Happy Wednesday, people!
DTC has reached the ripe old age of 60 issues 🥳 and, like the direct to consumer trend, we’re just getting started.
Whether you’re the Head of Marketing at a global conglomerate, or a small business owner just getting started with digital marketing, this issue, like every issue, is jammed with useful information to help you on your quest to make more sales.
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This week we welcome new DTC readers from iRobot, Huel, Joe and the Juice, Sunday Lawn Care, Bizzy Coffee, Local Laundry, The Date Lady, and Tropicfeel. 🌴
In the edition of DTC you’ll find:
📦 How to strategically clean up your email list.
📦 Research-based insights into what inspires customers to check out DTC brands.
📦 A quick tip from the Pilothouse Amazon team.
📦 How to balance writing for your audience while optimizing for SEO in your copy.
Read till the end to find out when Amazon Prime Day is happening. 📦
Many brands assume that a huge subscriber list is the key indicator of success when it comes to email.
Not true!
You’re in a much better spot with 1,000 people who love your brand and click everything than with a 100,000-person list of people who never open anything.
Treat the people on your list like they deserve to be there, and set a standard for engagement with your audience.
These determine how often a subscriber needs to engage with your email in order to not be kicked off the list.
The more emails a brand sends, the tighter the engagement window should be.
For example, if you’re sending content three or four times a week, you’ll need to tighten your window of engagement.
If users don’t engage in twenty sends over three weeks, they’re just not into you.
Time to part ways.
We recommend leaning towards the ruthless side of engagement rules. Set restrictions really tight, and then loosen them up as needed.
You may not get your parameters right the first time, so be super observant in your first few days of implementation, and tweak as needed.
For example, at DTC we started with a two-week engagement parameter, and then decided to loosen it up based on feedback!
The pandemic helped many DTC brands win new customers – and the good news is that a large percentage of Americans remain committed to online shopping as we enter recovery.
Attest has the answers. And luckily, they’re willing to share.
The D2C Digest is a comprehensive review packed with the latest data, insights, case studies, interviews and expert advice breaking down what audiences are primed for DTC shopping, and how you can access them.
Attest has the customer research you need to thrive in the DTC space. It’s an essential read for D2C marketers, founders and brand leaders.
Attest’s consumer research insights are at your fingertips – read Attest’s full D2C Digest here.
What now?
Give them the benefit of the doubt, and send emails with an exclusive offer catered to their interests.
We’d also recommend leaning on your best social proof and value positioning.
It’s 4-5 x cheaper to re-acquire a former customer than find a new one, so pull out all the stops to re-engage this person!
On your Winback campaigns you can expect a 10-30% open rate OR up to a 4.3% open rate on a catchy subject line like: Re: your order, message from (founder). With that kind of open rate, you can expect to capture 10-30% of your declining engagement segment and get them back in the fold.
If the offer doesn’t inspire them to re-engage, give them the heads up that it's time to part ways.
Send an email letting them know that there’s no hard feelings.
If they’re just not feeling it they can hit unsubscribe. Let them know that this is their last chance to engage and that your team is going to remove them.
Tag the unengaged as "inactive" and move them to their own segment that doesn't get sent promo emails, or anything you want to make revenue on.
If possible with your email service, you’ll want to suppress audience members rather than delete them entirely – this way you’ll still have access to their metrics.
Even old metrics are good metrics – you don’t want to lose that information altogether.
Bottom line: If you want to keep your metrics and deliverability high, you’ve got to cut the people who aren't touching your emails.
You’re paying for them to hurt your open rates, contributing to the likelihood that your emails hit the promo tab or spam.
Tag the unengaged, funnel them into a list to begin a disengagement sequence, and clean up your list. 👊📨
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Judy was spotted on ThingTesting, a place to discover new DTC brands!
The top 1% of DTC marketers in the world rely on DTC DAY to keep pushing the boundaries and grab market shares.
Which side will you be on?
Access exclusive insights from the best DTC marketers in the world, including Nik Sharma, Ezra Firestone, and Nick Shackelford who are among the 100+ industry experts speaking at DTC DAY Live.
(DTC Newsletter isn’t affiliated with DTC day, but we are BIG fans of the conference. 😎)
Trifecta is a DTC meal solution for those who want to eat clean. They deliver fresh, fully-prepared healthy meals direct to your door.
Let’s dive in!
Tessa focuses on both.
She believes it’s about finding a balance – taking advantage of what your audience is looking for while positioning yourself as an expert in your field.
"We have someone in our team who QAs everything from a technical SEO perspective."
Obviously, you want to be writing for humans, not for bots. But there is that component if you want to be recognized by search engines."
Trifecta has an entire research and development team dedicated to exploring new marketing channels.
It’s so easy to get locked in with channels that you already understand.
Tessa challenges her team to think outside the box and try new platforms, like: CTV, TikTok, Twitch and traditional marketing tactics (i.e billboards)
"I’m excited about TikTok because we’re going to see some more organic-type posts and some more real-life interactions with products, which I think people can feel a little bit closer to."
There are a lot of misconceptions about gamers and gaming platforms, but no matter what you’ve heard, e-sports is exploding and has a large community.
Trifecta is actively building relationships with e-sports leagues and teams, and Tessa believes it could be a big opportunity for them.
It’s only natural to want to see immediate results.
However, the Pilothouse Amazon team said it’s essential to dial-in your listing before sending traffic to it.
Your Cost Per Click will rise, and your ads will be shown to less shoppers, especially Sponsored Brand ads (including video). 😵
Before scaling up your advertising, especially on more competitive, higher search volume keywords, make sure the title, bullets, backend search terms, listing images, and A+ content are dialed in.
Our Macbook Giveaway contest is drawing to a close.
We’ll make the draw on Saturday June, 5th at noon PST, so this week is your LAST CHANCE to dance.
One referral = one entry to win. More referrals = more entries!
Your Unique Link: http://directtoconsumer.co?utm_source=sparkloop&utm_medium=newsletterplacement&rh_ref=1ed4b700
May the odds be ever in your favor. 😎
📦 Amazon to hold Prime Day June 21 and 22.
🧸 How Tara Bosch built a $400B gummy bear empire.
🎞 How to use Instagram Reel Insights to make better reels.
🧐 Google announces a slew of shopping updates to improve discovery for small brands.
🥂 NYT: "It’s going to be a big summer for hard seltzer."
👓 Warby Parker founders explain why they are adding 35 stores after pandemic.
🤳 TikTok’s Becca Sawyer on how to engage small businesses.
😎 AR's role in shopping is poised to swell in the next 5 years, Publicis and Snap find.
👍 How to measure, build, and inspire creative Facebook Ads.
🔊 Have you heard our latest podcasts?
🤩 Three Ships' Lillie Sun on Clean Beauty, Agile Bundling, and Aging Up Your Brand.
🛒 Olipop's Eli Weiss Goes Deep on Customer Experience.
📱 How to "TikTokify" Your Ads with Pilothouse's Spencer Hay and Nikita Pickard.
🔊 Podcast.
✍️ Blog and past newsletters.
📥 Work for The DTC Newsletter (Writer + Editor).
🚀Advertise in DTC Newsletter.
DTC 2021. All Rights Reserved.
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