📦 - Your Inbox is Crowded

Drive Revenue with AI, The First Party Data Party, Scaling Evergreen Content, Exceptional Customer Experiences, and Standing Out in a Crowded Inbox Friday, October 13, 2023 In this newsletter, you’ll find: - 📦 The new Google Ads Data Manager - 📦 Using your evergreen content to scale on TikTok this Q4 - 📦 Teasers, previews, and early access OH MY — BFCM email inspo - 📦 The Birkenstock IPO — Bop or flop? Let’s dive in: 👇 PREDICTIVE AI 💸 Elevate Your Revenue with Black Crow AI!* Restore your ability to recognize anonymous users, then use AI to predict what they’re going to do next. [Learn from Bushbalm's success]( post-browser privacy updates. Unlock results: 🔥 50% better Facebook ROAS 💰 61% more email revenue 🚀 117% retargeting efficiency Bushbalm's VP of Growth says Black Crow's predictive AI is, 'A no-brainer!' Don't miss out on boosting revenue effortlessly! [Book your demo now to start your free trial.]( [Explore Your Free Trial]( TIKTOK 🌲 Scaling Evergreen Content on TikTok Through BFCM The Pilothouse TikTok team is getting ready to ramp up spend this BFCM. 💸 A key takeaway from Q4 2022 was that evergreen content can absolutely CRUSH on Black Friday. 👀 And last Q4, the Pilothouse TikTok team scaled a jewelry brand to their biggest BFCM yet. The key to success? 🔑 Evergreen ads. Check out the results: 🛍️BFCM ads: - Link CPC: $2.01 - Link CTR: 0.53% - ROAS: 1.02 🌲 Evergreen ads: - Link CPC: $0.92 - Link CTR: 1.01% - ROAS: 1.21 The top performing ad was an organic-style, greenscreen style video that didn’t call out an offer. Leaning into evergreen ads like this can help you continue running top ads even after Black Friday sales end. Don’t snooze on sales this Q4. Shoutout to the [Pilothouse TikTok team]( for the hot tip. 🔥 IPO 📉 Was The Birkenstock IPO A BirkenFlop? On October 11th, German sandal maker Birkenstock made their IPO debut on Wall Street. The outcome was not quite what they hoped for with its stock ending more than 12% below its IPO price. The shares began trading at $41, despite the IPO pricing at $46. The stock eventually closed at $40.20, a decrease of 12.61%. This marked the poorest debut by a company valued over $1B in nearly two years. Does this mean bad news bears for Birkenstock? Absolutely not. The almost 250 year old brand has made some major moves in the past decade breaking into the direct to consumer space and growing their bottom line substantially. A recent [Tweet/X post from Trung Phan]( explained that since the company switched hands in 2013, they’ve 5x’d sales from $125M to $1.3B. Additionally, new leadership brought new opportunities for growth. The first? New footwear at new prices. The new water-proof rubber sandal sells for just half the price of the traditional Birkenstock models and now represents approx. 15% of the 30M units sold. Since entering the world of DTC in 2016 with Birkenstock.com, the brand has grown their online channel to 38% of sales in the past 7 years (from 0%). Although Birkenstock’s initial IPO didn’t have the strongest performance, it’s inspiring to see big consumer brands go public, pivot strategies and growth channels, and continue to push boundaries. BirkenFLOP? We think not and we’ll keep rocking ours. MOBILE APPS 🚀 Create Exceptional Customer Experiences (CX) on Mobile with Tapcart 📲* A customized mobile app can seriously grow your community—because customers want a top-notch CX. Tapcart's new feature Developer Tools, empowers brands to bring your own code, integrations, complexity, and imagination to build a unique app! 🛠️ With this new tech, you can [craft winning mobile app experiences]( using the most popular coding languages to: - Delivering personalized experiences — driving retention. - Seamlessly reuse Shopify website code — your team will thank you. - Pipe first-party mobile app data to any data warehouse to leverage real-time consumer data. Stand out in the ecomm crowd, and join the list of shopping apps like Princess Polly, True Classic, MUD/WTR and more. 'Tap' 🤣 into unmatched customization without the headache of building a full custom app. [Explore It All Here]( EMAIL 📧 BFCM 2023: 5 Email Trends to Stand Out in a Crowded Inbox Over 100 million emails will be sent on Black Friday alone this year. Will yours stand out? 