The TL;DR:
- Email Copywriting just got a hell of a lot easier with Octie! And make sure you are A/B Testing!!!
- I’m extending our Retention-as-a-Service offering with Loop Returns (improving customer’s returns experience) and Carro (selling complementary products from other brands on our client’s storefronts through one checkout to increase AOV & LTV).
- The D2Z Podcast: I chat DTC trends, diversifying your creative assets, testing channels, campaign structures, and user-generated content (UGC) with Lauren Schwartz, Owner & Creative Director at The Loft 325.
- Malomo: 10-20% of your site’s traffic goes to your order tracking page. Regain control of your transactional experience and start making additional revenue with Malomo.
- What I’ve been working on with DRINKS since the acquisition (and the reason for the acquisition) will be publicly announced and available shortly!
Let's Chat D2C - Email Copywriting!
Fun fact – the average person receives 121+ emails a day. Here’s how to ensure you stand out in their inbox with an easy subject line generator…
Use a question.
- What makes {product} so comfy?
- Why is {product} so delicious?
- How can {product} give you {outcome}?
Want to generate even more email copy ideas? My friend Matt over at Octane.ai created Octie, an A.I. tool that can write emails, text messages, and more. Check out Octie here!
Pro-tip: A/B test everything!!! But, make sure you’re tracking your A/B tests. Next week, I’m going to share the resources I use to track every single test, who the audience was, what the impact was, whether or not it was statistically significant, and more.
What I'm Thinking About This Week
As a Retention-as-a-Service agency, our #1 focus is to improve… you guessed it… a brand’s customer retention! The #1 lever here is email/SMS marketing, but retention is truly about anything that has to do with the customer experience and how you can improve it.
I’ve been thinking about a logical next service category and/or technology partner for us to expand our retention offering. The way we’ve approached services, as well as technology partners, is quality over quantity. We offer two core services with four complementary services, and we’re top-tier partners with the 16 best-in-class apps for Shopify (most agencies have over 300+ “partners,” lol). With this in mind, I’ve been carefully vetting what is next (as well as if we even need to expand).
I’m focused on Loop Returns and Carro as logical technology partners to extend our retention offering.
Why Loop Returns? Building a better returns experience for our clients is the missing component of our robust post-purchase services. We handle all post-purchase communications, including transactional, to our client’s customers, but what happens when something is wrong with their order or product? What does that experience look like? Is it seamless? Are we using it as an opportunity actually to turn that customer into a brand advocate?
Why Carro? Increasing AOV inherently increases LTV. Increasing LTV is a key KPI in our Retention-as-a-Service offering. Carro powers brands to sell other Shopify stores' products on their storefront with customers going through one checkout. Now our clients can capture additional AOV without going through the hassle of product development or purchasing and carrying inventory!
I’ll be doing some deeper dives on both of these tools and highlighting some customer use cases in the coming months.
This Week's The D2Z Podcast
The Hottest Topic in Marketing -- UGC Content with Lauren Schwartz
🎧 Listen Now 🎧
Is UGC here to stay, or just another fad in the ever-changing marketing landscape? I sat down with Lauren Schwartz, Owner & Creative Director at The Loft 325 – we talk DTC trends, diversifying your creative assets, testing channels and campaign structures, and user-generated content (UGC).
We explore how to:
👨💻Work efficiently with clients
😎Building an all-star team around you
🎥The power of UGC and Creative Marketing
How important is creative marketing? Tune in to find out!
Interesting Note: I’ve started seeing people as “full-time UGC creators” and charging $100-$200 per UGC photo or video. They sign contracts with various brands, get many free products, and generate substantial income!
Listen Now
App Highlight - Malomo
❓What is It: Up-to-date transactional touchpoint software – know where your customer’s delivery status, location, and estimated arrival!
🏅Differentiator: More transactional touchpoints → drive additional revenue, improve retention, and increase brand affinity.
Custom order tracking pages → drive customers to order tracking pages filled with additional brand content, product cross and up-sells, social proof, and more!
💰Starting Price: $99/month
🚀How we use it: We set up a Custom Tracking Page for Soylent that resulted in 54x ROI!
For one-shot customers, we have a main banner CTA driving to the subscription program. Then, throughout the rest of the page, we have dynamic product recommendations powered by Rebuy and additional brand content.
The page is primarily dedicated to continuing brand education and promoting the referral program for subscription customers.
I put together an overview deck as well that you can download here!
Ready to just get started? Download the app here!
Upcoming Events
📅 July 19th – Speaker For Shopify America’s Agency Enablement Program
I’m speaking with Shopify to Shopify and Shopify Plus Agency Partners about the tremendous opportunity in a new vertical that we’ll be tackling together with DRINKS. More to come on this :)
📅 July 21st – Speaker at Malomo’s Company Retreat
I’m honored to be speaking at Malomo’s inaugural company retreat in Indianapolis this coming week, where I’ll spend an hour walking through everything that goes into improving retention, from marketing tactics and human psychology to the marketing tech stack I use and how it all integrates to create a cohesive customer experience.
Looking Forward to Next Week
You know that moment you feel when all of your hard work is finally paying off?
For the past three months, and the entire reason for the acquisition, I’ve been focused on a technology project with DRINKS…
Now – I’m happy to announce we will be launching to the public shortly!
You are the first to hear about this – I will be sure to share the details and exact date with you as soon as I have it (who knows, maybe that will be in next week’s newsletter).
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