BANTER

Monday, February 28, 2022

The ideas keep rolling, and they just keep rolling, and they never stop rolling.

In this newsletter, you’ll find: 👇

🔥 How to crush the competition with keyword research

👀 The Beginner’s Guide to eCommerce Subscriptions with Ordergroove

⚡️ Hone in your focus with DTC brand Phocus

🥵 How to EASILY build Google custom audiences

🎶 First-party data to supercharge paid media with Black Crow AI

Read till the end to access exclusive DTC swag. 😎

👉 If a pal forwarded this to you, subscribe , so you never miss out.

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BRAND SPOTLIGHT

Does working from home have you struggling to phocus?

Have no fear. An upgraded sparkling water is here! 🦸‍♂️

Mittel and O’Grady, founders of Phocus, wanted to solve the lack of health-conscious, additive-free caffeine drinks on the market.

Their formula delivers:

• Sparkling water for hydration (p.s. go drink some water—we know you need it)
• Tea caffeine to fuel those late-night study/work sessions
• L-theanine to mellow the effects of caffeine for an anxiety-free boost
  

Their informative approach to TikTok ads is a great way to show users the benefit of drinking Phocus as opposed to their usual vice: 👇

75mg of caffeine = 1 cup of coffee, 3 cups of tea, or 1 can of Phocus. It’s clear, direct, and gives viewers a frame of reference.

If you’re an avid seltzer and coffee drinker like we are, it might be time to Phocus (see what we did there 😉) on the benefits of 2-in-1.

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SPONSOR

Don’t be part of the 25% that falls behind!

Subscription commerce is gonna be the next big thing. 🌟

By 2023, 75% of DTC brands will offer a subscription experience.

Are you ready to join them? 🤔

We get it. Launching a subscription experience can feel like an overwhelming task. But, with the proper knowledge, it doesn’t have to be.

That’s why Ordergroove created The Beginner’s Guide to eCommerce Subscriptions, a step-by-step guide to getting started with subs.

This comprehensive report outlines everything you need to know about subscriptions, including:

• The pros and cons of different models
• Which subscription technologies are non-negotiables
• The seven steps required to start a successful subscription program

The guide even has real-world examples from leading DTC brands! So, go ahead, put on those reading glasses, and...

👉 Start reading the guide here .

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KEYWORD RESEARCH

Google Keyword Research for DTC Brands 101

2022 DTC marketing is all about focusing on strategies that can deliver sustainable and consistent growth.

And one of the top contenders may shock you: blogging. 💥

Hear this… Blog content helps you capture 126% more email addresses. That ain’t all. Blogging influences 6.0% of ecommerce sales, which equates to approximately $60B in the US alone. 💸

The first step to start a successful blog? Nail your keyword strategy.

Today we’re bringing you the exact three strategies that’ll easily help you generate over 100 keywords without a hitch.

🎭 Let's set the stage:

• We will be referencing a fictional DTC brand called Coffee Unleashed
• We’ll be using Ahrefs to show you the strategies (but you can use any keyword research tool and arrive at the same results)

Let's spill the tea (or coffee…) 👇

1️⃣ Generate keywords based on “Types”

If you’re a brand in a broad niche (think coffee), this is the strategy for you. You can generate unlimited keywords based on certain themes:

• Benefits of [X]
• How to [X]
• Best/top

These are top of the funnel, informational keywords that can help you generate a ton of traffic every month.

For example, if we want to create a list of “how to make X coffee” 👇

• Type “how to make coffee” in Keyword Explorer, and
• Click on “View all >” under Terms match.

You’ll get this:

From here on out, you can pick and choose the keywords that best match the type of coffee you’re selling and start publishing articles around the same topic.

2️⃣ Peek at the competition

If you’ve got a gut feeling that there are some awesome keywords, but you’re unable to find them, take a look at your competition. 👀

Study your competitor’s website and determine the top keywords they’re ranking for. But don’t worry, Ahrefs can help with that.

Let’s take Weaver’s Coffee as one of the top competitors to Coffee Unleashed, our fictional brand.

Here are the three steps to find the top keywords Weaver’s rank for:

• Plug the domain into Site Explorer
• Go to “Top pages” on the left panel
• Start noting down the keywords

You can also see the corresponding blog posts that rank for any keyword. Refer to those articles when writing for your blog, and create better ones to beat out the competition.

3️⃣ Find what else you can rank for

Once you have a list of keywords from strategies 1 and 2, you can use the “also rank for” feature in Ahrefs to find even more keywords.

For instance, you have “decaf coffee benefits” as a keyword. Here are the three steps to look for similar keywords you can rank for as well:

• Plug the keyword into Ahref’s Keyword Explorer
• Click on “View all >” under Also rank for

By doing this, you can quickly find several keywords that you wouldn’t have thought of previously. New keywords are also an excellent opportunity to develop new ad angles!

🔥 Brands that are killing it with blogging

While DTC is dominated by paid media, influencer marketing, and giant billboards, content marketing is slowly (but steadily) gaining traction. Don’t take our word for it.

