DTC POD: How The Best Brands Are Built

Matt Lanter is OpenStore’s Head of Product and Co-Founder. Matt served as an engineering and product leader at Opendoor, Facebook and Apple. He was the Chief of Staff at Founders Fund where he worked closely with entrepreneurs building the next set of companies. OpenStore provides life-changing liquidity to Shopify business entrepreneurs that are ready to sell their business so they can move on to what's next. Anyone can get a free, no obligation offer for their business within 24 hours by visiting open.store.00:14 - Helping entrepreneurs exitMatt explained that just like selling a house, selling a business can be a lengthy and complicated process. He wanted to change that.“We provide liquidity to Shopify entrepreneurs. We provide them with an exit and the ability to sell their business when they're ready to. A lot of these entrepreneurs don't really have other options to sell their business. They're too small for private equity. They don't necessarily have the characteristics that venture capitalists are looking for. And there are brokers and marketplaces they could go with, but similar to all other marketplaces, even selling your house, there's no guarantee you'll be able to find a buyer. You can spend a lot of time talking to potential buyers and waste time. So we wanted to make it really simple for these Shopify entrepreneurs to come to our website, connect their Shopify account, their Facebook and Google marketing data if they have it, and get an offer within a day to sell a business if they're ready to.”04:16 - The problem with private equityPrivate equity tends to go after high-value targets. It’s also very high-touch, with a process and payment terms that can move at a glacial pace.“Private equity tends to be more like $50 million+ in GMV, so it tends to be on the larger side. Whereas for us, our target size of businesses is between $500K and $10 million. Part of it is that private equity firms tend to be very human-based and use a lot of humans to value these businesses and go through that process. Whereas we've built this pricing engine that's able to within 24 hours deliver an offer for your business. So we're able to serve a much wider swath of businesses and really serve as many people as we can….With private equity also, it's usually a multi-year payout. And there’s earnouts over time and all these percentages, and it's a fairly complicated thing for sure. We want to make it very simple. You come to us, you get your offer. It's a very clear price. You actually get 80% of it on the day you close. And then there's a short 1-2 month transition period where you help us learn about your business. And then you get the remaining 20% at the end of that.”15:11 - A streamlined sale processWhen selling on OpenStore, founders immediately get 80% of the payout. After helping transition the business, they get the rest. Meanwhile, OpenStore works hard to maintain brand integrity.“Once you close you get 80% of the cash around then, and then it's a 1-2 month transition period. So the founder works with our team for us to understand how they run their business, transition everything over to us. Domains, all the various parts of the business. And then we run it from there. To that point, as we build out this operating platform we've created a set of OpenStore best practices. Various tools, internal and external, that we use to help run these businesses at scale. And analytics is a very important thing as well. So investing in that and moving those brands to our way of running and growing them. But one thing is we do really want to maintain the brands and grow the brands. We don't want to take a company and then just get rid of the brand. We really want to keep the brand and grow the brand and highlight what the entrepreneur has built.”19:57 - The power of brandOpenStore works exclusively with Shopify brands because they find branding to be important and rewarding work. Shopify provides the tools that the team needs to help brands thrive.“We really like that these Shopify e-commerce brands have a really strong brand. Whereas the ones on Amazon tend to don't need to focus as much on the brand, because they're on Amazon. And Amazon helps them with customer acquisition. And so we focused on Shopify stores because we believe in a strong brand and a strong building-out of these brands. For example, you look at Nike, which is obviously a very well-known brand. and they aren't on Amazon. They can't control their brand experience. And we really want to control the full stack of things…When you're running these businesses, there's marketing, supply chain, demand, planning, forecasting, all those complex things. Which when you run them on Shopify, there's like a lot of room for us to really grow and build out a great platform there. Whereas Amazon takes care of a lot of those things for you, so it was less exciting work for us.”22:45 - Promoting entrepreneurshipMatt and his team are big cheerleaders for entrepreneurs. They

Andrew Benin is the co-founder & CEO of Graza, a Brooklyn based DTC brand reimagining extra-virgin olive oil. Andrew previously served at DTC powerhouses including Magic Spoon, Casper, & Warby Parker where he worked in key operational roles. His new brand, Graza, had one of the most successful CPG launches of 2022.3:29 - Becoming a CPG addictAndrew got his start working for hot DTC Brands like Warby Parker, Casper, and Magic Spoon. It was a thrilling environment, but he knew he wanted to build something of his own.“When you work at really hot CPG companies, you are an addict of course. Because the company you're working for is growing, and growth is the fuel that fires the whole engine. But I definitely was looking to replicate that fire for something that I cared about. And olive oil is a dream, because it's objectively healthy. It is delicious. The supply chain is beautiful. The places where olive trees are grown and harvested are beautiful. And people's general reaction is shit, I love olive oil. It's kind of everybody's best friend, you know? So it definitely had strong tailwinds. But when I actually thought, okay, it's time to start a company, super saturated market. Investors had seen decks come across their desk recently. Really fragmented supply chain. So all of the reasons not to do it started coming up at the same time as the energy to do it. But I couldn't stop. I knew that we were going to get an olive oil company off the ground.”05:09 - Focusing on middle AmericaLuxury olive oil abounds in the world...for a steep price tag. Andrew realized that what middle America needed was olive that hit the sweet spot between amazing quality and accessibility.“I got really, really close with Mike Anthony, the executive chef at Gramercy Tavern. I get back to New York. I'm still working at Magic Spoon. And I find time with Mike to do a tasting at the restaurant. And we're trying really expensive, really delicious, really crazy olive oils. And he looks me in the eye and he's like, you know, I have 10 of you in this zip code who I can call on to get me amazing Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, Argentinian olive oil anywhere I want in the world. Don't start another boutique luxury olive oil company. Don't do it. That's not what we need. Middle America doesn't need that. Because it's not even just middle America doesn't need that, we can't afford it. So that changed my perspective completely. And ever since then, mass and scale and mass premium have been the leading principles for this company. Of course without sacrificing quality at all. I would put up our olive oil against any gold metal, whatever award olive oil there is in the world.”8:07 - Making olive oil sexyGraza’s unique squeeze bottle makes it possible to be both playful and insanely functional.“We just wanted to add some life and some sex appeal to it, some fun. A big part of the development process and the idea was when we were like, screw it. We're going to put this in a chef-inspired squeeze bottle. That was a whole deviation from the norm. And that was a lot of energy from the culinary community, a lot of energy from the investment community. People were like, damn. This is going to really be usable on all social media verticals. You can do collabs with restaurants. And it all kind of started coming together when we flipped the form factor. You know, olive oil is always sold in the same dark green glass bottle with a random label with an olive branch on it. And when we chose a squeeze bottle, everything changed in terms of the visual appeal. And this is something that makes us not only a CPG food company, it makes us a tool in the kitchen.”14:13 - Finding a design partnerGraza tapped Gander as their design agency, and offered them an equity and cash partnership to give the relationship deep roots.“Our original design was a Dr. Bronner's bottle with a Mike's Hot Honey cap, put together with some Photoshop work. That's how it started. But we knew we were going to work with a great branding and design agency. We worked with Gander, Take a Gander is how you can find them online. They also did Magic Spoon and Banza and Gotham Greens and Mystic Market. So I knew they had the heat. We decided to explore an equity and cash partnership with them, which I think is a great way to work with long-term partners. I think it's a great way to keep people invested and honest…I think working with a great branding agency not only is like the visual aspect, they instill amazing creative project management into your company from an early point. And their first job is to extract all of the thoughts that you've had for six months alone, writing in your iPhone notes, writing a Google Doc, sending emails. Their job is to get that all out of you. And I think if we didn't work with some professionals like that, it would still just be stuck in my brain somewhere. And I'd be very frustrated.”15:56 - Vetting new partnersAndrew suggests doing reference checks, carefully revie

8:21 - Pivoting from SaaS to ecommerceRaphael was surrounded by Saas founders, but followed his instincts when he found himself far more interested in the ecommerce space.“I started SplitBase when most of my friends were SaaS founders, because that's what I was familiar with. I always like, well, SplitBase is going to be a conversion optimization agency for SaaS companies. Now a couple of things. One, I think it would have been better positioned as a churn reduction agency maybe, or something a bit more focused than conversion optimization. Because I realized after maybe a year of doing that, that it's like, SaaS companies, it's not conversionary. It's not the term that really comes to mind. But also I just wasn't really passionate about the SaaS space. And I caught myself one day thinking and actually saying to a friend you know, when I'm done with this SaaS thing I'm going to focus on helping out ecommerce brands with optimization. And then my friend was just like, well, why don't you just do it now?”9:54 - Pioneering conversion optimizationBrands used to not invest much in the user experience, only in ads. As the DTC brand era grew, Raphael saw that start to shift.“For so many years, it's felt like you had to convince brands, and still a bit today, that optimization is something that you do. And it just felt like, I don't know how to say it, but we were stuck in a very old way of thinking. Most ecommerce brands we're just not really thinking ahead, and it was a very old-school way of thinking about user experience in general. And eventually this DTC era started surfacing. And what's been interesting is that, still then, CRO, like conversion optimization and landing pages, wasn't a big thing. Even today it's only really starting to become the thing to do. And more notably since the iOS changes. It changed everything. Because you realize people were just so focused on testing their ads, testing their ads. And they were like, oh, the website just needs to look sexy and good and beautiful, and design will sell. But the truth is no. Design is one thing and it helps build trust and it provides an identity. But design alone is not going to answer your customer's questions, their fears, their doubts, their objections. Design is made to support that content, not be that content.”16:10 - Focus on the customer, not the competitorA mistake many brands make is to see what marketing gurus are saying about best practices, or copying others. But the first place you should be looking is to your customer.“We're not going to focus on the optimization part of the traffic acquisition. We're not going to touch ads, for sure. That's not what we do. But post-click, okay. Customers clicked on your ad. Now they're on your website. It's go time. What do we do? Do we need a landing page? Is the landing page even working? First, before trying to apply tactics or techniques, because I think this is also one of the biggest traps for brands getting into optimization. They were like, Hey, what is Neil Patel or whatever marketer on their blog is saying about optimization? And most of the information is bullshit for most brands. The thing is, sure. There are some best practices when it comes to usability. But it's not about what's working for other brands or your competitors or whatever. It's what does your customer need for them to convert on your site and buy your product? The only way to really get to the bottom of this is by really doing what we call conversion research. Which is, and not to get too deep into this, but it's talk with your customers.”20:10 - Evolve your tactics with your marketProducts and customers are not static. That means your website and landing pages can’t be, either.“If we are talking about a DTC brand, they're releasing more SKUs, probably targeting different types of customers. So any business is going to be growing. The market is going to change, their customers are going to change. So first, the process is infinite. Because you're always going to have to adopt. And when you do this research work well, sure. It enables you to create landing pages, make changes on your site, and run tests that hopefully will drive some impact. But it also feeds you information in terms of how your customer and your product is evolving over time. And I think that's kind of key, because if you assume that, oh, I have one website and this is a fixed entity and my customer is also the same thing, I mean, at one point you're going to hit a wall.”22:38 - Use data to drive actionMany brands get obsessed with tracking data. But Raphael’s found that data is actually useless unless you’re using it to make business decisions.“Data can be a savior as much as it can be a killer. And the reason I believe this is because look. We have clients, for example, that sure. They have a lot of data tools. And they're actually using it. It's integrated within Klaviyo and everything. It's integrated within their tools. They have staff to handle it. Th

4:47 - When goals make senseGoals can be a waste of time at a young company. But once you grow, you need to figure out what to prioritize.I think to start off a company where you're at zero and come up with this master plan and all these OKRs and goals, I think it's just a huge waste of time. You should just spend more of that time talking to customers and figuring out building something that they need enough. Because if you don't have product-market fit, what's the point of goals? The point of goals for us was just, you have a lot of people. There's a lot of demand. How do we prioritize our time on the things that are most important? And how do you coordinate? Last year we had maybe seven director-above people, and now we have like 22. So if you have all those types of people leading different initiatives, how do you make sure that they know what's important at any given time? How are we measuring the success of that? How are the things that they're doing gonna impact other teams? What are the dependencies? If they say, Hey, we want to build X, Y, and Z. But if the engineering team doesn't have the people they need to do that, there's just so much more coordination as you get bigger. And without having clear goals, it's just really tough.9:57 - The forecasting breakthroughAs a bootstrapped business, SwagUp felt like it was starting each month as a blank slate. Michael took on the job of building a model that could accurately predict business.Every month, I would build out the model for that next month and the next quarter and stuff. And then I’d track like, what was the variance? What was the actual revenue? What did we end up doing? What is it looking like for the next few months? And it started to be very accurate. In the beginning it was like, plus or minus 20%, which was still really helpful. And then it started to get into like the plus or minus like 5%, 6%, 7%. So in the past we went from not knowing anything to now like, oh, we'll do $2.2 million next month. And then that was super helpful with the pandemic because when the world was kind of melting down, we weren't sure are people going to buy swag, or this or that? By like April and May, we saw enough early signals that would say, Hey, actually we're going to have our best month ever in this next month. So we just started to think much more from a machine standpoint, like, okay. What are all these inputs, and what's the output going to be? And that kind of changed my thinking around this stuff in general and try to find other areas of the business that have the same dynamic.13:32 - Pursuing a SaaS look & feelThere’s no doubt that SaaS tools are very intuitive to use. Michael wanted that same look and feel for SwagUp, so that tough tasks and decisions could become simple.I wanted it to feel like a SaaS tool. Because if you were like Twilio or Plaid or Stripe or any of these interesting software or platform-type companies, the people at those companies who are buying swag, they're going to these websites that feel very 2000s, very 1990s. And I was like, I want them to feel the same buying experience that they would feel buying some piece of software that they're using, and have a brand and positioning and design that resonates. So design was super, super important to me from the very beginning. Because one, it gives you credibility, and it tells you right away like, Hey, they take pride in what they're doing. It looks really legit. They've probably been around for a while. And we had to appear bigger than we were, but also wanted it to feel natural to them. Like, oh, if we're going to buy swag, this would be the type of company we would buy it from. So we've always been thinking about how do you productize the experiences as well, and make it really, really simple and eliminate decision fatigue…and it became like this mouse trap for us, where we were able to acquire so many customers because we just do this one thing very specifically.17:18 - The benefit of swagSwag is a big business for a reason. Many companies want swag to build a relationship with employees. When you don’t have a good resource, this can take a lot of time and energy.The whole idea of like a swag pack is first off, whether it's your new hires or you have community members or your new customers or partners, building a bond and a connection between you and them is super important for companies now. There's so many more companies that you can work at or buy from. And the people that choose to work at your company or buy from you, they have a deeper sense of connection. And that's what I kind of saw happening. I saw that if you do swag well, it does a great job of kind of solidifying that connection and kind of physically embodying it. But how do you easily get something into those people's hands? And if you're hiring people remote all around the world, how do you easily get a consistent experience as well? That was one of the issues I saw in the beginning is you have people that star

