DTC838: Mystery Products, AI Tools, and Ideal Buyers

Good morning,

Here’s what you’ll find in today’s DTC: 

⁉️ Boost Sales with Mystery Products
Use the element of surprise to drive conversions.

‍🤖 AI Workflow Wins
Make ChatGPT your ultimate productivity sidekick.

📦 Tariff Update
G7 leaders discuss Trump’s tariff deadline. 

🤔 Find Your Ideal Buyer
Ask these 3 questions.

You’re reading this newsletter along with new subscribers from: Omnivox AI, Unbound Merino, and Ham Interiors. 👋

🚀 You Built It. We Grow It.

You’ve poured everything into building a brand people care about.
You’ve got traction. Real revenue. A loyal customer base.

Getting here took grit—scaling further takes precision. You need:

• Deep marketing expertise
• A reliable growth engine
• A strategy built for where you're going, not where you’ve been

DTC’s sister agency, Pilothouse, treats every brand like it’s our own—fully committed, fully accountable.

We think like owners, act like operators, and obsess over outcomes like you do.

If you want to tackle this year with:
✅ Relentless execution, not recycled playbooks
✅ Storytelling that sells (without just slashing prices)
✅ Full transparency and full-throttle growth

Then we should talk…

We’ve got a few spots open for brands ready to scale to the next level.

Confident that’s you? 👇

👉 Book A Call Now

🎧 Looking For A Way To 3x Your Creative Productivity?

In this episode of AKNF, Senior Content Manager Braydon Germain from Pilothouse shares tactical AI workflows that have boosted productivity, creativity, and client relationships across DTC ad accounts.

He explains that AI isn’t replacing creativity. Instead, AI frees marketers to focus on ideation, strategy, and human connection.

We take a look at his daily AI tech stack and how he optimizes his workday.

“That would have maybe taken me an hour … now it’s compressed down to like maybe 15‑20 minutes.”

In this episode, we dive into:

• How to Never Forget a Past Convo: AI transcription tools, like Fireflies, enables agencies to extract client insights and strengthen relationships. 

“Time is the ultimate currency … offering them systems to give them time back is the ultimate business model.”

• Reverse Engineer Competitor Ads: Train ChatGPT to become an ad expert and generate quality mockups for your brand in under 20 minutes.
  
• Automate Boring Tasks: How AI agents can automate repetitive tasks like scheduling meetings and setting up ad campaigns.
  
• Strategic scaling: Ways to operate AI like a business unit and treat it as talent that multiplies client capacity. 

👉 Listen to the full episode with Braydon here. 

Looking for more from the DTC Podcast Network? Check out these recent episodes: 

• 🧠 Ad-venturous 6: Why Gen X Is The Forgotten Generation 
• 🤔 TWBERP 37: Reviewing Welcome Emails Flows From Top Brands
• 🧊How Shiti Coolers Turned a Joke into A Party Cooler Brand 
• 🥘 AKNF 514: How Hestan Built a 40% Repeat Purchase Rate
• 😃Ad-venturous 5: Are Millennials Cooler Than Everyone Else? 
• 🧑‍💻 TWBERP 36: Retention Programs for Different Cohort Profiles

💡 Use The Element of Surprise To Boost Sales 

Everyone loves a good mystery, so why not make that a selling point?

Here are different ways brands are using the element of surprise to their advantage: 

In a recent email campaign, Supergoop highlighted a ‘super secret SPF gift’ for subscribers. 

The text also includes a hint to hook in customers and get them invested.

👉 By emphasizing the mystery product is a ‘triple threat’, it implies that it is multifunctional and delivers on value. 

This is a strong incentive and compels customers to purchase now.

Here’s another great example of a brand attracting customers with a mystery item.

When customers reach checkout for WMP Eyewear, they can add a pair of ‘mystery shades’ for a heavily discounted price.

👉 This is a great way to get rid of an overstocked item or one that isn’t selling well while raising AOV. 

Many newsletter pop ups will offer a discount up front for signing up but what about changing up your CTA to keep customers guessing?

Shiti Coolers hooks website visitors by letting them know they ‘qualify for a mystery offer’. 

Once users subscribe to their email and SMS list, they are asked to check their text messages for more info on how to access the surprise offer.

👉 Grow your email and SMS list and open up more lines of communication. 

The takeaway?

Being a little mysterious is a great way to hook customers. 

Get them excited to spend on a surprise item! 

Promote attractive incentives, such as mystery gifts with purchases, mystery items at checkout, or even mystery subscriptions, especially if you have a lot of overstock items.

Some customers will take the bait, and it’s a great way to clear out old inventory this summer before introducing a new collection.

📦 Your Daily Tariff Check-In

Whether it’s a minor tweak or a major shift, we’ll keep you posted on the latest tariff changes—so you’re always in the know. 

June 16, 2025 update:

• G7 Summit Kicks Off This Week
  
  
  • The G7 Summit began on Monday, and leaders from France, Germany, the EU, the UK, Japan, Italy, the U.S., and Canada all gathered in Alberta to discuss the upcoming deadline for President Trump's tariff policy.
    
  • Trump's 90 day pause on reciprocal tariffs ends on July 8th but Treasury Department Secretary Scott Bessent admits the early July deadline may have some flexibility for certain countries.
    
  • “It is highly likely that for those countries that are negotiating — or trading blocs, in the case of the EU — who are negotiating in good faith, we will roll the date forward to continue the good-faith negotiation,” Bessent said previously. “If someone is not negotiating, then we will not.”

Struggling to find buyers that will convert? 

Ask yourself these three questions to validate if there’s a market for your product and a way to connect with your ideal customers.

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📥 Got a B2B Biz? 

Join dozens of B2B companies finding demand-gen success through our niche community of 150k+ brand leaders and founders this year. Talk to our team to learn more.

DTC Newsletter is written by Rebecca Knight and Frances Du. Edited by Eric Dyck.

Please note that items in this newsletter marked with * contain sponsored content.