Here are three brands absolutely nailing content.

1. House of Wise

Primarily known for awesome CBD gummies that help your stress, sex, and sleep (they work like magic—seriously, give ‘em a try!). 😌

Their blog, Wise Reads, is built around an ever-growing community and their needs. Since the industry is filled with biases and misinformation, HoW breaks that barrier and educates its audience through in-depth educational articles backed by research. This article on the effectiveness of CBD for helping with insomnia is a prime example.

2. Pique

Pique is a well-known brand among tea lovers. It sells everything from green tea to matcha tea loaded with health benefits.

They write articles for every stage of the buyer’s journey, and all of them are long-form. The best part? They’re fact-checked by experts. Oh, and if you need to do a sugar detox, read this. 🍬

3. Canopy

Canopy is a niche brand that sells a state-of-the-art humidifiers that can help treat the dryness of the skin, nose, throat, and lips.

Since this is a space not many folks know, Canopy spends a lot of effort educating its audience. For instance, this article on treating dry sinuses is a must-read. 🤧

There you have it. Investing in content marketing opens up a completely new channel that can potentially drive revenue by itself and support other key channels like email marketing.

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SPONSOR

Spend at least $500k on Facebook ads? Keep reading...

With Facebook ads' ups and downs, getting new customers for a DTC brand has never been harder. 🤨

But Black Crow AI's customers are sitting pretty with lower CPAs and bigger scale.

Here's how:

Black Crow AI uses your first-party data to supercharge paid media performance, enabling you to boost ROAS by at least 25%. Over 150 DTC brands have already used their one-click installation to start growing faster, more cost-effectively.

Here's the best part. If you're a DTC marketing decision-maker at a US or Canada-based company that spends at least $500k a year on Facebook ads, Black Crow AI will gift you Beats Studio Buds when you take a qualified meeting with them. 🎧

👉 With a 30-day free trial and your free Buds, Black Crow AI will help you sing away those Facebook blues. Book your demo here .

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GOOGLE

Did you know you can EASILY build Google custom audiences?

Building custom audiences is useful for top-of-funnel campaigns, it allows you to tailor your targeting to your creative angles.

Check out these stats from a Pilothouse client: 👇

Custom Audiences

• Custom Intent #1: Cost $3,999 Conv Rate .34% ROAS 1.69
• Custom Intent #2: Cost $3,509 Conv Rate .66% ROAS 1.41  
• Custom Intent #3: Cost $183 Conv Rate .09% ROAS.22

Google Audiences

• Google Audience #1: Cost $3,579 Conv Rate 0.00% ROAS 0.0
• Google Audience #2: Cost $1,056 Conv Rate 0.02% ROAS 0.03
• Google Audience #3: Cost $1,296 Conv Rate 0.02% ROAS 0.21

The Pilothouse Google team has broken it down into simple steps. Follow along! 👀

To begin, navigate to: Google Ads → Tools and Settings → Audience Manager → Audiences → and hit the +

1️⃣ Name the audience: Choose a meaningful name that will be easy to recall in the future.

2️⃣ Select Custom Segments → New custom segments

Depending on the type of audience you’re building, choose between:

• People with any of these interests or purchase intentions
• People who searched for any of these terms on Google
  

3️⃣ Enter your keywords or Google search terms into the search bar. Google will start populating the number of users in this audience on the right-hand side.

4️⃣ Save your segment, then save your audience.

Done! You can now add your audience to your ad groups for targeting.    

Audience ideas to test:

• Top Converting TOF Keywords (take converting keywords from search and shopping)
• Competitor Audiences (users who have searched for your competitor sites)

Thanks to Kari from the Pilothouse Google team for the great tip (try this out on Display, Discovery, and YouTube). Happy building! 🔥

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M&A

🚨 Join 50+ DTC leaders and experts from brands like Gorgias, Shopify and Klaviyo at the largest virtual eCommerce event. Don't miss the keynote of TV personality Marcus Lemonis (The Profit). Reserve your FREE DTCX3 spot.*

👷‍♂️ “The Tools You Wear”, DTC brand Brunt Workwear secures $20M in Serie B Funding

🚣‍♂️ (G)Rowing fast, Aviron secured $18.5M in Series A financing.  

✈ Offering real-time reward flight options, point.me is ready to take off after raising $2M in seed funding.

⌨ With mission to modernize data streaming, Redpanda raises $50M in Series B funding.

🎮 Gaming on the go continues as Backbone closes a $40M round backed by celebrities.

🔊 HAVE YOU HEARD OUR LATEST PODCASTS?

🐶 40% Repeat Purchase Rate (Without Email) and True Meaning of Product-Market Fit with James Petrellis from Mighty Munch.

🥣 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.

Don’t forget to rate the DTC Podcast  on Apple (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

DTC Newsletter is written by Deb Mukherjee and Rebecca Knight. Edited by Claire Beveridge.

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