👀 We’ve rounded up five email trends (plus a bonus at the end) to give you a competitive advantage in the inbox this BFCM. Today, we’re covering the first trend — Teasers, previews, and early access sales. Let’s go 😎 1️⃣ Use teasers, previews, and early access sales to boost sales BFCM weekend is a big deal for brands in DTC. We prepare for months on end, and so we tend to think our shoppers see it as a big deal, too. But here’s a stat that might blow your mind (especially if you’re more of a last-minute-gifter 🙋) 🤯 [59% of consumers]( start their holiday shopping before BFCM — typically by November and sometimes as early as September! Why would anyone be so ahead of the ball? One reason is that shopping over BFCM weekend is seen as “stressful” by some consumers. Think shipping delays, supply chain issues, and items going out of stock. 💆 So, brands look to appeal to early bird shoppers by launching BFCM campaigns sooner rather than later. That means you’ll see more “pre-sale,” “sneak peek,” or “early access” emails to generate hype, make shoppers feel exclusive, and give them a chance to get their shopping done before the weekend rush. 🛍️ Want to ensure people see and open your early-sale emails? Use your subject line and preheader to tell email scrollers what they can expect when they open. For example: 1️⃣ Subject line: We’re Giving You A Sneak Peek 2️⃣ Preheader: Get X% off in our exclusive holiday pre-sale This also has the plus side of alleviating shipping constraints and supply chain demands for brands. Want to jump on the early bird train this year? [Check out these pre-BFCM brand emails for inspo](. GOOGLE 🎉 Ain’t No Party Like A First-Party Data Party This week, Google unveiled the "Google Ads Data Manager." This tool is developed in response to the shifting dynamics in the post-cookie era and the growing emphasis on first-party data, amidst the evolving online advertising standards. Features of the Google Ads Data Manager include: 1️⃣ Integration with marketers' first-party data, preparing for an upcoming digital ad environment less dependent on cookies. 2️⃣ Consolidation of data management controls to streamline advertising outcomes and improve the amalgamation of first-party data across different platforms. 3️⃣ Enabling analysts to create new data connections and allowing marketers to utilize specific data for targeted ads and conversion tracking. 4️⃣ Making processes more user-friendly; meaning fewer clicks to complete tasks and minimal coding knowledge required. As the industry transitions away from cookies, tools like Google Ads Data Manager may offer us marketers the much needed insights into understanding customer behaviors and their journey. SPONSOR DTC 📥 Promote your product to 160,000 digital marketing professionals DTC Newsletter + Podcast reaches a highly qualified audience of Shopify merchants, eCommerce founders, and digital marketers. [Talk to our team to learn more](. 🌐 IN THE SOCIAL SPHERE *Can’t view the image? [Click here](.* Calculate your target customer acquisition cost, figure out how to acquire customers in your range, and scale to the moon. 🚀 ⚡ QUICK HITS 🔎 [Job Searching?]( Love managing high-performing ad campaigns and driving growth? Golden Hippo — one of the leading DTC companies in the world — is hiring on their Digital Acquisition Marketing team. [Apply today](! * ✖️ [Expanded profiles are coming to X.]( Businesses and creators are now able to link more resources and add further context to their profiles. Future updates are slated to include jobs and location information. 🎵 [Another lawsuit against TikTok emerges from Utah](, the latest in a string of lawsuits from various American States over the last few years. This time, the lawsuit highlights TikTok’s addictive engagement tactics. 🛍️ [A new ecommerce bartering system is in development]( by ergo, a tech startup. The goal is to revive a brand’s old inventory for a better profit than the same products being sold through a traditional clearance discount. 📺 [YouTube is introducing new accessibility options]( for the visually impaired through audio descriptions for videos in the subtitles tab. 👀 Banter Based on what we’ve seen on Twitter, this is a majority of marketers dodging calls from Meta. 😂 Have you heard our latest podcasts? - 🚀 [AKNF Archive](: Rux Rockets to Meta Ads ROAS with the Pilot Test - 🌱 [Moss Amigos & Chia Pet Legacy]( - Jared Olivia on Becoming America's New Favorite Class Pet - 📊 [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 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](, [Kelsey Hess](, 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](