DTC903: Rare Beauty Email Pop-up, Rotten Candy Scaling, and 15-Second Creative Framework

Good morning,

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

🌶️ Rare Beauty’s Spicy Pop-Up
A breakdown of their sign-up incentive.

🍬 Rotten’s Candy Growth Play
Expanding into retailers and growing pains.

🤖 Win With Better Creative
Shackleford shares his 15-second framework.

You’re reading this newsletter along with new subscribers from: Wondercide, Motto Mortgage, and SMYTHE. 👋

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💰 Rare Beauty’s Spicy Offer

Looking to grow your list size ahead of Q4? We’ll be analyzing some email pop-ups the next few weeks and share what’s working and what could use a tune-up.

This week, we’re looking at how Rare Beauty’s email pop-up uses a collab-driven hook to grab the attention of beauty shoppers.

Leading with “NEW | LIMITED EDITION RARE BEAUTY X TAJÍN®” is smart. It taps into exclusivity, urgency, and cultural buzz.

What else works well:

✅ Solid Incentive: While 10% off a $40+ purchase isn’t a huge discount, when paired with ‘limited edition’ messaging, it feels like a step above most offers.

✅ Personalization Element: Rare Beauty also asks for the subscriber’s birthday in the sign-up form.

👉 This allows the brand to run birthday automation campaigns and gets the visitor excited to sign up since there is potential to receive a birthday perk later on.

✅ Strong Visuals: The sleek visual here is very strong and on-brand!

Rare Beauty shows off one of their best-selling blush products along with a limited edition Tajín lip gloss inspired by the famous Mexican seasoning.

It looks polished and promotes newness, which is exciting to customers.

Here are some subtle tweaks that could increase conversions:

❗ Room to improve CTA messaging: The CTA button feels generic. Rare Beauty could test options like:

• “Unlock My 10% Off”
• “Claim My Limited Edition Deal”
• “Join The Rare Beauty Insider List”

❗ Birthday Friction: While the birthday perk can help with personalization, it may also cause friction for some.

A better flow could involve asking for an email first, before making the birthday request in a welcome flow, or making it optional in the pop-up.

❗ Lacks Urgency: Although the pop-up mentions limited edition items, adding a time cue would create more urgency.

• “Limited time collab while supplies last.”
• “Hurry, this spicy drop won’t last long!”

👉 Rare Beauty’s pop-up looks gorgeous and fits the brand aesthetic, but it leans too heavily on discounts when the real value prop is exclusivity and community.

With some tweaks, it could build a stronger, stickier list before Black Friday.

👀 See How The Perfume Spot Went From Small Storefront To Ecommerce Juggernaut

👉 When The Perfume Spot started it was just a small store on Staten Island. Now, they’re an ecommerce juggernaut with a team of 25 people and 8 figures in sales each year. 💥

How?

👏 In part by selling on Walmart Marketplace.

With Walmart Marketplace, The Perfume Spot was able to instantly reach millions of shoppers, access powerful tools for scale, and sell on a platform invested in their success. 📈

🏆 Could you be the next Walmart success story? Sign up today to see. It just takes a few minutes to get started.

🎧 Rotten’s Retail Expansion: Seeding Strategy, Brand IP, and Standing Out at Checkout

In this episode of the DTC Podcast, Eric reunites with Michael Fisher, the founder of Rotten to discuss how the better-for-you candy brand has scaled from a single product to launching into national retail partners like Safeway, Sprouts, and Zumiez.

We discuss Rotten’s playbook for retail expansion, and dive into why preserving product quality and sampling are essential for growth.

What you’ll learn in this episode:

• The Reality of Retail: Michael speaks candidly about why velocity is key to getting on the shelf.

“Getting on shelf is the easy part, getting off shelf is the hard part.”

• Brand Positioning: How Rotten positions itself in the market to attract mainstream customers.

“We prioritize candy first, fun brand second, better-for-you third.”

• Content Strategy: Why creating a brand world with distinctive characters like Dr. Rotten and Frankie Freak are key to long-term value.
  
• Sampling Strategy: How Rotten uses TikTok Shop and Instagram affiliates as evergreen trial drivers.

“So many of our customers had never bought better-for-you candy before. That means we’re incremental to the category, not just stealing share.”

👉 Listen to the full episode with Michael here.

We came across a tweet from Nick Shackleford, partner at BRĒZ, and wanted to share his thoughts on how creative is the new targeting.

Here’s what Nick shared:

Meta’s AI reads every pixel of your ads — setting, people, music, even colors — and decides who sees it.

The algorithm is smarter than your media buyer, so the only way to win is with better creative.

The 15-second framework:

• 0–3s: Hook
• 3–5s: Value prop
• 5–8s: Benefits
• 8–15s: Problem/Solution

👉 Rearrange based on performance and tag each element clearly so Meta knows what it’s serving.

Brands winning now:

• 25–50+ creatives live at once
• Speaking to multiple audiences differently
• Testing at scale

Who’s your favorite follow on social media? Reply to this email and let us know!

🔥 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. Join now. *

🍺 Sept 28: Drink A Beer Day, Save Your Photos Day, Poke Day

💗 Sept 29: National Coffee Day, World Heart Day, Silent Movie Day

🫒 Sept 30: Pet Tricks Day, Mud Pack Day, Extra Virgin Olive Oil Day

🎶 Oct 1: Music Day, Black Dog Day, World Vegetarian Day, Pumpkin Spice Day

🥬 Oct 2: Kale Day, Pumpkin Seed Day, Walk To School Day

💅 Oct 3: Mean Girls Day, Techies Day, Boyfriend Day

😀 Oct 4: Improve Your Office Day, Cinnamon Bun Day, World Smile Day

Have you heard our latest podcasts?

• 🚀 AKNF 542: Using TikTok Symphony To Scale Sales
• 🏆 Ad-venturous 19: Creative Diversity Wins Q4
• 💰 TWBERP 50: Email Like A Billion Dollar Brand Part 1
• 🧠 Master The First Second: Hook Attention in Meta Ads
• 🎃 AKNF 540: Using Seasonal Ads Like Halloween as Q4 Prep
• ✨ Ad-venturous 18: Taste v.s. Discernment Around Creative and AI

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.