1:26 - Rebuilding the vitamin categorySara realized that traditional vitamins weren’t built in a way to truly optimize health.“I was starting to struggle out of nowhere really with chronic inflammation, digestion, sleep issues, you name it. And I've always considered myself a relatively healthy person. I had a healthy diet. I didn't really know what was going on. Went through a lot of allergy tests and blood tests and found out that I had a lot of gaps in my diet. Because even if you eat a well-rounded diet, even if you eat perfectly, actually 90% of Americans are micronutrient deficient. We're not actually getting the nutrients that we need. And so like many of us, I turned to the supplement aisle to try to fill the gaps. Started looking at all these vitamins and pills and complicated and expensive sort of supplement routines, and cobbling together swallowing handfuls of capsules. And the more that I looked into it and questioned it, the more that I found that a lot of these things are built wrong. They're made with a lot of artificial fillers, synthetic binders, just a lot of dirty things. You don't actually question where your vitamins are coming from or how it's made. And so I set out to create an entirely new solution. One that's actually real food. And that's how it was inspired and Gem was born.”9:27 - Organizing a beta groupSara’s first step was to organize a Facebook group of diverse women to help understand if there was interest in replacing multivitamins with something better.“At first I didn't even think about it as the anti-vitamin, as an entirely new idea of a vitamin. I just thought of it as this daily health essential that really worked for me. And I wanted to share it with more people. And so I started a beta group actually, and I joke, on a complicated platform called Facebook Groups. And I had people kind of refer in, so it wasn't just a bunch of my friends, over 300 women across the US. And at first I just formed this community really to see if it was something of interest, to get people's feedback. And I kept iterating on it to address other people's needs, to see what would work. And I got an overwhelmingly positive response of, wow, this is something that could really replace my multivitamin. This is something that really works for me. And that's when really I had the aha moment of, wow, this could be a business and really be a product that is impactful on people's lives. And that's what led me to ultimately raising my first round of capital and then going to market in late 2018.”12:07 - Forming a panel of advisorsNext, Sara surrounded herself with experts who could serve as the scientific backbone for GEM’s products.“I have a team of scientific advisors that I brought together. And our approach and my approach in building this has always been to have a kaleidoscopic array of knowledge and expertise. And so we have an herbalist, a functional medicine doctor, a neurologist, a biochemist, registered dieticians. And bringing these different perspectives together in how can we look at our health in different ways? How can we actually look at it holistically, and not just through this band-aid lens of a pill for this and a pill for that? And so it took kind of bringing them together, getting their input, and then really co-developing it with this community.”15:25 - Embracing a minimalist brandToo often, design eats up a startup’s time and money when it should really be focused on getting the product right. That’s why Sara packaged GEM in black & white until its recent rebrand.“I started out really almost with a brandless platform. So they actually came packaged in a recyclable PET container, a small plastic container. And so it was really nicely designed and had a simple white label on it. It was like white and black. And the idea was I didn't want brand to distract from the core product. I think there's a lot of, and I've had these mistakes too in my own past of building companies, where a lot of people will spend a lot of money on these beautiful brand books and invest a ton in brand before they even know their target customer. And that's not what I want to do. I want the product right. I wanted to understand who my audience was. I wanted to understand how to build the right thing for them. And so I started out with a very simple and scalable brand packaging system that was really super minimalist.”17:06 - Prioritizing scalabilityTo stay lean and agile, Sara set up manufacturing and production systems that she knew would be scalable as GEM evolved.“As a food company, it's difficult to kind of have that quote-unquote ‘lean’ startup method. Because it's harder to iterate on obviously a physical product than it is maybe if you were a software company, or something where you can make more methodical smaller tweaks. So I set up a supply chain and I set up a manufacturing and a production system with this packaging and brand that allowed me to do that in the most minimal way possible. And I al

4:36 - Embracing clean beautyA long-time advocate of health and clean ingredients, Bobbi Brown founded Jones Road Beauty. The challenge was to make clean versions of all the best products.“Bobbi parted ways with her company that she founded and had a non-compete. And most people would be retiring at that age, but she just didn't feel done. And she felt like she had so much that she wanted to teach and so much that she wanted to continue to do. And part of it is throughout her journey she has gotten super into health and became a certified health coach. You know, clean beauty wasn't really a thing back then, but obviously now it's much more common and people care so more about what they're putting on their faces and also what they're putting in their bodies. So I think there was just a little bit of a challenge in there, and obviously makeup and the trends are changing, but also what ingredients people care about is changing. So usually people didn't think that clean products were that good. And there was kind of a challenge of how can we make the best beauty products in the world, of all products, and let's just also make them clean.”8:50 - A soft launch that hit hardCody and the Jones Road team did zero pre-launch announcements, and the launch still surpassed all expectations.“I think because we knew that there would be some initial demand we had to invest for that and kind of prepare for that and start building the team. Versus if you're going to start things from scratch, you have to obviously do it super bootstrapped and do it super lean and maybe start fulfilling orders by yourself. But we knew that that wasn't going to be sustainable. So we had to invest ahead of time for that. And I think we knew that on day one we hit something pretty special and pretty serious. We didn't really do any pre-launch because Bobbi’s non-compete was up and she didn't want to wait at all. So she wanted to launch it on that first day that she could, which means we couldn't announce it ahead of time…So we really didn't do any teasing of, and we didn't have time to kind of build a list or anything like that. But we had some press hit that day. And once people started talking about it, I think we knew it that first month and that first day just surpassed expectations. And that's when we knew we really had something.”13:21 - Making investments in ad spendCody says that steady ad spend and good growth KPIs should result in increases in traffic and brand awareness.“I think you have to just trust it a little bit. Look at audience growth, look at like, yes, they are vanity metrics in terms of looking at your reach and your followers. But I do think that is an important thing to look at. And having growth KPIs that you're growing 5% or 10% a month, I think is super important. And obviously I don't think you can look day to day and like, ‘oh, we spent this much, this was our return on ad spend.’ But I think if you invest in it over a quarter, you obviously should see your overall traffic pick up. You should see your organic search, your direct, and your branded search pick up as well if you're getting some more brand awareness out there. And you should see your overall revenue quarter over quarter go up.”14:28 - Doubling down on social mediaThe next step for Jones Road is to focus on building community through social storytelling, such as putting resources into TikTok.“Obviously influencers and UGC are huge. Especially in beauty, on Instagram, just being able to share what our products look like on different people and obviously doing some storytelling around brand pillars as it relates to building a community. I think that's something we can do a way better job of is building a community on social, on Instagram. That's kind of our main focus and I think something that we can do a way better job of. And then we're really not doing much and a good enough job on TikTok. So that's going to be a huge focus. And that's something I know you asked, like, how do you calculate your return on investment of organic? I mean, we're going to find out. Because we're going to invest quite a bit of resources into TikTok, because I really think that's where the attention is. And we'll see how that plays out.”15:37 - Building the marketing teamThere are many new roles that will be up for grabs soon at Jones Road, most notably a growth associate who can work with creators on fresh user-generated content.“We've got one senior to manager level of marketing operations. We are about to hire a director of influencer marketing, that's something we're hiring for right now. We just hired an associate manager of retention marketing. So email and SMS. We have a social associate, and then a marketing coordinator. So that's kind of what our marketing team looks like right now. But again, we're looking to grow upon that quite a bit. We're looking to hire another person on the media buying side, maybe somebody else to help with our ad creative. So somebody like a gr

Key Takeaways3:35 - Starting with KickstarterJarod and his partners knew they could have gone through the formal fundraising process, but wanted to get market validation first.“Having some startup cash to kind of get going, especially when you're talking about a CPG brand, it definitely helps a lot for a lot of levers. For us, sure, we could've gone out and raised money. But you know, that's like a 3-6, maybe 9-month process to go get a full round of fundraising. And we just don't want to do that. We just want to make sure the idea was worth it to other people. And so for us, Tyler, my co-founder, he started in his mom's kitchen just making samples, making things, making sure that it was a good product and so on and so forth. And for us Kickstarter was this channel where we could put up a campaign. And for those that don't know, Kickstarter, if you don't hit your goal within the 30, 60 whatever day campaign you want to do, you just don't get the money. So for us, it was like, okay, let's put it on Kickstarter. If it does really good, great. We'll get the money. And if it doesn't okay, then we'll go back to the drawing board.”9:49 - A viral launchAll of Muddy Bite’s original sales were completely organic, and they sold out of product before it was even produced. This meant manufacturing was the biggest blocker.“We launched on Shopify and really from day one, I think day one we launched, we did like 25k in sales. And that was really just kind of all organic. And really from there for the next four to six months, it was like every single bag was sold before it was ever produced. We never really did Facebook ads, because it just organically every bag was sold before it's produced. And so it really was kind of this process of manufacturing. How do we increase the manufacturing? How do we speed up the manufacturing? And so it was really kind of a different kind of journey so to say, because most brands it’s like, how do I go out and market this better? How do I get more customers? And it really for us, it was kind of flipped.”10:58 - Keeping customer transparencyIn the midst of constantly selling out of product, Jarod and his team made sure to keep customers in the loop so they knew what was happening.“There were some points where we maybe had 2,000 orders in the hole. And for us to catch up on those that take maybe two to three weeks. And so number one, we had full transparency with customers. The message was, Hey, we got all these orders. We can't keep up. You guys are amazing. We just need some time, please be patient. And we were really transparent with that for two to three years as we kind of got into better manufacturing for our process. And really because of that, we built a really strong foundation for customers that have followed us from day one.”11:33 - Making a small facility workMuddy Bites upgraded to a new facility…but it was still too small. They made it work as long as possible by creating night shifts and staffing with local college students.“Going from like 400 to 2,000 (square feet in facility space) was a fairly smooth process, because it was kind of that transition from Kickstarter to Shopify. But after we kind of gotten our 2,000 square foot facility and really kind of got going, we had boxes up to the ceiling and we had 30 plus employees in there. And it was jam-packed within a small facility to where after six months, whatever it was like, we needed a bigger space, but we were locked in this longer contract. And managing cash flow was super tight. So we just created a day shift and a night shift. And this was in Ames, Iowa. So we found college student. it was really easy for us to find college students that are willing to come in and work for that. So it was really kind of good for us just being in Ames because of that, finding know easy workers, so to say. But we quickly outgrew that space.”15:28 - Launching retail in the midwestIt turns out that midwest retail chains have great volume. Starting there quickly opened more doors in other regions.“Being here in Iowa, we've got Midwest chains like Hy-Vee, Fairway Foods, just to name a couple. And so that's where our starting points were for retail were, in a word, pretty nice. Because Hy-Vee, I think they have about 110 locations, like decent volume for a Midwest chain. And really once you start kind of expanding into retail to where you get maybe 500 to 1,000 doors, it's almost like a chain reaction. Because different category buyers go to different stores just to see the market and stuff like that. And so it just kind of opens up more doors. And so really from the Midwest, we expanded east, west, south, north. And it just made it a lot easier to expand.”16:34 - Using DTC to strategize with retailThe Muddy Bites online sales demographics helped the team know where retail product should be sent. This had a beneficial snowball effect on both the DTC and retail side.“Anybody in the US can order from us and we could ship. But after a while we r

During this episode, you will learn about;[00:05] What’s in for you in today’s episode[01:36] Who’s Shane Rostad and his area of specialty[06:34] Typical mistakes that brands make[08:44] Tips to improve your site’s conversion rate[12:48] Things to focus on when brands are collecting customer’s data[16:54] The different ways to gather qualitative data from your customers[19:41] Commercial Break[20:38] Upselling and cross-selling in the business[28:30] How to do the A/B testing for your site[33:52] Do these things to improve consumer conversion [35:09] Shane’s three favorite brands [36:33] Connect with Shane today Notable Quotes Customer experience is the most significant lacking catalyst in most brands.Understand the game of numbers in a business.When complexity hurts, focus on simplicity. Contributors: Shane Rostad - shanerostad Jay Desai - @jayd3sai

