📦 - Sending Positive Signals

SMS Strategy, Creator Content, Social Proof, Art Investing, Brand Love Tuesday, October 3, 2023 Today’s a special day here at DTC… Before we dive into today’s newsletter, we wanted to take a moment to reflect on how far we’ve come from newsletter #1 back in 2020 to newsletter #400 today. With 400 newsletters, 160,000+ subscribers, 800,000+ words, and 340+ podcast episodes, it’s been so much fun and we can’t wait to keep building. To the entire DTC team, thank you. To our DTC readers, thank you. Here’s to the next 400! ❤️ In this newsletter, you’ll find: - 📦 People are reading their texts. Is your SMS strategy good enough to actually convert? - 📦 Compounding Meta social proof? Yes please - 📦 Popcorn, gummy worms, spices and sauces Let’s dive in: 👇 SMS 📱 5 Ways to Maximize Your SMS Marketing Strategy If you’re still sleeping on SMS marketing, wake up. ⏰ Unlike emails that can sit unopened or social media posts that get buried in feeds, texts are a VIP pass to your customer’s attention. A recent report from SimpleTexting showed that “80.5% of consumers check their text notifications within just five minutes of hearing their phone buzz.” 👀 SMS is quick, direct, and actually gets read. But how do you go from merely sending texts to crafting a killer SMS strategy that maximizes engagement, conversions, and ROI? Let’s unpack our 5 most effective strategies. - 1️⃣ Target your existing email subscribers - 2️⃣ Recover abandoned carts - 3️⃣ Diversify your messaging mic - 4️⃣ A/B test your SMS campaigns - 5️⃣ Embrace one-text purchasing Eager to revolutionize your SMS marketing strategy and maximize your results? Dive into the full article and explore each strategy in detail. Your enhanced engagement, conversions, and ROI await! 🌟 [Read the full article here](. CREATOR CONTENT ⭐ Get authentic product reviews for Q4 at $0 cost * Finding creators that fit your brand—and make money—is hard to do. But get this: A strategy we love for DTC brands is product seeding (aka influencer gifting) which enables brands to get honest reviews, authentic content, and [grow organic reach at $0](. Plus it helps you to find influencers who you can build long-term relations with for future collabs. [Insense]( is the all-in-one UGC and influencer marketing platform to partner with influencers for your Q4 campaigns. And they’re trusted by 1,500+ DTC brands including: - Solawave – discovered 200+ influencers who genuinely love their products in just 1 month - GoPure – received 525 campaign applicants and generated 150+ UGC videos at $0 - WaveBlock – got 300+ product testimonials and reviews to boost Instagram performance Insense is offering our readers $200 platform credit until Oct 20. Ready…Set…GO! [Book a free strategy call to claim your offer]( META ⭐ Social Proof Slays Social proof on Meta ads crushes. Plain 👏 and 👏 simple. When we say social proof, we’re talking about engagements, comments and reactions on ads. Positive engagement on an ad sends positive signals to the Meta algorithm and can help with delivery. The [Pilothouse Meta team]( deploys strategies to expand winning ads into new audiences while compounding social proof in the process. 😍 When a high converting ad has a lot of social proof built up, the team uses the post ID to move the winning ad into new audiences. Meta recently made changes to where post IDs are stored, so we're giving you the deets on how to find them: - 1️⃣ Go to the ad preview. Click Share > Facebook post with comments - 2️⃣ Right click and view the page source. Search the page for “target_ID” - 3️⃣ The number that shows beside target_ID is the post ID. Copy and paste this, then use it to create an ad from an existing post Once you have the post ID, the ad can be used in any audience. For example, if a retargeting evergreen ad is crushing and has a lot of social proof built up, consider moving it to audiences like these to test: - Open (BAU or Advantage+) - 1% purchaser lookalike - In market interest stack - Video viewers When the ad is used across these audiences, the social proof compounds as more and more people engage with the ad which can help fuel the campaign even more. 🔥 Give it a try and see the comments grow. ART INVESTING 💰 This Enables Everyone To Access Billionaire Level Investments* When precious assets come up for sale, the wealthiest end up with a fantastic investment, primarily due to an extremely high cost to play. But Masterworks is flipping the script, buying and securitizing prized blue-chip artworks. Its investors have seen net returns of 17.8%, 21.5%, and 35%. [DTC Readers can skip the waitlist]( to access these high-level returns more quickly. [Unlock Exclusive Access]( See important disclosures at [masterworks.com/cd]( ❤️ BRAND LOVE 🍿 [Popsmith](: We’ve seen DTC Jonas Brothers popcorn, but Popsmith is bringing it to a whole new level. Founders Dave and Tal worked to make flavors that “combine old-world comfort with modern style” to be used with their spin-on-the-classic stovetop popper. 🪱 [Rotten](: Rotten’s low-sugar classic and sour gummy worms packaging is seriously cool. We’re all for old favorites getting reinvented and love the compostable bags they come in. 🌶️ [Auria's Malaysian Kitchen](: If your dinners have been a little bland or repetitive lately, it’s probably time to mix it up. These NYC made sauces and spices look pretty dang tasty. IN THE SOCIAL SPHERE *Not able to view the image? [Click here](.* Stretchy pants, stretching revenue. Makes sense to us. 🤷 👀 Banter Are there worse feelings? Yes. Is this still a pretty awful feeling? Also yes. Have you heard our latest podcasts? - 📊 [AKNF 340](: Google Ads Q4 Psyche Up + GA4 Gut Check - 👕 [Jacob Rokeach]( - Fractional CMO: How to Build an Apparel Brand in 2023 - 💪 [AKNF 338](: Jogo's Retention Bootcamp - The First and Second Purchase Ecosystem (Part 3) - 😍 [Amanda Elam]( - Bloomreach: Personalized Customer Experiences on Every Channel - 💰 [Sean Frank]( - Ridge Wallet: How to be Hermes - 🎉 [AKNF 336](: Q4 Offer Testing Eleganza Extravaganza Don’t forget to [rate the DTC Podcast]( on Apple (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️) Got an awesome DTC brand story to tell? Calling all brand-side founders and team leaders! Fancy joining us on the DTC Podcast as a guest? [Tap the link to toss in your application](. DTC Newsletter is written by [Rebecca Knight](, [Randy Ginsburg](, 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! Please note that items in this newsletter marked with * contain sponsored content. [Direct To Consumer]( Pilothouse, 1011 Government St., V8W 1X6, Victoria, BC V8W 1X6, Canada [Advertise with DTC]( | [Work With Pilothouse]( [Preferences]( | [Unsubscribe](