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DTC NEWSLETTER
DTC

Saturday, July 10, 2020

It’s the weekend. What should you do?

Follow Michael Scott’s advice:

But first, pour yourself a mug of something and find your favorite reading spot. It’s time to invest in your DTC future.

In this newsletter, you’ll find:

🤳 The last push you need to activate your UGC strategy.

✨ TikTok and Email inspiration to help kick a$$ and take names.

🤫 The Pilothouse team on the company-wide strategy that’s boosting all departments.

👻 A how-to guide on Snapchat’s SMS feature.

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.

UGC

The Pilothouse UGC team shared five stats that’ll have you on the UGC train ASAP.

💰 Ads with UGC receive 4x higher CTR and a 50% drop in CPC compared to regular ads.

People are generally wary of direct marketing methods because they feel inauthentic or overproduced.

Since UGC is made by genuine consumers, the messaging will resonate with other consumers and engage them in ways that branded or proprietary ads never have.

Your product or service will gain credibility and approachability like never before.

🤯 78% of customers trust peer recommendation, while only 14% trust ads

Consumers are wary of direct marketing for a LOT of reasons.

When a brand talks about itself, it reads like a sales pitch. When a customer is talking about a brand, that’s an endorsement from a peer.

The ideal piece of UGC content looks like a post from someone in your friend group.

👀 Almost half of customers (48%) claim that UGC is a great way to discover new products

27.5% of global social media users list "Researching Products to Buy" as their primary reason for logging in.

UGC expands your reach and exposes you to new communities that are actively looking to buy.

🤳 When users create and share content on social media channels, they get 28% higher engagement compared to standard company posts

If you’re looking to increase activity and followers on your brand’s social media channel, utilize UGC.

Consumers love to see real people just like them featured on social media.

It’s the perfect way to pull potential customers into your community while keeping them engaged with your content.

🚀 UGC is 20% more influential than any other kind of media when it comes to millennial buyers

When it comes to millennials and zillennials, UGC and peer recommendations are the way to their hearts.

These demographics actively look for UGC when researching a product or service.

A whopping 84% of millennial consumers claim that UGC on company websites has influenced the way they do online shopping to some extent.

A strong, consistent UGC program with a steady flow of fresh, authentic content is the main factor to stronger customer acquisition and scaling brands.  

Free DTC Course

Refer a teammate and unlock our FREE presell pages course!  

Earlier this year, we launched a three-day challenge with Pilothouse to help our readers learn to build presales pages.

Now this five-hour master class is available to all DTC readers with 1 new referral.

At Pilothouse, presell pages are an essential component to scaling brands.

After the recent iOS14.5 updates, creating engaging presell content is more critical than ever to profitable paid social growth.

Aside from better CVR and AOV, a good presell page strategy helps:
  • Target broader audiences with paid social
  • Tell your brand story
  • Educate your consumer
  • Gather personalization data
  • Diversify your brand voice
  • Test new angles

Send your link (below) to a teammate, friend or anyone you think would benefit from this awesome course!

When one person signs up, you both get access!

👉 Refer 1 Teammate to Unlock the Build a Presell Course

http://directtoconsumer.co?utm_source=sparkloop&utm_medium=newsletterplacement&rh_ref=1ed4b700

See how many referrals you have!

Email of the Day

It’s crucial to help consumers understand WHY they should subscribe to your product/service.  

Olipop crushes with this email. Here’s why:

  • The reviews are specifically about their subscription.
  • Their messaging is unified from start to finish.
  • Users could look at just the headline and CTA and understand the intent of the email.

Take it a step further and create various types of "Why Subscribe?" emails for different segments on your list.  

For example:
  • Those who have never bought before.
  • Those who have purchased one time.
  • Those who have bought multiple times.

The emails should include specific messaging for each segment, making it a more personal connection. 🤝

Snapchat

A feature that’s extremely undervalued within Snapchat is the SMS tool and its ability to help grow your list.