9:56 - From bio major to builderDaniel’s journey into entrepreneurship started as the desire to make money for weekend college fun, despite the fact that he didn’t have time to work a traditional job.“I was a biology major. I was actually going to school to be a dentist and. I always knew that I wanted to be an entrepreneur. And that's what drove me. That was interesting. And doing new projects, stuff like that. Obviously, as a 19-year-old kid, I just had no idea what I wanted to do. And the online landscape was nothing like it was today. There's so much information you can find out there, and it's so accessible, there’s communities and all that stuff going on. When I was in sophomore year of college, I had no idea you could even make money online. I had no idea that was even a thing. So it's a lot different than it is today. But what inspired me at the time was just a conversation. My friend was telling me he was making $45 a week on his phone. And I couldn't get a job, because I was focused on my studies. At first that's just what inspired me. I was like oh, I can get some money to go to the bar on the weekends. But what allowed me to really gain motivation was really I became passionate about it. Passionate about being able to grow a following, being able to engage with other people in this community, being able to learn all this new information that was solely reliant on me building something.”15:19 - The decision to ditch dental schoolDaniel’s first ventures were doing well enough that he decided they sounded more exciting than dental school.“I started that platform May going into my senior year of college. I was going to the library every day to study for my DATs. I started the platform, it started getting traction and all this stuff. So you could say I was getting distracted very often. And I would say one month of studying and I knew that, number one, I was absolutely miserable. I hated the stuff I was studying. I never really wanted to be a dentist anyways, but it was just literally torture. I was already committed and whatnot. So I knew essentially by the time I was going to take the test, which was I think in August, that I didn't want to be a dentist for sure. And I didn't get a good enough score to get me into the right dental school anyways. So that made my decision very easy. With the platform getting so much success, I decided I'll take a year after college, see what happens. And if things keep going, I can still go to dental school. I can do whatever. But there's too much of an opportunity right now.”26:31 - Hitting the ground running with GOATcaseThe phone case company GOATcase was an immediate success. The major challenge was on the fulfillment side.“We went from literally zero to a hundred in one week. How do you fulfill that? That was the biggest thing. Within one week I remember we ordered 15,000 phone cases. Where do you put them? We should've gotten a 3PL. We thought about doing that, which was definitely the biggest mistake. And many people told me I should do it, but it seemed so expensive at the time versus what we could potentially do it for. And decided not to do it, which was an awful mistake. But like you said, in the first six months, we moved four times. Imagine how much time that takes, and stress, and all this other stuff. So logistics and fulfillment or a complete shit show.”29:30 - Getting a 3PLOnce GOATcase and Daniel’s next brand, Perfect Sculpt, gained even more momentum, they were able to get a 3PL and ditch their nightmare of a warehouse.“It took us a year and a half to outsource our fulfillment. And that was when we launched our second brand Perfect Sculpt, which was substantially bigger than GOATcase even. And ended up taking more space because we went from phone cases to bras and waist trainers and shapewear, which just take a lot more space. So now we moved into a legitimate warehouse, 8,000 square feet, and had a legitimate kind of fulfillment operation going. And we just dealt with so much bullshit. Employees stealing, weird stuff going on from the security cameras, and all the stuff from managing warehouse workers that you might imagine. Just crazy stuff. And number one we weren't doing a great job from an accuracy standpoint on fulfillment. And because we had leverage because of just the volume of the business, we were able to find a 3PL that would pay. Because I got to the point where now we had substantial costs. We had our warehouse, we had a team, we had all this, we had some equipment and stuff like that. So because we had the leverage of our volume, we were able to get the 3PL to pay for the entire move, and to pay for our lease, to buy us out of our lease.”32:24 - The early days of ShopifyAt the time Daniel started his businesses, the online ecosystem we know today was in its elementary form.“We were on Shopify day one. But all of stuff that we take for granted today with Shopify was nowhere near it is what it is today. And all up and all the partners

During this episode, you will learn about;[00:16] What’s in for you in today’s episode[01:43] Bailee’s career background information[03:57] What is branding and the areas of business it affects[07:28] The importance of brand guide during the branding process[09:49] Branding your brand in a way that resonates with people[12:16] Validating your branding through social channels [14:01] Promoting your brand in Tik Tok when branding [16:01] Commercial Break[17:04] The secrets to a high performing landing page [21:21] Bailee’s strategy for optimizing their landing page[22:29] The elements of building a strong brand identity [24:27] Brands that keep Bailee motivated in her course [28:30] Takeaways from the guest [29:38] What next for Sharma brands and how to connect with Bailee Contributors: Bailee Cooper - Sharma BrandsJay Desai - @jayd3sai

4:47 - The night CROSSNET was inventedChris and his friends were throwing ideas for a product invention at the wall to see if anything stuck when someone mentioned four-way volleyball.“ESPN was on in the background. Not sure if that motivated it or not, but Mike wrote down four-way beach volleyball. Mike’s one of our other co-founders, grew up playing soccer and basketball. Four-way volleyball net. And we're like, yeah, no shit. That'd be sick. Jumped on Google, and nobody had done it before. And right now it was like four in the morning, you're in your hometown farm town. It’s cool, and nobody does it, and we’re like, this is it. That's the game. So we went to bed and then the next morning we woke up, went to Walmart, got two badminton nets, cut up the center, staked them on the side of my mom's garden shed. Texted all the boys, like yo come over. And we just started making a game in the backyard, like you did when you're 12 years old.”7:47 - Building a brandChris had previously worked with his friend and brother on a startup during college. He knew that when creating his own company, he wanted to create a true brand.“I graduated with a film degree $100,000 in debt. And I was making like 40 grand a year. It wasn't sustainable. So I couldn't go home and focus on e-commerce. So I left. And my brother invented the GLUNT, which is the glass blunt, which is famous, probably the most famous glass blunt that went on for like millions of dollars in sales. It was really, really successful. And I gave up on the cane and I could have gotten involved in that. So when I started CROSSNET, I'm not giving up. I don't care how long this is going to take. It's going to work, just stay patient. So that was the e-commerce history kind of to set us up for good success because I knew I did not want to drop ship this thing. I wanted to form a brand.”12:53 - Balancing Uber and CROSSNETChris was still working in sales at Uber when he moved to Miami, juggling both his full-time job and experimenting with CROSSNET.“We started getting the proof of concept down. We had 50 units coming to the States, started selling them. And people started to take interest a little bit. I went to my boss [at Uber Eats] and I said, Hey, I don't know if I’m making the right move, but I’ve got a damn good idea. I'm going to move to Miami in two weeks. You'd either let me work remote—and this was before COVID. This is before everything—I was like, either let me work remote because this job is easy as hell and I can do it from my apartment, or I'm done. And he was so cool. And he's like, yeah, go work remote and lead the team. And I had a team of 12 people reporting to me. I led the team for six months working remote in Miami, on the beach playing CROSSNET during the day and answering emails from my phone for Uber.”16:08 - When your product is your billboardBy setting up live games in Miami and elsewhere, Chris and his team got an incredible amount of exposure that was better than any billboard.“What ended up happening was we go to the beach every day and set up the net. Get there at nine o'clock. And 20 minutes in we’d have everybody looking at us, every single person at that beach was staring at us taking photos. It was like a billboard, but it was just our product. I always say it's really hard to market a product that nobody gets to see, unless it's just one on one. When I set up a CROSSNET, hundreds of people see it. So people would start playing. I would film ads on my phone and go home and run Facebook ads at night. Eventually what would happen was you'd be on vacation in Colorado. You'd go home. And you sell nothing in Denver. And all of a sudden we started getting sales with Denver. And I'm like, oh shit, you must be out there playing, right. So it just started snowballing. We had 50 out, and then 250, and now there's 100,000 out there. So when summer comes, it's just that perfect storm.”21:14 - The first factoryAfter nailing down a prototype, Chris and the team went out in search of a factory. They negotiated a small starting quantity for about $20,000.“At this point we typed in Aliexpress Volleyball Nets. Found a few factories, sent over an NDA, sent over the blueprint. Our co-founder Mike was an engineer, so he was good at AutoCAD and we saved the cost there. Lucky. Sent it over, said yo, we have an idea. Immediately heard, ‘sure. $500 grand.’ $500? Who the hell do you think we are, $500 grand? No chance. Found one lady that was like, all right. I can do 50 for you. And we're like, please, we promise one day we'll be the biggest company. And now we outgrew our factory. We had to find a new supplier because it became so big. But to your point, negotiate. 50 units. Okay. We’ll wire over the check for $20 grand or whatever it was. We literally had $20 grand for this whole company to start.”25:06 - The video that went viralThe best growth moment came when Chris agreed to send a free sample to someone who ended up being on an Olympic volleyball team

[00:16] What’s in for you in today’s episode[01:20] Stephanie career backstory[02:39] Ekster’s customer service before and after Stephanie joined the agency[03:39] The strategy that Stephanie followed in building a scalable team [05:18] The metrics you should focus on to meet customers’ support demands[06:27] Understanding customer psychology when selling to multiple markets [08:56] Lessons that Stephanie learned while building a customer service team[11:08] Qualitative and quantitative measures to look into to scale tour business[12:23] Customer journey touchpoints and customer experience[14:49] The importance of customer experience in the COVID-19 era[16:47] How to differentiate your product with customer service and experience[19:05] Driving brand growth through customer experience, acquisition, and retention[20:29] Takeaways from the guest[21:39] What next for Stephanie and Ekster based on customer support[23:03] Where to learn more about Ekster and connect with Stephanie Contributors:Stephanie Robilliard - EksterJay Desai - @jayd3sai

“As you discount your product, you could potentially see better ad conversion.” @jayde3sai #DTCPOD“Sometimes when you discount to both new and returning customers, and your margin ends up going down. ” @jayde3sai #DTCPODWe Speak About:[01:17] DTC discounting twitter threadLearn more about how and when to discount In today’s episode of DTC Finds, we’re looking at a Twitter thread by David Rekuc, discussing discounting We’ll dive into this thread and breakdown what he has to say about it as well as our take on the pros and cons of discountingStay tuned as we learn more about this marketing strategy and its effects.If you’d like to learn more about Trend and our influencer marketing platform for influencers and brands visit trend.io. You can also follow us for tips on growing your following and running successful campaigns on Instagram and LinkedIn.Mentioned Links:David’s Twitter thread on discounting: https://twitter.com/DaveRekuc/status/1458841785292234754

“We're helping brands and agencies learn what creatives are working best and why” @rezakhadjavi #DTCPOD“Teams who take naming conventions really seriously have a really important cultural effect.” @rezakhadjavi #DTCPOD“We want to create an environment where our creative strategy is data driven.” @rezakhadjavi #DTCPOD“People are putting on a lot more of a creative strategist hat and thinking critically about the way that they're positioning their product.”@rezakhadjavi #DTCPOD“Most people don't know exactly what they're doing and they're trying to figure it out. So don't be discouraged.” @rezakhadjavi #DTCPODWe Speak About:[01:46] Reza introduces himself and Motion [02:45] Biggest challenges when finding creative [10:00] The importance of naming convention [19:39] Trends to look for when finding winning creative [25:26] Analyzing ads by funnel stage [28:22] Ad sets for variables[32:46] Top three learnings from the field [34:23] What’s next for Motion and where to find Reza Khadjavi onlineHow to find ad creative that’s working fastReza Khadjavi, CEO of Motion, joins the POD to give some insight on the software industry’s creative strategies. Motion helps brands find creative wins.Reza recognized that there is a lot of creative out there, and finding what works can benefit a brand’s ad spending and profits.Motion takes the approach of finding successful creative through data driven strategies.Reza recognizes that there are always trends to look for when locating creative that consumers respond well to, and implementing these strategies into brands is part of their process.A big part of ad success is finding a sync between creative and funnel stageMotion looks at all kinds of creative analysis when finding what curates the most reponses. Reza recognizes that creative is meant to be very visual, and this must be acknowledged in the process of obtaining a good stream of high quality creative. Motion uses a funnel stage when running the same analysis to see where the creative fits best. The brand has fostered further success by viewing the process as adding and alerting a few variables at a time to see what works.Reza recommends flipping between stage funnels to see what creative works best where.Stay tuned as Reza discusses more about motion and their strategies for optimizing and finding creative content for brands.If you’d like to learn more about Trend and our influencer marketing platform for influencers and brands visit trend.io. You can also follow us for tips on growing your following and running successful campaigns on Instagram and LinkedIn.Mentioned Links:Motion website: https://motionapp.com/Reza Khadjavi’s twitter: https://twitter.com/rezakhadjavi

“Not all organic creative can be paid creative and not all paid creative can be organic creative” @flexiblefoodie #DTCPOD“If you don't have the right partners in place, it's only going to cost you more down the road, so put time in your creating process.” @flexiblefoodie #DTCPOD“Just because you have the assets you have doesn't mean you have to present them in the way that you have them.” @flexiblefoodie #DTCPOD“People don't want to see product after product after product, and so you need to find a way to mention the product in different buckets.” @flexiblefoodie #DTCPOD“TikTok creative does not need to be perfect because it could be the simplest, stupidest thing in the world, but it could take off in 2 seconds” @flexiblefoodie #DTCPODWe Speak About:[01:04] Kendall introduces herself and Flexible Creative [03:48] Common and effective social growth strategy themes [05:34] What to consider when creating content [08:29] furthering connections and eliciting a response [13:48] Influencer strategy vs. social strategy [17:02] Creator strategies [22:20] Key learning and tips from utilizing TikTok[28:25] What’s next for Kendall Dickieson and where to her and the brand onlineHow to grow your Instagram and TikTok account to thousands of followersKendall Dickieson, Founder of Flexible Creative, joins the POD to give some insight on customer acquisition and building a presence on social media.Flexible creative is a business that helps brands share their story and build connections to their audience to unlock customer acquisition organicallyKendall specializes in optimizing DTC and CGP brands presence across multiple niches through social management. Kendall takes an approach of prioritizing distribution for social growth and recommends investing in strategy first before execution.Kendall recognizes the importance of being detail oriented with creative and limiting broad approaches.To win on social content, it’s important to not overthink itFlexible Creative stands out as a brand growth business due to Kendall’s extensive experience with social creative . While it is important to think outside the box with social marketing, sometimes it’s about working smarter not harder. Kendall takes the approach of tieing engagement back to products and brands rather than overstimulating customers with the same social engagement . The brand has also fostered further growth for brands by acknowledging the success that video platforms, such as TikTok, can bring.Kendall recommends producing and distributing content on a whim, because these can often outperform strategically designed content on platforms such as TikTok. Stay tuned as Kendall discusses ways to work with creators and the importance of driving community first. If you’d like to learn more about Trend and our influencer marketing platform for influencers and brands visit trend.io. You can also follow us for tips on growing your following and running successful campaigns on Instagram and LinkedIn.Mentioned Links:Kendall Dickieson website: https://www.kendalldickieson.com/Kendall Dickieson twitter: https://twitter.com/flexiblefoodie

