Who’s on Nasa’s social media team?
They’re delivering fire captions like the one below 🔥
If that’s you, send a note to Thomas (thomas@directtoconsumer.co) with your resume and why you’d be a good fit!
If you’re new to DTC, welcome! You’re in good company with fellow newcomers from Evive Nutrition, LEGO, Puddle Jumper Pups, Koffee Beauty, Daily Crunch Snacks, Revival Rugs, and Adidas.
🥄 A deep dive into Magic Spoon’s website.
🤯 Slashing customer acquisition costs with Nik Sharma.
⚔️ Using Amazon Standard Identification Numbers as a defensive strategy.
🍃 An eye-catching DTC outdoor skincare brand.
👉 If a pal forwarded this to you, subscribe so you never miss out. And be sure to follow us on Twitter and Instagram.
Welcome to part three of our deep dive into the marketing strategies of Magic Spoon!
For this section, we’ve partnered with Oddit to analyze the Magic Spoon website.
Reddit provides simple, to-the-point website audits for direct-to-consumer brands wanting to boost conversion and strengthen brand loyalty.
They’ve highlighted areas for Magic Spoon to improve on, and offered quick-win solutions they can apply ASAP.
They highlight key strengths of your product/service while helping you stand out from competitors.
It’s KEY that you make it obvious with drastic styling differences.
Further, we'd suggest that Magic Spoon adds more variance to the number of competitors on the chart.
We want to know how the product stacks up against well-known sugary classics but also "healthy" alternatives or similarly priced cereals.
Always think mobile first.
Fun desktop experiences don't always translate well to mobile.
This ingredient list makes for a really cool discovery interaction on desktop, but it’s a forced experience on mobile.
Further, the "Us VS. Them" heading looks broken without the section padding on mobile.
The reviews stars lack contrast and can be easily lost as users scan.
Make sure key details stand out, plus it'll help Google accessibility rankings.
Popups often equal payday.
But when done wrong they can create more frustration than benefit.
The "X" to close this popup gets hidden on smaller screen mobile devices.
Make sure users can easily exit out of any pop ups, whether there's an offer or not.
This can be done with a clear in-view "x," or even a secondary "remind me later" link.
Not all shoppers are ready to subscribe on their first purchase but make the default variant selection set to the ideal conversion – subscriptions.
Free Shipping is a major selling point that helps push people over the edge.
Look for every opportunity to highlight free shipping & make sure users can't miss it.
Site speed has a MAJOR impact on conversion, user experience, google rankings, and bounce rates.
Use pagespeed insights to find opportunities for your site.
A few of the more common fixes include:
While we’re chatting site speed… Oddit recently launched their Site Speed Optimization service.
It helps DTC sites dramatically increase their site speed and boost conversions.
They can optimize the speed of ANY size Shopify site, and as always, if you’re not satisfied they’ll refund your money, no questions asked.
They’re giving all DTC Newsletter subscribers 10% off their Site Speed Optimization service.
Simply enter DTCSPEED10 at checkout to receive the discount.
Heads up, this code expires on August 17th!
Thinking about trying SMS for your DTC business but aren’t sure where to start? 🤔
When using two different platforms to manage your email and SMS campaigns, there’s a natural "crack" that occurs if you’re using disjointed software solutions.
You risk losing sales, accurate reporting, and a seamless customer experience.
So why spread yourself across multiple platforms when you can have one cohesive strategy and experience?
By managing both email and SMS with one cohesive marketing automation platform (like Klaviyo 😉), you’ll unlock opportunities that wouldn’t be possible when using separate solutions.
For more expert advice, read Klaviyo’s guide to evaluating SMS platforms.
👉 Discover the 5 SMS platform must-haves.
This week on the pod we spoke to DTC legend Nik Sharma – CEO of Sharma Brands.
Sharma Brands has had a hand in developing, launching, and scaling some of your favorite brands (Hydrant, Lalo, Judy, and Super Coffee).
Nik breaks down the history of the DTC industry, where it’s at right now, and the future of it.
Listen to the whole thing and share it with your team.
Nik’s been in the mix for 1.0 and 2.0 and his assessment of 3.0 (where we’re at now) is stark.
Nik sees the window closing for eCommerce as a pure arbitrage opportunity as ad costs rise, or "normalize to where they should have been."
Many brands will fade slowly in DTC 3.0, Nik predicts.
