The media ain’t gonna buy itself! 🤷
If you’re new to DTC, welcome! You’re in good company with fellow newcomers from The Vice Wine, GhostBed, Pepper, BookBub, and Aesop. 🌱
In this newsletter, you’ll find: 👇
📦 Should you be all in on AI in CX?
📦 A re-engagement strategy your customers actually enjoy
📦 Streamlining your way into the YouTube Partner Program
📦 Why your email and SMS strategy should not be the same
📦 Elements to have in your welcome flow to leave the right impression
Read till the end to access exclusive DTC swag. 😎
👉 If a pal forwarded this to you, subscribe, so you never miss out.
🎧 Today on the DTC pod, we're unraveling the mysteries of stellar customer experiences and peeling back the layers of "Enlightened Hospitality" with none other than Eli Weiss, the Director of CX at Jones Road Beauty.
Brace yourself for a deep dive into the vibrant realms of personal branding, content creation, and innovative customer service. From the undeniable charm of trend-following to the rise of volume-driven content and the transformative potential of AI, we're covering it all.
Eli reveals a treasure trove of insights on tools for CX, the delicate dance of balancing average order value (AOV) and lifetime value (LTV), and the profound influence of enlightened hospitality in the ecommerce landscape. 💄
The takeaways 👇
🎯 Bullseye branding
On the pod, Eli blew the lid off the eternal debate of quality vs. quantity in personal branding and content creation. In the race to rack up followers and engagement, brands get stuck in a 'post and pray' strategy, carpet-bombing their platforms with content.
But Eli begs to differ.
“Quality over quantity is key”, he argues. The spray-and-pray approach might win you followers, but it often does little to boost meaningful engagement or the bottom line. According to Eli, the real secret sauce to a successful brand lies in striking a harmonious balance between volume and value. Not an easy task, but a rewarding one!
🤖 AI vs. human touch
As AI continues its relentless march into customer service, the challenge for brands lies in its strategic incorporation. Eli made it clear that a head-first dive into AI customer support isn't the answer.
Large brands must ensure customer experience doesn't suffer in the rush to adopt AI, while startups must be cautious of the risks that come with AI implementation. Eli discusses how Bobbi Brown's successful launch of their first fragrance, for example, is a testament to how human-led innovation can boost sales.
With humans guiding the process, AI can ramp up efficiency and foster improved customer experiences. However, the transition should be gradual and strategic, not sudden and hasty.
👉 Listen to the full episode with Eli Weiss here!
With customer acquisition costs on the rise and a potential recession looming, it's time to get personal with your customers. 👋
Discover how to use first-party data to fuel your email personalization strategy and create incredible customer experiences that help you navigate economic uncertainty.
Join Bloomreach on June 6 at 12 pm ET to learn how focusing on your customer journey will have your marketing plan feeling recession ready.
This live demo will cover:
Discover the marketing strategies that can help you create customer experiences so personal they feel like magic.
Did you know that to be accepted into the YouTube Partner Program, your channel needs 10M (yes, million) views on your Shorts within 90 days?
If you’re just starting out, or even if you’ve been growing your channel for a while, this number can seem incredibly daunting. Buuuuut… What if we told you that the Pilothouse YouTube team had a few tricks up their sleeves?
Think we’d keep them to ourselves? Think again. 👇
⭕ Circular content
To increase view count, publish videos more likely to be viewed twice in a row. YouTube Shorts automatically play in a loop, so making content where the end of the video leads back to the beginning is a killer hack.
Looping video playback isn’t unique to YouTube Shorts (we’re looking at you, TikTok 👀), but circular content has the potential to:
Need some examples to get the creative juices flowing? Check out example one and example two!
🚤 Fast content
Attention spans are short, and you only have a few seconds to convince viewers to stay on your video and engage with your content.
Fast content is on the rise, and for a good reason. Things like quick cuts, fast-paced humor, and adding an element of shock/confusion are all tactics to make viewers feel like they missed out and need to watch again! ➰
✨ Conclusion
Don’t be afraid to lean into engagement tactics to streamline your way to those much-deserved 10M views! The Pilothouse YouTube team suggests trying this on your (or your clients’) account to see what best resonates with your audience and how to increase that view count. 📈
Using any must-know hacks in your YouTube Shorts strategy? Reply to this email and let us know!