“It's common nowadays to see lots of discounts around the holiday season, and so why not take this opportunity to really ramp up your sales ” @jayde3sai #DTCPOD“Bundles give you an opportunity to generate more value out of each transaction” @jayde3sai #DTCPODWe Speak About:[00:44] Black friday and cyber monday strategy article [01:47] Rewards and bundle discounts [04:20] Testing new products and categories [06:25] Giving Tuesday Tips and tricks for generating the most value out of black friday and cyber monday In today’s episode of DTC Finds, we’re looking at an article by Nik Sharma discussing great sales strategies for the holidays and providing unique promotions to boost sales.We’ll share some of the best strategies from this article and dive into how to offer these deals to customers.Stay tuned as we break down these unique holiday sales strategies as well as how to optimize the customer experience during holiday shopping. If you’d like to learn more about Trend and our influencer marketing platform for influencers and brands visit trend.io. You can also follow us for tips on growing your following and running successful campaigns on Instagram and LinkedIn.Mentioned Links: https://www.shopify.ca/blog/ask-nik-black-friday-cyber-monday-sales-strategies

“We're basically curating all of the Web's emerging brands, culture defining brands all in one place.” @maggiebethgibson #DTCPOD“We're trying to simplify the vast web of DTC brands that are currently continuing to pop up in the market” @maggiebethgibson #DTCPOD“We really want to give a voice to underrepresented founders and allow people to shop on their brand values and support the brands that align with those values.” @maggiebethgibson #DTCPOD“We test and try every product that is on our site.” @maggiebethgibson #DTCPODWe Speak About:[01:04] Maggie introduces herself and The Fascination [03:53] the opportunities that drew Maggie to the brand [05:44] The increase in online brand marketplaces [07:58] What’s missing from the brand website [10:22] Navigating what brands to pick[13:10] The Fascination playbook [14:25] The evolved marketplace [16:44] Common theme among successful brands [19:04] The old school way [20:20] Bundling products from different places [22:23] Consumer behavior and the online marketplace [25:32] Favorite DTC brands [26:33] What’s next for The Fascination[28:13] Where to find the brand, and Maggie Gibson onlineA view at the future of DTCMaggie Gibson, Head of partnerships and merchandising at The Fascination , joins the POD to give some insight on the media brand’s mission and consumer behavior The Fascination is a resource aimed at helping consumers shop, discover, and and research products customized to their needsMaggie recognizes that each consumer has their own individual needs and potential unrecognized needs, and she works to help consumers fulfill these needs A unique approach the brand takes is testing every product they recommend before showcasing it to the consumerMaggie recognizes that provisioning personal product feedback not aly helps the consumer but also helps the brand improve through recommendations Important values for consumers in the age of DTCThe Fascination stands out as a unique platform that aims to give honest reviews of products and provide the best experiences for consumers and their needs The brand further provides bundle suggestions for products Maggie looks for two distinctive factors when taking on a brand, which consist of the quality of the product and the impact it will have on numerous factors The online media platform has fostered further popularity by prioritizing each consumers values and pairing them with the values of a brandMaggie acknowledges how the virtual marketplace is influencing consumer behavior, and this factor un taken into account when predicting how future consumer will shopStay tuned as Maggie discusses top brands on their platform and how the distinguish between good and bad products If you’d like to learn more about Trend and our influencer marketing platform for influencers and brands visit trend.io. You can also follow us for tips on growing your following and running successful campaigns on Instagram and LinkedIn.Mentioned Links:The Fascination website: https://thefascination.com/Maggie Gibson’s Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maggiebethgibson/

“An editor’s pick section for your blog is great because you have some really high performing content that maybe is performing well on search or something that you want to highlight specifically that you think is important to helping people and guiding people through the purchase process.” @jayde3sai #DTCPOD“Make sure you have some strong internal linking. That's a good SEO that you can do to help improve the performance of your individual blog pages. ” @jayde3sai #DTCPODWe Speak About:[00:39] Twitter discussion for CPG brands with great blogs[05:37] eCommerce transactional emails Learn more about what makes a great brand blog and how to optimize your transactional emails In today’s episode of DTC Finds, we’re looking at a Twitter discussion on great CPG blogs and sharing a great resource you can use for inspiration for your transactional emailsWe’ll share some of the best examples from the Twitter discussion and then look at this swipe file from Wonderment for transactional emails!Stay tuned as we break down unique blog posts and strategies from top brands as well as how to stay connected with customers through the buying process. If you’d like to learn more about Trend and our influencer marketing platform for influencers and brands visit trend.io. You can also follow us for tips on growing your following and running successful campaigns on Instagram and LinkedIn.Mentioned Links:Twitter discussion on CPG blogs: https://twitter.com/kaleighf/status/1453481617163444229Wonderment transactional email swipe file: https://www.wonderment.com/ecom-txn-swipe-file

“It's really all about the resources that you have and how you can really put that together” @kristenxjones #DTCPOD“We're inclusive, and you have to be consistent in that and really show up for every person that you represent whenever you have that type of branding.” @kristenxjones #DTCPOD“Understanding the customer journey in the beginning, I think, is the most important thing that you can do before getting started with an outline.” @kristenxjones #DTCPOD“You want it to be really clear in the beginning about what makes your brand different.” @kristenxjones #DTCPOD“Through iterating and talking to our customers and learning, we've been able to figure out exactly what they want and we've been able to continue that.” @kristenxjones #DTCPODWe Speak About:[01:08] Kristen introduces herself and SuitShop [03:01] Managing long-form content and content marketing [06:15] Outsourcing content [09:54] The process of rebranding [14:30] Features of personalized automation marketing [18:28] Managing a hyper personalized flow [22:18] Building an effective pay funnel [26:48] Having enough content and creative [31:15] Secret cyber monday tip [32:45] What’s next for SuitShop and where to find the brand, and Kristen Jones onlineHow SuitShop thinks about content, email, paid ads, and growthKristen Jones, Director of marketing at SuitShop, joins the POD to give some insight on the direct-to-consumer content and creation SuitShop is an inclusive clothing brand that specializes in suits for everyone Kristen and the brand have been focusing their efforts on curating the new brand image that highlights their inclusivity to men, women, children, and pets An approach is taken with the customer service strategy by offering a personalized automated flow system that allows for more focus on the marketing strategy Kristen recognizes that when you state what your brand stands for, It has to be part of every business decision that you're thinking aboutUnderstanding the customer journey is key to DTC growthSuitShop stands out as an eCommerce clothing line that optimizes and personalizes the customer experienceThe brand curated a personalized journey for consumers by implementing a funnel system that divides customers into 3 categories to help further assist themKristen is consistently working toward where to add value propositions or benefits versus features and ultimately curtains the best content for consumers The brand also utilizes outside sources to assist in marketing optimization Kristen recommends reaching out to potential influences and “shooting your shot” Stay tuned as Kristen discusses paid ads, email marketing, and advice for black friday and cyber monday sales If you’d like to learn more about Trend and our influencer marketing platform for influencers and brands visit trend.io. You can also follow us for tips on growing your following and running successful campaigns on Instagram and LinkedIn.Mentioned Links:SuiShop’s website: https://suitshop.com/Kristen Jones twitter: https://twitter.com/kristenxjones

“A really good strategy that you can do with SMS heading into Black Friday Cyber Monday is sending an email push for SMS sign ups for early access.” @jayde3sai #DTCPOD“SMS is very different than email, in the sense that SMS messages should be more skimmable than email.” @jayde3sai #DTCPODWe Speak About:[00:41] Strategies to boost SMS sales and sign ups [04:51] Optimizing the landing page and DTC examples BFCM SMS sign up strategies plus a big landing page guideIn today’s episode of DTC Finds, we’re looking at a great Twitter thread discussing strategies for boosting SMS sales during black friday cyber monday and elements to add to the landing page.As we dive into the landing page guide from Nik Sharma, we’ll provide real DTC examples of how they improved elements of their landing pages.Stay tuned as we break down this twitter thread and learn more about how to optimize your landing page.If you’d like to learn more about Trend and our influencer marketing platform for influencers and brands visit trend.io. You can also follow us for tips on growing your following and running successful campaigns on Instagram and LinkedIn.Mentioned Links:BFCM SMS strategies: https://twitter.com/DTCNewsletter/status/1453727946342998029Landing page guide from Nik Sharma: https://nik.co/resources/landing-page-guide

“We built the brand up to this incredible business that has helped so many women find the right beauty products for them” @itsJoanneCoffey #DTCPOD“There's so much information that people are just putting into your hands, all you have to do is know how to find it and how to use it.” @itsJoanneCoffey #DTCPOD“We're really creating a relatable experience to that customer.” @itsJoanneCoffey #DTCPOD“We work on a very short basis because we want to adapt to trends and we want to have that room and that flexibility to really change things on a dime, because working for a small business, things change day by day” @itsJoanneCoffey #DTCPOD“If Aisling was a person I would think about what they would be texting to their best friend, and that's the perception I like to have when I do anything in marketing.” @itsJoanneCoffey #DTCPODWe Speak About:[01:17] Joanne Coffey introduces herself and Aisling Organics [02:53] How if you do what you love you never work a day in your life[03:47] Defining retention and when to start thinking about in the customer journey[05:02] Sources of inspiration and creating a limited addition experience[06:49] Direct marketing research as results [08:50] Benefits a benchmarking [10:05] Top 3 strategies for retention [11:35] How to manage general aspects of business growth [14:18] Building communication platforms[16:13] The “win back” flow[19:21] Content creation [21:32] Successful SMS marketing brands[23:55] Content production focus[25:24] Brands to look out for [27:02] What’s next for Joanne and where to find the brand online How Aisling Organics rentains customers through implementing feedback Joanne Coffey, Head of retention at Aisling Organics, joins the POD to give some insight on the direct-to-consumer business’s marketing and retention strategiesAisling Organics is a cosmetic brand that creates clean productsJoanne began with the company as an intern and due to her personal passion in the industry she worked her way up to handle marketing operations.Joanne puts consumers at the forefront of her strategy for improving the brand by analyzing current trends in the space and reviewing and accommodating feedback from consumers. Joanne recognizes that treating the brand as a person will further create a personalized experience for consumers. Building a brand that’s human is key to retention in DTCAisling Organics stands not only for their clean products but also the personalized experience that comes from consumers engaging in a personable marketing experience with the founder The brand has experienced growth by prioritizing customer feedback and adjusting to their needs and treating customers and an essential part of their business Consumers are treated as more than just buyers and retention is accomplished by creating a personable experience The brand has fostered further entrepreneurship opportunities by staying authentic with their SMS strategies and marketing posts Joanne recommends working smarter not harder and the best way to accomplish tasks is to do little things throughout the day. Stay tuned as Joanne discusses effective retention strategies. If you’d like to learn more about Trend and our influencer marketing platform for influencers and brands visit trend.io. You can also follow us for tips on growing your following and running successful campaigns on Instagram and LinkedIn.Mentioned Links:Aisling Organics website: https://aislingorganics.com/Joanne Coffey twitter: https://twitter.com/itsJoanneCoffey

“If you're working on consumer goods, stay focused, double down in that sense before jumping into retail.” @jayde3sai #DTCPOD“If you can give some sort of estimate of shipping speed, that's a really good thing to add in” @jayde3sai #DTCPODWe Speak About:[00:57] Awesome twitter thread from Corey Nicholson[06:29] Cushion Lab’s product pageLearn more about this DTC data and how to optimize the virtual buying experienceIn today’s episode of DTC Finds, we’re looking at a great Twitter thread discussing data from an ecommerce founders survey and breaking down a product page from the Cushion Lab, Ergonomic Memory Foam Pillows & BeddingWe’ll dive into these data points as well as focus in on elements of Cushion Lab’s awesome product pageStay tuned as we break down this twitter thread and learn more about how to optimize your product page If you’d like to learn more about Trend and our influencer marketing platform for influencers and brands visit trend.io. You can also follow us for tips on growing your following and running successful campaigns on Instagram and LinkedIn.Mentioned Links:See survey results from 25 DTC brands: https://twitter.com/coreynceo/status/1448333966201614336Check out awesome product page from Cushion Lab: https://thecushionlab.com/collections/all/products/ergonomic-seat-cushion

