 Pinterest shares the top travel search trends for 2024. Here’s how brands can leverage what’s trending in their campaigns.
🤔 And…Google released AI Overviews in search this week, but how accurate are these AI generated answers?

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You’re reading this newsletter along with new subscribers from: Triple Oak Reiki, Shiro Studio, and Yacht Society. 👋

👀 How Pilothouse Grew a Brand’s Email Revenue By 145% Without Spending An Extra Dime

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A wellness brand approached Pilothouse after acquiring two new subsidiaries. Their goal was to improve email performance, however, they faced significant roadblocks… 🛑

With the acquisition came poor email list health characterized by bad email addresses, spam complaints, and inbox delivery issues.

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🎯 The goal: Fix deliverability and sender reputation, increase engagement, grow revenue.

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🧠 The Pilothouse strategy: Consistent diagnostic testing for primary inbox placement, reducing bounce and spam complaints through list health management, segmentation for targeted and tailored messaging, and a complete redesign of email templates.

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🔥 The results:

• 75-125% increase in YoY campaign engagement
• 520-600% increase in YoY flow engagement
• 125-145% increase in YoY Klaviyo attributed revenue

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If you’re wondering if your email could use a tune up…

💡 Don’t Put Your Customers In A Box!

Are you still using customer avatars?

While customer avatars or buyer personas are great for guiding marketing direction by having a distinct persona for campaigns, following them a little too closely can hinder your success.

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What’s a customer avatar?

A customer avatar is defined as the representation of your ideal customer.

👉 However, your ideal customer will likely differ from your highest converting audience.

Paid media functions outside the bounds of traditional personas. This is why the most successful ad campaigns use more holistic audience stackers.

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3 factors to consider when creating ad campaigns:

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1️⃣ Consumers aren’t single-sided: Your audience doesn’t just have one interest. They are multifaceted beings with interests and hobbies that may be unrelated to each other. 🍳 🚗 🪴

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2️⃣ Targeting a broad audience can get expensive: Competitors in your audience will be going after the same audience.

For example, if you are selling gym equipment and targeting gym enthusiasts, it will be a highly diluted and expensive target audience.

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3️⃣ Test unlikely audiences: You’ll be surprised by how many unlikely audience interests will be your most lucrative campaigns.

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It’s not only cheaper to target audiences different from your regular demographic, but can yield unexpected engagement and high returns. 📈

The Pilothouse Meta team has seen great results with unlikely pairings, like heavy metal lovers converting to high AOV sleep support products or those interested in sports converting to home decor ads.

Sometimes, you have to take your traditional marketing hat off and put your scaling algorithm hat on—and watch the results.

So stop putting your consumers in a box and experiment!

🧳 Pinterest Shares Travel Trends for 2024

Consumers are booking their summer getaways, which makes it the perfect time to position your product as a travel essential. 😎

While all generations plan to spend more on travel in 2024, Gen Z is surprisingly the biggest spender this year, spending an average of $11,766 on their sweet escape.

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Here are some travel trend insights from Pinterest’s Travel Report you can leverage to get the attention of these travel seekers:

• Quiet life travel. The most popular trend this year, with an increase of 530% searches YoY, is the idea of quiet life travel. Those looking for a digital detox are searching for remote places like Okinawa, Japan, or the English countryside where they can unwind and feel rejuvenated.
  • Health and wellness brands can emphasize how their products and services are great additions for those seeking to unplug.

• People are seeking adventure. Searches for 'adventure activities' are up 45% YoY, so this is a great time to position your products as essentials while your customers go trekking, canoeing, and scuba diving. 🛶
  • Outdoor brands can appeal to their audience's sense of wanderlust with powerful scenic imagery in their creatives and 'seize the moment' messaging.

• Gen Z is planning group road trips. Younger audiences are looking for adventure but in an affordable and accessible way. Searches for 'comfy road trip outfit' are up 250% YoY.
  • Apparel brands can appeal to Gen Z's budget-friendly travel desires by offering discounts for group orders and creating content about fun and quirky landmarks. 🌵

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The takeaway?

Use these travel trend insights to inform your creative direction when creating marketing campaigns centered around summer travel to resonate with your target audience.

Read the full Pinterest 2024 travel report here.

‍🌐 IN THE SOCIAL SPHERE

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Google overhauled the search experience this week, and not everyone is a fan of AI Overviews (formerly Search Generative Experience).

Users on X shared screenshots of their queries and the questionable answers they are getting from AI Overviews.

One user shared how Google is scraping content from Reddit and Quora and using these as credible sources.

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What do you think of this new change in search?

• I like it!
• It’s alright
• I hate it.

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‍💗 BRAND LOVE

🌊 Float Life: Get ready for summer with these designer pool floaties. They offer high quality inflatables in a bunch of different fun prints.

🚴 Journ: This cycling inspired apparel brand is your one stop shop for performance gear.

🥥 Strange Water: This vegan, cruelty free, and gluten-free coconut water brand offers natural and sparkling options in an aesthetic can.

‍📰 NEWS

• Eight U.S. TikTok creators sued the U.S. government for violating First Amendment rights.
• Allergy relief brand Flonase partnered with Bridgerton on a cheeky ‘Polin’ season campaign.
• Illya Sutskever's departure from OpenAI triggers a wave of public resignations from employees within the company.