The ones who succeed will have a brand "glow up" where they build a community who're excited to repurchase their product without seeing an ad.
Easy right? 😬
Nik uses Facebook Ads to test aspects of the brands’ personalities that resonate more with customers and hones in from there.
First set the demographic you’re targeting – say male and female 24–44 in cities x, y, z.
Now all you need is a feedback loop.
Create a landing page with 20 headline variations.
Test against your demo to see which tone and subject matter resonates with your audience and refine from there.
The best thing a brand can do to lower CaC is build a simple landing page.
Tell a story about your brand, answer questions, compel the reader down the page and increase their chance of conversion.
For examples of these pages, check out Orgain or PooPourri.
Also, check out Nik’s newly released landing page guide.
Nik believes TikTok Ads is a monster, but on the organic side, he sees massive opportunities currently.
To hear more about advocating for your DTC brand in the 2021 playing field, and Nik’s experiences and tips for scalability, listen to the full pod here!
Expand your reach and generate hundreds of beautiful, fully-licensed UGC assets with minisocial.
DTC brands use minisocial campaigns to populate their organic social, ads, email and beyond by working with Instagram and TikTok micro influencers.
Campaigns are fully managed and start at $2k ($1.7k after your special DTC reader discount 😉).
Don't take our word for it, check out minisocial case studies here. 🚩
Ready to give it a try? DTC Newsletter readers get 15% off their first campaign, just mention this ad.
👉 Get started by building your campaign brief or schedule a free intro/strategy call.
Check out this killer tip from the Pilothouse Amazon team!
Bidding on your own Amazon Standard Identification Numbers (ASIN) is a great defensive strategy to keep competitors off your listings.
By controlling the ad spots on your own listing, you take up that real estate instead of letting a competitor have it.
It’s an opportunity to upsell or cross-sell, but also helps your conversion rate because a user is less likely to bounce to a competitor.
Say you’re a protein powder brand that sells whey protein and vegan protein – if someone landed on the whey protein page, show ads for your vegan protein.
They might be more interested in vegan protein and end up purchasing it.
We’re loving this timer ad from Crossnet.
While it’s not a live timer, it’s a great attention grabber.
The Pilothouse team has had success running this alongside a sale.
They’d run ads with 60 second timers and create a new video for each day the sale was live (ie. 5 days = 5 videos).
Test it out for your own brand!
Gone are the days of spraying and spreading parabens and synthetics to fight off sunburns and bugs.
Kindfield brings products and packaging that are safe for both people and the planet. 🌎
Head over to their Facebook Ads library for great UGC inspiration.
We’ll be having these beauties on deck for our next hiking adventure. 😍
🚨 We’re joining 8K DTC brands and 40K attendees at Ecom World – you in?
🤔 Instagram provides a new overview of how its Reels’ algorithm works.
🎵 Spotify's What's New feed could generate repeat visits for brands.
📚 TikTok is testing 'TikTok Stories' as it looks to expand creative options in the app.
🚀 Instagram is testing ads in its Shop Tab.
✅ Target and DTC brand State Bags teams up for back to school.
🤯 30 social media metrics that matter throughout the customer journey.
🦜 Twitter launches updated Agency Playbook to guide marketers on Twitter Ads’ best practices.
💄 L’Oréal’s new digital chief takes cosmetics virtual.
💰 Pro Tips: TikTok shares advice on how brands can establish a presence on the platform, and generate results.
🤯 Slashing customer acquisition costs with Nik Sharma.
👩💻 Marea Wellness scales menstrual health organically on TikTok and Reddit with Monica Grohne.
🍼 Organic influencers for the win with Co-founder and CMO of Lalo, Michael Weider.
✅ How Kellogg’s thinks about DTC and eRetail with Joe Harper and Jordan Narducci.
🥤Slashing Facebook ads in half with Olipop’s Steven Vigilante.
💇♂️ Beardbrand’s Eric Bandholz and the DTC long game.
Don’t forget to rate the DTC Podcast on Apple (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
DTC Newsletter is written by Thomas Schreiber, Eric Dyck, and Rebecca Knight.
Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here.
🔊 Podcast.
✍️ Blog and past newsletters.
📥 Work for The DTC Newsletter (Writer).
🚀 Advertise in DTC Newsletter.
DTC 2023. All Rights Reserved.
DTC is fueled by Pilothouse company registered in Victoria, BC, Canada.