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- The Weekly Sharpener #78
👋 Hey fam!
This Wednesday round-up is filled to the brim with amazing marketing resources and value.
Summer has started and is in full swing, make sure you are enjoying these beautiful days out and about, the time doesn't come back...now onto the show
Eli Weiss (Senior Director of CX at Jones Road Beauty) and I dig deeper into the world of Customer Experience and how it's incredibly misunderstood.
More importantly, how KPIs kill brands and most don't get retention right at all! My favorite - how CX is actually a brand/LTV growth lever. Get ready for some 🤯
We'll also dive into how TikTok isn't always getting it right, and what that means for their competitors.
While dipping our toe o into user psychology, how it affects your ad creation, and how you can leverage it going forward.
We are grateful for the space in your inbox and for you sharing some of your valuable time with us. 🙏
Cheers,
Chase
P.S. - if you're interested in advertising on connected TV, respond to this email, I have a special treat for you.
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A sneak peek from Episode 12 👀
I think that KPIs screw businesses up. If you wait to, you know, today it's the 31st, you'll see a whole bunch of janky emails go out because people are trying to meet the revenue goals, all the KPIs, kill businesses, the lack of patience, and the failure to see long term. And I think that's the thing that keeps popping up for when people start focusing on retention and LTV, by the time they got there, it's
The management of the business, it's looking to hire a retention consultant. Like I get approached all the time. Can you help fix my retention? And you're like, you have a six-person growth team, but you don't have a single person on retention. And you've been squeezing dollars out of wallets for the last year and a half hiring one consultant is not gonna fix it because retention is a branding play.
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Content that matters 🐐
TikTok can do no wrong! Right? No, the social behemoth is facing it's first speed bump on it's racy towards social media pre-eminence.
Namely in the form of live-steam commerce. The play makes sense on many levels. TikTok is an Asia-based company, where live streaming is a MASSIVE business. Why not use the product they already have, with something that has driven massive impact before?
Seems like a slam dunk...❌ - why? Usage and shopping behaviors are different region to region. Leaving TikTok with a big gap in their growth plan - where IG stores + Shopify Audiences are big leaps forward against them.
Why it matters: there are two things that strike me as massive...
TikTok will have to get better at DR more quickly to compete with FB/IG for ad dollars, meaning placements will get better but CPM's will rise. This was there big play for Western differentiation. This was going to be another way to invest in the creator economy + have a new set of placements.
FB/IG - their shops are finally getting good while still leveraging the natural shopping expectations of the target demo of TikTok's living shopping push. Maybe this is the middle ground. (Invest in getting yours set up)
Also, I wouldn't count on this being the last time we see live shopping being tested by TikTok, because they know the upside, there will be another push.
Thread of the Week 🧵
Here are 10 psychology principles that will make you a better marketer.
From a $100MM marketer.
— Chase Dimond | Email Marketing Nerd 📧 (@ecomchasedimond)
5:32 PM • Jul 5, 2022
User psychology is a superpower, it's also the thing we used least when creating experiences for customers. We lean on our intuition or what we believe the best experience might be.
We do this in ads, landing pages, check-out experiences, and lifecycle flows. How many SMS messages with sales can a person get in a week? A lot, trust me!
This thread breakdown 10 principles that will make you a better marketer. I will share my top 3 from this list to help you become better at performance creative.
1. Social Proof
This one is simple, put your customer experiences front and center in your ads to build trust. I'm not just talking about the hook but in different parts of your story.
A) Trustpilot Rating
B) Two value props
C) Featured on logos - working to make us trust them through osmosis.
This is very well constructed.
2. Loss Aversion
FOMO is 🔑. Can you make your product/offering feel exclusive or scarce? This will drive action. Companies that function on rolling drops
Note: You need to make sure your entire purchase funnel (Home Page/Landing Page/Product Page/Check out page) all reflect this messaging because if there isn't consistency, your leads from ads can get spooked and ✌️
A) A product that is scarce
B) Background that is stark white to accentuate that product
C) Only on GOAT.
3. Color psychology
This has to be used with care because you do have a brand to protect, even in your performance channels. However - too many of us get locked into colors that we chose before thinking about how they affect users.
Biggest takeaway -> what emotion do you want your prospects to feel when they start/leave the ad? What color aligns with your brand + that emotion. TEST THAT.
A) Color of the thumbnail is anchored in the product so it doesn't feel clickbaity.
B) The product is the only PINK in the entire image, drawing your eyes there. SMART.
Expert Strategy + Learnings
Some amazing learnings from thought leaders in DTC.
Carl's CRO Tips 🙌
Stop trying to scale your ad spend without doing your website's conversion rate optimization fundamentals first
1) Consistent messaging and branding
2) Irresistible Offer
3) Frictionless Customer Journey
4) Optimized Funnel
5) Social Proof and Trust
6) Persuasive Copy
For more 🔥 follow Carl Weische from Accelerated.
Rahul's Paid Media Learnings 🤘
Struggling to find inspiration for creatives?Here are some places you can start looking:
Here’s a Notion database with 400+ top DTC brands.
Go through TikTok ads library and see the type of creative that appears as top ads
Read your TikTok/Facebook Ad comments, read what customers say about your product and answer those questions or comments in your creative.
Look at the top performing content on TikTok for your niche by searching relevant keywords and seeing most viewed videos; Try to replicate whatever that content is, whether it's a trend or not.
For more 🎯's follow Rahul Issar from Reach Digital.
Creative Cuts ⚔️ - ICYMI
Want to learn about WHY the creative you love works and how you can leverage it 👇
Worth Your Time 💡
No explanation, just content we love and think is ultra-valuable!
Full breakdown of the DTC value chain 👇
— Dan McCormick (@damccormick13)
7:47 PM • Jul 11, 2022
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