And that, our dear friends, is retargeting.
In this newsletter, you’ll find: 👇
📦 The rise of micro-influencers and collecting engaging UGC
📦 Maximize your marketing profitability with Black Crow AI
📦 Using Groupshop to create personalized and shareable shopping pages post-purchase
📦 3 ways to level up your email marketing today
Do you want a DTC x Lululemon duffel bag? Read till the end to find out how. 🎉
👉 If a pal forwarded this to you, subscribe, so you never miss out.
The rise of micro-influencers, and more creators in general, is making it harder and harder to filter out the good from the bad.
Here’s the truth: 👇
Don’t give up on finding the right creators for your brand! Our curiously creative CGC team has put together the top three things to look out for when starting creator partnerships.
📊 Followers aren’t everything
Back in the day, a lot of followers meant the creator had quality content. You knew those creators would make fabulous UGC (with great reach) for your brand!
But that was then, and this is now. It’s time to look beyond the follower count. A creator can have 50,000 followers, but if no one is engaging, commenting, or supporting the posts, then the content really isn’t resonating with anyone. In turn, that’s going to reflect on the type of UGC you’ll get back.
The new north star metric? Engagement. Whether a creator has 2,000 or 20,000 followers, it doesn’t matter. If you’re going to hire a creator for UGC, you need to know that they can make engaging content.
The harsh reality is, if they can’t make engaging content for their followers, how can you expect them to make engaging content for you, your client, or your brand? 🤷♀️
🤯 Micro-influencers give macro results
We now live in the world of the micro-influencer. But still, these types of profiles continually get overlooked for UGC. Many companies and marketing firms continue to focus solely on big follower counts and miss out on one opportunity after another…
Which micro-influencers should you be reaching out to? The ones with high engagement rates.
Generally, these creators have:
Good content is good content, and the bulk of this content is and will continue to come from emerging micro-influencers. If you can save money, and get better results at the same time, what is there to lose?
🏆 Remember the objective
The objective of UGC is to get natural content that resonates with as many people as possible. This means focusing on finding accounts with high engagement that viewers can connect to and find similarities with. Unattainability doesn’t sell, connection does.
When it comes to the time to source the next batch of UGC, think, Will my audience connect and resonate with this creator, or will they be put off by another ad clogging their feed?
The economy is shifting, and consumer spending patterns are all over the map. Some are tightening their belts. Others are shelling out cash like they’re Kardashians.
As a DTC brand in a shaky economy, profitability is at the top of your mind. And you want to do everything in your power to maximize your precious marketing budget. 💸
This is where Black Crow AI comes in.
With just one click, Black Crow AI leverages your first-party data in combination with their machine learning tech to group shoppers by their likelihood to purchase. Then, you can use those groups across your varied marketing channels to create custom marketing campaigns that drive sales profitably.
Black Crow AI has already helped over 150 brands target the right customers. They’re ready to help you next.
✋ Stop relying on spray-and-pray marketing tactics that waste your marketing dollars.
👉 Start controlling your marketing profitability. Request your 30-day free trial of Black Crow AI now.
So, you’ve been thinking about leveling up your email marketing to boost customer loyalty and increase sales, huh?
You’ve come to the right place for the best tips and tricks.
Let’s start with a little-known secret: Email marketing has some of the highest return on investments (ROIs) of all digital marketing efforts, and there’s a particular reason for its notable success rates. 👀
Email marketers are equipped with some of the best marketing technology. And when used correctly, it’s possible to pop into subscribers' email inboxes the same way a friend would – with personalized, highly relevant messages that hit 👏 the 👏 mark. 👏
After you’ve set email marketing goals, here are some ways you can leverage your email service provider (ESP) to win here.
1️⃣ Take advantage of email marketing templates
“ Once you have an idea of what you want to accomplish, start with a few email templates to test different content. After that, you can start testing different emails to see which works best for your audience.” – Krittin Kalra, founder of Writecream
Let’s be honest. When subscribers have hundreds of emails flooding their inboxes daily, how an email looks and what it says makes a HUGE difference in whether or not they will open it.
The caveat for DTC brands? It can be challenging to measure up to large retailers that have massive design and content budgets.
