Monday, February 13, 2023
How’s everyone’s GA4 migration going? 😅
In this newsletter, you’ll find: 👇
📦 Combatting low engagement and training ISPs
📦 How to make the most out of automations for your brand
📦 Do you have these five skills in your DTC arsenal?
📦 Join the top eCommerce minds at the 2023 Commerce Experience Summit
📦 US TikTok ban update
Read till the end to access exclusive DTC swag. 😎
👉 If a pal forwarded this to you, subscribe, so you never miss out.
On a recent episode of All Killer No Filler, we got down to the nitty-gritty of maximizing your email efforts in 2023.
With current macroeconomic trends and brands refocusing top-of-funnel ad budgets, it’s time to reignite those sparks and turn them into a bonfire. 👀
Ready to level up your email game? Keep reading.
🎯 Broad vs. narrow targeting
If you’re sitting on a well-established email list with healthy engagement rates, chances are you’re more willing to take some risks and send to your entire subscriber base.
Send to everyone and watch those new purchases flow in with ease. 😌
However, with broad targeting campaigns, chances are you’re going to see a few unsubscribers… But have no fear! Your list is still growing, and there’s another round of promotions (and purchases) to follow tomorrow!
Looking for a more specific approach? Try narrow targeting. This tactic involves narrowing down your send to only your most engaged audience.
Start understanding what these consumers are interested in and leverage that information to increase their engagement. This is called being in the “window of intent.” When that window closes, the consumer can be allocated to a less engaged segment to maintain engagement rates across the board. 👌
🔥 You can’t build a fire without a spark
No matter what email-sending strategy you choose, there are few marketing moments more rewarding than seeing a response from your most engaged consumers.
Consider your responders as your ‘embers.’ ❤️🔥
Your embers will start the fire and boost sender reputation with service providers (ISPs). The more embers your brand has, the better your email deliverability.
You should be nurturing your embers to ensure they don’t distinguish. To keep them shining bright, separate them from their counterparts, i.e., your least engaged subscribers.
To ensure your least engaged subscribers don’t reduce your engagement and push you to spam, consider only emailing them once per month. 📅
Focusing on your most engaged subscribers ensures your brand will be far more desirable for ISPs.
😵 Reviving a dead list
If you’ve been poking your list with a stick and see no sign of movement, it’s time to refocus on that valuable bed of ‘embers.’
How? Break your list into segments dependent on their engagement. If a subscriber in a low-engagement tier starts showing some love to that one message per month, move ‘em on up. Always saying something interesting is the key to creating that spark.
Remember, your subscribers are here for three things:
Make sure to utilize those schools of thought to rake in those sweet interactions.
🎧 If you’re all in on email, listen to the full episode here!
There’s plenty more email to come. Look out for an upcoming episode where the Pilothouse Email Team breaks down how brands can improve their segmentation in 2023.
Automations are the next big win-win for your brand.
🤔 Q: What are the two most common challenges we hear from merchants?
🦾 A: The answer? eCommerce automations!
Not only can automations solve the not-enough-resources problem but they also help improve your brand's ROI, increase customer loyalty, minimize errors, and strengthen branding. (talk about a win-win-win-win)
Here is your chance to learn more! Join eCommerce leaders from Shopify, AdRoll, AfterShip, ShipBob and Yotpo as they talk about:
👉 Get the answers to making the most out of automations, so you can focus on what really matters.
The 5 Most Valuable Skills in DTC for 2023
The DTC world has some of the freshest, most creative minds in the commerce world. As such, DTC innovators and leaders are constantly leveling up the ecommerce game.
To keep up, DTC professionals must acquire new talents and develop additional expertise. 🤓
If you’re looking to evolve with the industry innovating at lightning speeds, here’s a look at the most valuable DTC skills in 2023.
1️⃣ Storytelling
AI writing tools are all the rage right now. It makes sense why. Producing content immediately and without thought makes you feel like an all-powerful being. 🦸
But here’s the thing… While AI certainly has a place in marketing, task management, and ideating, it doesn’t have real stories to tell to your unique audience. 🙅♀️
What’s more, people don’t crave more content—they crave stories that inspire, educate, or solve problems.
If you want to stand out in the DTC world in the year of robots, learn how to tell unique stories that matter to your audience. 🤗
2️⃣ Collaboration
Building a successful DTC business doesn’t happen in a silo. It takes teams of talented people who can come together and build something a little extra.
Some of the best DTC campaigns last year weren’t single-brand campaigns. They were collaborations with two complementary brands. 🤝
For example, Canopy, the company that makes a cool compact humidifier, partnered with Everyone, the DTC brand that makes limited-edition essential oils.
The benefits of this kind of collaboration are two-fold. Both companies get access to the other brand’s built-in audience, extending their reach.
They also create a campaign that offers consumers more bang for their buck. 💸 Why buy a humidifier when you can buy a humidifier that also makes your home smell fabulous?
3️⃣ Influencer marketing
The Creator Economy has skyrocketed over the past few years. More consumers than ever before follow creators on social media.
What’s more, consumers look to these creators to understand trends, find product recommendations, and get purchasing validation.
