📦 - Love it and List it

Amazon listings, polishing your brand voice, the secrets of alt text [DTC]( Banter Friday, June 9, 2023 “Have you had your coffee today? You look tired” 🙃 In this newsletter, you’ll find: 👇 📦 Testing informational vs. promotional content in your Amazon listings 📦 How to improve ROAS and smash 2023 growth targets 📦 Balancing polished and brand voice in your A+ content 📦 Reserve your seat at the table to make ads that actually convert 📦 What should you have in your Amazon alt text? Read till the end to access exclusive DTC swag. 😎 👉 If a pal forwarded this to you, [subscribe](, so you never miss out. Amazon Use All the Image Space Amazon Has to Offer 🕺 Making moves on Amazon Welcome to another installment of DTC’s Brand Breakdown, the best source of industry insights from the biggest brands in the game. This week, we continue our journey with the [Pilothouse team]( through the Amazon’s landscape with Manscaped! Let’s see if Manscaped can see the forest for the trees… 🤔 🦸 I need a hero Manscaped’s hero images are pretty good! The diagonal perspective and subtle shadows provide a grounded viewing experience. 😌 Although this approach hasn’t been applied to their whole catalog, newer products seem to follow this formula. ✏️ The ‘list’ of it all Manscaped’s listing images are a mixed bag. The images are all very high quality, but with only one infographic to describe the product and one celebrity photo at the end, most shoppers won’t gather much from what’s on display here. Getting a brand’s unique selling points (USPs) across through imagery is crucial, and Manscaped could definitely add some extra education. Manscaped uses the maximum amount of images Amazon allows in their listing. We suggest all brands do the same. Brands have the option to fill this entire carousel so why wouldn’t you take advantage of it? 📹 Video With six videos uploaded to the listing, we’ve noticed the celebrity feature isn’t in the first position. 🤔 While the product-focused video provides a lot of valuable information, the celebrity voice will catch the viewer’s attention much quicker. Sponsor Supercharge Your DTC Brand with Pilothouse! Ready to improve (ROAS) and smash 2023 growth targets? Look no further than [Pilothouse, the leading performance marketing agency trusted by successful DTC brands worldwide](. Discover why brands love working with Pilothouse: - 🚀 Unmatched Results: Over $500M+ generated in partner revenue. - 🎯 Data-Driven Strategies: Proprietary data analysis to analyze campaign data and drive maximum efficiency for your ad spend. - 💡 Creative Expertise: An expert in-house creative team that creatives data-backed content, plus access to a vetted network of creators. Trusted by leading DTC brands like RUX, Journee Collection, Four Sigmatic and many more. 👉 If you’re not 100% confident with your current partner, it might be [time to make a change](. 👀 Amazon Showcasing Your Brand’s Personality in Your Content 🎓 We’ll give you an A+, but… This is beautifully executed A+ content; every brand should study it. Manscaped features a product-focused video at the top and follows up with a stack of well-branded feature-focused infographics. A few more technical features in the carousel concludes with a “what’s in the box” image to really seal the deal for consumers looking for the most value in the least amount of time. 👍 This is, without a doubt, a very well-designed A+ content stack. They’ve cleverly recreated the product’s page from their DTC site in the A+ content. We caught that slick move. 😉 Despite how nice this A+ content looks, it lacks Manscaped’s personality. Their ads typically ride the line of appropriate and NSFW with constant euphemisms and recurring suggestive humor. This A+ content contains none of that and ends up being a highly-polished but slightly bland experience. 🛍️ What’s in store? Their store is very well structured, with tons of pages and subpages for the consumer to browse. Each product is proudly displayed from different angles to reinforce the narrative that Manscaped has something for everyone. “Father’s Day Gifts”, “New Releases”, “Lifestyle” – it’s all here and we love to see it. 👏 Manscaped uses all of the modules Amazon provides: - Background videos as a way to have animated GIFs - Shoppable images wherever possible - Brand consistency across all of their pages - Cross-selling of products on each page We have the same critique of the store that we have of their A+ content. Although it’s well-designed, it doesn’t get their humorous personality across, while the brand showcases this on other ad channels. Sponsor How a Top Performance Marketing Strategist (Who’s Spent $100M on Paid Social Ads) Makes Ads That Convert Ever wanted to know how the top performance marketing teams create ads that not only look incredible but *actually* convert? Join Dara Denney, in collaboration with Motion, for their epic, free masterclass event series, [Make Ads That Convert](. Join upcoming live sessions in June & July and discover how to build a dynamic creative team, gain tactical insights for high-converting campaigns, use analytics to guide your creative strategy, and stay ahead of 2023 ad formats & trends. Sign up today to learn the secrets to creating top-performing ads every single time. 👉 [Reserve your seat here!]( Amazon Does Your Product Stand Out from the Dupes? 🕳️ Diggin’ deep in alt text A commonly overlooked aspect of SEO is how brands can insert search terms within the alt-text of A+ content. 