Welcome to DTC 66.
The USA’s iconic Route 66, AKA "The Mother Highway," is the backbone of America’s original direct-to-consumer infrastructure. It paved the way to mom-and-pop shops, restaurants, hotels, and more!
Ah, simpler times. 😢
If you’re new to the DTC Newsletter, welcome! You’re in good company with fellow newcomers from TeePublic, Blys, Phocus, Unreal, Näak, and Ancient Nutrition.
In this newsletter, you’ll find:
✨ Tips for converting your 1x1 feed ads into top-performing story ads.
💬 How Princess Polly earned millions in added sales revenue through an SMS flow.
📺 Four DTC Disruptors on how they use digital best practices to succeed on TV.
🔥Tips for Facebook and Email that you can implement today!
Read till the end to access exclusive DTC swag. 😎
👉 If a pal forwarded this to you, subscribe so you never miss out. And be sure to follow us on Twitter and Instagram.
If you’re an agency or a brand owner, you should be adapting your 1x1 Facebook and Instagram Ads for 9x16 placements.
If you’re using automatic placements in Facebook ad campaigns and don’t provide story-specific creative, Facebook will take your 1x1 creative and put it in a story ad.
Facebook has taken measures to make this type of ad non-disruptive, like pulling copy and a color code to fill the ad space.
However, when people see 1x1 creative in a story-sized placement, they immediately register it as an ad and are likely to swipe past.
Take these two ads for example. One is a 1x1 ad converted to 9x16. The other was created specifically for story format:
Feed VS. story ads offer different experiences. A feed ad is comparable to a billboard, whereas a story ad is a multidimensional interaction.
But don’t reinvent the wheel. Modify your existing 1x1 creatives to fit a 9x16 format.
Here’s an example of a 1x1 and 9x16 from Breda, using the same creative. Perfectly executed. 🚀
You might have heard of Princess Polly, the fast-growing Australian fashion brand now captivating audiences worldwide (and especially on social media).
Princess Polly wanted to add a more personal touch to their marketing efforts as they grew, hoping to delight consumers by providing the ultimate shopping experience.
It worked.
SMS marketing offered Princess Polly a level of personalization that other channels just couldn’t reach.
Using Yotpo SMS, the brand was able to create perfectly tailored buyer journeys for every customer across the globe, strengthening relationships for powerful results like these:
That’s just a taste of the benefits brands can expect from a next-level SMS strategy.
👉 Click here to learn about Princess Polly’s most successful SMS campaigns, and get their tips for building (and growing) your own SMS channel today.
Craft an experience with your ads that’s native and doesn’t disrupt the story swiping experience.
Need more story examples? Check out IG’s bank here!
This week on the pod we have DTC legend and founder of Beardbrand, Eric Bandholz.
Eric pioneered the urban beardsman market with a number of critical DTC plays, including incredible content marketing and deep customer identification and connection. Plus, he was building in public way before it was cool.
"Address the elephant in the room that is Amazon."
Acknowledge the reality that Amazon is the major player – the equivalent to Walmart in the 90s – pushing mom and pop shops like your brand out of the way.
Don’t try to beat Amazon at their own game – you’re probably going to lose. The key is to recognize Amazon’s weak points and lean into those strategies.
They don’t have beautiful packaging or a unique user experience full of content, videos, and photography.
🎧 Listen to the entire pod here!
Marketers are seeing CPMs skyrocket on social and digital channels. As their campaigns start to lose effectiveness, they're turning to TV to drive acquisition at scale using a modern, data-driven approach.
You’ll learn specific lessons and strategies on how:
👉 Read each case study to uncover a specific tactic you can apply to your linear and streaming TV strategy.
Change up your promo code to keep things fresh and to add a sense of urgency.
Consumers know that codes like WELCOME10 will likely be there again if they leave the page.
That gives consumers a window of opportunity to reconsider, and that’s a bad thing.
If you change your code to something more specific like SummerSale10, consumers think that the sale is only on for a limited time.
Make sure your code adds a sense of urgency!
Encourage social follows at the end of a welcome series. If a user gets to the end of your welcome flow and still hasn’t converted, this can help loop them into another medium/channel.
Further, use a social-focused email with older list members who haven’t engaged or purchased. They might prefer interacting with you on a different channel.
👀 parcelLab: Shopify’s Kristen LaFrance on all things DTC retention (can’t miss!).
🛒 Screenshots of Shopify’s new advertising network. More to come on this!
🚀 What DTC brands gain from marketplaces.
🤳🏻 Instagram encourages eCommerce biz on their platform to use Drops feature.
🗣 Facebook tests public comments display on Facebook Stories.
🤔 Google audience expansion VS. optimized targeting: the difference explained.
🛒 Shop Pay becomes first Shopify product to extend beyond Shopify merchants.
🎥 AdAge: How lo-fi video ads can produce impressive results.
🎞 Instagram launches reel ads in all regions.
Have friends who'd love DTC newsletter too? Give them your unique referral link (below) and get an awesome reward when they subscribe.
1 referral = access to our FB group!
http://directtoconsumer.co?utm_source=sparkloop&utm_medium=newsletterplacement&rh_ref=1ed4b700
See how many referrals you have!
🚽 Goodwipes Co-Founder Sam Nebel Chats Influencer Strategies.
😅 How iOS 14.5 Will Affect Google and Facebook Ads.
🛒 Olipop's Eli Weiss Goes Deep on Customer Experience.
DTC Newsletter is written by Thomas Schreiber, Eric Dyck, and Sadie Evans.
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