#38 The Least Boring Weekend Newsletter

November 20, 2021 • Estimated Reading Time: 15 minutes

Good Morning readers!🌞

Excited for BFCM?🥳

A survey of 6,000 consumers in North America, Europe, and Asia found that 72 percent are already actively purchasing sustainable products which is fantastic news, right?

Check out our new Ebook. It has everything you need to know about the latest COP26 Conference and how D2C Brands can help reverse climate change. (hurry!)

D2C x METAVERSE

Nike, the world's largest sportswear company, has ventured into the metaverse.

Nike buildings, fields, and arenas are included in the virtual world for players to compete in a variety of mini-games ranging from tag and dodgeball to "The Floor Is Lava." (So cool, right?). It's based on the real-life headquarters of the company.

In the future, the company intends to incorporate in-play moments that mimic global sporting events. A soccer match during the World Cup or a flag football game during the Super Bowl are two examples.

Nike stated that the virtual world will be updated in the future to include athlete and product integration. People who have accelerometers in their mobile devices will be able to use their real-world movements to power their online gaming. You can, for example, move your body in a jumping motion, and it will translate in the virtual world to enhance the experience. (Woah🤯) 

Users will also have access to a digital showroom where they can outfit their avatar in all things Nike and browse the company's latest goods.

Nike may potentially reveal upcoming products or encourage children to co-create items.

But wait, This isn't the first time Nike has partnered with Roblox. On Nike Air Max Day in 2019, the two collaborated.

Nike has quietly been preparing for the metaverse by registering a slew of new trademarks suggesting its intention to create and sell virtual Nike sneakers.

Companies like Nike recognize the potential in being able to engage with a new generation of athletes and encourage them to fall in love with the brand, which can eventually transfer into real-world sales, as the metaverse has gained traction (If they can, you can too).

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OUR SPECIAL INVITE

Been waiting for our Podcast? Here you go.😄 We have a new episode on How to E-commerce by Almund’s Podcast. To talk about “How to be a Budding Entrepreneur”, we were in conversation with Matt Feldman, the Co-founder, and CEO at Moku Foods. He is also going to help you eat righteously by incorporating plant-based ingredients into products that mimic the taste and texture of meat.

Matt grew up in Oahu, Hawaii and he understood what it was like to live in a place with limited resources, and he set out to create a sustainable snack. He transitioned to a plant-based diet as he grew older. His reasons were straightforward: environmental, health, and animal rights concerns.

But what made him switch to plant-based?

He switched to plant-based after watching two Netflix documentaries.

The first was “Cowspiracy” which talks about the environmental impacts of plant-based eating, and the second one was ”What the Health” which talks about the health benefits of plant-based eating. 

Nowadays, the concept of community has become quite important, and people tend to get closer as a result of their interactions with one another. Everyone wants to be a part of the D2C community or start a plant-based community, and here's a 0-1 step toward doing so.

 👉🏻 Get your product to a point where it tastes great 

 👉🏻 Scale it up for commercialization.

Once you've established a path to commercialization, you should begin with Branding and Product Design, Bootstrapping, and so on.

“You don't attract many consumers from word of mouth or websites; 99 percent of your customers come from paid advertising.”

When it comes to COP26, it's critical to educate your customers on climate change and COP26. Matt Reminds his consumers how much water, land, and CO2 emissions they save by eating his jerky instead of beef jerky. They feel good about their dietary choices because of these subtle reminders. 

Moku has raised over $1 million in funding from venture capital firms such as Siddhi Capital and KBW Ventures, as well as the founders of Casper, Thrive Market, and (30 Under 30 alum) JuneShine.

To know more about Matt and Moku Foods listen to the podcast here! 

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A DOLLAR - HUB OF OPPORTUNITIES. (Part 2)

The last newsletter included insights on dollar-a-day strategy. But, was that it? (nuh-uh)

There’s much more to the strategy than just awareness, engagement, and conversion. 

So, let’s dive into it, shall we?

Targeting & Re-targeting Your Audiences.

Targeting people effectively is where the magic happens with the dollar-a-day Facebook ads strategy (welcome to Hogwarts). It’s unlikely that people are going to buy from you the very first time they see your products. 

Instead, you want to slowly help people associate your brand with value and authority in your industry, and then lead those people on a path to purchase at their own pace. 

The best way to target people for the “Dollar-a-Day” strategy is through “if-then” funnels. An example of an “if-then” funnel here is: If Henna watches more than 10 seconds of Video 1, then show her Video 4; otherwise, show her Video 2.

When a person is in any given stage, or tier, you’ll want to re-market either down if they’ve shown a certain level of engagement with that video, or across if they didn’t show much engagement. What level of engagement moves them through the funnel will be up to you to test and tweak.

Let’s look at this from a buyer POV:

Let's presume I'm targeting you with a Facebook video ad for a new pair of running shoes (what better than shoes right?). You see a runner going down a beautiful path with a companion on a sunny day, smiling and having a good time - and you say to yourself, "Hey, that looks wonderful."

You have watched more than ten seconds of the video. Let's assume I wrote the following if-then rule for that video: If a viewer watches the "awareness" video for more than 10 seconds, he or she is then shown an "engagement" video.

Let's say you see a video ad from my firm on Facebook a few days later, but this time it's a documentary-style clip with a group of runners talking to the camera about how great this one pair of running shoes is.

They love how well it supports their arches, how comfy it is, and how waterproof it is. Then it starts talking to you about price points about the 9-second mark, and you lose interest and quit watching.