🤯 Manscaped utilizes this technique – a little. Specifically, the Lawn Mower 4.0’s alt text contains: “manscaped lawn mower groin body hair trimmer.” They’re touching on some keywords here, but much more could be done to include Spanish translations or misspellings. 🎨 Artists always title their work “Manscaped” contains a much larger volume search than any sort of “groin grooming” keyword, so pushing their brand front and center makes sense here. Make note of how “Electric razor”, “electric shaver”, and “electric razor for men” all hold a very high value and yet, aren’t included in their title. While we understand the direction Manscaped was going with this copy, the title seems more appropriate for a DTC site than an Amazon listing. With a little more consideration in their choice of words, they’ll have a stellar listing. If they kept the title short and branded, we’d applaud the choice of favoring readability over SEO, but they still made it unusually long. Manscaped’s focus on features ultimately hurts readability without much benefit to SEO. 🤷 🤔 Making a point Although they format the bullets with a heading, they’re not quite doing it for us given the vibe we expect from Manscaped. The copy could use an infusion of personality and SEO best practices. A very generic product/feature focus is disappointing to see, with so much text left underutilized. Next time, we recommend leaning into their brand voice a bit more to elevate this content above. 💡 Final Thoughts Manscaped’s listings are fairly well-developed as their A+ content and store pages are, but their listing images and SEO could use a few tweaks. We hope they inject more of their signature humor and branding into their product pages down the line. This could help them stand out above the competition, who’re looking to leverage their own brand-building techniques with less expensive dupes of Manscaped’s product. 🚶The journey continues… We’ll return next week as [Pilothouse]( dives into Manscaped’s Amazon ads, explores why a good offense is actually a defense, and looks at the mystery of who’s trying to steal their thunder. 😱 Any brand looking to build an audience on Amazon won’t want to miss this! Quick Hits 📦 Are you looking to expand your US-based ecom brand to Canada? [Check out this must-read guide]( for everything you need to know to ship up North successfully. * 🚀 [Turn your customers into content creators for your brand](. Join 1600+ brands that use Upfluence, the #1 rated all-in-one influencer management platform, to drive sales from their most influential customers. * 🌲 [Amazon]( announces Affirm will be their first buy now, pay later partner to integrate with Amazon Pay. ♾️ [Meta]( to let users decide if cross-site tracking will remain active for them. This follows an announcement from Germany’s FCO after an antitrust intervention. ✏️ [Meta]( shares the new “Performance 5” to unlock the benefits of the platform’s ad offering. These best practices were chosen to provide more insight into AI, Reels and new ad formats. *Sponsored SHARE DTC NEWSLETTER 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. Here's your unique referral link: [( [Share via facebook]( [Share via twitter]( [Share via whatsapp]( [Share via email](mailto:?subject=Check%20this%20out&body=%F0%9F%94%A5%20Signed%20up%20to%20this%20newsletter%20a%20couple%20of%20weeks%20ago%20and%20it's%20amazing%20for%20DTC%20marketers%20like%20you!+https%3A%2F%2Fsparklp.co%2F47c676d0%2F%3Futm_source%3Demail) [See how many referrals you have!]( Referal program is subject to [DTC Terms & Conditions.]( 🔊 Have you heard our latest podcasts? 💭 Manifesting Your Dreams with Samantha from [Maniscripting](. 💚 "Enlightened Hospitality" and the Secret to Killer CX with Eli Weiss from [Jones Road Beauty](. 💄 ​​8-Figure Beauty Empire [Trinny London's]( Epic Organic Content. 🚗 The Road to 9-Figures with Cody Plofker from [Jones Road Beauty]( (Plus Cody’s YouTube and Meta Ads Funnel Breakdown). 🤑 How Not to Grow an 8-Figure Business ([Obvi Panel]( - C-Suite Preview). Don’t forget to [rate the DTC Podcast]( on Apple (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️) DTC Newsletter is written by [Rebecca Knight]( and [Michael Venditti](. 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! [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. Federal Filing operates the Website. Our Privacy Policy, along with our Terms & Conditions, governs your use of this site. By using directtoconsumer.co or accepting the Terms of Use (via opt-in, checkbox, pop-up, or clicking an email link confirming the same), you agree to be bound by our Terms & Conditions and our Privacy Policy. Suppose you have provided personal, billing, or other voluntarily provided information. In that case, you may access, review, and make changes to it via instructions found on the Website or by emailing us at team@directtoconsumer.co. To manage your receipt of marketing and non-transactional communications, you may unsubscribe by clicking the "unsubscribe" link located at the bottom of any marketing email. Emails related to the purchase or delivery of orders are provided automatically – Customers cannot opt-out of transactional emails. We will try to accommodate any requests related to the management of Personal Information in a timely manner. However, it is not always possible to completely remove or modify information in our databases (for example, if we have a legal obligation to keep it for specific timeframes). If you have any questions, reply to this email or visit our Website to view our official policies. [Preferences]( | [Unsubscribe]( Pilothouse, 1011 Government St., V8W 1X6, Victoria, BC V8W 1X6, Canada