📦 – The Best Email About Emails

DTC 226 – Email deliverability and 9 emails you should be sending this Q4 [DTC]( Banter Monday, September 5, 2022 The cringe is SO real *shudders*. In this newsletter, you’ll find: 👇 📦 Email deliverability and 9 emails you should be sending this Q4 📦 Choosing the subscription software solution that meets your customers' exact needs with Recharge 📦 Using SEO content clusters to boost site traffic for your brand 📦 Why your brand should utilize minisocial's micro-influencer driven UGC campaigns Read till the end to access exclusive DTC swag. 😎 👉 If a pal forwarded this to you, [subscribe,]( so you never miss out. Email Are Your Emails Getting Delivered? We’re back with another stellar edition of our [All Killer No Filler Podcast](. As Q4 and the holiday season ramp up, we want to ensure you have all the tools in your arsenal to crush the competition. 💥 Today’s topic? Locking down your email sequences with our very own [email aficionado](. 📬 Inboxing Now's time to make sure people see the emails you pour so much work into. If your emails are landing in spam, your offers fall on significantly fewer eyes. Compare different domains and different segments to maximize audience reach with your offers. If you’re not on top of testing and messaging, your offers may fall into the void this Q4. With an influx of messages going out, IPs tighten up their process to ensure only important emails are getting through. 🙅‍♀️ This is the time to warm up your IP and ensure your sending domain has some history. Brand new domains are more likely to trigger spam and promotional placements. 👀 The low down - Ask new users to drag your email into their inbox. This helps train the algorithms to identify your email as important. - List hygiene is key! Ensure you’re segmenting and re-engaging unengaged users. - Get ready to A/B test. Subject lines, use of images, and messaging all have the potential to impact open rates and click-through rates. - Track your opens and deliverability. Use online email tools like Google’s Gmail Postmaster! - Have a well-thought-out email sequence. Guide shoppers through the buying journey. Be personal, respectful, and value the space you’re taking up in the inbox. The party doesn’t stop here. [Listen to the full pod]( for a 9 email sequence breakdown your brand can steal this Black Friday. Have questions on how to maximize your email campaigns? We’ve got you covered, [reach out!]( 👋 Sponsor Your Customers Can't Get Enough of You! And, that’s why they’ve either already signed up for your subscription service, or are patiently waiting for you to get it together. You already know your subscribers are your most loyal customers and buy more and more often than your non-subscribers. (Cha-ching 🤑) So, it’s time to start treating those loyal customers right. How? By [choosing the subscription software solution]( that meets your customers' exact needs. [Recharge]( understands the power subscription software has to boost customer LTV. They also get how essential it is for DTC brands to get matched with—not any subscription software—but the right subscription software. That’s why Recharge put together a [cool interactive guide]( that analyzes your specific needs and suggests a personalized subscription profile that’s tailored perfectly to your brand. 👉 [Read the interactive guide from Recharge now. Your subscribers are waiting (by their mailboxes).]( SEO SEO Topic Clusters Boost DTC Traffic SEO and content marketing are like peanut butter and jelly… inseparable. The two disciplines work together to attract customers to your online store via organic search. 💝 Internal linking is an important part of the SEO-content relationship. Site visitors and search engines both use your site's internal links to discover new content. 🔗 When you create thoughtful and relevant links between related pages on your site, you can: - Guide customers on a journey that leads to a sale - Focus Google or Bing algorithms on important informational pages 🗺 The anatomy of a content cluster An SEO topic cluster, or content cluster, is an internal linking strategy that aims to help human visitors and search engine bots alike. Brands want to ensure that Google, Bing, or other search engines understand: - Which pages are the most important, - Which pages are related, - What topic a page covers. A typical DTC brand might have several topic clusters, and each topic cluster has a few components. - Core topic page (pillar page) - Cluster pages - Hyperlinks 🍎 Core topic page A cluster's core topic is the two-to-four word phrase a DTC brand wants to rank for on Google and other search engines. For example, if you ran [Earlybird](, a DTC brand that sells wake-up cocktails, you might try and rank for the keyphrase "morning routine." Morning routine gets somewhere in the ballpark of 18,000 monthly searches on Google in North America. You would create a pillar page completely devoted to the topic, morning routine. This pillar page should aim to be the best morning routine – or insert your core topic here — resource the company can make. This doesn't necessarily mean you need to write an encyclopedia entry (because who wants to read that?). The key is to provide a comprehensive overview of the topic. 🤓 To continue with the morning routine example, here are some of the top-ranking pages right now. - [The Ultimate Morning Routine to Make You Happy And Productive All Day](, - [How to start a healthy morning routine — and stick with it](, - [9 Small Morning Habits That Will Make Your Whole Day So Much Better](, - [10 steps to building a great morning routine to improve your productivity and happiness](, - [Best morning routine: 21 steps for a more productive day](. If a brand wanted to outrank these pages, it would need to provide a better overview resource. Remember that your goal is to sell products, so it is perfectly acceptable and even recommended that you include products or product references on the pillar page. Keep on scrolling for cluster pages, hyperlinks, and the 5 steps for building content clusters for your website! 