How it works:

Snapchat has a type of ad that allows users to "Swipe Up" and learn more.

It usually leads to a website, landing page, or product page.  

Instead of directing to a website or landing page, there’s an option to populate a predetermined text for users to send.

It’s perfect for any type of promotion or giveaway.

Here’s an example of the user experience:

  • Step 1: Users receive your Snapchat ad and are encouraged to swipe up.
  • Step 2: They swipe up and are presented with "I want a coupon for $20 off." The message automatically populates within their text message app.
  • Step 3: The users hit send and receive a coupon code for $20 off.

Here’s how to set it up:  

  1. Within "select your objective," click "engagement."
  2. Then click "single image or video" and select "text" as well.
  3. Next, enter your targeting information.
  4. Then, enter all your creative.
  5. On the same page as creative, select "text" for your "attachment" and "CTA."  
  6. The final step is entering a phone number.
  7. And finally, you’ll enter the message you want users to send ("I want a coupon for $20 off").

Growing your SMS list creates further ownership of your audience, which has been even more crucial since iOS 14.5.

With text message open rates at 95% and users rarely changing their phone number, it makes a lot of sense to at least TEST this strategy.

Google

This is a simple tip but, for some reason, not utilized by many Google Ads practitioners.

Whenever you look at your overall account at the campaign level, you’ll see the default screen with the graph at the top:

Hidden within this graph section is a little tool that will help manage your ads account(s).

If you hover over the graph for a particular day, then you’ll get the following pop-up:

The ability to add notes enables you to track potentially significant changes on your account easily, and you can add notes at either the Campaign or Ad Group level. 🚨

For example, use notes to mark the switching of bid strategies

This way, you can use the visual representation of the graph (pictures do speak a thousand words!) and see that there’s a note signifying some sort of change.

If the chart shows some significant change, you can quickly and easily tie it back to the change you made.

You can also add and view notes by clicking on the three dots above the table of results at either campaign or ad group level and then clicking Open Notes Panel:

The final way of adding notes is by selecting a campaign or ad group from a list and then clicking Add Note from the options in the blue bar that appears:

We’ll be back with more Google tips!

Podcast

Our latest All Killer No Filler zeros in on an essential but under-reported aspect of any brand or agency: Cross-departmental learnings.

Cross-departmental communication reveals extremely valuable information.

How to share knowledge across platforms like Facebook, TikTok, Amazon, and Google:

🚀 If there’s a specific angle converting on Facebook ads, bring that angle to TikTok, Google or even your UGC strategy.

💪 Take creative that’s crushing on YouTube and modify it for TikTok.

😎 Share keyword strategies between Amazon and Google.

🚀 Use Slack channels to share winning content to inspire content and brainstorm ideas across departments.

It all comes down to communication – making sure everyone is talking to one another and in the loop.


Listen to the pod to learn why cross-departmental communication is so important, and the big wins Pilothouse has had because of it.

M & A

💄Glossier lands $80M in funding as it looks toward international expansion.

🤳 Popshop Live raises about $20M at a $100M valuation for its live stream shopping platform.

📱 Video chat company Mmhmm raises $100M.

🛍 Authentic Brands files IPO as it chases more growth.

🛒 Instacart hires Facebook executive as new CEO ahead of expected IPO.

💕 Sexual wellness startup Maude surpasses $10M in funding.


🍴Chobani files confidentially for IPO.

🔊 Have you heard our latest podcasts?

💇‍♂️ Beardbrand’s Eric Bandholz and the DTC Long Game.

👀 Top 3 UGC mistakes with the Pilothouse team.

🌴 Product/market fit with Canopy Humidifiers' Eric Neher and Michael De Santis.

🧻 Battling big TP with Goodwipes CEO Sam Nebel.

💥 Building a bold brand with Ugly's CEO Hugh Thomas.

Don’t forget to rate the DTC Podcast on Apple (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

DTC Newsletter is written by Thomas Schreiber, Eric Dyck, and Sadie Evans.

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