“Influencers have proven organically to be able to create content that engages with people” @TaylorLagace #DTCPOD“We're trying to find as many veins as possible to bleed dry, and once one starts going, we want to lean into that as much as possible.” @TaylorLagace #DTCPOD“People tend to allow human decision making into the matter a little bit too much.” @TaylorLagace #DTCPOD“The only way you lose the only way you miss the opportunity is if you do not put the creative into the account and let Facebook try to allow it to win and optimize.” @TaylorLagace #DTCPOD“You have to think about how you can make this more of a postal experience for the influencer.” @TaylorLagace #DTCPODWe Speak About:[01:10] Taylor introduces himself and Kynship[02:49] Going from zero to a million in four months with Anima House[07:16] The importance of content[09:02] What expectations to set for budget and creators[12:00] How to launch creative and save money[15:00] When to swap out creative[18:54] Finding and establishing creator product fit[21:39] Limiting the human decision making in creator marketing[24:41] The 500 influencer outreach strategy[26:00] How to optimize the influencer creative content[28:25] Advice for how to manage creative[31:38] What’s next for Kynship and where to find the brand, and Taylor Lagace onlineHow to go from 0 to $1M in 4 months with the use of creatorsTaylor Lagace, Co-founder and Co-CEO of Kynship, joins the POD to give some insight on the marketing agency’s growth, content creative strategies for brands, and influencer marketing. Kynship is an influencer marketing agency that has created tremendous growth for brands.Taylor recognized that a no strings attached approach to influencer marketing is one of many effective creator strategies can save brands money but also attract growthThe approach consists of reaching out to a large number of influencers per month with no expectation of receiving product promotion and beginning organic growth from there. Taylor recommends budgeting 2% of your annual revenue towards product seating over the course of the year.Content is king, creative is everything Kynship stands out as an advertising and marketing agency that specializes in influencer strategiesThe brand fosters growth for businesses by implementing the power of influencers and allowing facebook to optimize creative contentTaylor recognizes the power of creative and treats it as part of the business model that should be reviewed and edited monthly. The business additionally optimizes the influencer strategy for brands by pinpointing the creators generating the most attention and continuing to implement them as part of the marketing plan.Taylor recommends looking back at every three months and analyze who the top performers were out of all the influencers that ended up posting free of costStay tuned as Taylor discusses how Kynship uses influencer seeding and why having a human factor in creator marketing may lead to higher profitsIf you’d like to learn more about Trend and our influencer marketing platform for influencers and brands visit trend.io. You can also follow us for tips on growing your following and running successful campaigns on Instagram and LinkedIn.Mentioned Links:Kynship website: https://kynship.co/Taylor Lagace twitter: https://twitter.com/TaylorLagace

“DataMilk analyzes your user’s behavior and then it launches UX changes automatically and then tests them to see how conversion goes.” @jayde3sai #DTCPOD“Figure out what is the right discount for your brand that is relevant to your margin.” @jayde3sai #DTCPODWe Speak About:[00:20] What does DataMilk do for your brand [03:21] Top DTC holiday campaigns Steal these DTC finds for deals and profitsIn today’s episode of DTC Finds, we’re looking at a great Twitter thread discussing how 437 DTC brands ran BFCM last year and DataMilk, a tool that can help you ship UX changes fast.We’ll also dive into some great strategies for boosting sales around the holidays, or any occasion.Stay tuned as we dive into some awesome conversion and user friendly strategies and creative techniques to get consumers ready for the holidays.If you’d like to learn more about Trend and our influencer marketing platform for influencers and brands visit trend.io. You can also follow us for tips on growing your following and running successful campaigns on Instagram and LinkedIn.Mentioned Links:Check out DataMilk: https://www.datamilk.ai/Insights from DTC brands from last BFCM: https://twitter.com/AaronOrendorff/status/1445075914887290884

“You need one single unified environment to manage your businesses” @jbernard23 #DTCPOD“There's such a connectivity between how a digital commerce grows, and you really need to have all of that data in one environment.” @jbernard23 #DTCPOD“The digital commerce landscape has changed in terms of consumer expectations for speed and shipping costs.” @jbernard23 #DTCPOD“There's a great opportunity, I think, for innovation still with meeting that need for discoverability and experience for consumers.” @jbernard23 #DTCPOD“Everything can be measured. That's the beauty of digital.” @jbernard23 #DTCPODWe Speak About:[00:59] Julie introduces herself and Tradeswell [02:47] Marketing and how it relates to other departments of the business[05:40] Recording data and what to do with it [08:33] Key differences in how consumers buy[12:43] importance of embracing technology[16:24] The present and future role of AI [20:07] Businesses sizes and technology [22:07] internal business strategies to implement before technology[24:51] Key learnings working with brands post-pandemic [28:12] What’s next for Tradeswell and where to find the brand, and Julie BernardHow Tradeswell helps brands create profit through data Julie Bernard, Chief Marketing Officer of Tradeswell, joins the POD to give some insight on the business’s actionable insights, customer experience, and marketing data & technology Tradeswell is a company that helps brands unify data, leverage AI-generated insights and accelerate essential decisions to empower growth across the digital commerce landscape.Julie realizes that to empower growth across the digital commerce landscape, the data and business operations function better when unified.A unique approach is taken by creating a quantitative trading platform that implements real-time algorithms and insights, to uncover and execute the optimal actions companies need to growJulie recognizes that technology can help small businesses operate at the same level of sophistication as their larger business counterparts.Understanding you data, and drawing insights from it, is key to growthTradeswell stands out as a platform that simplifies the process for a brand to visualize the whole picture of their ecommerce business, while leveraging machine learning to receive insights and cross-channel operations.The company understands that the technologies that are out there are more cost effective, accessible, and sophisticated than ever, and the brand works to help others make informed decisions Julie takes the approach of integrating authentical actionable insights and team empowerment to achieve success within the business The brand further acknowledges that just because it can be measured through data, does not mean that it shouldJulie recommends to to draw some conclusions and have insights on the data that you do have rather than being on a perpetual pursuit of perfectionStay tuned as Julie discusses AI and post-pandemic business learnings. If you’d like to learn more about Trend and our influencer marketing platform for influencers and brands visit trend.io. You can also follow us for tips on growing your following and running successful campaigns on Instagram and LinkedIn.Mentioned Links:Tradeswell Website: https://www.tradeswell.com/Julie Bernard’s Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/jbernard23

“Returns don't necessarily mean that someone didn't like your product, it might be that it just wasn't the right product for them.” @jayde3sai #DTCPOD“Having a really good process in place for potential exchanges or even outlining that policy is something all stores should be thinking about.” @jayde3sai #DTCPODWe Speak About:[01:52] SMS templates you need to steal[03:55] A product that will help you turn returns into exchanges to save revenueCheck out these DTC finds for SMS and returnsIn today’s episode of DTC finds, we’re looking at some great SMS templates and an awesome tool to use for saving lost revenue from returns.Everyone knows that having a strong playbook for marketing is important for success. Instead of just trying SMS without a proven playbook, we’ll share a resource with you that can help take your SMS to the next level.We’ll also share with you a must-use resource for returns and talk through return strategy as a way to grow your business.Stay tuned as we dive into awesome SMS strategies and useful tool for maintaining revenue and customers.If you’d like to learn more about Trend and our influencer marketing platform for influencers and brands visit trend.io. You can also follow us for tips on growing your following and running successful campaigns on Instagram and LinkedIn.Mentioned Links:SMS strategies: https://sms-templates.com/A product to help with your returns strategy: https://www.loopreturns.com/

“I'm thinking very consciously about the impact that I'm having.” @trevorcarlson1 #DTCPOD“The biggest mistake people can make is assume that their target customer speaks the same way that they do and that they already know everything that they're trying to tell them.” @trevorcarlson1 #DTCPOD“You're not going to marry somebody on the first date, so why would you expect somebody to buy from you when they don't know who you are.” @trevorcarlson1 #DTCPOD“You need a large amount of creative to test, and you never really know what's going to work until you test it.” @trevorcarlson1 #DTCPOD“No matter what anybody tells you, you don't know what is going to work, we've had some really stupid things work.” @trevorcarlson1 #DTCPODWe Speak About:[01:04] Trevor introduces himself and Fresh Fuel Marketing[03:13] Sale strategies for each part of the funnell [09:32] Hotjar recording and dynamic landing pages[14:12] Strategic educational content[15:54] What type of business to prioritize [17:44] Webinars and Facebook live [21:30] Building a loyal customer base [23:29] Getting creative with your creative[27:02] How often should creative be modified [29:50] Advice to other brands [31:22] Where to find Fresh Fuel Marketing and Trevor Carlson onlineHow Fresh Fuel Marketing takes marketing strategies to a whole new levelTrevor Carlson, CEO of Fresh Fuel Marketing, joins the POD to give some insight on the marketing agency’s customer retention and ad strategy Fresh Fuel Marketing is a full-service digital marketing agency specializing in the food and beverage industry.Trevor came into the space due to his personal values of making a positive impact, and his meaningfulness added value to the agencies goalsThe agency takes an approach with helping brands grow by first making sure the business’s website is in order. Trevor recognizes that customers won’t buy a product they’re not informed about and educating them should be a top priority.Being creative and enjoying the process are key steps to creating a better adsFresh Fuel marketing stands out as an as a marketing agency but not only helping brand attract customs but also keep them coming backThe brand views content related advertising as a top priority and follows a successful step-by-step process when it comes to engaging with customers through websites . Trevor believes you must educate your consumer before you can lead them in the direction of an offer, and this approach has helped their brands grow The agency takes their marketing a step further by recognizing that each brand’s end goal is not to receive a purchase from the customer but instead create a relationship.Trevor recommends having fun when creating the content and writing the ads, because the more fun that you have creating the landing page, the more enjoyable experienceStay tuned as Trevor discusses how Fresh Fuel Marketing not only fosters profit but also customer loyalty.If you’d like to learn more about Trend and our influencer marketing platform for influencers and brands visit trend.io. You can also follow us for tips on growing your following and running successful campaigns on Instagram and LinkedIn.Mentioned Links:Fresh Fuel Marketing website: https://freshfuelmarketing.com/Trevor Carlson’s Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/trevorcarlson1

“Mentioning free shipping and returns is something that can help to ease buyer concerns.” @jayde3sai #DTCPOD“Put together a link strategy for sending pre-filled carts via text using Shopify permalinks.” @jayde3sai #DTCPODWe Speak About:[00:46] Season Three email strategy to ease buyer concern[02:58] Shopify’s SMS link strategyTry this email from Season Three and this SMS link strategy from ShopifyIn today’s episode of fantastic emails and texts, we’re looking at content from Season Three and a great SMS tip if you have Shopify.Season Three is a brand that creates contemporary apparel influenced by art culture and an outdoor ethos, while our Shopify tip comes from Brian Dickey at Postscript.Season Three sends out a great informative email, while this Shopify tip is awesome for an SMS strategy that utilizes url links.Stay tuned as we dive into an awesome email from Season Three and an easy access SMS strategy for Shopify stores. If you’d like to learn more about Trend and our influencer marketing platform for influencers and brands visit trend.io. You can also follow us for tips on growing your following and running successful campaigns on Instagram and LinkedIn.Mentioned Links:Great email from Season Three: https://reallygoodemails.com/emails/free-shipping-and-returns-on-the-anselHow to send pre-filled carts via text with Shopify: https://twitter.com/BryanDickey_/status/1437910490374680581

“Understanding your point of differentiation is key.” @HectorIanG #DTCPOD“If you're going to be serving in a large market, hundreds of thousands people are going to be eating your product or drinking your product so you want to make sure that it's as safe as it could possibly be.” @HectorIanG #DTCPOD“You have to be putting a product out there and engaging and thinking about what it takes to take it to the next level at the same time .” @HectorIanG #DTCPOD“Food items act differently in different environments and situations, so you need to be mindful of those variables.” @HectorIanG #DTCPOD“You can go far in a business with one product if you really focus on on delivering an amazing experience” @HectorIanG #DTCPODWe Speak About:[01:01] Hector introduces himself and JOI [02:21] How JOI became a business opportunity[05:05] What to be aware of when working with CPG[07:26] The transition from tabletop to manufacturing at scale [11:19] Elements to consider when scaling [14:13] Characteristics to look for in fulfillment partnership [18:38] Defining internal and external fulfillment [22:08] Balancing the bundles [25:12] How to continue innovating the product line[28:41] Challenges faced as a CEO and advice to other CEO’s[31:35] What’s next for JOI and where to find Hector onlineHow to go from your kitchen to manufacturing at scaleHector Gutierrez, CEO of JOI, joins the POD to give some insight on manufacturing and operations for JOI.JOI is a brand that specializes in plant milk concentrates.Hector recognized that there was a growing demand for clean, healthy, and sustainable eating, and he helped to develop a label that accommodated this need.A common approach taken when creating products for consumption is to start in the kitchen, and Hector discusses there successful strategy from taking the brand from tabletop to mass selling.Hector recognizes that products are bound to change when the environment in which they are created changes, and accommodating for this the best you can is an essential factor for sustainable growth.Growing your product requires talking to customersJOI stands out as an eCommerce brand company for its versatile, clean, and sustainable plant-based products.The brand has experienced continuous sustained growth by listening to their customers and being open to change as demand grows.Hector takes a strategic approach to achieving successful growth considering what can be done by the brand before deciding what needs to be done by a fulfillment partner. The brand has fostered further growth by innovating the product line and understanding how to accommodate all the factors of nation wide shipping.Hector recommends taking the time to look at every aspect of the brand to determine if you are going in the right direction.Stay tuned as Hector discusses how JOI went from tabletop to mass selling, and the operational procedures that got him there.If you’d like to learn more about Trend and our influencer marketing platform for influencers and brands visit trend.io. You can also follow us for tips on growing your following and running successful campaigns on Instagram and LinkedIn.Mentioned Links:JOI’s website: https://addjoi.com/Hector Gutierrez’s twitter: https://twitter.com/HectorIanG

