📦 - Is ‘Moist’ So Back?

CRO to Sell Stuff, Influencer Management, Shopify Outage, Customizable Campaigns, TikTok Shop Wednesday, November 13, 2023 In this newsletter, you’ll find: - 📦 CRO to sell more stuff with Nik Sharma and Brett Turner - 📦 How Mini Katana won Shopify’s outage - 📦 TikTok Shop merchants thriving, customers, not so sure… Let’s dive in: 👇 INFLUENCER MANAGEMENT 🛑 Stop Manually Searching For and Chasing Influencers * Are you tired of wasting time contacting influencers who don’t respond to your DMs? We thought so. Luckily for you, there’s a simple way to grow your brand awareness with high-performing organic and paid social content with nano and micro-influencers Want in on the ease of action? Enter [Insense](: - Creators apply to you — responsive creators apply to your campaigns in minutes. - Simplified admin work — automated influencer agreements, payments, and digital content usage rights. - Money-back guarantee if an influencer ghosts. - Repeat and long-term collabs — build relationships with influencers and UGC creators. The best part? Your creatives will be delivered to you in just 10 days — responsive creators for the win! 🏆 Join major DTC marketing teams already using Insense like Obvi, GoPure, and Ivy Beauty. [Book a free 1-2-1 strategy call]( by Nov 31 and get $200 for your first UGC campaign. [Let’s Get Started]( PODCAST 📈 CRO to Sell More Stuff with Nik Sharma and Brett Turner 🎧 On this episode of the DTC podcast, we get some insights from Nik Sharma from [Sharma Brands]( and Brett Turner, Director of Product for [Pilothouse’s Warpdrive](. In today’s podcast, you’ll learn how to create landing pages that convert, the pros and cons of going headless, and why you should take a closer look at your checkout process. (Oh, and why slide-out carts are a game changer.) The takeaways 👇 💯📄 Create the perfect landing page It’s time to rethink what makes a strong landing page. Nik states that a successful landing page in 2023 should be a “catered user experience.” A strong landing page should consider where customers are in the funnel and how they ‘landed’ whether it's through social or a paid ad. Consider these four factors: - Analyze Traffic Source: Where are my customers coming from? (e.g. an ad or social) - Add Social Proof: Customers love reading five-star reviews and PR mentions can give your product legitimacy - Stay Flexible: Continue to split test and play around with elements above and below the fold - Optimize Page Speed: Track your load speed for landing pages. Pages with fast load times rank better in Google so it only helps your SEO. 💡 Pro Tip: Don’t give potential customers the blank page scaries — reduce your load time down to less than 3 seconds to avoid bouncebacks Next step: Position your product well and make sure it caters towards your potential buyers. 🔎🤔 What does headless mean? There are lots of positives to using a headless vs. traditional Content Management Systems (CMS). Brett dives into why headless architecture not only allows for greater customization and personalized user experiences, it also makes websites faster to avoid bouncebacks. However it comes at a cost. 💰💰 Moving from a traditional platform to a headless environment without the right technical support or growth partner can prove to be challenging. 🔥🛒 Increase AOV with slide-out carts How can we prep our checkout pages? Word of the day: slide-out carts. Slide out carts allow customers to view and manage their shopping cart without leaving their current page so they have a great checkout experience. Nik refers to this as “oceanfront real estate” since you can use this area to promote products, subscriptions, and provide AI-generated recommendations to increase basket size. Questions to ask yourself: - Can first-time customers easily find their desired products/services via the main navigation? - Am I using my slide-out cart to the fullest potential? - Am I cross-selling or upselling during the checkout process or on the thank you page to promote repeat purchases? - Is my pricing consistent throughout the customer journey? Price changes can confuse visitors and lead to cart abandonment. 😨 💰 What Nik thinks will happen in Q4: “I would say Q4 is going to be huge. We might see a slowdown again afterwards but [based on the numbers] we are confident it’ll be the biggest Black Friday ever.” 👉 [Listen to the full episode with Nik Sharma and Brett Turner here](! CAMPAIGNS 👏 30+ Campaigns to Activate, Monetize, and Retain Your Customers * Technology and consumer expectations have something in common — they’re both evolving rapidly. That means your lifecycle marketing program needs to evolve too. Staying ahead of the curve with campaign ideation and execution can be a challenge, but it doesn’t have to be. 