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- The Weekly Sharpener #86
The Weekly Sharpener #86
Ever wonder how to get a better outcome before you start? 👀
Chase Mohseni
August 21st, 2022
👋 Hey fam!
I'm really excited to share this mammoth Sunday roundup with you!
On this week's episode of Add Creative Matt Mullenax (CEO of Huron) shares his personal journey to co-founding his skincare company and how he tries to boil things down to their most fundamental parts through practicing first principles to solve problems...
She also dives into how he believes customer experience and branding work together hand in hand in growing the business. Matt is a great teacher, spend some time learning from him, and you won't be disappointed.
We also break down how TikTok pivoted from live shopping to commerce ads and how this is their foray into competing with Facebook on direct response.
Then we dive into how word of mouth is an incredible accelerator in new customer acquisition + reduction of acquisition cost.
We are grateful for the space in your inbox and for you sharing some of your valuable time with us. 🙏
Cheers,
Chase
Pencil - Creative AI
Pencil allows you to scale your creative testing on paid ads by automating the creative production process. All you need are your assets, branding, and performance data then in minutes you'll have your new ads ready to test and find new customers. 🚀
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🎙Add Creative
A sneak peek from Episode 16 👀
I mean, I think you really have to distill things on the first principles, right? So it's like, what, what is the objective like irrefutable start of this issue, right? And then you kind of dissect from there quite frankly, like where did we Zig where we should have zagged. But you really have to start at the core to kind of understand, wow.
Like our CPAs are rising through the roof. Like what's the creative, like, do we feel like we have the right hooks? Like, there's just so many things that people just wanna default and kind of like broad brushstroke statements to say like, oh, X is like going outta control and we don't know why. I'm like, is that actually true?
So I think for us, like before we make kind of those massive jumps in logic it's well, before we get to that conclusion again, can we dissect these issues into smaller pieces to better understand? Is there something that's actually in our control that we can adjust that we can maneuver? That we can manipulate to see if we can actually get to a better outcome.
If you enjoy the episode, please rate us 5⭐️'s & share!
Content That Matters 🐐
Shopping Ads is a simpler, smarter, and more advanced ad solution that helps brands meet shoppers wherever they are in the purchase journey, sparking demand and boosting sales. It’s a three-in-one solution with new formats to adopt and combine: Video Shopping Ads, Catalog Listing Ads, and LIVE Shopping Ads.”
Live shopping didn't work for TikTok like originally planned when expanding west. This feels like the pivot. Shoppable ads will look like this 👇
Here is TikTok's data on how consumers respond to discovering brands on TikTok.
Why it matters: This is good for you. The innovation war between TikTok and Facebook continues. We should all just...
That means that TikTok is learning from what Facebook has done well which is build a massive direct response engine.
We've all been talking for months about the democratization of virality that TikTok has given us. Now they are layering in the ability to insert your brand into the conversation.
This will evolve over time, but the minute this becomes widely available you need to be testing whether this ad unit can deliver results for you.
My suspicion is it won't be great for a bit but with the pace at which TikTok is shipping new and improved features they might just turn around a powerful iteration very quickly.
I would also advise testing this early because there will eventually be a logjam on this placement and it will get progressively more expensive.
That means that understanding the value of the customers it drives for you is imperative early on so you can model out your advertising mix going forward.
Are you excited about this new release?
Thread of the Week 🧵
What's the highest ROI marketing channel that brands overlook the most?
Word-of-Mouth Marketing 🗣
One problem:
It's also one of the hardest channels to scale 😅
I got you though.
Here are 5 strategies we nailed down to maximize our revenue from WOM Marketing 👇
— Ash (@ashvinmelwani)
Aug 16, 2022
Why it matters: If word of mouth brings down your CAC, why does no one invest? If you're not thinking about this in some way, then you're then okay with high CAC.
Ash breaks down some practical ways you can make Word of mouth part of your regular interactions with your customer.
Daily -> Facebook community, feels like you've heard this one before. But go with me here. When you are selling a product, there is two lives that it has:
Daily active usage - with Obvi taking the Collagen
Daily active interaction - where/how you see the brand
Collagen takes a while to start "working" so before that can you make people feel seen and heard by a group of people who are after the same things because they are bought into the value prop of the product.
The obvi has been very vocal about both the cheat code that having this community is but also the work it takes to make it into a cheat code.
Go in with your eyes open - the amount of time you invest with delivering value to your customers, will not be directly proportionate to the value you receive back. This is a slow play but once it hits, the results are massive.
Tactile -> how can you make yourself visible to others + your customers?
A magnet with CTA's in every package
Memorable packing
How often are people in your kitchen? If you have the Obvi magnet on your fridge or their hot pink packaging on your counter - the colors and how evocative they are for the viewer are intentional choices.
They lead to high shareability from your users and intrigue from the visual consumer. All you need to do is lead them to "Post your collagen routine".
TLDR:
Find ways to make your customers into daily active users - both with your product + with your brand.
Tactile brand interactions - magnets or your packaging can drive customers to become advocates very quickly.
NOTE: if you want to get dive into the data around why this matters 👇
Expert Strategy + Learnings
Some amazing learnings from thought leaders in DTC.
Carl's CRO Tips 🙌
Make your Contact Information visible and easy to use.
This is part of creating a strong trust and credibility between you and your customers. Because they feel like they can easily reach you.
For more 🔥 follow Carl Weische from Accelerated.
Rahul's Paid Media Learnings 🤘
It can be difficult to source creatives for your brand.
Here are some ways your can source creative for your brand:
Create an email flow to email customers for a testimonial or selfie with the product
Send out your product to micro influencers - most are happy to record content for just the product
Create content yourself or get your family and friends involved
If you have a Facebook group of existing customers then you can request for content for free product or discounts
Twitter has a lot of content creators who are looking for work at affordable rates
Follow Rahul here for more 🧠
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!
Here are key & more importantly REAL projections from founders given to VCs during the fundraising craze. I'm out of e-comm, but have been recently tapped by friends/past clients on the DTC and VC side to triage & help them get back on track...the numbers are wild 👇🏾 https://
— Jessica McGlory (@emceeglory)
Aug 16, 2022
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