Thankfully, ESPs come with proven templates you can customize and test. To level up your email marketing efforts, consider customizing some of the highest performing templates and then A/B or multivariate test them for your specific audience.
Keep on scrollin’ for two more tips to crush your email marketing. ⏬
What's one way of guaranteeing a reduced blended CAC? Organic sales.
Enter: Groupshop ✨
It's the first word-of-mouth sales engine that's reinventing affiliate marketing and incentivizing your customers to shop together.
How does it work?
When your customers shop from your store, Groupshop creates a personalized shopping page post-purchase for them to share with friends. Customers curate their shopping page, allowing friends to get special discounts and earn cashback every time someone shops with them.
Now that Groupshop is officially out of their successful beta, they're offering the first 100 DTC brands that sign up three months free and an exclusive lifetime discount.
2️⃣ Segment your lists
“Segment your list so you can send targeted, relevant messages.” – Max Benz, founder and CEO at BankingGeek
Chances are, your DTC marketing team has already created outstanding customer profiles.
Those profiles include:
As a result, you have groups of customers whose interests and attributes vary significantly. No matter how great your products are, it makes no sense to email all of your brand’s exciting information to all of your customers. 😬
Instead, subscribers want to hear exactly what applies to them and only what applies to them.
Accomplish this using your ESPs segment features to divide your subscribers into different groups based on their data.
Check out this example from Adidas: 👟
Every Adidas customer doesn’t receive emails about every new shoe. Instead, Adidas segments its lists based on gender preferences so subscribers get the content that best resonates with them!
Here’s an example from the same email that shows unique content based on segments:
3️⃣ Personalize your emails
“Personalize your emails as much as possible to create a connection with your subscribers.” – Max Benz, founder and CEO at BankingGeek
The best news about a top-notch ESP? They have tools galore that make it possible to personalize your messaging. Point blank – the more you can do to send hyper-relevant emails, the more you’ll connect with your subscribers.
Get familiar with your ESP’s personalization features, and then test them. For example, consider the following:
🧑💻 Customer data – The best ESPs help you easily capture and store customer data. This includes first names, last names, birthdays, sizes, sex, geolocation, purchasing preferences, and patterns. When you’re armed with this data, you can code your messages to infuse the right information into your emails.
Example: The most recognizable example is using a customer's first name in the subject line or body content. But you can also personalize content based on location, size, birthday, and more.
🧨 Dynamic content – Dynamic content capabilities will become your email marketing BFF. Dynamic content makes it possible to easily switch out content within the same email based on customer data.
Example: If you have different promotions in different stores, you don’t have to send all of the promo info to all customers. Instead, you can send your San Clemente California promo to your customers in San Clemente, and your NYC promo info to your customers in NYC – all within the same email.
⏰ Time zone sending – Once you start tracking open times in your ESP, you’ll see patterns of when open rates increase.
Example: Let’s say you have customers in Dubai and customers in Denver. Time zone sending makes it possible for you to send emails at optimal times, no matter where your customers are located.
There are so many other personalization features your ESP provides to help you get the most out of your email marketing. Stay tuned for more.
👀 Wondering where DTC brands are spending? Check out the live spend trends dashboard here!*
🤯 Why brands and agencies are hiring TikTok creators.
🔎 LinkedIn tests new ‘Discover’ feed, new groups elements in order to enhance engagement.
💃 Teens, social media and technology 2022.
👏 5 crafty ways to split test your Google Shopping ads.
*Sponsored
🗓 Driving 25-month average subscription LTV (So far) with Kabo and Chargebee.
💸 “Six Figures in Revenue, Five Figures in Profit Every Day Throughout Q4" Ridge Wallet's Sean Frank Returns! [Free C-Suite Mentor Preview]
🤓 Subscription Program Masterclass with Rashad Hossain from Ryze Superfoods and Upscribe's Dileepan Siva.
🌎 The incrementality mentality with Ryan McKenzie from Tru Earth [Free C-Suite Mentor Preview].
👽 Dropping a Cool Million in Sales in Ten Minutes with Nell Diamond from Hill House Home and Ricky Choi from Outerspace.
Don’t forget to rate the DTC Podcast on Apple. (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
DTC Newsletter is written by Rebecca Knight, Jordan Gillis, and Ashley R. Cummings. Edited by Eric Dyck.
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