DTC888: Offer Mistakes, Dugout Mugs Success, and Turn Winning Statics into Videos

Good morning,

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

🤔 Stop Sending Mixed Messages!
Don’t make these offer mistakes in your ads. 

🏅 Adopt a ‘Play to Win’ Mindset
Dugout Mugs shares key business lessons. 

🚨 Daily Tariff Update
Carriers pause U.S. shipments.

⭐ From Static to Video
A simple AI prompt to upgrade your ads.

You’re reading this newsletter along with new subscribers from: Endy, Global Sisters, and Pinterest. 👋

🤔 Ready For Some Winning Marketing Math? 1 UGC Creator = 20+ Ad Variations—All For Under $150

👀 Wondering how major DTC brands, including Beauty Pie, Bones Coffee, Flo Health, and Aceable, scale UGC without killing team bandwidth?

They use Insense to make insanely cost-effective UGC ads. 💸 

👏 From just one brief, get numerous raw footage clips to mix, match, and turn into multiple scroll-stopping creatives for your paid social ads. 

💥 Source 20+ pieces of raw content (per creator) with lifetime usage rights, all delivered in 14 days or less.

Cost-effective UGC with lifetime usage rights?

Yes please!! 🙌

☎️ Book a free strategy call by September 5th and get $200 for your first campaign.

💰 Please Don’t Run An Offer Like This!

Planning to run an offer in the near future? 

When it comes to sales, consumers are simple: They want to save money.

The problem? Offering too many choices can actually reduce their likelihood of converting.

This applies to having too many products, too many colorways, too many bundling options, etc. 

And the same holds true for offers.

Running an offer with mixed messaging can confuse people when they see the offer in an ad and after clicking through.

When you include multiple offers in one creative or on one page, it forces consumers to consider which offer is better, which product they should buy at the best price, and so on.

This adds friction to the decision-making process.

Instead of making a quick purchase, they spend too much time doing math and not enough time grabbing their credit cards. 

While tiered offers do involve more messaging, they’re much simpler to understand. The concept of “buy more, save more” is fairly common across brands.

The Pilothouse team recommends streamlining offer messaging as much as possible to make the offer clear and digestible for users. 

This applies to both ads and post-click pages. Help your customers think less and buy more. 

Look at this Ninja ad as an example. There’s multiple offers going on in one creative: 

Here’s a few recommendations from Pilothouse on how to simplify the messaging:

• Test broader messaging: Back to School Sale On Now. Click to Reveal Savings
• Only message the sitewide offer: Back to School Sale On Now. Save 25% Off Sitewide with code BTS
• Only message the steeper offer: Back-to-School Sale On Now. Unlock Up to 35% Off Select Products.

Better yet, run a split test using these two options and determine which drives the strongest ROAS for your brand.

• Only message the sitewide offer
• Only message the steeper offer
  

Ultimately, simplifying your offer messaging not only reduces decision fatigue but also makes it easier for consumers to take action and drive better results for your brand.

✨ Clarity scales. Don’t make customers do math; make them act.

🌞 Millions Of Shoppers Turn To Walmart.Com Every Summer For Travel Must-Haves, Outdoor Essentials And Seasonal Gear

💥 NexGrill, an outdoor cooking and heating brand, joined Walmart Marketplace in 2022. 

With access to millions of customers, zero monthly fees, and powerful ecommerce tools, they grew from a small startup to a global brand in just two years. 📈

Today, they’re a Pro Seller with nearly triple the SKUs and a 200% YOY revenue increase. 💵

👏 Now’s your chance to follow their lead, and as a new seller you’re eligible to save up to $75,000 in New-Seller Savings, Walmart’s incentive program going on now. 

📦 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. 

August 26, 2025 update:

• Trump Threatens Tariffs Over Digital Tax Policies
  
  • President Trump warned that he may impose new tariffs and export restrictions on some countries, like France, Italy, and Spain.
    
  • He claims that these countries have implemented or maintained digital services taxes deemed discriminatory against U.S. tech firms.
    

• Postal Services Suspend Deliveries to U.S. Amid Tariff Changes
  
  • Postal operators in Australia and Europe have suspended parcel deliveries to the U.S., claiming they cannot guarantee goods will enter the U.S. before Friday, when the “de minimis” exemption ends.
    
  • Previously, the de minimis loophole allowed duty-free packages under $800 to enter the U.S. without any additional tariffs. 
    
  • This shift has created confusion and logistical challenges for consumers and carriers.
    

Keep in mind: These details are current as of writing but could change before this reaches your inbox.

🎧 How Dugout Mugs Scaled to $55M with Authentic Branding and Smart Partnerships

In this episode of DTC Podcast, Eric interviews Kris Dehnert, founder and CEO of Dugout Mugs. 

After a health scare, Kris was introduced to a baseball-bat-turned-mug concept by co-founder Randall. The unique product, aligned with Kris’ scaling know-how, led to the creation of a $55M+ brand. 

In this episode, you’ll find key lessons like: 

• The Importance of Authenticity: How Dugout Mugs capitalizes on cultural moments and creates scroll-stopping content. 
  

• Breaking Seasonality by Diversifying Channels: How the business serves both B2C and B2B with ease by owning fulfillment and manufacturing. 

“We can deliver as late as December 19 and still get it for Christmas. That results in $150k–$200k per day near the holidays.”

• Outpacing the Comp: How a rivalry with a similar mug brand turned into a valuable business opportunity. 

“We decided: play to win, grind harder, and the competition folded.”

• Using AI Tools: How AI helps with customer service overflow during busy seasons and frees up time to focus on strategizing and networking. 

“AI handles friction economies like contracts or scaling support while I focus on the heart of the brand.”

• Why Time Is Your Most Valuable Asset: Kris explains why you need to build systems that preserve your time and agency. 

“Rich people buy time; poor people buy things. I learned to protect my time and I sleep better because of it.”

👉 Listen to the full episode with Kris here.

[Screenshot via @alexgoughcooper / X]

Repurpose top-performing static ads using AI. 

Alex shares how he used Midjourney to create this sunglasses video using a simple prompt. 

Can't view the image? Click here

🤑 Turn your thank-you page into a $200K /month funnel. Download The Yes Ladder to see how top brands increase AOV by 9.74% and convert post-purchase traffic at up to 12%. Grab your free copy here. *

📥 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.

Have you heard our latest podcasts?

• 📧 AKNF 536: The Only Browse Abandon Email You’ll Need
• 🏆 Ad-venturous 16: Labor Day Creative Wins to Carry into Q4
• 💡 TWBERP 47: Retention Bootcamp: Master Your Welcome Flow!
• ✅ How Obvi Fixed Meta Pixel Poisoning & Recovered Performance 
• 🪄 AKNF 534: Google’s 90% “New Customer” Illusion
• ☠️ Ad-venturous 15: 6 Meta Ad Mistakes that Kill Scaling 

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

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.