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DTC 239 - Discover how you can integrate sustainability into your DTC business today [DTC]( Banter Wednesday, October 5, 2022 Pumpkin spice and spooky season have arrived 🎃 Need to generate more leads in Q4? We’ve got the secret recipe to hook ’em. If you want to advertise to the 140,000 marketing leaders and operators that read DTC Newsletter, [fill out this form]( and our sales team will reach out to you. Only a few spots are left -- don’t miss your chance! If you’re new to DTC, welcome! You’re in good company with fellow newcomers from Babe Original, Papier, Community Coffee, Agni, and Bloom & Wild. 💐 In this newsletter, you’ll find: 👇 📦 How to introduce sustainability into your DTC business 📦 Partners your brand with micro-influencers who create and share fully-licensed, scroll-stopping content with Minisocial 📦 Making a 5X return on affiliate sales with Rob Fraser from Outway Socks 📦 An inside peek into what consumers are thinking with Wunderkind’s exclusive 2022 Consumer Insight Report 📦 Reengaging Klaviyo audiences on Facebook Read till the end to access exclusive DTC swag. 😎 👉 If a pal forwarded this to you, [subscribe,]( so you never miss out. Sustainability How to Introduce Sustainability Into Your DTC Business Sustainability may be a big ecommerce buzzword these days, but you heard it here first: it’s a movement, not a trend. ♻️ Think about the positive impact sustainability has on the planet and your brand’s bottom line (hello, Patagonia!). Its current popularity is totally justified. Here’s why: - eCommerce waste hurts the environment - Conscious consumers still want to spend and are 4x more likely to buy from a company and 4.5x more likely to spread the word about a company with a strong purpose - Going green means cutting down on costs Sustainability is here to stay, so how can you get your brand on board? The good news is you don’t need to overhaul everything overnight. Here are five ways to introduce sustainability into your DTC business: 💰 Tip 1: Contribute sales to an eco-friendly org or cause This is probably the easiest first move to make! It instantly generates consumer goodwill during checkout and doesn’t impact your operations. Whether you donate 1% of your annual sales to environmental nonprofits like sparkling water brand Aura Bora or use part of your profits to plant trees like apparel brand Tentree, aligning your brand with a bigger cause will make customers feel good about how they’re spending. 🌍 Tip 2: Offset your carbon emissions with credits Another smaller tweak you can make is to offset your carbon emissions through a partner like [Pachama]( or [Neutrl](. You can either factor credits into your product pricing or allow your customers to opt into the program during the checkout process (it generally adds $1-2 extra to their order). 🚚 Tip 3: Reduce returns When consumers buy products online, there’s often an element of uncertainty that leads to de-risking behavior (like ordering multiple sizes of one sweater or a bunch of candles to sniff test them). Unfortunately, bigger orders = more delivery trucks on the road, and more returns = more gas emissions. What can you do to cut down on the back and forth? Here are a few ideas for boosting consumer confidence: - Adding a comprehensive fit guide, product videos, or photographs of models wearing multiple sizes to your PDP - Asking people for their height/size when they leave a review - Allowing customers to keep or donate their returns We’ve got two more tips where these came from! Keep reading! 👇 Sponsor Deck the halls with UGC! Fa la la la la la la la la! 🎁 It's almost the holidays, and time to give yourself the gift of content that drives holiday sales! What kind of content is that, you ask? It’s UGC, or content where real customers and in this case, micro-influencers brag about your products. Since the holidays are nearly here, there’s not much time to secure influencer relationships and build authentic campaigns. But, Thank(sgiving)fully, there’s [minisocial!]( 🦃 minisocial is a user-generated content platform that partners your brand with micro-influencers who create and share fully-licensed, scroll-stopping content. Other DTC brands have already used minisocial for a holiday bump: 🌱 Plant People created ads performing in the top 18% industry average CTR on TikTok by focusing their campaign on testimonial-style videos with creator voiceover. 🧴 Native used minisocial to create UGC to inspire gift giving and bring the smell of their holiday scents to life. 