If my if-then funnel for this video was the same – IF a viewer views more than 10 seconds of this video, THEN he or she passes on to the next tier – then the next video you'll see from me will be another "engagement" set, perhaps with shoe discounts.

Instead of seeing that discount video ad, you would have been shown a separate video ad in the "conversion" tier that would have led you to purchase at full price if you hadn't left my video at the 10-second mark – let's say you left it at 11 or 12 or 20 seconds.

By now, you should have a better concept of how to use Facebook advertisements to reach a new audience, as well as how to retarget that audience with more videos that guide them through a purchase path at their own pace.

But what should be the components of the ad? How to make the ad a WINNER?

When it comes to advertising on Facebook, a one or two-minute video that plays right in the news feed can be more effective than a link to a 500-word article with the same content. Not only is it more eye-catching in the feed, but it’s also more time-efficient for Facebook users – who might spare a minute or two for your video rather than five minutes scanning through an article.

👉🏻 First, a winning video ad speaks to where your audience is in the buyer’s journey. In your nine “greatest hits” videos, you’re covering three different stages of that journey: “awareness,” “engagement” and “conversion.” These videos should speak to your target audience in different ways. 

👉🏻 Next, a winning video ad covers a topic that connects with the audience on an emotional level – as quickly as possible. A video of someone telling a transformational story that touches on your offer, or educates the viewer with passion.

👉🏻 Three, lead with a hook in the first few seconds of the video to grab viewers’ attention and keep them there long enough to get your message across. 

👉🏻 Four, Make it short. People have short attention spans, which is why there tends to be such a drop-off in video engagement. 

Well, what’s planning without implementation?

To get started, make your first three-by-three grid of "greatest hits" videos. Remember to include three "awareness" videos, three "engagement" videos, and three "conversion" videos in your 3-by-3 grid.

Choose a few of your previously published Facebook video posts that match into these categories to get started - testing, adjusting, and replacing old videos with new ones is all part of the approach.

However, make sure that the videos you choose cover all three stages of "awareness," "engagement," and "conversion."

Then set on a daily budget of one dollar per video. Next, select "10-second video views" from the "Optimization for Ad Delivery" option.

Lastly, make a new Ad Set for each of your three "awareness" videos, which will all be part of the same "awareness" campaign. You'll make a second campaign for "engagement" and a third for "conversions," and voila! (Isn't it simple?)

What about Retargeting?

All right. Let's look at how to set up Retargeting!

Retargeting refers to the practice of showing adverts on Facebook to people who have previously interacted with your video content.

You'll need to create separate audiences for the following to set up retargeting campaigns for your "awareness," "engagement" and "conversion" videos. People who watched "awareness" advertisements, "engagement" ads, and "conversion" ads for at least 10 seconds and the ones who skip before 10 seconds, we have our if-then funnels for them! (hope you remember)

To go about doing that, you’ll have to open the Ad Manager, Choose "Create Audience," then "Custom Audience," then "Engagement" – independent of the stage for which this audience is being created – and finally "Video".

Next, choose how much time people in your audience should have spent watching videos before they see this new ad.

Now, in the "In The Past" option, specify how many days you want Facebook to collect views for. Dennis Yu recommends setting a benchmark of 28 days.

Return to your "Ads Manager" and go through each of your campaigns one at a time, following these steps. You'll have three ad sets to pick from for your "awareness" campaign. All three ad sets should be selected.

Repeat for the remaining two campaigns. You'll need to go back into each campaign and add the necessary audiences and audience exclusions once you've built all three audiences.

You'll already have the comprehensive targeting in place, but you'll want to exclude an audience by going to the "Custom Audiences" section and selecting "Exclude Audiences”.

Again for your “engagement” campaign, you’ll have three ad sets to choose from. All three ad sets should be selected. Scroll down to "Custom Audiences" in this situation. Include "People who viewed at least 10 seconds of "awareness" advertisements" in your audience, but remove "People who watched at least 10 seconds of ‘engagement’ commercials”.

The same applies to your "conversion" effort. You'll have three ad settings to choose from once more. Scroll down to "Custom Audiences'' and select all three ad packages. Include "People who viewed at least 10 seconds of "engagement" advertisements" in your audience, but remove "People who watched at least 10 seconds of ‘conversion’ ads”.

That’s how Retargeting looks like in a nutshell!

Glad that you made it to the end!

Your dollar-a-day approach will be up and running once you've completed this step. Give yourself a pat on the back.

The final stage is to continuously test and optimize your grid of "greatest hits" videos to lower your cost-per-acquisition. Remember: You should only run nine videos as ads for a given grid at a time, and you should replace the bad performers with new video ads on a regular basis — not because you're trying to stick to a content calendar, but because you're attempting to optimize the nine videos and lower your costs.

You're now ready to put Dennis Yu's dollar-a-day strategy into action on your own. Fuel your engine, it’s showtime!

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TOP READS FOR THIS WEEK

📷 Waldo brings its ad-free, private photo-sharing service Direct to Consumers.

🧬 Tone raises $4M to help e-commerce brands text with their customers.

🧘‍♀️ Carewell raises $5M for a vetted e-commerce platform aimed at family caregivers.

📈 As eCommerce evolves, Faire raises $400M at a $12.4B valuation. 

🩳 Foot Locker merges Champs Sports and Eastbay brands. 

🕶 Warby Parker's sales are up 32%, while losses widen. 

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In need of a  job? We’ve got plenty awaiting you!

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CHOOSE SUCCESS below and have a great week! ‘Get that D2C business runnin’.