📦 - Allergies M’Lady? 🤧

DTC 562 - Bridgerton Campaign, Bot Clicks, and SMS List Hygiene Tuesday, May 21, 2024 Good morning, Mark Zuckerberg celebrated his 40th birthday last week with a nostalgia party! 🎉 His wife Priscilla Chan recreated a miniature version of several places he lived in, including his Harvard dorm room and childhood bedroom. And no milestone celebration is complete without a good ol’ roast. Wonder if anyone brought up that Zuckerberg was able to pay for a $300 million super yacht with the bajillion dollars Temu spent on Meta Ads? Here’s what you’ll find in today’s DTC: 🤖 Learn how to spot bot clicks and avoid triggering high spam rates in your email campaigns. 🤧 We breakdown why this Bridgerton-inspired ad campaign does a brilliant job of highlighting allergy relief brand Flonase. 📲 And… a reminder that you’re losing money if you’re not regularly doing this with your SMS list. You’re reading this newsletter along with new subscribers from: Brightside Seafood, Huish Outdoors, and ReWest. 👋 WALMART MARKETPLACE 🤯 Joining Walmart Marketplace Only Takes Three Simple Steps Are you looking for an easy way to expand your reach? With millions of monthly customers and powerful end-to-end fulfillment capabilities, [Walmart Marketplace]( is what you’ve been searching for. Just: - Setup an account 💻 - Ship your products to a Walmart fulfillment center 📦 - Start selling 💰 No setup fees. No monthly fees. No hidden costs. Signing up for Walmart Marketplace takes just minutes. The best part? Right now, Walmart Marketplace is giving new sellers a significant discount on referral fees and fulfillment services. You’ll be able to [take up to 50% off for 90 days](.* Don’t wait—the savings won’t last long. [SIGN UP TO SELL]( *Conditions apply *Sponsored PODCAST 🎧 Navigating Email Landmines and Bot Click Clarification In this episode of the pod, we chatted with Jogo, the Email and Retention Director [at Pilothouse](, to continue the discussion about inflated clicks due to bots in email campaigns. We review Klaviyo's new bot click exclusion feature and its limitations. We also discuss the concept of 'landmines' in email marketing and how to handle them. Jogo explains: "If you're resending a piece of content and excluding everyone who opened it the first time, you're sending to only people who don't open emails. The engagement on that message will be very low and send the wrong message to Gmail. You're basically telling them, we send messages people don't engage with." In this podcast, we cover: - Klaviyo's bot click exclusion feature: why it should be used for includes and not excludes. - Common landmines in email sends: How to combat high spam complaint rates and avoid triggering them. - Tactical ways to improve email deliverability and engagement which include adding value and avoiding excessive frequency. - The value of using email deliverability tools like Glock apps to monitor inbox placement. 👉 You can listen to the full episode with Jogo [here](. AUTHENTICITY 💁 ♀️🤳 Why “IGC” Crushes Boring-Old Ad Content If you want your ads to get attention you need something different. Something most ads don’t have… Authenticity. Infuse some authenticity with [influencer-generated content (IGC)](. Why IGC? Because when influencers share their genuine experiences with your product, you get real stories, real people, and real engagement. ✅ These creators bring your products to life in ways that resonate deeply with their followers. For you, this means: more likes, more shares, and more conversations around your brand. With [SARAL](, finding the perfect influencers for your niche is a breeze. Automate outreach, send free products, and let influencers create content that captivates. Tired of your ads blending into the background? 👇 [Try SARAL For Free]( Want to see it in action? [Book a demo and explore the possibilities](. *Sponsored AD BREAKDOWN 🐝 Flonase’s Winning Bridgerton Ad Campaign Dearest gentle reader, it’s the social season but also the season of spring allergies. The much anticipated third season of Bridgerton has finally arrived, and the allergy brand [Flonase]( partnered up with the popular show to create a brilliant campaign leading up to the Netflix premiere. [Flonase’s Bridgerton-inspired commercial] Fans have given the two lead characters, Penelope Featherington and Colin Bridgerton, the couple name Polin. Flonase used this as a clever play on words for their campaign. Polin, Pollen, get it? The [Regency-inspired ad campaign]( is a nod to the show’s popular aesthetic and even uses a similar-sounding narrator to delight viewers. In the commercial, the narrator mentions spring is in bloom and likens it to romance, but a young couple’s stroll in the garden is quickly interrupted by lots of sneezing. 🤧 The narrator lists the ailments: sneezing, runny nose, and itchy eyes before the couple dashes to a new apothecary for a remedy. The punchline? The remedy, Flonase, won’t be ready…for another two hundred years. The ad ends with the tagline: “There is only room for one Polin in the Ton.” Why this creative works: 👇 Integrates product into the Bridgerton universe: This cheeky commercial does such a fantastic job of capturing the look and feel of the show that it doesn’t feel like an ad at first but rather a preview clip of the show. All the playful nods to the Bridgerton universe are evident from the musical score, corseted dresses, and the Lady Whistledown paper. The timing couldn’t be more perfect: The show’s premiere coincides with peak spring allergy season so it does a great job of keeping the brand top of mind. This creative does a great job of positioning Flonase as a solution to a common ailment while delighting Bridgerton fans with the playful use of ‘Polin.’ 🌐 IN THE SOCIAL SPHERE Stop sending messages to people who aren’t engaging! They might be more receptive on a different platform, but repeatedly messaging someone who isn’t interested will make them see your brand in a negative light and also lower your KPIs. Can't view the image? [Click here]( ⚡ QUICK HITS 💸 Here’s a freebie for Shopify merchants! Get a free $100 Amazon gift card and learn how you can increase your Shopify revenue when you [book a demo with Black Crow AI](. * 📰 NEWS - Google [plans to roll out ‘Gems,’ a customizable AI chatbot, in a few months](. - TikTok [tests 60-minute videos on their platform for select users](. - Samsung [released the ‘Uncrushed’ ad as a response to Apple’s controversial Crushed ad](. SPONSOR DTC 📥 Got a B2B Biz? Join dozens of B2B companies finding demand-gen success through our niche community of 160k brand leaders and founders this year. [Talk to our team to learn more](. Have you heard our latest podcasts? - 📈 The Marketing Millennials on [Cracking the DTC Success Formula]( - 💰 [AKNF 403:]( Early Indicators of Amazon Success - 👕 How True Classic [Turned Customer Support Into a Profit Center]( - ❌ [AKNF 401:]( Common Google Ad Mistakes - 🤠 Bart Szaniewski Shares [How Dad Gang Sold 100K Hats]( - 🛒 [AKNF 399:]( Mastering Meta Shops and Ad Instability Don’t forget to [rate the DTC Podcast]( on Apple (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️) DTC Newsletter is written by [Rebecca Knight]( and [Frances Du](. Edited by [Eric Dyck](. Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up [here](. Please note that items in this newsletter marked with * contain sponsored content. [Direct To Consumer]( Pilothouse, 1011 Government St., Victoria, BC V8W 1X6, Canada [Advertise with DTC]( | [Work With Pilothouse]( [Unsubscribe](