Were you really muted, or were you catching up on dishwashing? 👀
In this newsletter, you’ll find: 👇
📦 TikTok triggers that hook your audience and increase retention 🎣
📦 Fill the gaps in your first-party data with Smart ID
📦 New toys and revamped favorites on Pinterest
📦 The secret to 95% higher profits
Read till the end to access exclusive DTC swag. 😎
👉 If a pal forwarded this to you, subscribe, so you never miss out.
💄 Keepin’ up with consumers
Can your content keep up with your consumer? You have three seconds to make an impact on your next customer, and that’s no easy task.
Today’s All Killer No Filler holds the key to an amazing hook that stops the scroll and elevates your retention on TikTok. 👇
Pilothouse’s Content Director and Manager team up to compile the most effective trigger tactics that keep your consumers engaged beyond the first seconds of video into one action-packed pod.
🤔 Why bother?
Consumers often form an opinion of your product within those first crucial moments of your content. There are five triggers that help consumers form a healthy expectation of your brand:
1️⃣ Auditory
2️⃣ Transitional
3️⃣ Movement
4️⃣ Text
5️⃣ Branded
How your brand fulfills that expectation is up to you, but we won’t leave you hangin’ with a broad idea of what each of these triggers are so let’s get into it. 👇
📣 Listen up
Music plays a huge role in organic TikTok content, so naturally, you’ll want to include it in your TikTok ads.
But how do you squash your favorite song to fit into a 15-second ad? Try speeding up the audio to ensure the drop hits at just the right moment to make an impact on your viewers!
There’s a bit of a gray area when it comes to licensed music, but if you want to avoid these legalities, simply sing your favorite tune or remix it all together! Swallow some of that pride and show us your best Lizzo. 😉
For a successful remix, pump up the bass and lean into nostalgia.
Leveraging those childhood favorites is a great way to keep people listening. At the end of the day, it’s all about being genuine, relatable, and forming stronger connections with your audience. 😎
🎬 And… scene!
If you’ve fallen for the thirst-trap tactic, join the club. 😒
Subvert your audience’s expectations with a little bait-and-switch or curate a glow-up that reveals itself on the drop. Be bold and confident in this approach because audiences expect to be blown away once they’re baited in.
🚗 Keep it moving
Don’t be a talking head. This format is outdated, and people don’t trust creators when it’s obvious they’ve been paid to read a script.
Consider how your audience uses your product and show it in action. The “Get Ready With Me” format is huge these days, and for good reason.
Include a narrative, quick cuts, music, and a resolution to keep your audience invested. 👍
✏️ Write it down
This is a low-lift iteration machine that helps convey a message quickly and concisely. Use text to set the expectation of your content so that viewers stick around until the end for the payoff.
Text is a valuable tool, so don’t go overboard with your fonts. Keep it clean and use Helvetica.
😱 Another brand… in my video?
You wouldn’t dare put a competitor in your video, would you? It’s time to leave traditional marketing in the dust.
Comparison videos that elevate your USPs over the competition are all the rage, but there’s a right and wrong way to do this.
🔥 It’s all here
We cover it all in the All Killer No Filler with some additional insights featuring ads that caught our attention, inflatable mattresses, and the infamous Millennial pause. It’s time to make those first few seconds Oscar-worthy to secure that sale. 📽️💰
Since the rollout of Apple ITP and iOS 14.5, many DTC brands can no longer tell the difference between a new visitor and a returning one, causing big declines in performance.
Case in point: Felina Intimates - who uses Klaviyo to send timely abandonment emails to potential customers. With iOS updates and the ITP roll out, Felina saw declines in addressable audience sizes - making their campaigns less effective. 📉
That’s when Felina installed Black Crow AI’s Smart ID, their new Shopify App designed to tackle this problem head-on. ☝️
After just 30 days they saw:
Looking for a similar lift? Don’t let a break in user sessions break your DTC marketing strategy - discover how Smart ID fills in the gaps of your first-party data.
👉 Read the full story & discover Smart ID
🎯 Pin this instead!
Pinterest is making it easier than ever for brands to share their ideas and ad campaigns with unified Pins.
Now, Pins combine the creation flow of different formats with images and videos into a single experience. Not only is the creation flow easier, but there are a couple of new features to note.
So, why hop on the Pinterest hype train now? We’ve got the latest feature drops and eight tried-and-true tactics to grow your brand one Pin at a time. 👇
🪀 New toys and old favorites to play with
Features previously locked to specific Pin formats and business accounts are now available to all users.
1️⃣ Links: Direct traffic to other platforms like your websites to secure that conversion.
2️⃣ Post-publish editing: Made a mistake? Don’t fret. Fix that typo after you’ve published your content.
3️⃣ Flexible aspect ratios: Experiment with different creative formats to connect with different audiences and embrace different aesthetics.
