People with glass advertising shouldn’t throw stones… 😂
Good morning,
And happy birthday leaplings! 🎉
A Leap Day comes around only once every four years, so make the most of this added time. With 366 days in the calendar, it means you get one more day to reach your Q1 goals. Spend it wisely. 👀
We’ll admit this hasn’t been the easiest month for a lot of SMBs, so make sure to keep scrolling — We’ll be sharing some tips on how to get you out of the February slump so you can start off strong for March.
Here’s what you’ll find in today’s DTC:
You’re reading this newsletter along with new subscribers from: Nestle, SmartGrass and Whitewater Brewing Co. 👋
You own the relationship between your brand and your customers. You’re in charge of delivering outstanding customer experiences that drive results and revenue.
Customers expect easy, delightful, and individually tailored experiences at every touchpoint. Are you doing enough? Are you using your data in a way that actually delivers?
If you’re not sure, or your first-party data is sitting in a spreadsheet or CRM somewhere collecting dust, we’re pretty sure the answer is: you could be doing more.
Use this guide to learn from brands like Dagne Dover, Andie Swim, and AriZona Beverage Co., who are tapping into their customer data to confidently deliver experiences their customers crave. Or better yet, steal the ideas and make them your own!
You’re in the driver's seat — If you don’t know where you’re going you’re wasting fuel.
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If you’re looking at your February revenue goals and seeing less-than-impressive numbers, you are not the only one. 😞
David Herrmann from Herrmann Digital admits “February has been the hardest month in DTC I’ve experienced in quite some time.” And many other SMBs are echoing his thoughts.
The Pilothouse team shares that while some clients in the paid media space have kept spending consistent, year-over-year growth is down for most.
But media buyers remain optimistic.
Truth is if you’re at flat growth and keeping things consistent in ecosystems ROAS, you’re in a better spot than most.
Taylor Cain, Pilothouse’s Social Technical Director shares these insights:
“Between the patterns we've seen and what we've heard in our network, the trend seems to be that e-commerce is more aligned with pre-pandemic years - steady growth overall but with a greater need for a cohesive strategy with a strong foundation of elements like conversion rate optimization, product strategy, and creative testing methodology.”
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen negative growth like these numbers.
And it probably won't be the last.
There are steps to help with the flat growth, but it takes a birds-eye view and long-term investment to combat.
Now more than ever long-term and big-picture vision and strategy have never been more important.
Here’s how Pilothouse is combating these changes:
✅ Take an omnichannel approach: Rather than relying on a single channel for growth, utilizing multiple platforms, paid and organic, to see what moves the needle.
✅ Invest in customer retention and post-click: It costs less to retain a customer than acquire a new one, so shifting our attention to how we can keep existing customers happy and offering value.
✅ Create padding regarding audiences: Spend more in top of top-of-funnel (TOF) campaigns for a bigger YOY in Q4.
Have you been feeling the February slump? Reply to this email and let us know!
minisocial, the OG UGC platform that launched in 2018 - has spent years curating their group of high-quality micro influencers that can are hand selected for your brand by their expert team.
With minisocial getting a project spun up is easy:
1️⃣ Submit your brief
2️⃣ Approve your creators
3️⃣ Send out your products
4️⃣ Watch as posts go live and you get to download your new, fully-licensed content!
And that's it! minisocial handles all the nitty gritty so you can spend more time on your to do list and less time going back and forth with creators.
See why hundreds of brands trust minisocial with their micro influencer & UGC activations.
Click Here to Launch Your First Campaign!
*Sponsored
During the Super Bowl, Temu made an aggressive advertising move by running six $7 million dollar ads and spending $10 million on giveaways.
Having an enormous ad budget has definitely helped Temu grow into an ecommerce behemoth, but what we’ll discuss today is how Temu can convert those one-time buyers into repeat customers.
The secret? 👀
Referrals. Lots of them.
Their referral program is a force to be reckoned with and allows Temu to rapidly grow their audience. 92% of customers are more likely to trust referrals from family, friends, and their favorite influencers, and Temu relies on this information to build out its customer database.
How Temu’s referral program works:
Customers who refer others are generously rewarded with shopping credits. And Temu influencers can earn up to a mind boggling $100,000 per month which encourages them to promote the megastore heavily online.
Why this works so well:
Takeaways for SMBs:
Have you tried running a referral program for your ecommerce store?
🙅 You don't need a hundred support agents to run a 7-figure DTC brand. Use AI to cut your support costs in half, join 2000+ brands using Richpanel’s AI helpdesk. *
🚀 Are you a small business that can’t seem to crack Meta? Cornea Care saw a 97% ROAS increase with Pilothouse’s new Launchpad Program. Get connected. *
DTC Newsletter + Podcast reaches a highly qualified audience of Shopify merchants, eCommerce founders, and digital marketers. Talk to our team to learn more.
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DTC Newsletter is written by Rebecca Knight and Frances Du. Edited by Eric Dyck.
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Please note that items in this newsletter marked with * contain sponsored content.
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