“If you have complimentary products, you can use your email to act as a cross sell.” @jayde3sai #DTCPOD“The other thing that this text does really well is outline all of the different products that are going to be included” @jayde3sai #DTCPODWe Speak About:[00:30] Casper’s cross-selling email strategy [02:48] Kopari’s SMS outlineGrab this email from Casper and this SMS outline strategy from KopariIn today’s episode of fantastic emails and texts, we’re looking at content from Casper and and KopariCasper is a global brand that creates sleep essentials, while Kopari develops coconut based skincare productsCasper sends out a great outline email that promotes cross-selling, while Kopari has an awesome SMS that advertises their products with UGC.Stay tuned as we dive into an awesome email from Casper and a visual SMS strategy from KopariIf you’d like to learn more about Trend and our influencer marketing platform for influencers and brands visit trend.io. You can also follow us for tips on growing your following and running successful campaigns on Instagram and LinkedIn.Mentioned Links:Casper email example: https://twitter.com/KAEBEEBUI/status/1438852815363923971Where to find Kopari’s SMS with UGC: https://fantastictexts.com/beauty/

“We were tapping into a market that was really underserved, which was products with clean formulations” @thats_a_moret #DTCPOD“The only difference between an entrepreneur and everybody else is they had the guts to go out and do it.” @thats_a_moret #DTCPOD“After the first six months, you're going to learn so much and you're going to want to change everything.” @thats_a_moret #DTCPODWhen you're trying to grow and scale a company, you have to make decisions on the fly and learn how to get really good at that.” @thats_a_moret #DTCPOD“The more friction, the less likely we are to convert people to customers” @thats_a_moret #DTCPODWe Speak About:[01:04] Sarah introduces herself and Curie [02:43] How Curie became a business opportunity[06:34] The business growth journey [11:10] The importance of networking and embracing change [15:51] An essential skill set for running a business [19:30] Questions to ask customers[23:53] Differentiating the product line[26:58] adding to the customer experience[29:59] Innovation, partnerships, and QR codes[33:26] What’s next for Curie and where to find Sarah Moret onlineHow Curie targeted an underserved need and created a business opportunity Sarah Moret, Co-founder and CEO of Curie, joins the POD to give some insight on the business’s growth, marketing strategy, and how the brand got started. Curie is a brand that develops natural and effective body care products Sarah recognized that when it comes to hygiene and deodorant, there is an increasing desire among customers for clean and effective ingredients. To fill this gap, Sarah created a brand that catered toward this efficacy A unique approach was taken to achieve organic growth by using social media as the primary source of advertising, and networking to as many people as possible to create word of mouth brand awareness Sarah recognizes that the beginning stages of starting a business should be heavily open to change as you learn more about your customers Customer feedback is crucial to driving growthCurie stands out as an eCommerce bodycare company for its effective and safe products. The brand has experienced growth and retention by prioritizing customer feedback to improve their products and differentiating themselves from the competition. Sarah takes a unique approach to achieving successful growth being open to change within any aspect of the business as she learns more about her customers The brand has fostered further growth by making quick decisions and not wasting time when it comes to solving a problem.Sarah recommends reaching out to loyal customs for input on how to better your business. Stay tuned as Sarah discusses how Curie stays ahead of its competitors and creative marketing strategiesIf you’d like to learn more about Trend and our influencer marketing platform for influencers and brands visit trend.io. You can also follow us for tips on growing your following and running successful campaigns on Instagram and LinkedIn.Mentioned Links:Curie’s website: https://curiebod.com/Sarah Moret’s twitter: https://twitter.com/thats_a_moret

“If your product has a lot of complicated ingredients or might be a product that's used within a specific niche, you want to try and make sure that you're not using jargon in your copy.” @jayde3sai #DTCPOD“If you have a product that can either improve someone's life or improve someone's situation, showing before and after pictures could be really useful.” @jayde3sai #DTCPODWe Speak About:[01:03] Kettle & Fire’s educational email[03:39] Snow’s before and after SMS strategy Try this email from Kettle & Fire and this SMS image strategy from SnowIn today’s episode of fantastic emails and texts, we’re looking at content from Kettle & Fire and SnowSnow is a brand that creates revolutionary products for oral care, while Kettle & Fire develops bone broth made with bones from organically raised chickens or cattleKettle & Fire sends out a great educational email to inform customers of the benefits of bone broth, while Snow has an awesome SMS that shows how their products can improve your lifeStay tuned as we dive into an awesome email from Kettle & Fire and a visual SMS strategy from Snow If you’d like to learn more about Trend and our influencer marketing platform for influencers and brands visit trend.io. You can also follow us for tips on growing your following and running successful campaigns on Instagram and LinkedIn.Mentioned Links:See Kettle & Fire’s educational email: https://twitter.com/debgotwired/status/1431998137225203719Where to find Snow’s SMS from the episode: https://fantastictexts.com/DTC POD episode with Kettle & Fire: https://trend.io/blog/kettle-and-fire-marketing-growth-strategy

“I’m passionate about working with eCommerce founders to help them build a business that works better for them” @a_brawn #DTCPOD“I started to think about ways to build a business that was lot less reliant on me and it flipped around my relationship with work, and it put me in a position where I could be more valuable to my company.” @a_brawn #DTCPOD“Start thinking about the relationships you have with other people in your business as opportunities to build and expand on trust and to unlock growth.” @a_brawn #DTCPOD“Find a hero product to grow, and once you start to feel the pull back on your advertising, look at developing other products that are complementary and will allow your brand to expand.” @a_brawn #DTCPOD“Spend more time on the Merchandising than on the fancy marketing, and you'll probably have more success.” @a_brawn #DTCPODWe Speak About:[01:04] Austin introduces himself and Brand Growth Experts [02:38] Time and resource management[06:03] An essential element for brand enrichment and freedom[10:41] Tasks to delegate early on[13:17] A unique hiring process test to balance a brands’ method of operation[16:40] Brand growth from a metrics perspective [20:48] When to expand or double down your products [26:32] There is more than one version of success[29:27] What’s next for Austin Brawner and where to find him onlineHow Brand Growth Experts method of freedom leads to profit Austin Brawner, CEO of Brand Growth Experts, joins the POD to give some insight on brand growth, business mindsets, and product strategies. Brand Growth Experts is a marketing agency that helps early stage store owners achieve growth in their businesses while freeing up more time to do what they loveAustin recognized that when it comes to building a business, it is common to feel overworked and reach a burnout. To avoid this problem he has created a brand that fosters opportunities of enrichment for companies as a whole. Approaches are taken to allow more freedom and room to be creative by identifying the methods of operation within a business and outsourcing skill sets that are currently weakened within the company. Austin recognizes that there is not a right and wrong way to grow a business and success comes from your mindset about the business.Delegation is key to scaling in DTCBrand Growth Experts stands out as a marketing company that prioritizes an underused element for brand growth… freedom. The brand has learned from experience that a business must balance out their skill set within an organization, and freedom comes from trusting your workers and letting go of total control.Austin suggests looking for the things that are repeatable in your business that can be systematized, and then begin delegating those tasks to free up your time to focus on the bigger picture.The brand has fostered further growth opportunities for brands by locating a hero product before expanding. Austin recommends fostering empowerment and trust within your brand, because what you believe about your business is what it will become.Stay tuned as Austin discusses additional factors for success he has learned from working with other brands . If you’d like to learn more about Trend and our influencer marketing platform for influencers and brands visit trend.io. You can also follow us for tips on growing your following and running successful campaigns on Instagram and LinkedIn.Mentioned Links:Brand Growth Expert’s website: https://www.brandgrowthexperts.com/Austin Brawner’s website http://www.austinbrawner.com/Austin Brawner twitter: https://twitter.com/a_brawn

“People are more likely to not unsubscribe when you allow them to opt out of emails that potentially don't fit them.” @jadesai94 #DTCPOD“Make sure that your SMS strategy really lines up with what your brand is about.” @jadesai94 #DTCPODWe Speak About:[00:44] Breaking down GrooveLife’s segmenting email strategy [03:29] Not Pot’s pre- purchase SMS strategy Steal this email from GrooveLife and this direct SMS strategy from Not Pot In today’s episode of fantastic emails and texts, we’re looking at content from GrooveLife and Not PotGrooveLife is a brand that stands out for producing top-of-the-line active lifestyle accessories, while Not Pot develops vegan CBD products.GrooveLife sends out a great email that segments their users and prevents unsubscribes while Not Pot has SMS strategy that sets expectations and curates loyal followers.Stay tuned as we dive into an awesome email from GrooveLife and an informative SMS strategy from Not Pot .If you’d like to learn more about Trend and our influencer marketing platform for influencers and brands visit trend.io. You can also follow us for tips on growing your following and running successful campaigns on Instagram and LinkedIn.Mentioned Links:GrooveLife’s opt-out email: https://twitter.com/BryantGarvin/status/1386820671271882752Not Pot’s strong SMS strategy: https://blueprint.store/post/5-food-beverage-brands-killing-it-with-sms-marketing

“Trust breeds bravery, and when you're in innovation you're asking a lot of your clients and your customers to take a leap of faith with you” @OrchidBertelsen #DTCPOD“Your agency is only going to be as good as you let them” @OrchidBertelsen #DTCPOD“Every opportunity where someone is seeing your brand for either the first time or the 10th time is an opportunity to convert them.” @OrchidBertelsen #DTCPOD“When it comes to the Metaverse and towing into this digital world, we have to think beyond product placement.” @OrchidBertelsen #DTCPOD“A successful brand that is going to play in the digital space knows their consumer extremely well, but also knows most importantly the parameters and the confines of their brand.” @OrchidBertelsen #DTCPODWe Speak About:[00:53] Orchid introduces herself and Nestle [03:10] Past experiences that strengthen a skillset in brand strategy and innovation[06:57] The shift in marketing and why commerce is everybody’s job [09:51] Embracing digital change [11:30] Ideation does not equal innovation [15:31] Success metrics for emerging technologies [21:07] Up and coming technologies to get excited about[24:40] What’s emerging in the CPG space for digital products [28:47] Pushing brands into new places to maintain relevance [33:52] What’s next for Nestle and where to find Orchid onlineTechnology is continually changing and DTC must keep upOrchid Bertelsen, head of Consumer Experience Strategy & Innovation at Nestle, joins the POD to give some insight into emerging technologies and marketing strategies from a large brand perspectiveNestle is one the world’s largest food and beverage companies, passionate about unlocking the power of food to enhance quality of life for everyoneOrchid has a unique skill set in marketing technologies, and understands that technology is innovating faster than ever before and if brands want to stay top of mind for consumers they have to keep up.Her role involves analyzing, creating, and implementing the success metrics for digital marketing Orchid recognizes that as the commerce world becomes increasingly competitive, a brand has to strategically think about where they are trying to get to and then build a plan that is differentiated enough to get them thereSometimes in DTC, You have to keep upOrchid Bertelson dives into her knowledge of the digital marketing world and how stay top of mind for consumersShe emphasizes her success at Nestle involves an understanding that consumers are given a platform like never before and it is important to listen while creating a workspace where everyone understands commerce is part of their job.Orchid breaks down why performance metrics for innovation are difficult to measure and how to analyze them. She has fostered further success by focusing on new business models and keeping a close eye on emerging technology.Orchid recommends fostering trust with customers to further their customer experienceStay tuned as Orchid discusses great customer experiences from a large brand perspective and innovation.If you’d like to learn more about Trend and our influencer marketing platform for influencers and brands visit trend.io. You can also follow us for tips on growing your following and running successful campaigns on Instagram and LinkedIn.Mentioned Links:Nestle: https://www.nestle.com/Orchid Bertelson’s twitter: https://twitter.com/OrchidBertelsen

“If you have different values, features, or quality items you can use this in an email to highlight how your brand compares to competitors.” @jadesai94 #DTCPOD“Instead of you grabbing the phone number, Usual Wines takes the approach of having people message you.” @jadesai94 #DTCPODWe Speak About:[00:44] Breaking down Felix Gray’s differentiation email[03:48] Usual Wine’s SMS strategy Try this email from Felix Gray and this SMS strategy from Usual Wines that has make your customer text youIn today’s episode of fantastic emails and texts, we’re looking at content from Felix Gray and Usual Wines.Felix Gray is a brand that differentiates itself by providing high-quality Blue Light eyewear while Usual Wines is a brand that takes an artful approach to making real wine and delivering it in generous single-serve glasses. Felix Gray sends out a great email that differentiates itself from competitors and Usual Wines has an unusual strategy to get customers to text firstStay tuned as we dive into an awesome email from Felix Gray and a unique SMS style from Usual Wines. If you’d like to learn more about Trend and our influencer marketing platform for influencers and brands visit trend.io. You can also follow us for tips on growing your following and running successful campaigns on Instagram and LinkedIn.Mentioned Links:Felix Gray’s email on differentiation: https://reallygoodemails.com/emails/what-makes-us-differentUsual Wines website with SMS capture at the bottom: https://usualwines.com/