You’ll still have the expressive elements to experiment with, like music, text overlays, and stickers to Pins to support your brand’s vision! 🥳
This is your brand’s chance to realign your creative with Pinterest’s platform to start curating a highly engaged community capable of spreading your brand’s name far and wide.
⛓️ Link up
If Pinterest is new to your brand, you’ll likely have more established ecosystems and flows on other platforms. Send new Pinterest traffic to them by linking all of your content to those platforms and increase your brand’s reach further into the Pinterest community.
Browse competitors' profiles on the platform to discover the most engaging visual content for your target audience and put your unique spin on it. If you see promising results and engagement, you’ll want to consider more native content to serve your new Pinterest community.
🦺 Stay safe
Pinterest has introduced ways for users to avoid content with specific keywords. This should draw your attention to your current SEO strategy because it won’t likely be a one-to-one translation from your other platforms to Pinterest.
Common strategies include misspellings, translations, or related keywords, but if those keywords could get you on someone’s ban list, it’s best to rephrase them or just not include them at all.
For example, if you sell workout attire and include keywords like “underwear,” that could limit your brand from more modest Pinterest users.
🤝 Tried and true
Though these new features open up more possibilities and conveniences for brands, there are still reliable content strategies to know about as you may be entering the Pinterest ecosystem for the first time.
Check out these eight best practices to elevate your pin game:
📍 Get SMART. In other words, set Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound goals to understand how well your brand can fit within the Pinterest audience.
📍 Pin engaging content. Use vertical imagery with a 2:3 aspect ratio, write descriptive copy, add text overlays or subtitles to reinforce your message, incorporate tasteful branding, and ensure all links work properly before posting.
📍 Try different Pin formats. Experiment with videos, carousels, and multiple photos to showcase your products or services. Consider sharing how-to Pins and inspiration boards to provide valuable content to casual browsers to pique their interest.
📍 Plan your boards carefully. Cater boards to specific interests and topics. Provide a healthy mix of useful, engaging, and inspiring content alongside promotional content. This helps reach new Pinners interested in different topics and keeps people coming back for more.
📍 Optimize your Pins for SEO. Use keywords in Pin descriptions, boards, and hashtags to improve discoverability. Utilize Rich Pins to pin fresh content from your website!
📍 Experiment and test other formats. Use Pinterest ads to target specific audiences based on keywords, interests, location, age, and more. Experiment with various ad formats, such as video ads, collections, and promoted Pins.
📍 Track metrics. Monitor key Pinterest metrics and analyze audience behavior to measure the performance of your content. Use analytics tools to gain insights and make data-driven decisions.
📍 Promote your Pinterest profile. Increase visibility by linking to your Pinterest profile on your website, adding the link to your email signature, cross-promoting your Pinterest account on other social channels, and sharing the news in company newsletters.
👟 Stepping up
Pinterest is an evolving platform that encourages brands and creators to evolve with it. Utilizing Pinterest's existing tools and strategies should be easier than ever, and its new tools offer further opportunities for engagement and funneling for brands to leverage.
Are you interested in adopting a new Pinterest strategy as the platform addresses the needs of their audience?
Have these new features attracted you to Pinterest if you’ve never considered the platform before? Let us know in a reply! 📩
Let's say your marketing strategy is based entirely on acquisitions. It may feel like you're filling a leaky bucket. 🚰
Expanding your focus to engagement and retention lets you capitalize on already acquired customers, rewarding you for customers' long-term loyalty!
👀 Quick Fact!
Research has found that brands that retain 5% more customers see up to a 95% increase in profitability.
In the current economy, with acquisition costs skyrocketing and budgets tightening, retention marketing may be the number one thing you can do to sustain and accelerate your brand's growth.
👉 Get your crash course on retention marketing here.
🤖 ChatGPT releases on iPad with Siri and Shortcuts support. This further integrates ChatGPT into a workflow with the ability to drag and drop responses from the chatbot to other applications.
✏️ LinkedIn enables DMs from Company Pages allowing for more direct communication between brands and users.
🐦 Twitter announces that it will allow creators and brands to identify the emails of their subscribers and export that data for external use.
☁️ Google Drive is ending app support on Windows 8 and the 32-bit version of Windows 10. Affected Drive users will not be able to drag and drop save files and should consider using the browser version.
🪟 Microsoft affirms that its AI tool will meet future data and privacy regulations ensuring that users will be able to confidently adopt Microsoft’s AI suite into their workflow.
📫 The Future of Direct Mail and Marketing with PostPilot’s Drew Sanocki.
💭 Manifesting Your Dreams with Samantha from Maniscripting.
💚 "Enlightened Hospitality" and the Secret to Killer CX with Eli Weiss from Jones Road Beauty.
💄 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).
Don’t forget to rate the DTC Podcast on Apple (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
DTC Newsletter is written by Rebecca Knight and Michael Venditti. Edited by Claire Beveridge and Eric Dyck.
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