🎁 KRAVE Jerky kicked up the nostalgia with holiday-themed UGC for their organic channels that brings the joy of the season right to your screen. 👉 [Don’t wait on your holiday campaigns. Get started with minisocial now.]( Sustainability – Part 2 📦 Tip 4: Update your product packaging and shipper boxes A bigger change to consider: using recycled, recyclable, or biodegradable materials to mail and store your products. A few brands to look to for inspiration: - Hello Bello’s diaper bundle boxes can be upcycled into toys for babies and toddlers. - Reformation’s apparel gets shipped in 90% post consumer recycled paper mailers printed with soy-based inks. - Rare Beauty’s shipper box, welcome card, and tissue is made from recycled fiber, and they use compostable packing foam made from corn that dissolves with water. ♻️ Tip 5: Offer a recycling program It’s sad, but it’s true: a lot of your products are currently either chilling in the back of someone’s closet or, worse yet, sitting in a landfill. The good news is that DTC businesses are starting to offer recycling programs where customers can mail in or drop off used items, often in exchange for a store credit or percentage off their next purchase: - Bombas will send you a [Take Back Bag]( that holds up to 10 lbs of clothing; when you mail your used items you get a $10 credit! - With Parade’s program, [Second Life](, you can mail in any pair of underwear from any brand for a Parade credit and they will recycle it for you. - [Rothy’s]( lets you bring your old shoes back to their retail locations for a $30 credit. Recycling programs like these are a total win; your customers get to declutter their space, and you get to save money on materials. Just remember: 🤔 When you’re thinking about how to introduce sustainability into your DTC business, everything doesn’t have to happen overnight. Start making small changes, see how your website visitors and customers react to your new do-gooder mission, and lean into it if it makes financial sense (or if it makes you feel like wearing spandex and fighting environmental crime). Either way, we won’t judge. 🦸 Sponsor Learn everything about consumers’ holiday spending plans Have you been wishing upon a DTC holiday star that you knew *exactly* how consumers plan to spend this holiday season? ⭐️ Good news! [Wunderkind]( has granted your wish. [Wunderkind’s exclusive 2022 Consumer Insight Report]( dives deep into consumer spending projections, and highlights how the COVID-19 pandemic and global economic situation have impacted consumer behavior. With a quick click of a button, you can find the answers to your most pressing consumer behavior questions like: - Why are consumers planning to use BNPL schemes more in 2022? - Why is appealing to the conscious consumer more important than ever this year? - What Black Friday & Cyber Monday shopping trends can we expect to see this year? 👉 [Find the answers in Wunderkind’s report now.]( Podcast 🎧 Today on the DTC pod, we’re sitting down with Rob Fraser, CEO and founder of Canada’s top sock company [Outway Socks]( . You’ll hear all about the benefits of having a strong affiliate community and why it’s beneficial to see challenges as opportunities instead of obstacles. Powered by performance, originality, and sustainability, Outway Socks are made to meet the technical demands of professional athletes, paired with premium design and comfort for any occasion. ‍The takeaways 👇 🏆 Winning with affiliates With Outway’s expansion and success in affiliate marketing, we asked Rob: What’s winning with affiliates right now? “We came up with ‘Get 15% off, get $15 cash.’ Super simple. And the insight there is [that] a percentage-based reward isn’t that great because you're forcing the consumer to rely on the other person to buy and you have to do math [which can get] messy… [With this offer], you’re going to get $15 no matter what.” 🧦 Enduring a rebrand Once known as Endure, Outway Socks underwent a rebrand which Rob discusses was one of the more recent challenges he’s overcome as CEO. But rather than seeing the rebrand as an obstacle, he and his team chose to see it as a way for the brand to evolve. “I look back and I’m thankful as a lot of great things have come out of it. It’s deepened my understanding of the brand, our customer base, [and] how we can maneuver with the different things that we do in the future.” 💰 What Rob would do with an extra $50K: Rob is doubling down on the importance of building a trustworthy community that advocates for the brand. “I would allocate it 100% to affiliate offers. If I didn’t have to worry about [the money], I would make it so appetizing for them that they would go nuts.” 