👇 Sponsor Here’s Where Brands like Native and Imperfect Foods Get Their High-Performing UGC Brands like Super Coffee, Harry's, UrbanStems, and Care/of have already uncovered the power of minisocial to boost ad ROIs and gain consumer trust. They combine micro-influencer amplification with UGC creation from creators across 🇺🇸 🇨🇦 🇬🇧 When you consistently utilize [minisocial's micro-influencer driven UGC campaigns](, you can expect to: - Boost ad performance. Increase ROI with stronger ad creative. Get a library of fully-licensed assets to support digital ad testing and iteration. - Build your community. Spread your messages organically. Leverage our creators’ engaged followings to find your brand’s new super fans. - Add social proof to your campaigns. Gain consumer trust by showcasing honest video and photo content across your product pages, email, landing page, social, and more. 🚨 [Your next winning UGC is waiting for you!]( Learn more by chatting with their founder. [Schedule a consultation here.]( SEO – Part 2 SEO Topic Clusters Boost DTC Traffic 💻 Cluster pages The cluster pages or topic clusters are several pages related to your core topic. Hubspot, who coined the term "topic cluster", suggests that these pages should answer a specific question connected to the core topic and, perhaps, touched on in the pillar page. If the pillar page is about morning routines, cluster pages might address: - What are the best morning workouts? - Which daily reading habits will advance my career? - Does morning meditation reduce fatigue? - Which breakfast foods boost brainpower? - Should I hit snooze on my alarm? Each of these pages also represents a [long-tail keyword](. As a brand, try to provide a detailed response to the question and include some info about your product! Consider the topic page, "which breakfast foods boost brainpower." If Earlybird wrote this article, they might mention tea. Tea, it turns out, can contain theanine. In turn, theanine has been shown to help transmit nerve impulses in the brain, i.e., it boosts brainpower. And, by the way, theanine is one of the key ingredients in Earlybird's morning cocktail. 🤯 🔗 Hyperlinks Since topic clusters are an internal linking strategy, each cluster page should link back to the pillar page. The theory here is that page rank or authority passes from each cluster page to the pillar page. When Google or another search bot finds a whole bunch of links pointing back to a single resource (the pillar page), it should be able to realize how important that pillar page is. Effectively, the site structure shows the search engine which pages are important, how pages are related, and what topic the pages represent. Easy peasy, right? 🛠Building topic clusters Now that you’re up to speed on the anatomy of topic clusters, follow these steps to create one! 1️⃣ Identify core topics Topic research is a form of keyphrase research. You want to identify keywords and phrases your customers will most likely type into a search engine when researching a topic related to your product. Look for phrases closely related to your product and have a significant monthly search volume. 2️⃣ Create the pillar page The first and sometimes largest hurdle is developing the pillar page content. It can make sense to use existing content and repurpose it. If your brand has guides or ebooks, use some of that content on the pillar page to attract readers. 3️⃣ Identify Subjects for Cluster Pages Next, make a list of questions someone might ask about the core topic. Use SEO tools like Ahrefs and SEMRush to find these. 4️⃣ Create Cluster Pages Regularly add to the cluster. Make it a goal to add a new cluster page every week until you have 25 pages or 50 pages or until you are winning the top spot for your core topic on Google. 5️⃣ Iterate Review, update, and amend your pillar page and cluster pages on a regular schedule. The more linked and developed your site is, the more information you can provide to potential shoppers and search engines. Are you using a core, cluster, and pillar strategy on your DTC site? Reply to this email and send us the link so we can check it out! Quick Hits 🚨 Find out how 2000+ Shopify brands like ILIA, True Botanicals, and MESHKI[find the right users to target for their marketing campaigns.]( * 💰 [Google](: Better control over Smart Bidding with new levers to value store visits and store sales. 🗺 [Meta]( lets advertisers in India pay for their ad campaigns in ‘no-cost’ monthly installments. 📹 [YouTube’s]( testing a new ‘Promotions’ tab in YouTube Studio to make it easier to promote YouTube content. 📸 [Snapchat](, like BeReal, brings 'Dual Camera' recording to in-app camera. *Sponsored SHARE DTC NEWSLETTER 🔥 NEW REFERRAL PROGRAM HAS OFFICIALLY DROPPED 🔥 Want to level up the marketing skills of your teammates and employees? Just grab your referral link below and you’ll earn points toward cool gear for every new subscriber you bring to the DTC fam. 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Don’t forget to [rate the DTC Podcast]( on Apple. (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️) DTC Newsletter is written by [Rebecca Knight]( and [Jordan Gillis](. Edited by [Claire Beveridge]( and Eric Dyck. Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up [here](. NEED MORE DTC? 🚀 [Advertise]( in DTC Newsletter. 💰Check out our course on [Facebook and Instagram]( ads! 📥 Work for The DTC Newsletter: Send an email to Rebecca, rebecca@directtoconsumer.co, if you’re interested in writing for us! Rate Us [Rate Us]( [Fueled by Pilothouse] [Share]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [LinkedIn]( [Advertise with DTC]( | [Work With Pilothouse]( At Direct to Consumer, we are strongly committed to protecting your privacy and providing a safe & high-quality online experience for all visitors. We understand that you care about how the information you provide to us is used and shared. We have developed a Privacy Policy to inform you of our policies regarding collecting, using, and disclosing information we receive from our Website users. 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