“Have one on one conversations and really deep dive into who is actually engaging and shopping with you.” @AjaSinger #DTCPOD“Make sure you understand what's happening in broader culture and adapt if it is aligned with your particular brand identity.” @AjaSinger #DTCPOD“I've been noticing that brands are experimenting a lot more and having more fun, they're not sticking so strictly to a specific set of brand guidelines” @AjaSinger #DTCPOD“A brand can be more than just selling a product, people are looking for like minded people to connect with.” @AjaSinger #DTCPOD“Empowering community members and shoppers is the best way to gain brand trust and develop trust with those people.” @AjaSinger #DTCPODWe Speak About:[00:57] Aja introduces herself[02:15] How Aja got into brand creative and product design [04:06] Experience that led to successful consulting [05:37] Questions to consider to an evolving brand[08:52] Adapting brand identity to the culture [10:31] Knowledgeable takeaways from the evolving eCommerce space [14:05] The power of community [15:27] How to create and connect within a community brand [18:02] Successful engagement approaches[20:03] What to expect from DTC brands in the coming year[21:35] How to engage with customers and the importance of experimenting [23:33] What makes a brand/product special[25:24] Brands that stand out [27:18] What’s next for Aja Singer and where to find her onlineAja Singer, an insight on working with ambitious brands through creative and brand strategy Aja Singer, a creative and brand strategy consultant for mission driven DTC brands, joins the POD to give some insight on creative strategy and product developmentAja spent the last 10+ years mastering brand creative & product design, and became the creative director for an e-commerce startup that grew into a multi-million dollar businessShe now uses her skill set, in uncovering what drives consumer behavior and creating products and content that inspires community and drives revenue, to help other startups in needIn addition to being a consultant, Aja also has a newsletter to inform about branding and DTC trends Aja recognizes that people and the market are always evolving, and it is important to keep upCommunity is key for DTC growthAja Singer stands out as a brand consultant for her extensive knowledge in brand creative, strategy, and design She has helped foster sustained growth for brands by centering community and personal interaction with consumers as the key to success Aja recognizes the importance of connecting with consumers and understanding their needs to curate products and messaging that speaks to themShe fostered further opportunities for brands by paying attention to evolving marketing strategies and recognizing what works for current trendsAja recommends creating an engaging community for your brand and experimenting with marketing strategies Stay tuned as Aja discusses how to build a community around your brand and product strategy and design trendsIf you’d like to learn more about Trend and our influencer marketing platform for influencers and brands visit trend.io. You can also follow us for tips on growing your following and running successful campaigns on Instagram and LinkedIn.Mentioned Links:Aja Singer’s newsletter: https://ajasinger.substack.com/Aja Singer’s twitter: https://twitter.com/ajasingerAja Singer’s website: http://www.ajasinger.com/

“If customers are buying two and they're getting one for free, they can give one of the products away, and that's a way to acquire related customers.” @jadesai94 #DTCPOD“If you have an Instagram account, or maybe you're posting on Tik Tok or a Facebook group, those are really good spots to pick comments from and use for content.” @jadesai94 #DTCPODWe Speak About:[00:42] Breaking down Austin Eastciders product launch email[03:26] Blume’s successful SMS strategy Steal this email from Austin Eastciders and this SMS that drives customer acquisition from BlumeIn today’s episode of fantastic emails and texts, we’re looking at content from Austin Eastciders and Blume.Austin Eastciders is a craft cidery in Austin, Texas dedicated to making America fall in love with cider all over again while Blume is a beauty product brand for women.Austin Eastciders sends out a great email by implementing customer reviews to fill content and Blume sends out a great text that can attract new customers through a discount.Stay tuned as we dive into an awesome email from Austin Eastciders and a great customer acquisition SMS from Blume.If you’d like to learn more about Trend and our influencer marketing platform for influencers and brands visit trend.io. You can also follow us for tips on growing your following and running successful campaigns on Instagram and LinkedIn.Mentioned Links:Austin Eastciders’ email with feedback from customers: https://reallygoodemails.com/emails/you-asked-for-it-you-got-it-Where to find Blume’s BFCM text: https://fantastictexts.com/bfcm/

“We want to be the best in the world at Search Engine Optimization, and that's it.” @kmillertime421 #DTCPOD“All the different questions you could possibly need to know in order to make an informed purchase decision, we help write that, and we give that to the customer.” @kmillertime421 #DTCPOD“You don't need to spend $10,000 a month on SEO, you can just work very slowly and methodically to master the results for your brand name.” @kmillertime421 #DTCPOD“Focus on the activities that are actually going to convert into incremental dollars earned.” @kmillertime421 #DTCPOD“There's 1.5 million people a month that search for the term word counter, and right now we rank number three for that term.” @kmillertime421 #DTCPODWe Speak About:[01:51] Kevin introduces himself and Gr0 [03:26] The importance of utilizing organic search for brands[05:03] Types of brands and content to focus on[07:20] Helpful ways to earn PR as a startup [09:33] Looking at organic search as a performance marketing channel [11:02] Key factors to track and look for in organic search [12:51] Tools that improve search traffic [14:37] Common mistakes that brands can potentially capitalize on [16:32] Quick tips to improve SEO[18:08] Brands succeeding in organic search and their strategy [20:03] What content a brand should attack first [21:26] How to further generate traffic[23:56] Effective ways to use organic search to your advantage [25:48] How to stay ahead of google’s search algorithm [28:16] Where to find the Agency and Kevin Miller onlineDiving into eCommerce SEO strategyKevin Miller, Co-founder and CEO of Gr0, joins the POD to give some insight on how the agency curates growth for brands through organic search Gr0 is an SEO agency that scales brands online.Kevin recognizes that organic search can be utilized as a performance marketing channel, and uses this approach to drive sales and revenue for brandsThe agency’s goal is to build organic SEO content to help brands avoid paying all their gross margin to platforms such as facebook and google. Kevin recognizes that it is important for businesses to build out all their media profiles. Paid ads aren’t the only way to grow in DTC, organic helps tooGr0 stands out as an agency with digital marketing experts committed to help rank brands #1 on google, organically The agency focuses on digital strategies to get brand recognition and implements suggestions for brands to stay ahead of google algorithm updates . Kevin takes the approach to achieving successful growth for brands by reiterating the importance of getting the brand name out their end being editorial with the brand’s page Gr0 analyzes brands and discovers what specific content each brand should take on first that would work best for search optimizationKevin recommends that if you're just starting a project, it's great to announce it online because legitimate companies do press releases.Stay tuned as Kevin discusses the benefits of utilizing organic search and easy steps to take to optimize your brand through SEOIf you’d like to learn more about Trend and our influencer marketing platform for influencers and brands visit trend.io. You can also follow us for tips on growing your following and running successful campaigns on Instagram and LinkedIn.Mentioned Links:Gr0 website: https://gr0.com/Kevin Miller’s twitter: https://twitter.com/kmillertime421Kevin Miller’s website: https://kevinmiller.com/Kevin Miller’s email: [email protected]

“If you haven't implemented an SMS list and you're thinking about it, use conversational copy to convince people to sign up.” @jadesai94 #DTCPOD“If you're having a product launch, I highly recommend putting some sort of urgency on it, especially when you're sending out that message via text and telling people how much quantity is.” @jadesai94 #DTCPODWe Speak About:[02:05] Breaking down Italic’s unique conversational email[04:10] Doe lashes SMS strategy Copy this email from Italic and this SMS that drives urgency fro Doe LashesIn today’s episode of fantastic emails and texts, we’re looking at content from Italic and Doe Lashes.Italic is a brand that prides itself on providing quality goods while Doe Lashes specializes in handcrafted silk lashes.Italic sends out a great email to convert email subscribers into SMS subscribers and Doe Lashes sends out a great text for an upcoming product launch.Stay tuned as we dive into an awesome email from Italic and a great urgency-driving SMS from Doe Lashes. If you’d like to learn more about Trend and our influencer marketing platform for influencers and brands visit trend.io. You can also follow us for tips on growing your following and running successful campaigns on Instagram and LinkedIn.Mentioned Links:Italic’s SMS opt-in email: https://twitter.com/lovevalgeisler/status/1425821223175565312Where to find Doe Lashes’ SMS: https://fantastictexts.com/product-launch/Italic founder Jeremy Cai on the DTC POD: https://trend.io/blog/founder-stories-jeremy-cai-italicDoe Lashes’ founder Jason Wong on the DTC POD: https://trend.io/blog/brand-building-influencer-marketing

“Email is really intimate, but in a way that is super scalable.” @ecomchasedimond #DTCPOD“I used email as a way to build audiences and nurture, convert, engage folks to buy products or services or consume more content.” @ecomchasedimond #DTCPOD“Make sure you have the different abandoned flows, the browse abandonment, the abandoned cart, and the abandoned checkout. That's all for the pre-purchase side.” @ecomchasedimond #DTCPOD“You have to focus on the business metrics, things like clicks, revenue per recipient, people that are responding to your emails, people that are active on your website and taking a full funnel kind of hyper personalized approach to that.”@ecomchasedimond #DTCPOD“Double down on sending as many campaigns as you can, learning as much about your audience as possible, and figuring out what type of content gets them to click.” @ecomchasedimond #DTCPODWe Speak About:[02:01] Chase introduces himself and Structured Agency [03:45] Experiences that led to a skillset in email marketing [07:32] Must do tips for email marketing[06:16] Elements of sophistication that added value to the brand [11:23] How to setup a successful email flow[13:49] How often to log data [15:52] How to prepare your email marketing for the IOS 15 update [20:22] Email designs and how to avoid the spam box[23:29] The order for asking for data matters[26:05] How to successfully receive a customer’s phone number [27:37] Tips on how to use email as a conversion channel [30:11] What’s next for Chase Dimond and where to find him onlineHow Chase Dimond grew his expertise through a single marketing channel Chase Dimond, A professional eCommerce email marketer, joins the POD to give some insight on how to build revue through emails and optimize this marketing channelChase Dimond markets his expertise through his own website, and is currently partnered with structured agency and boundless labs, an email marketing platformChase began social networking at an early age and was able to scale this platform through cold emails. As he developed his skillset he transitioned to eCommerce email marketing where he has sent over 1 billion emails, resulting in $75+ million in email attributable revenue.Chase recognizes that there is more than one variable to successful email marketing, and it all comes down to knowing the and and the place. Sometimes in DTC, It pays to emailChase Dimond stands out as a marketer for his elite skill set in growing brand revenue through emails . One key strategy his agency uses to increase conversion rates is to segment customer types and then break down what each of those people want to see and how they're going to be engaging. Chase takes a unique approach to achieving successful conversion for brands by following a strategy of asking for email first and then phone number secondChase understands that the first emails you send to a customer will be the most important because they will set the tone of the entire relationship.Sam recommends segmenting your emails and customizing them to what works best for your customersStay tuned as Sam discusses how optimize email marketing and what flows to use for your customers If you’d like to learn more about Trend and our influencer marketing platform for influencers and brands visit trend.io. You can also follow us for tips on growing your following and running successful campaigns on Instagram and LinkedIn.Mentioned Links:Chase Dimond's website: https://chasedimond.com/Chase Dimond’s twitter: https://twitter.com/ecomchasedimond

“SMS marketing is really about getting people to convert.” @jadesai94 #DTCPOD“By creating these conversations and providing helpful advice, it builds that stronger connection with the brand” @jadesai94 #DTCPODWe Speak About:[01:30] A great email from Public Rec[02:52] The texts from Hydrant you should copySteal this email from Public Rec and this text from HydrantIn today’s episode of fantastic emails and texts, we’re looking at content from Public Rec and Hydrant.Public Rec is a leisure apparel company and Hydrant is a wellness brand company providing a balanced mix of electrolytes, minerals, and vitamins.Public Rec sends out a great email on top picks and Hydrant sends out some great conversational text messages.Stay tuned as we dive into that great email from Public Rec and those great text messages from Hydrant. If you’d like to learn more about Trend and our influencer marketing platform for influencers and brands visit trend.io. You can also follow us for tips on growing your following and running successful campaigns on Instagram and LinkedIn.Mentioned Links:Public Rec’s great email: https://reallygoodemails.com/emails/theres-always-a-favoriteMessages from Hydrant (search for Hydrant): https://fantastictexts.com/conversational/

“I built my first website off of code.” @arribagah #DTCPOD“Making it seem like you're having a one to one conversation is the best way to approach SMS marketing.” @arribagah #DTCPOD“We want to find the balance between sending relevant content and still directing people to the website.” @arribagah #DTCPOD“My work at DTC DAY is really about bringing together great marketers on stage, getting a lot of sponsors on board, and putting together a great event.” @arribagah #DTCPOD“We've sent out over one hundred and seventy five million text messages, we know what works.” @arribagah #DTCPODWe Speak About:[01:35] Arri introduces himself Conversmart, and DTC DAY [05:17] SMS strategies to connect with customers[08:05] Text bots vs conversational text marketing[11:50] How to optimize and personalize the SMS experience [14:13] Utilizing SMS as more than a buying platform [16:53] Platform recommendations[18:04] Flows that work for SMS marketing [22:21] Customer support and SMS marketing [24:37] How Conversmart supports brands’ SMS styes [26:26] Brands crushing SMS marketing[27:51] Strategies to get subscribers [29:55] the future of DTC DAY[32:00] What’s next for Arri Bagah and where to find him, Conversmart, and DTC DAY onlineHow Conversmart scales brand’s SMS revenueArri Bagah, founder and CEO of Conversmart and managing director of DTC DAY, joins the POD to give some insight on SMS marketing and a platform that brings together successful marketers Conversmart is is text marketing agency for DTC brands that generates incremental revenueArri recognizes that SMS marketing should be a platform that goes beyond promoting sales and creates a more personalized interactionConversmart’s approach allows brands to implement their own SMS ideas and then guides this strategy to generate higher conversion and click through rates Arri views SMS marketing as an intimate platform that should engage the customer with fun content to navigate them to the brand’s website. SMS Marketing in DTC is about building relationships with subscribersConversmart stands out as an digital SMS marketing agency that has sent over 175,000,000 text messages and generated more than $100 Million in incremental revenue for clientsThe agency generates this growth by viewing SMS marketing as more than a platform to offer discounts and implements creative content to attract buyersArri also implements his knowledge from running DTC DAY, a marketers conference where strategies for success are sharedWe take a look at Conversmart agency from a support side and a client side, breaking down flow platforms and what not to do with SMS marketing Arri recommends being personalized, keeping it pretty short, using GIFs, and illustrating products to optimize the SMS experience Stay tuned as Arri discusses what to include in SMS marketing to generate big money, what to avoid to curate higher profits, and more on DTC DAYIf you’d like to learn more about Trend and our influencer marketing platform for influencers and brands visit trend.io. You can also follow us for tips on growing your following and running successful campaigns on Instagram and LinkedIn.Mentioned Links:Conversmart website: https://Conversmart.com/Get your DTC DAY tickets here: https://dtcday.com/Arri Bagah’s twitter: https://twitter.com/arribagah

We Speak About:[00:55] Announcing new show format[01:39] Introducing a new series[02:01] Curating interesting and actionable ideasThe new and improved DTC POD The DTC is bringing new and exciting ideas for viewers.We’ll be breaking sharing what to expect over the coming weeks for our Monday episodes that just feature one of our hosts, Jay.Stay tuned as we dive into this new show format! If you’d like to learn more about Trend and our influencer marketing platform for influencers and brands visit trend.io. You can also follow us for tips on growing your following and running successful campaigns on Instagram and LinkedIn.