👀 ✨ Enter the [Retail Inspiration Guide](: a collection of 30+ customizable campaigns tailored specifically to DTC retail and ecommerce brands. The collection includes: 👇 - Activation campaigns like onboarding, account creation, and app download. - Monetization campaigns like abandoned cart, upsells and cross-sell, and price drop. - Retention campaigns like loyalty enrollment, milestone and anniversary, and win-back. 🚨Bonus: Each customizable campaign comes with suggested channels and additional pro tips to maximize your results. [Click Here To Explore]( RETENTION 👀 When A Platform That Impacts Customers Goes Down, This is How You Should Handle It By now, we’re sure you heard/know that Shopify went down on November 13th. It’s frustrating for merchants spending on ads only to have customers click and not be able to purchase, and it’s frustrating for shoppers who are in the right mindset to buy and hit the error page. However, there is a way to communicate with customers after the fact! Take inspiration from this email Mini Katana sent after the outage. They asked customers to click to make sure everything was looking okay and also offered a discount for the inconvenience. Top-notch customer service. 👏 🌐 IN THE SOCIAL SPHERE Can’t view the image? [Click here](. TikTok shop is all the rage right now, and for good reason! Brands that can list products on the platform are starting to see great returns even in early days. 🤑 However, TikTok shop isn’t all sunshine and roses for shoppers. [Misrepresentation and counterfeit goods are on the rise]( and shoppers are being tricked into buying products they think are authentic for massive discounts. TikTok Shop doesn’t yet have adequate controls around knockoff products, and if shoppers consistently have bad experiences with low-quality goods they may choose to no longer trust the recommendations of the platform and its creators. When listing your product, ensure you’re being both accurate and genuine to build and maintain trust with shoppers. Keep an eye out for changes in quality control and compliance from TikTok. SPONSOR DTC 📥 Promote your product to 160,000 digital marketing professionals DTC Newsletter + Podcast reaches a highly qualified audience of Shopify merchants, eCommerce founders, and digital marketers. [Talk to our team to learn more](. ⚡ QUICK HITS 💸 [Use some of that Q4 budget for Q1 content](. Get started with fully-managed creator campaigns now for fresh content to test come Q1. * 🌊 Kraft Real Mayo is trying to make the word ‘moist’ happen. [Their ‘Search Moist’ campaign will run on social platforms like Twitch, TikTok, and Instagram in an effort to boost search volumes]( for the controversial word and spark conversation around their brand. ✨ [Reveal Target's $560M Strategy!]( Dive deep with Tandym into the RedCard phenomenon. Elevate your brand with insider insights. [Click to see the easy wins!](* 🌐 Would you pay $450K to advertise on the biggest screen on the planet? [The Las Vegas Sphere has advertisers like Dreamworks, Xbox, and the NBA thinking outside of the box about how to create an immersive experience for viewers.]( ✨ Shopify is in its celebrity collab era: [The ecommerce giant experiences a great Q3 thanks to their partnerships with Taylor Swift and Drake]( who use the platform to promote and sell concert merch, driving a feverish uptick in site traffic and revenue. 💰💰💰 Singles Day was a smashing success: [The Alibaba-founded holiday boasted great numbers in China this weekend despite global economic uncertainty](. Brands find steeper discounts appeal to customers and are optimistic about the holiday season. 👀 BANTER This is our petition to make command + K the universal shortcut for hyperlinking. Thank you. Have you heard our latest podcasts? - 🎈 [CPG and the Art of Starting Small]( with Juliana Casale from Balloon - 📧 [AKNF 350:]( Q4 Email Marketing Survival guide with Will from Pilothouse - ⚖️ [Balancing Wellness & Nightlife](: Nishal Kumar of 'No Days Wasted' on DTC Strategy and Building Brand Communities. - 📚 [AKNF 348](: Unlock the Secrets of Profitable Meta Ads: Scale School Is Back! - 🌧️ [Owning the Weather and Scaling Through Nine Figures]( - Vessi's Tony Yu and Mikaella Go Don’t forget to [rate the DTC Podcast]( on Apple (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️) Got an awesome DTC brand story to tell? Calling all brand-side founders and team leaders! Fancy joining us on the DTC Podcast as a guest? [Tap the link to toss in your application](. DTC Newsletter is written by [Rebecca Knight](, [Frances Du](, and [Michael Venditti](. Edited by [Claire Beveridge]( and [Eric Dyck](. Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up [here](. NEED MORE DTC? 🚀 [Advertise]( in DTC Newsletter. Please note that items in this newsletter marked with * contain sponsored content. [Direct To Consumer]( Pilothouse, 1011 Government St., Victoria, BC V8W 1X6, Canada [Advertise with DTC]( | [Work With Pilothouse]( [Preferences]( | [Unsubscribe](