The Weekly Sharpener #69

We have $10,000 to figure this out.

Author

Chase Mohseni
June 8th, 2022

👋 Hey fam!

This Wednesday round-up is jam-packed with amazing marketing resources:

You'll get some amazing details on how you can source amazing creators and give them a fail-safe script to deliver great assets.

Find out how the team at Obvi created a brand that found the blue ocean in the collagen market ma that the incumbents were missing.

And some insights on why you should be leveraging affiliate as a channel to pair with your paid + organic marketing efforts.

We are grateful for a space in your inbox. 🙏

Cheers,

Chase

🎙Add Creative

Episode 5 - We have $10,000 to not mess this up

Listen to this episode from Add Creative on Spotify. In today’s conversation, Ron shares his thoughts on how to connect with your manufacturers to leverage them as a innovation centers, how trust is the core of all great founding relationships, how being focused on delivering for the customers, no matter how hard it is has been a true differentiator, and how not every deal is the right deal for your business. This one is incredible! You can learn more about Obvi @ https://myobvi.com/Follow Ron on Twitter @ https://twitter.com/obviceoYou can email us questions directly at chase@trypencil or follow us on Twitter @ twitter.com/PencilAI and twitter.com/crmohseniPlease follow and share this episode! People deserve to learn from Ron!

https://open.spotify.com/episode/5zrJhKiGWyn0a9AivnRJtj?si=szo8OArbQKmLMqUo7qYY9w

A sneak peak from Episode 5 👀

"One (unique part of our idea) is branding, color, design, packaging, and two is formula science. What's in the product, et cetera...so basically what's in the front of the label and what's behind the label. Now let's boil that down more. What can we do on the branding packaging design side to be so damn different?"

Ron Shah - CEO & Co-Founder of Obvi

Grab the 🍏 podcast version here or watch it on YouTube.

If you enjoy the episode, please rate us 5⭐️'s & share!

Ad of the Week 🤖

Why we love this: Eye-catching first frame (pits!) then smash to products, with copy that makes the prospect feel like they are first in line to something new (Scent Duo), moving to hammering home the benefits. This ad is very well structured without being overbearing. What do you think?

Content that matters 🐐

Meta Adds New 'Calls' Tab in Messenger, Leaning Into Evolving Connection Activity

The new tab leans into the rising use of Messenger as a direct connection tool.

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/meta-adds-new-calls-tab-in-messenger-leaning-into-evolving-connection-ac/624756/

Why it matters: Analog goes digital? There has been an increased push over the years to increase efficiency and remove some of the "non-scaleable" ways we have done business in the past? Why have calls when an automated bot could do 60% of the work?

The issue now is that customers have become numb to this tactic unless done with extreme care (most are hamfisted). While this feature is focused on the connection of users, no doubt as Meta finds stickiness it will be rolled out with brands to foster more authentic relationships with their customers.

How to Get Better Assets for Ad Creative — Foxwell Digital

Creative, creative, creative. That’s what makes a good ad, right? We know that social media users view the ad creative first before they read the caption, read the headline, view the ad’s engagement and social proof, and definitely before they click to your website. SO, how do you get good asset

https://www.foxwelldigital.com/blog/how-to-get-better-assets-for-ad-creative

Why it matters: You want to use creators, you know it's integral to your content strategy in 2022 and beyond, but where to start? 🤷‍♂️ This step-by-step guide gives you an actionable framework on how to source, produce, and launch UGC for your brand.

The New World of Digital – Is Your DTC Brand on Board?

Digital Fashion

https://www.directtoconsumer.co/insights/the-new-world-of-digital-is-your-dtc-brand-on-board?utm_campaign=%F0%9F%90%B3%20Whale%20Mail&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Revue%20newsletter

Why it matters: Are you thinking about your brands digital footprint? You might be saying - we are DTC, we have a digital footprint...but have you been thinking about Web3? Many brands still won't be able to benefit from the immersive nature of the metaverse. This article shares some use cases that can help move your brand ahead of the game. The main one: fashion fitting -> are you thinking about how Web3 can work for you yet?

Carl's CRO Tips 🙌

How you display prices determines if your traffic ends up buying or not.

Make the sale price smaller visually in comparison to the old price + use a finer font

For more 🔥 follow Carl Weische from Accelerated.

Thread of the Week 🧵

Why it matters: Read this thread if you want to understand affiliate marketing. It can/should be a part of your marketing mix. More importantly, it's a channel that scales nicely in tandem with paid social + search.

Partner Offer of the Week - Parker 💥

Parker is a credit card for e-commerce brands. With Parker brands can unlock credit limits of up to 80% of monthly sales and net 60-day paybacks on ALL spend with no interest or fees.

As an exclusive offer to all Pencil clients, Parker is offering the following 👇

  • $500 sign up bonus

  • Revenue-based credit limits with credit limits up to 80% of monthly sales

  • Up to Rolling Net 60-day paybacks, with no fees or interest (pay every transaction back 60 days later)

  • 3% cashback on all ad spend within the first 30 days of account opening (capped to the first $150,000 of ad spend)

  • Zero fees or interest

From our Library 📚

Paid Ad Diagnostic for when you're Ads are not converting sales

https://www.trypencil.com/post/paid-ad-diagnostic-when-your-not-converting-sales

20+ best ad creative tools compared (2022)

We've listed 20+ of the best ad creative tools on the market that you can consider, to improve your ad results in 2022.

https://www.trypencil.com/post/20-best-ad-creative-tools-compared-2022

Finding your Ideal Customer will drive performance

ICP = NORTH 🌟 without it you can't deliver creative that cuts through or drives performance.The first question you should answer is: who is your ICP or IDEAL CUSTOMER PROFILE?

https://www.trypencil.com/post/finding-your-ideal-customer-will-drive-performance

Add Creative

Welcome to Add Creative, a new podcast from Pencil that’s dedicated to sharing the unexpected ideas that changed the game for DTC founders & operators that you can leverage to grow your business. Hosted by Chase, Head of Marketing & Growth at Pencil, Add Creative will cover a lot of ground and a wide range of topics, from how founders got their ideas for their business to what is the most profitable channel for your verticals and much more. But every interview will hit the level of tactical depth where actionable advice is found. We hope you’ll join us. Subscribe to “Add Creative” now and learn more at trypencil.com

https://addcreative.transistor.fm/

Join the ✏️ community

Sign up to learn and meet 100+ other great founders & operators across DTC.

What we're listening to 👂

Curious about what we're building? 🧱

Check out our roadmap & upvote what you think is most important or add your own feature requests. We want to hear from you!

Enjoy this issue? 🤌

Share The Weekly Sharpener with another marketer on your team.

Just copy & paste the link 😎

If you missed last week's issue you can find it here.

See you next Wednesday! ✌️