The smartest DTC brands aren’t only collaborating with other brands. They’re working hard to get their products into the hands of influencers.
There’s healthy debate about how to do this most effectively. But whether you choose product seeding, paid collaborations, or affiliate marketing, the important thing is to motivate influencers to use and share your products. 🎯
If you’re not sure where to start, consider product seeding and building relationships with micro-influencers who speak directly to your target audience.
4️⃣ Audience research
Consumer trends continue to shift. What consumers want in terms of products, return policies, shipping, and pick-up isn’t the same as it was two years ago. Additionally, consumer needs and expectations vary across industries and verticals.
In 2023, there’s no place for marketing guesswork. It’s essential to tap into your audience, collect data on their preferences, and use those insights to guide your product innovation and marketing decisions. 💡
The best news is several tools will help you with audience research and attribution. Learn how to use them this year. Your customers and ROAS will thank you.
5️⃣ Creativity
With advancements in social media and AI, consumers have no shortage of videos to watch, pictures to look at, and articles to read. 📺🖼️📖
This means that consumers deal with information overload every single day across multiple devices and platforms. 😵💫 Since consumers see so much content, you have to take extra measures to stand out. If your content looks generic, boring, or too self-promotional, consumers will click away from it immediately.
To stand out in a crowded sea of content creators, focus on taking new approaches to content creation. This may mean bringing on freelancers to help with creative or even hiring a full-time creator to work in-house. 💼
In 2023, don’t be afraid to try out new creatives. Just make sure you have a way to test and track your campaigns so you can see what works and what doesn't.
What skills are you looking to level up or add to your toolkit this year? Reply to this email and let us know!
Digital events don't get better than this, well, unless they are free (wait it is?!)
Having the right tactics and tools is essential for navigating the upcoming unpredictable economic landscape and achieving your revenue goals. 📈
That's why you need to join the top eCommerce minds from Google Cloud, Bloomreach, Antavo, and more at the 2023 Commerce Experience Summit! 🤝
This FREE, two-day digital event is designed to help you through the unpredictable economic landscape and do it all while crushing your goals.
Discover the secrets to:
Don't miss out on this opportunity to take your eCommerce game to the next level! 🚀
🍰 Plain and simple
The White House continues its discussions over the ban of TikTok in the US following security concerns from platform users and government officials.
Congressmen Ken Buck (R-CO) and Josh Hawley (R-MO) proposed this doozy of a bill that echoes many of the sentiments previously raised within the ANTI-SOCIAL CCP Act from December.
Appropriately titled “The No TikTok on the United States Devices Act,” the act would formally ban TikTok from all registered devices on US soil.
Since the initial state-level ban, 38 states have banned TikTok on government devices, and 18 universities have taken action. That’s pretty significant if you ask us, and now that a similar bill has been proposed, additional measures could be put in place.
🙅♂️ Not that easily!
Queue the resistance from TikTok, who claim that Hawley and Buck take a “piecemeal approach” to a national security issue. TikTok also advocates for a holistic approach rather than “pretending that banning a single service would solve any of the problems.”
This new proposition follows two years of discussions between the US Committee on Foreign Investment and TikTok about ways to securely run the platform in compliance with content and data moderation for US citizens that limits any foreign manipulation.
🤝 The best of both worlds?
The overall goal of all this talk is to maintain the highest level of security and data control for US citizens against any sort of manipulation from the Chinese government.
This is proving to be exceedingly difficult given that the budget for Project Texas now totals 1.5B, with only a vague plan of action released to the public. It’s super secretive stuff at the moment, but in summary, Project Texas proposes a branch from ByteDance that reports to US security officials.
🤔 The backup plan
Has your brand considered pivoting to other platforms in the wake of recent developments? As always, there are viable competitors out there, but it’s hard to compete with the growth and influence that TikTok has in the marketing industry.
Quick Hits
💸 Twitter considers charging brands $1000 per month to stay verified.
📈 Pinterest now up to 450M active users, posts solid numbers in latest performance report.
💡 Google: The Ads Privacy Hub helps you measure performance more effectively.
📈 Meta: Introducing Facebook Graph API v16.0 and Marketing API v16.0.
🤖 OpenAI’s ‘next-generation’ AI model is behind Microsoft’s new search.
🧑🦲 iRestore Hair Growth System: Kevin Chen - The True Impact of Costco.
⚔️ Mini Katana: Karly McFarland on $100M in Email Sales and Why She Sold Her Agency and Turned to the Brand Side (C-Suite Mentor Preview).
🤑 The Oodie - Davie Fogarty: Lessons From a Fast $400M.
💸 Andrew Wilkinson at C-Suite in Victoria: Bootstrapping vs. VC vs. PE vs. Angel.
😎 Pretty Boy - Ben Feys and Kevin Niehoff: Nailing your Brand Identity and Balling on a Budget.
💡 Listen to the Biggest Marketing News Stories Today.
Don’t forget to rate the DTC Podcast on Apple (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
DTC Newsletter is written by Rebecca Knight, Ashley R. Cummings, and Michael Venditti. Edited by Claire Beveridge and Eric Dyck.
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