“We spent all of our time with other people's ideas, scaling those, and figured out that's what we're really good at.” @andrewjfaris #DTCPOD“If you multiply your conversion rate by your average order value, the number that it spits out is your revenue per click.” @andrewjfaris #DTCPOD“Most times if your product market fit isn't working, you often have a more core problem than you think.” @andrewjfaris #DTCPOD“If you can turn products into dollars fast instead of having to outlay huge portions of inventory with cash, it makes your whole business better.” @andrewjfaris #DTCPOD“Clear wins most times over clever, particularly for driving traffic.” @andrewjfaris #DTCPODWe Speak About:[03:13] Andrew introduces himself and 4X400 [05:53] Brand management approach and portfolio building [11:33] Analyzing product market fit [15:50] Breaking down conversion rates for brands[21:22] How it's not always about the marketing [23:50] Similarities and contrast between management for different brands [29:49] Tips for scaling a brand [35:23] Where to find 4x400 and Andrew Faris onlineHow 4X400 measures product market fit Andrew Faris, CEO of 4X400, joins the POD to give some insight on operating and growing DTC eCommerce brands.4X400 is an eCommerce holding company that currently owns, manages, and grows five digitally native brands.Andrew discusses that when it comes to building their brand portfolio, they look for brands with an established product market fit and analyze the core fundamentals of the business to see if there is an opportunity to scale. A unique approach 4X400 takes in analyzing product market fit is through measuring revenue per click by multiply a brands conversion rate by their average order value.Andrew recognizes that if a brand's product market fit isn’t working, there is more likely a solution found in the inner workings of a product rather than altering marketing strategies. Sometimes in DTC, you have to play around 4X400 A modern day holding company that acquires, operates, and grows DTC ecommerce brands.The business currently has 5 brands that they operate, all in different markets.Andrew takes an experimental approach with brand scaling by testing different product selling strategies that will create different outcomes for different kinds of customers.The business first strategizes to discover the baseline level that can validate the quality of traffic for a brand, and then begins testing creative.Andrew recommends giving time and energy into developing a good customer acquisition strategy, and experimenting around to see what works. Stay tuned as Andrew discusses important strategies for scaling a brand and finding product market fit.If you’d like to learn more about Trend and our influencer marketing platform for influencers and brands visit trend.io. You can also follow us for tips on growing your following and running successful campaigns on Instagram and LinkedIn.Mentioned Links:4X400 website: https://4x400.com/Andrew Faris’s twitter: https://twitter.com/andrewjfariseCommerce playbook podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ecommerce-playbook

“Sometimes someone will sign up for that 15 percent discount or 20 percent discount and they'll get that email and maybe they won't end up purchasing at that moment. So last chance email’s are a really good email to have in your sequence to remind them.” @jadesai94 #DTCPOD“Last chance emails are a great way to push people to potentially make that purchase and get them over that hump” @jadesai94 #DTCPODWe Speak About:[02:46] Last chance emails[04:52] Driving urgency to buyThe last chance email you need to steal for your DTC store.Email marketing is an underestimated technique that can potentially earn you more buyers.One email strategy in particular is last-chance emails. Last-chance emails are a way to remind potential buyers of a discount or deal that will persuade them to make a purchase.This strategy drives urgency and creates another platform for brands to communicate with their customers. Stay tuned as we discuss a specific brand and break-down their successful last chance email strategy. If you’d like to learn more about Trend and our influencer marketing platform for influencers and brands visit trend.io. You can also follow us for tips on growing your following and running successful campaigns on Instagram and LinkedIn.Mentioned Links:Good Pair Days’ last chance email: https://reallygoodemails.com/emails/dont-miss-out

“In the beginning it was really important for me that our business be a business that could stand on its own two feet, and that our company not be a money pit” @jurhyu #DTCPOD“It’s important to know what's trending so that you can insert yourself into the conversation at a moment's notice and really be part of that community.” @jurhyu #DTCPOD“Read every day, just absorb information because you need to know what's going on in your category, in your industry, in the world, because those things really can impact your business.” @jurhyu #DTCPOD“If you have the QR code on the package and someone scans it, it gives more surface area for you as a brand to do more education or maybe introduce them to some other kind of experience.” @jurhyu #DTCPOD“A retailer's private label is probably the scariest competitor or potential competitor there could be because they have all your data. They know exactly what products are selling the best.” @jurhyu #DTCPODWe Speak About:[03:12] Ju introduces herself and Hero Cosmetics [04:49] The brands philosophy behind bootstrapping [07:24] The power of TikTok marketing [10:39] How the social media budget is allocated to create the most brand growth [11:59] Content strategy for social media[14:27] How the brand stays in the loop [15:59] The brand’s research strategy [17:48] Creative marketing CGP brands [20:13] The brand’s experimental plays [27:13] The awareness and acquisition strategy for QR codes[30:24] Why private labels can be your biggest competitor[32:56] What’s next for Hero Cosmetics and where to find the brand, and Ju Rhyu onlineHow Hero Cosmetics experienced continuous growthJu Rhyu, Co-founder and CEO of Hero Cosmetics, joins the POD to give some insight on the brand's financial plan and unique marketing strategy . Hero Cosmetic is a skincare brand that is solution oriented with mindful ingredients for sensitive skinThe brand began on Amazon, and as it grew, additional products were introduced into the market and since then the brand continues to experience growth. An approach was taken of handling finances through bootstrapping, so that the brand's primary focus would not be on raising funds but rather building the brand, and as the brand grew the financial plan transitioned to form partnerships. Ju recognized that when it comes to building a successful brand, it is important to stay up to date with current trends in any way you can. Growth through TikTok and QR codesHero Cosmetics not only stands out for their skincare products, but also their unique and experimental marketing strategiesThe brand has experienced continuous sustained growth by allocating their marketing budget primarily through social mediaThe brand has created awareness for their products by utilizing TikTok as their central social outlet, which has accounted for their growthJu takes a unique approach to achieving additional growth by implementing QR codes in their packaging, and promotional events. The brand has fostered further growth opportunities through partnerships and a unique paid advertising strategy. Ju recommends being creative with your marketing and being a part of the community your brand is in.Stay tuned as Ju discusses how Hero Cosmetics advanced their product line and what specific marketing strategies have led to the brand’s success If you’d like to learn more about Trend and our influencer marketing platform for influencers and brands visit trend.io. You can also follow us for tips on growing your following and running successful campaigns on Instagram and LinkedIn.Mentioned Links:Hero Cosmetics website: https://www.herocosmetics.us/Ju Rhyu twitter: https://twitter.com/jurhyu

“By interviewing what a person is interested in, they might share it with their audience and people that are in their audience are probably going to want to purchase some similar items” @jadesai94 #DTCPOD“If you have frequently answered questions, think about how you could potentially turn those into a blog post” @jadesai94 #DTCPOD“Don't make every post about your products, it's important to use this as a space to educate, that's where you're really going to build up that brand trust.” @jadesai94 #DTCPOD“When you're thinking about content, think about how you can position your content and how you can create content for not only people that might be first time buyers, but also people that have decided to rebuy.” @jadesai94 #DTCPODWe Speak About:[01:55] Nomad’s unique blog characteristics [04:20] The benefit of interviews [04:45] Additional blog post to build organic traffic [07:13] Kettle and Fire’s successful blog strategies [08:51] Key takeaways from successful blog brands [09:48] Important tips for creating a blogBuilding organic traffic through blogs for eCommerce brands When it comes to attracting potential customers to your website and persuading a buying decision, blogs can be of great assistance.A few posts can help drive traffic to your brand’s website and convert those viewers into customers. For some brands, blogs are the first strategy implemented to build their brand. Blogs aren’t just for posting products, many times they are used to give viewers additional insight into the brand, which can optimize the customer journey. By using the resource to create content centered around your brand and using the space to educate your customers, brand trust and customer retention may be optimized. Stay tuned as we discuss three brands' successful blog strategies and tips on how to optimize your blog. If you’d like to learn more about Trend and our influencer marketing platform for influencers and brands visit trend.io. You can also follow us for tips on growing your following and running successful campaigns on Instagram and LinkedIn.Mentioned Links:Three Ships Beauty blog: https://www.threeshipsbeauty.com/blogs/newsNomad blog: https://nomadgoods.com/pages/blogKettle & Fire blog: https://blog.kettleandfire.com/More information on creating eCommerce blogs: https://www.shopify.com/blog/blog-examples

“In the first couple of months we focused on getting everything up and running, and as we've grown a little bit, it's more so figuring out which one of these verticals is worth us investing more time and resources to. @Lillie__Sun #DTCPOD“All small brands can really benefit from investing in customer experience” @Lillie__Sun #DTCPOD“The customer journey is all about awareness, acquisition and retention.” @Lillie__Sun #DTCPODFor us, it's all about aligning the campaign on the core product and the core benefit, and making sure that comes across in all elements of the campaign.” @Lillie__Sun #DTCPOD“Having a community ambassador program is a great way to get that one on one communication with your customers in a timely fashion. They feel they're involved and you don't have to do so much guessing because you're getting that feedback from them.” @Lillie__Sun #DTCPODWe Speak About:[02:16] Lillie introduces herself and Three Ships Beauty [03:54] Setting a business foundation and seeing what works[06:02] Testing different marketing channels through trial and error[08:14] Elements outside of digital marketing that led to brand growth [12:59] Testing and tweaking the SMS marketing strategy[16:56] How Three Ships Beauty segments the market[19:38] Steps to optimize the customer experience [24:06] How to enhance product promotion[19:09] The company’s successful approach for achieving customer retention[26:46] A unique strategy for product launching [30:53] Benefits of an ambassador program [35:01] The process for implementing technology and resources for brand growth [37:31] What’s next for Three Ships Beauty and where to find Lillie Sun onlineThree Ships Beauty steps to startup successLillie Sun, leader of growth for Three Ships Beauty, joins the POD to give some insight on the direct-to-consumer business’s growth, product launches, and the customer journey.Three Ships Beauty is a Skincare brand that creates effective, natural, and affordable products.Lily recognized that when it comes to startups, implementing an ambassador program will help the brand to effectively engage with their customers and organically drive awareness, leading to growth. A unique approach was taken for product launches by limiting a creative marketing that would not exemplify what the product is about, and instead focus on orienting the campaign on the core product and benefit.Lillie recognizes that in the first stages of growth, it’s okay for your brand to test out everything to see what works and then dial down and what processes are delivering the most benefits.In DTC, it pays to be personable Three Ships Beauty stands out as an eCommerce skincare company that develops 100% natural plant derived products at an affordable price. The brand has experienced growth by experimenting with numerous marketing channels to see what works and curating a personable customer experience.Lillie takes a unique approach to achieving growth by not only personalizing the customer experience but also the product through a skincare quiz on their website.The brand takes additional steps to personalize their brand by segmenting their SMS channel into categories, based on what their consumers would like to hear. Lillie recommends having a good foundation in business experience before jumping into growth roles. Stay tuned as Lillie discusses non-digital marketing factors that led to growth why you don’t always need to be too creative with your marketing strategy. If you’d like to learn more about Trend and our influencer marketing platform for influencers and brands visit trend.io. You can also follow us for tips on growing your following and running successful campaigns on Instagram and LinkedIn.Mentioned Links:Three Ships Beauty website: https://www.threeshipsbeauty.com/Lillie Sun’s twitter: https://twitter.com/Lillie__Sun

“Providing sample products can provide an up-sell opportunity later if someone enjoys the product and buys the regular sized version.” @jadesai94 #DTCPOD“These checkout strategies are a great way to build up excitement and build brand affinity.” @jadesai94 #DTCPOD“A mystery product is something that you can up-sell down the line as well, and so you actually have information on that product already and you could potentially even test out feedback.” @jadesai94 #DTCPODWe Speak About:[01:18] How to implement cross-selling in a checkout strategy [02:36] A pre-purchase strategy for driving urgency [04:28] A unique checkout strategy for supply[06:18] The types of customers to target Simple checkout strategies to increase online salesHow many times do you go on a website and buy more than you planned? How often are you persuaded by the pop up ads promising a discount, a sample, or a surprise product with your purchase? The answer is probably often but this isn’t just happening to you, in fact, all those examples are marketing strategies implemented to increase sales. Checkout strategies are a great way to introduce your customers to new products they normally wouldn't buy and potentially gather feedback. There are numerous touchpoints during the buying process that these strategies can be placed, and it invites room for creativity for your brand. Stay tuned as we discuss three brands and their different approaches for implementing a checkout strategy. If you’d like to learn more about Trend and our influencer marketing platform for influencers and brands visit trend.io. You can also follow us for tips on growing your following and running successful campaigns on Instagram and LinkedIn.Mentioned Links:Corey Haines’ full thread on DTC: https://twitter.com/coreyhainesco/status/1414585378569297928