Wednesday, November 10, 2021

It’s incredible to think we’re 100+ newsletters deep and we’ve never used this gif on Wednesday.

If you haven’t seen the legendary Geico hump day commercial, jump on the ole YouTube ASAP.

Happy Hump day!

If you’re new to DTC, welcome! You’re in good company with fellow newcomers from Shopify, Spärkel, Camp Chef, Punchy Drinks, Blue Planet Eco-Eyewear, Woven Earth, and NEST Decor. 🍾

In this newsletter you’ll find: 👇

👟 How Vessi is crushing BF/CM.

💌 Re-engaging your email list – winback flows.

🤵‍♂️ 3X to 10X ROAS with Suit Shop’s Kristen Jones.

📈 Custom metrics for Facebook ads reporting.

DTC Scale School is in session. Read to the bottom to learn more :)

👉 If a pal forwarded this to you, subscribe so you never miss out. And be sure to follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Brands crushing BFCM Prep

Two tactics from DTC brand Vessi that we’re LOVING:

Number 1: The waterproof sneaker brand, automatically applies a $25 gift card to purchases greater than $110.

It's a great tactic for putting $$$ in people’s pockets prior to BFCM in order to get them to come back and spend more.

If people have "free" money, it decreases the friction of spending more money. Repeat purchasers through the roof! 🚀

Number 2: Vessi always tries to provide value to their communities. Recently they ran an Instagram giving away 200 free pairs of shoes.

The first 100 pairs were first-come, first-serve, which created massive urgency to kick things off.

The second 100 were selected at random to give everyone a chance.

To enter, contestants had to give Vessi their information including email so if you didn’t win, they hit you with a great email flow encouraging you to purchase.

This is a GREAT list building exercise prior to BF/CM.

There’s still time to do this for your own brand!

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Re-Engaging Email Subscribers

We’re back for part 2 of a three-part series on re-engaging email subscribers!

For this part, we’re talking winback flows

A Winback Flow is an automated email sequence for customers that have purchased before but haven’t engaged with or purchased from your brand for a period of time.

Basically, they say: "Hey, remember us? We’re still here, and this is a reason to shop with us again!" 👋

Winback Flows are an essential part of customer retention. If you don’t have a Winback automation set up, you’re more likely to be forgotten by customers (and leave untold amounts of money on the table).

⏲️ When to send a Winback Flow:

First, get clear on whether your Winback will be targeted toward previous purchasers (eCom or DTC) or unengaged subscribers (Saas or content service).

For DTC brands: Your Winback Flows should be sent to previous buyers when a certain amount of time has elapsed between purchases – usually three times your product’s life cycle (but depends on your product and price point).

For example, if you sell a 30-day supply of vitamins, your Winback would trigger when 90 days have passed from the last purchase.

However, if you sell a product such as cars or home goods, your lifecycle might be much longer, so keep that in mind.

For Saas or Content brands: Your Winback would trigger when a customer hasn’t engaged (clicked email, visited site) in a period of time, usually 30-180 days.

⚠️ Winbacks are different from Replenishment Reminder Flows, which get triggered just before the product life cycle runs out.

📓 The structure of a Winback Flow:

A basic Winback Flow is ~3–5 emails designed to re-engage past purchasers, usually with an incentive or compelling offer, such as:

• Discounts.
• Rewards/referral points.
• Free calls/consultations.
• Free or discounted shipping.
• Free gifts (content, product, swag, gift card, or access to something special).

☝️ We recommend taking this opportunity to gather data from your customer on why they may not have purchased again. These valuable insights will help you improve your customer journey in the future!

The typical structure of a Winback Flow:

1. Light touchpoint, gather data: Ask why they haven’t purchased again. Highlight new products or best-sellers.
2. Follow-up with an offer: Include your incentive along with a deadline.
3. Reminder to use offer: Last chance to use the offer before time runs out.

For our visual folks, here’s an example of how your Winback Flow structure might look in Klaviyo:

💡 Winback Flows IRL:

Brooklinen’s Winback email is not only totes adorable (puppies 4ever 🐶), but it’s also effective in re-engaging customers with curiosity, inviting them to check out mysterious new products.

This is likely the first email in their Winback Flow, so it doesn’t drop an offer just yet.

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Re-Engaging Email Subscribers Part 2: Winback Flows – Continued

Tula’s Winback offers a discount, and the headline "we never do this" makes it feel special. They also give free shipping, no minimum, and create urgency with a deadline.

Plus, their email includes social proof and highlights best-sellers to help re-engage buyers.

This Winback email from Gap combines a killer offer (40%!) with a sense of urgency.

It also gives the customer a chance to update their preferences for better future email targeting, or unsubscribe if they aren’t interested.

🔨 Don’t forget to nail that subject line!

Remember, these customers haven’t engaged with your brand for a while, so your email will need to really grab their attention in their inbox.

Here are some examples of Winback subject lines we love:

• "We’ll be here when you’re hungry" – Home Chef
• "We TOTALLY need to catch up" – LOFT
• "2 Free Pints! Because We Miss You ❤️" – eCreamery Ice Cream
• "👋 Come Back & Enjoy 6 FREE Plates!" – Goodfood Market
• "A lot has changed! NEW Special Offer Inside." – MunchPak

😔 Subs still not engaging?

