The ultimate jumpscare, even when you only hit snooze a few minutes ago… LOL 😂
If you’re new to DTC, welcome! You’re in good company with fellow newcomers from Hairbrella, Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate, Known Nutrition, and Vani-T. 👋
In this newsletter, you’ll find: 👇
📦 Ben Soffer, Spritz Society: Influencer strategies for alcohol brands and linear commerce
📦 No more last-minute creative blues
📦 Your audience is on mobile, so why aren’t you?
📦 How to step up your strategy with consumer insights
📦 Is your new brand making these ‘oopsies’?
Read till the end to access exclusive DTC swag. 😎
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🎧 On today’s episode of the DTC pod, we're diving into the world of influencer strategies, linear commerce, and the oh-so-refreshing universe of white wine spritzes!
We're chatting it up with the one and only Ben Soffer, founder and CEO of Spritz Society and host of the wildly popular Boy with No Job Podcast, where he has just a casual 6 million fans. 🤯
We'll spill the ~wine~ on how to stand out in a jam-packed market, why wine products are the true DTC rockstars, and why giving your customers the royal treatment is the key to ruling the linear commerce kingdom.
The takeaways 👇
🍷 Spritzing to success
In the fiercely competitive beverage market, Ben and the Spritz team know that content marketing is the secret weapon for continued growth. They've learned that while macro influencers have their place, it's the performance-driven influencers and dedicated communities that truly make a splash for emerging brands like theirs. 💦
By investing in influencers who dominate specific markets and boast genuine connections with their audience, Spritz reaps a far more enticing return on investment. Ben's team also explores the potential of celebrity and influencer brand ambassadors who can champion their region and make waves at various events.
What they’ve created is a masterful mix of authentic relationships and smart influencer marketing that helps them stand out from the crowd.
💡 Audience first
For a product to fly off the shelves, there's one crucial ingredient: an audience who wants it. Embracing this business fundamental, linear commerce tosses the old-school cycle of product creation, marketing, and selling into the blender and whips up a frothy new approach.
This innovative method, championed by Ben and his team at Spritz Society, puts the audience front and center before even creating the product. By cultivating a community of sparkling cocktail aficionados first, they paved the way for a smooth and successful product launch.
The result? A brand built on the foundation of passionate fans, genuine ambassadors, and a deep understanding of the influencers that strike a chord with their audience. 📈
💰 What Ben would do with an extra $50K:
Ben had some clever ideas up his sleeve.
One option was to launch a national out-of-home campaign. Despite the challenge of tracking ad effectiveness, this strategy can boost brand awareness and visibility, especially around retail giants like Walmart.
Another savvy move? Sponsoring a budget-friendly festival that vibes with Spritz Society's values and target audience. This lively approach is perfect for connecting with new customers and showcasing their products in an engaging atmosphere.
👉 Listen to the full episode with Ben Soffer here!
It's 3 am, and you find out you need creative for an ad campaign.
Sound familiar?
If you are getting panic sweats, we're sorry. 🤣
As marketers, we know the exhausting game of producing high-quality content in a short time frame.
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No joke, it's possible with Superside. The #1 creative-as-a-subscription service, trusted by over 450 brands, including Google, Meta, Reddit and Shopify. 🥇
No more vetting freelancers, and no more panic sweats.
Superside's CaaS (Creative as a Service) removes the weight of creating high-quality content. It's like instantly hiring 20 people.
👉 And as a DTC reader, you get a free call! Find your SuperSide.
🦸 A mobile app is your new superpower
It’s no secret that brands are struggling with high acquisition costs and fierce competition for their audience’s attention.
If you haven’t already started exploring new tools and avenues to help your brand stand out from the crowd, there’s no better time than the present to get started.
Move over old and dated tech-stack, there’s a new kid on the block — a dedicated app to bring in and nurture dedicated customers.
Think an app is out of scope for your brand and not sure if the hype is real? Check it out for yourself.
We don’t just pull claims out of our back pocket so let’s start with some cold hard stats: 👇
As if that’s not enough, brands with an app in their tech stack report that it’s their second-highest revenue stream! That’s 10-30% of their total revenue. Not bad, considering the only higher avenue is typically your online store. 😉
👏 Move over Google, move over Amazon, there's a new kid in town
Let’s face it, your retention needs more attention! Double down on a strategy that serves your most loyal customers in ways not possible with an online store alone.
By this point, it’s common knowledge that 80% of your business comes from 20% of your customers. Invest in a strategy that reaches the most engaged users and makes them your most loyal audience.
When people love your brand, it should be readily available and seamlessly integrate into their daily routines.
Start by claiming real estate on their phone because if your app is installed, they’re bound to open it. The more sessions opened through your app, the more conversions you’re likely to see. 🏆
Tapcart found that a customer cohort who downloads your mobile app will visit your store roughly 3x more often than they would if they had not downloaded your app.
⏱️ Efficiency is the name of the game
Casually browsing what your brand has to offer can be a weekly or even daily activity for that 20%. An activity performed that frequently needs to be intuitive.
