We were too busy discussing if we’d be swindled by the Tinder Swindler to come up with an intro this week. 🥵
Let’s hop into it!
In this newsletter you’ll find: 👇
📬 9 quick and easy wins to improve your email deliverability - Part 1
🏈 How Coinbase won the Super Bowl
🤯 The final word on why Google-branded search is a MUST
Read till the end to access exclusive DTC swag. 😎
👉 If a pal forwarded this to you, subscribe so you never miss out.
That darn Promotions inbox…
Or worse, the dreaded Spam folder. 🙀
We know you don’t want your emails to end up there (and neither do we, TBH).
So let’s cover some tips to help you hit that Primary Inbox like a champ.
But first… a heads up.
No one really knows all the secrets behind reaching the Inbox 100% of the time. Gmail, for example, is highly variable; your message could go to the Primary Inbox for one user and Spam for another. It’s not black and white.
However, one thing is clear: if you’re sending emails that people don’t want to read, you’re probably gonna end up in Spam. No way around it. 🤷
Additionally, if you don’t have the basic tech stuff in place – like a solid sender/domain reputation, custom authentication with DKIM/SPF/BIMI, and a good ESP – these tips may only get you so far.
So, assuming you’ve got all that taken care of, here are some straightforward ways to improve your email deliverability. 👇
1️⃣ Optimize for engagement.
One of the best ways to improve your email deliverability is to send emails that prompt engagement. When a user opens, clicks – and even better, replies to – your email, it sends a clear signal to ISPs that people like getting your messages.
You’re probably familiar with best practices for optimizing for opens and clicks, but what about replies? 🤔
Here are some ways to elicit a response to your email, which can do wonders for deliverability:
🦸 Pro Tip: Having high engagement early on in your Welcome Emails is the best way to ensure the rest of your emails end up in the Inbox.
2️⃣ Get whitelisted.
Another way to get fast-tracked to the Inbox is to ask users to whitelist you, or add you as a contact (instructions vary for email providers). This tells providers that you’re essentially a VIP and shouldn’t be sent to Spam.
3️⃣ Ask for a manual move.
You can also suggest that users drag your email to the Primary Inbox from Promotions or Spam, which will make it more likely that your next few messages end up there. (And if they like your emails, they’ll probably do it.)
A nice little Gmail shortcut is to “star” the email, which automatically moves it to Primary. ⭐
Heads up: these strategies may not keep you in the Inbox indefinitely, so you might need to include reminders once in a while.
4️⃣ Avoid “trigger” words and phrases (especially in the subject line).
While this isn’t a sure bet, there’s a theory that certain words, phrases, and tendencies trigger providers to send your email to Spam. This is especially true when it comes to your subject line, although the body of the email applies as well.
Spammy triggers to avoid:
In other words: If it looks like Spam, and it quacks like Spam… well 🤷
If you’re struggling to get your emails out of the promotions box, tune into DTC 143 for part 2!
Influencer marketing is an incredibly effective and reliable channel for DTC brands to gain consumer trust, grow brand awareness, and increase sales. 🚀
But if working with influencers is new to you, where do you start?
The answer is right here: The ultimate guide to influencer marketing.
Our straight-shooting, highly practical ebook covers all the basics, including tried and tested best practices for everything, from finding partners to measuring your ROI. 🎯
It's also packed with campaign examples from DTC brands you know so that you can learn from the best in the biz.
At impact.com, our goal is to make thriving in the partnership economy easy, and we've worked with some of the biggest names around, including Adidas, Uber, and Levi's, so you're in safe hands.
👉 Get the only guide you need to kickstart your influencer campaigns.
A moment of honesty, how long did you watch the DVD logo hoping it would hit the corner of your TV screen?
Now that streaming has taken over our watch habits, Coinbase brought back that sense of nostalgia with their 60-second Super Bowl ad.
Their simple scannable QR code brought viewers to their website where a sign-up got you $15 and a chance to win $3M in prizes.
It’s simple. It’s risky. And if you ask us, it’s downright brilliant.
No need for a highly produced incredibly expensive video - sometimes less is just more. 🤷♀️
How successful was the ad? Not long after the commercial, the traffic crashed Coinbases’ site.
Are you team scrappy or team highly-produced creative? Reply to this email and let us know!
Does your company’s “data analysis” still look like manually crunching numbers in a 40-tab spreadsheet?
🛑 Stop right now.
It’s time to automate your analytics!
Peel is a fully automated analytics tool built for Shopify that helps DTC brands make smarter data-based decisions and achieve exponentially faster growth. 🚀
This tool helps you and your team quickly and easily answer questions, like:
And unlike those headache-inducing spreadsheets, Peel analyzes your data in a way that’s data easy to understand, customizable, and powerful.
(You’ve got nothing to lose… well, except hundreds of hours in Excel.)
If you’re wondering if you should be bidding on branded search, the answer is a very simple yes!
Here’s why 👇
Google’s algorithms use account-level signal data when bidding. Your performance data is no longer just tied to the specific keyword or campaign where it is attributed.
Bidding on your own branded keywords provides a very cheap way to gather valuable data.
Google strips down branded search conversions to gather information like demographics, interests, previous Google search history, device type, and much more.
This data is then used to help algorithmic bidding accurately bid on other campaigns in your account.
You also run the advantage of protecting yourself from competitors who are bidding on your branded keywords.
🚨 Participating in branded search auctions often costs very little. The odds of winning the auction above your ROAS targets are huge. In addition, you are feeding your account with extremely valuable conversion data which will help improve the performance in all your campaigns.
Thank you to Brian from the Pilothouse Google team for the tip! 🚀
🛒 $6M raised by Voila, a startup building infrastructure for social commerce.
🤓 On a mission to make 'out of classroom' academic support more accessible Paper secured $270M in Series D capital.
🤑 Akamai to acquire AWS competitor Linode for $900M.
🗺 Ready to map it out, startup Proxi raises $1.2M.
📱 With $7M in funding, AppBoxo continues turning any app into a super app.
💰 AMD's $35B deal to acquire Xilinx is essential for its survival.
🥣 Mascots in the Metaverse — How to Make NFTs Work for Your DTC Brand with OffLimits CEO Emily Elyse Miller.
🦷 Tend Merges Dentistry with Hospitality and Disrupts the $300B Space with Matt Fitzgerald.
💄 Youthforia's Fiona Co Chan Creates an Organic TikTok to Amazon Pipeline.
💗 Changing the World's Pleasure Baseline with Jen Batchelor CEO and Founder of Kin Euphorics .
Don’t forget to rate the DTC Podcast on Apple ( ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
DTC Newsletter is written by Kelsey Hess and Rebecca Knight. Edited by Claire Beveridge .
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DTC is fueled by Pilothouse company registered in Victoria, BC, Canada.