If subscribers go through your Winback Flow and still don’t engage, it may be time to Sunset them.

Stay tuned for Part 3 of Re-engaging Your Email List: Sunset Flows!

Podcast

🎧 This week’s pod episode features Kristen Jones, Director of Marketing at SuitShop (recently rebranded from The Groomsman Suit).

SuitShop is shaking up formal wear, providing quality suit-lutions for both men and women at a fraction of the price. 🤵

So change out of those sweatpants, throw on your best tie, and get ready for this Masterclass on customer lifecycle marketing!

‍The Takeaways: 👇

❓ Why a rebrand?:

After a few years, it became clear to the founders that "The Groomsman Suit" wasn’t representative of their wide range of customers – so the founders decided to rebrand to SuitShop.

"It’s been a great opportunity to represent everyone we suit… We really do cater to anybody and everybody."

However, it was a little bit nerve-wracking to potentially lose the SEO tied to their previous name. 😬

Kristen’s advice to companies doing a rebrand? Make sure you work with an SEO agency or have someone on your team to help navigate through the changes.

"We saw a small dip [in traffic] for six weeks, but we’ve come back better than ever."

💥 How a TikTok vid boosted traffic by 20%:

A video Kristen filmed on her iPhone in just a few minutes ended up going viral, and completely exploded SuitShop’s site traffic.

"I had no expectations of it, I was just kinda having fun… and [the video] got 60K views overnight."

But don’t be fooled. There was certainly strategy involved…

The vid was posted in December, the biggest month of the year for proposals –which helped the video gain traction among newly engaged couples. 💍

"If you’re in the wedding industry and you’re able to catch someone in those first moments of excitement, they’re probably gonna stick with you."

🎨 Kristen’s marketing advice for Q4:

Q4 is the biggest quarter for brands when it comes to new customer acquisition and revenue.

But while we’re crushing our holiday campaigns… Kristen reminds us to stay one step ahead.

"It’s all about retention… [after Q4] what do you have in place to keep [new leads] as a customer and build their lifetime value?"

"Make sure you have everything in place to know where they came from and what got them to convert, and follow up accordingly."

👉 Listen to the full pod to learn more about SuitShop’s success, Kristen’s authentic approach to marketing, and much more!

Facebook Tip!

3 custom metrics now for more meaningful Facebook Ads Reporting

Here’s how to set up custom metrics in Facebook, along with the simple formulas for the 3 most important metrics.

Step 1: In your ads manager, go to 'Columns: Performance' then, 'Customise Columns...'

Step 2: Click ‘Create Custom Metric’

Step 3: Enter the metric name, description, and formula

Step 4: Click ‘Create Metric’ and your metric will be saved 👌🏼

3 most important formulas:

Earnings Per Click (EPC):

Why it matters: Just like a Profit and Loss statement, knowing how much a click earns will help you understand why driving down your costs (i.e. cost per click) will drive more profit.

Format: Currency

Formula: Purchase conversion value / Unique link clicks.

Average Order Value (AOV):

Why it matters: The more we can increase our average order value, the more profitable advertising becomes.

Format: Currency

Formula: Purchase conversion value / Purchases

Conversion Rate (CVR):

Why it matters: Knowing an ad’s conversion rate can help us optimize the same way as knowing a landing page’s conversion rate.

Format: Percentage

Formula: Purchases / Unique link clicks

Finally, don’t forget to save your ideal dashboard as a preset so you don’t have to customize your columns every time.

🚀 A huge thank you to the Pilothouse team for this tip!

Quick Hits

🔥 How brands can more easily collect UGC.

🌼 How these 3 DTC brands are utilizing TikTok for growth.

🛠 Facebook announces new groups tools at its 2021 Communities Summit.

🥤 DTC drink brand,Kin Euphorics which was co-founded by Jen Batchelor & Bella Hadid, is hiring a senior ecomm growth manager and a digital designer!

📈 Google: Add store sales to your Smart Bidding to grow online and in-store sales.

🛍 TikTok shares new insights into holiday shopping trends to assist in campaign planning.

🤑 Creators on Facebook can evade Apple's 30% transaction fee.

🔥 DTC Podcast: Unlock the power of growth through data with Bainbridge Growth and Geologie.

🥤 DTC drink brand, Kin Euphorics which was co-founded by Jen Batchelor & Bella Hadid, is hiring for two positions:

1) Senior ecomm growth manager: Perfect for someone who is a combination of the Queen’s Gambit and Being John Malkovich with a deep interest in data and insights.

2) Digital designer: Perfect for someone who is a cross between David Lynch and Miss Cleo with a deep love of user experience.

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🔊 Have you heard our latest podcasts?

🤵‍♂️ 3X to 10X ROAS and managing your customer lifecycle with Suit Shop's Kristen Jones.

🧲 Wildstorming the Beauty Space – Glamnetic's Head of Growth Margaret Fortner Returns!

♻️ Learn how Fussy Deodorant Lowers Blended CaC with Cofounder Matt Kennedy.

🦷 Spotlight Oral Care Goes Viral on TikTok with Cofounder Dr. Lisa Creaven and VP Marketing Siobhan Nolan.

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

DTC Newsletter is written by Thomas Schreiber, Kelsey Hess, and Rebecca Knight.

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