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Monday, November 28, 2022
Happy Cyber Monday! May you find good deals and may the good deals find you. 🤝
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In this newsletter, you’ll find: 👇
📦 Bumping up your revenue with box creatives
📦 Giving yourself the gift of content that drives sales all year round
📦 Affiliate programs 101
Read till the end to access exclusive DTC swag. 😎
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🚨 Newsflash! 🚨 You don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time you need new ad creative content!
This simple box shot… yes, just a picture of products in their shipping box, was the top performer in a Pilothouse client’s ad account.
ROAS: 1.87
Spend: $82,984
Purchases: 590
Link clicks: 11,116
Not convinced yet? Here’s another client’s stats:
ROAS: 1.76
Spend: $550,000
Revenue: $970,000
You read that right… almost $1M in revenue from a picture of a box! 💸
It’s that simple. Test out a box shot for your products and let us know how it goes!
Looking for content strategy hacks like this one? The Pilothouse Meta team has plenty more tricks up their sleeve. 👀
🎁 Start in December for our deepest discount of the year - 25% off!
🎁 It's almost the holidays, and time to give yourself the gift of content that drives sales all year round!
What kind of content is that, you ask? It’s UGC, or content where real customers and in this case, micro-influencers, brag about your products.
minisocial is a user-generated content platform that partners your brand with micro-influencers who create and share fully-licensed, scroll-stopping content.
Other DTC brands have already used minisocial for a bump in performance:
🌱 Plant People created TikTok ads performing in the top 18% industry average CTR, by focusing their campaign on testimonial-style videos with creator voiceover.
🥤 Corkcicle used minisocial to create UGC for organic social and create montages of their products in the wild, to inspire customers to have a better commute.
🎁 KRAVE Jerky kicked up the nostalgia with holiday-themed UGC for their organic channels that brings the joy of the season right to your screen.
👉 Get started with minisocial now for our deepest discount of the year - 25% off!
Affiliate Marketing 101
Did you know 37% of online shoppers made purchases through affiliate links last year?
It’s no surprise that affiliate marketing is everywhere, as the strategy benefits all parties involved:
Sounds like a win 👏 win 👏win 👏 right?
So, if #winning is what you’re about, here’s the low-down on how you can get started with affiliate marketing and bring in quality customers at a fraction of the cost of other channels! 👇
💰 Determine your commission
Technically, the definition of an “affiliate” is someone who is ONLY paid for sales… unlike “influencers,” that can be compensated in a variety of ways.
(However, it’s not uncommon for brands to lump them together under the same program and pay structure. There’s nothing wrong with that if it works for you, but for the purposes of this article, we’ll be talking about affiliates in the traditional sense!)
Affiliate marketing typically works like this:
So before bringing any affiliates on board, you’ll want to determine how much you’re comfortable shelling out in commission.
Here are a few tips for figuring out your ideal payout structure:
✔️ Commissions are typically paid as a percentage (%) of sales, with 5-30% being standard in eComm. If you have products at different price points, % commission is recommended (it can motivate affiliates to promote higher-cost products or a higher AOV!) However, you can also pay out flat rates ($) if that makes more sense for you.
✔️ Research to find out what other brands in your space are paying their affiliates so you can remain competitive.
✔️ Take into account your product margins and customer acquisition costs. Are you willing to take a loss on acquiring new customers (for example, if you can make up the costs on recurring purchases)? If so, you may be able to give out higher commissions to affiliates.
✔️Use your average customer LTV as a guide. Your affiliate commission payouts should be well below this to be sustainable and profitable.
✔️ Will your affiliates also want to provide their audience with a discount? This may cut into their commission rate and/or your profit margins, so it’s something to consider.
✔️ You may want to start your commission on the lower end of the range so that you have room to increase it later, develop a tiered commission structure based on performance, or offer special bonuses.
Overall, you want to build a payout structure that is both a) attractive to affiliates and b) makes financial sense for your business!