👉 Listen to the full episode with Rob Fraser [here!]( Facebook Re-engaging Klaviyo Audiences on Facebook Does your brand have (1) Klaviyo and (2) a Facebook account? We like how you think. 👏 Time to put them together (if you haven’t already 👀) [The Pilothouse Facebook team]( are all about connecting platforms and collaborating across channels to scale brands. They’ve recently seen success with targeting less engaged, non-purchaser Klaviyo audiences who haven’t converted. 💸 The best part? The setup is as easy as 1, 2, 3… 1️⃣ Getting started [Follow these simple steps to integrate Klaviyo to Facebook.]( Here’s some tips! 👇 - When syncing audiences, these are a couple of audiences to start with: - - Shopify – Placed order over all time - Users who are not suppressed for email - Options are endless with syncing more audiences, but we’ve kept our testing fairly broad to cast a wide net. 🎣 2️⃣ Build your campaign In Facebook Ads Manager, build a campaign using the ‘All Subscribers’ audience and exclude past purchasers using your pixel, Klaviyo, and Shopify integrations. - It’s ideal to start using top ads that are proven to perform in retargeting and expand from there. - For the campaign build, we’ve found success using 7-day click / 1-day click / 1-day view attribution windows. - - The key here is aiming for click attribution. This way, we can see that Facebook has actively contributed to the purchase rather than only seeing view attributed sales 3️⃣ Launch your campaign and watch the $$$ roll in 🤑 By implementing this tactic, we’ve driven 12 purchases at a 4.84 ROAS with 1 brand. What are we most excited about? 83% of the purchases were click attributed! This means Facebook really moved the needle and drove value for the brand. 🚀🚀🚀 Tip: Cross reference data in Shopify to ensure you’re driving first-time customers. To do this, go to “Sales over time” and add a filter using UTM campaign with your campaign name. Then add a filter for first-time customers and compare that against overall sales showing in Shopify on that campaign. Need a hand integrating your Klaviyo and Facebook? [Reach out!]( 🔥 Quick Hits 📊 [GA4]( now has an enhanced measurement option for Form interactions. 🏆 [Gen Z's]( favorite brands, revealed. 💰 [Kim Kardashian]( charged by SEC for pushing crypto, reaches $1.26M settlement. 🛍 [TikTok]( to launch live shopping in US using outsourced technology. 🎞 [Instagram]( shares new tips on how to use Instagram Reels for marketing. SHARE DTC NEWSLETTER 🔥 NEW REFERRAL PROGRAM HAS OFFICIALLY DROPPED 🔥 👊 Want to level up the marketing skills of your teammates and employees? Just grab your referral link below and you'll earn points toward cool gear for every new subscriber you bring to the DTC fam. Here's your unique referral link: [( [Share via facebook]( [Share via twitter]( [Share via whatsapp]( [Share via email](mailto:?subject=Check%20this%20out&body=%F0%9F%94%A5%20Signed%20up%20to%20this%20newsletter%20a%20couple%20of%20weeks%20ago%20and%20it's%20amazing%20for%20DTC%20marketers%20like%20you!+https%3A%2F%2Fsparklp.co%2F47c676d0%2F%3Futm_source%3Demail) [See how many referrals you have!]( 🔊 Have you heard our latest podcasts? 🧦 Making a 5X Return on Affiliate Sales with Rob Fraser from [Outway Socks](. 🔋 Two Hacks to Increase Subscriber Conversion by 50% with [Tea Drops and Recharge](. 🦷 Thinking in Billions with Josh Elizetxe Founder of [Snow Oral Care](. 👟 Retail Giant Steve Madden on Retention at Scale with Hannah Sinclair and [Bluecore's]( Sarah Cascone. 💄 Growth vs. Customer Experience: Cody Plofker and Eli Weiss from [Jones Road Beauty]( Weigh In. Don’t forget to [rate the DTC Podcast]( on Apple (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️) DTC Newsletter is written by [Rebecca Knight](, [Juliana Casale](, and [Jordan Gillis](. Edited by [Claire Beveridge]( and Eric Dyck. Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up [here](. NEED MORE DTC? 🚀 [Advertise]( in DTC Newsletter. 💰Check out our course on [Facebook and Instagram]( ads! 📥 Work for The DTC Newsletter: Send an email to Rebecca, rebecca@directtoconsumer.co, if you’re interested in writing for us! Rate Us [Rate Us]( [Fueled by Pilothouse] [Share]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [LinkedIn]( [Advertise with DTC]( | [Work With Pilothouse]( At Direct to Consumer, we are strongly committed to protecting your privacy and providing a safe & high-quality online experience for all visitors. We understand that you care about how the information you provide to us is used and shared. 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