Answer: Treating it differently than email.
SMS is a conversational, 2-way channel. So when you use it like one, your revenue goes up. 📈
With Postscript Sales, you get a team of US-based SMS Sales Associates who identify high-intent shoppers and proactively start 1:1 conversations with them over text.
Your expertly trained SMS Sales Associates will:
Dr. Squatch and QALO are seeing 30% more net new conversions and 2x more SMS revenue using Postscript Sales.
👉 Delight your customers and drive more sales with Postscript Sales.
👋 Welcome one, welcome all!
The welcome email is one of your best chances to leave a lasting impression on new subscribers. After people subscribe, you have a rare few moments with their full attention, so a welcome email is the time to make the most of it. 💪
✅ Start off on the right foot
Begin your welcome email with a personalized greeting to address new subscribers by their name. Many ecommerce platforms offer this feature, so take advantage of it!
Look for an email template with {firstName} as a placeholder. This little code means it’ll be filled in when the email is sent to your subscriber. Otherwise, a conversational subject line and a simple “thank you” introduction message will do.
🤷 Why stick around?
Communicate the value of your business and subscriber list. With so many businesses competing for people’s attention, your subscriber has chosen you, so that relationship must be treated with care and supported with reasons for them to stick around. ❣️
Make sure the subscriber understands the value of your brand and what they can expect in the coming weeks to prove that you can meet their needs.
🪜 The next step
A clear and compelling call-to-action (CTA) directs recipients to take a desired action. A CTA that encourages your subsciber to check out your website or explore special offers are great places to start.
The CTA should stand out visually and be easily accessible. This encourages immediate action and engagement that can do wonders for your sender reputation. 📩
🏠 Housekeeping
When you get a new subscriber, plan an email campaign that introduces your brand, products, and services narrative or sequentially over the following weeks.
Depending on your brand, you may include educational content or testimonials that align with consumer interests to supplement your main content. 🤝
Don’t forget to add some general resources like contact information or links to FAQs, tutorials, or customer support to address any questions or concerns they have in the footer of your emails.
👇 Now is your chance!
A well-crafted welcome email sets the stage for a positive long-term relationship at just the right time when customer retention is all the rage.
As an up-and-coming business, it’s impossible to understate the value of connecting so personally with your customers. After a certain point in a business’ growth, founders and customers are likely to lose the opportunity to communicate directly so, as a business owner, make the most of this opportunity to receive feedback and tailor your welcome strategy accordingly.
Have you found a winning strategy for your welcome and onboarding emails? Have you seen content to inspire your direction? Let us know in a reply!
🥷 See the data behind TikTok's biggest trends! Discover how the social media platform can drive revenue for your DTC brand. Download Particl's report: "TikTok Made Me Buy It." *
🚀 Register for this epic, free masterclass series featuring Dara Denney. You'll learn how a top-performance marketing expert builds Facebook & TikTok ads that convert in 2023. *
😱 Fake image shows a massive explosion at US government buildings in an attempt to expose the dangers of paid verification on Twitter. The origins of the image are currently unclear.
🎵 TikTok creators filed a lawsuit against the state of Montana in response to its ban of the platform. The creators argue that the ban is the “broadest possible approach” to address “unsubstantiated claims.”
♾️ Meta has been fined a record $1.3B to settle a case that found transferred data between the EU and US was done without “explicit permission or adequate (safeguards) in place.”
*Sponsored
💄 8-Figure Beauty Empire Trinny London's Epic Organic Content.
🚗 The Road to 9-Figures with Cody Plofker from Jones Road Beauty (Plus Cody’s YouTube and Meta Ads Funnel Breakdown).
🤑 How Not to Grow an 8-Figure Business (Obvi Panel - C-Suite Preview).
🍫 Jess Cervellon from Feastables: What CPG Can Learn from SaaS about CX.
🍸 Ben Soffer - Spritz Society: Influencer Strategies for Alcohol Brands and Linear Commerce.
Don’t forget to rate the DTC Podcast on Apple (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
DTC Newsletter is written by Rebecca Knight, Kate Gullett, and Michael Venditti. Edited by Claire Beveridge and Eric Dyck.
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