Mobile apps are built for people to complete essential processes like checkouts in about 3 taps. Even the fastest websites are dragging behind at 5-7 clicks – not to mention that you need to be on a browser!
Web developers need to consider users on Chrome, Safari, and Firefox when designing for appearance and performance of your browser site. Mobile optimization isn’t at the top of every brand’s to-do list or budget sheet, so an app can navigate all of those variables down to 2 – iOS or Android.
🏋️ Push hard, push often
It’s okay to be pushy! Being on mobile means your brand can take advantage of push notifications.
Loyal customers want to know when your latest products drop and when sales begin, so give them a little nudge directly to a checkout flow. It doesn’t get much easier to send a gentle reminder at the most opportune time.
After you try out push notifications, check back with us and let us know what happened to your conversion rate and average order value (AOV). 😜
Any brand can get in on the application action! Tapcart has a straight-forward process to get your app launched in no time:
...
If you're waiting for step three, you’re overthinking how easy it is! The hardest part of the process is the registration on the app store. 🤷 Generally, apps take about two weeks from concept to launch.
Hannah Houglum, Executive Director of Growth & Strategy for Art of Tea, said that she easily managed an app along with many other responsibilities. Hannah notes that a brand only needs a “sixteenth of a person” to manage an app. We can’t argue with that level of productivity, so why wait to start building your own?
🎯 Refocus and retain!
With an app, you’ll be refining your retention strategy and never have to worry about browser optimization again! You’ll welcome more loyal customers at the highest levels of accessibility with the most intuitive shopping experience available. If an app is now on your road map, it could be worth checking out our friends over at Tapcart. *
*This editorial piece was created in collaboration with Tapcart.
Discover how consumer insights can seriously revolutionize your marketing strategy. 😎
As expectations for marketing teams rise and competition intensifies, understanding your market has never been more crucial.
Data shows that 75.0% of marketers attribute project failure to a lack of customer understanding.
🛑 Don't let common research barriers hold you back.
With Attest's consumer research platform, you can gather insights from 125 million consumers across 58 countries.
All their data is triple-checked by AI and humans, ensuring accurate insights tailored exactly for your business needs.
👉 Get the unfair advantage and unlock customer understanding with Attest's consumer research platform.
🗺️ Taking a step back
Learning from your mistakes is the hardest pill for any brand to swallow, and it’s even more difficult for the newbies.
Rest assured that every brand (and everyone!) makes mistakes, no matter how popular they are or how much they’ve grown. In fact, they’ve grown because of their mistakes.
Pilothouse’s Pilot Program Director joins the DTC team on this week’s All Killer No Filler podcast to discuss the “oopsies” small brands make in the launching stage and what can be done to learn with every opportunity.
Questions like:
…are on the minds of every small business owner, so you don’t want to miss this chat! 👇
😎 Do more with less
Bigger brands can fall into the trap of assuming everyone knows who they are. Eventually, that causes their growth to plateau. 😢
As a small brand, you’re still putting in the work to get your name out there. In many cases, you can count your daily sales on one hand. Don’t be discouraged! Take this chance to reach out and connect with your customers. A satisfied customer will likely be more than happy to tell you about how great their experiences were with your product.
Then, get permission to use that testimonial as social proof. This scrappy and efficient content is a goldmine many brands are sleeping on.
🤔 Where do we go from here?
After your product launches, you need to start generating content to raise awareness of how amazing it is and what problem it solves. To do that, you need a budget. Small brands can’t afford to waste time and resources by not going all in on a creative style.
This doesn't mean enforcing your style guide!
By going all in, we mean choosing to:
Once you find something that works, double down and repeat the process to find the winning strategy. Now that’s performance marketing at its best!
🐈 Hang in there!
Be sure to check out the All Killer No FIller podcast here for insights on the incredible collaborations between The Pilothouse Pilot Program and brands just like yours!
Remember, growth is possible. We all know that the biggest oopsie is giving up, so with some direction from our guest on the ‘pod, your brand can get the ball rolling with some winning strategies today! 💸
Quick Hits
🥷 See the data behind TikTok's biggest trends! Discover how the social media platform can drive revenue for your DTC brand. Download Particl’s report - “TikTok Made Me Buy It”. *
🍎 iOS 17 may introduce the ability to “sideload” apps along with other new design features for MAC and tvOS. Apple has strictly enforced its App Store regulations, but iOS 17 may open opportunities for up-and-coming developers.
🎤 Drake and the Weeknd’s voices are featured in a song written entirely by AI. Before it was taken down, the song generated 600K streams, 15M TikTok views, and 275K Youtube views.
🐥 Twitter Blue subscribers can post 10K character tweets. The content remains hidden after 280 characters. However, longer tweets and up to 60-minute videos signal a shift in the platform's purpose.
♾️ Meta will continue to share marketing tips based on the “Performance 5.” The Conversions API is currently highlighted, but plans include webinars on account simplification, targeting, video, and testing.
*Sponsored
🕯️ 9 Year Old Lily Harper from Lily Lou's Aromas homeschools us all.
🌲 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."
💡 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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