🔗 Set up your tech
Before you start, you’ll need to know how to track sales from all of your affiliates. Not only is this necessary for paying commission, but it’ll also allow you to see which partners and mediums are converting best for you!
While you can certainly take a DIY approach to tracking (using Google Analytics, for example), this method can be time-consuming and technical to set up.
Luckily, there are tons of built-in tech solutions nowadays for affiliate management. 👍
“We are on GRIN. It's a relatively expensive platform, but it comes with additional perks outside of revenue tracking, for example, product stipend management, UGC harvesting, etc. I'd definitely advocate for using some type of affiliate management software from the get-go.” – Matt Vaden, Partnerships Manager at Kion.
So, if you’re willing to invest a little bit up-front, management software can make your life much easier in the long run.
Here are a few affordable options for getting started in the eComm space:
🔎 Find your affiliates.
Once you have your tracking and payout foundations in place, it’s time to find your affiliates!
This is arguably the MOST important part of your affiliate program, and it starts with understanding your customer base.
Who’s your “ideal customer?” Where do they hang out? What kind of content do they consume? Who do they follow on social media? What podcasts do they listen to? What blogs do they read?
Once you know the answer to these questions, you can search for potential affiliates that resonate with your target customer… Podcasters, bloggers, TikTok influencers, professional yo-yo’ers; the sky’s the limit!
🔥 Insider tip: Sometimes the BEST affiliates are… your customers!
“Finding affiliates within your current customer base is the lowest hanging fruit. It’s a great place to start… I've onboarded a ton of partners who originally tagged Kion on an Instagram post/story. So a brand with a strong CTA for their customers to a) follow the brand's organic social channels, and b) tag them in their content can pay huge dividends for partnership purposes.” – Matt Vaden
Think about it: these people already know and love your brand and use your products regularly. That means they can speak authentically and positively about you… which is exactly what you want in an affiliate! 💕
Other ways to find awesome affiliates:
💬 Stay in touch
Once you onboard your affiliates, the fun doesn’t stop there…
A key to growing and maintaining a successful affiliate program is regularly communicating and engaging with your partners.
Here's exactly how Matt keeps Kion's affiliates engaged:
“I also like to go the extra mile early in the relationship – sending a quick personalized ‘congrats’ email when an influencer generates their first conversion is an awesome way to let them feel appreciated.” 👏
Overall, the more tapped-in your partners are to your brand, the better they can communicate about you to their audience — resulting in more sales for you and commission for them!
✋ Oh, and make sure to CYA with the FTC
One last word of wisdom: If you’re interested in paying people to promote your products, you’ll need to get cozy with FTC guidelines.
The FTC requires that affiliate marketers disclose their financial relationship with any brands or products they’re promoting. Basically, in order to stay compliant with the FTC, your affiliates will need to tell their audience whenever they’re getting compensated for promoting your products. Here’s more info on FTC guidelines.
Now, what are you waiting for? Go start that affiliate program!
🤨 What happened to Beyond Meat?
📺 YouTube’s quiz post beta is rolling out.
📍 Pinterest adds additional languages.
👓 What is the uniqueness of augmented reality?
🤬 Tensions between Apple and Twitter are rising.
⚽️ Qatar is a minefield for World Cup advertisers.
💰 Wealthsimple, Harry Hothi - Marketing Wealth-Tech in a Downturn.
🐶 Puppy Dogs and Ice Cream: Jason Kutasi - Performance Marketing Children’s Books (To 8 Figures).
🪄 MagicLinks, Aleks Chojnacka: Influencer Marketing State of the Union (Plus the future of Live Shopping)
👻 Every Man Jack, Troy Petrunoff - Spooky Retention, Segmenting Gift Buyers, and BOOGO Gamified Sales.
📈 Scaling SPF and Finding Your Most Affluent Customers Ahead of the Recession with Supergoop and Lexer.
🏆 VKTRY Gear, Drew Arciuolo: How to Achieve Saturation with Your Target Market.
💡 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, Kelsey Hess, and Michael Venditti. Edited by Claire Beveridge and Eric Dyck.
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