#88 The Least Boring Weekend Newsletter

May 14, 2022 • Estimated Reading Time: 11 minutes

Good Morning Readers! 🌄

Have a great and pleasant weekend! 🙂

✨  We’ve got some great news! ✨ 

Our BETA Program is now live. And the first 10 sign-ups are 100% free!

Test out our automation tool for enhanced data acquisition, faster processing, and efficient synthesis—give your DTC brand THE edge it needs. 

Making money in the metaverse is indeed a reality. By creating 3D assets on the platforms like Roblox, AltspaceVR, and VRChat, participating in play-to-earn games, or buying virtual real estate, you can earn some real dough💰 

A South Korean 3D modeling software developer who goes by the name, Tripolygon, enables metaverse creators to make their own 3D assets using the Unity plugins. “Creating 3D modeling is no longer a field for experts or software developers only,” Tryipolgon CEO Jae-sik Hwang said.

Almund’s newsletter will let you in on tips for DTC brands and much more.

Alright, so let’s get right to it!

This newsletter is going to dive into:

🤳 Facebook's CEO on why the social media network is becoming a Metaverse company.

❣️ Loyalty Program Over The Years That We Love

👞 Brand of the week

🤝 Brand deals of the week

📕 Top Reads of the week

👨‍💼 Plenty of jobs await you!

So, scroll down to THE VERY END & read up on what's yet to come your way!

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DTC X METAVERSE

Mark Zuckerberg spoke about an ambitious initiative. With this venture, the company’s future would go far beyond its current project of building a set of connected social apps and hardware to support them. Instead, he mentioned, Facebook would strive to create an interconnected set of experiences straight out of a sci-fi novel— a world known as the metaverse. 🤳

The company is focused on products for communities, creators, commerce, and virtual reality and would increasingly work to realize this vision. “What I think is most interesting is how these themes will come together into a bigger idea,” said Zuckerberg.

Venture capitalist, Matthew Ball identified the key characteristics of a metaverse. The list includes: a fully-fledged economy and offers “unprecedented interoperability”. Users need to have complete freedom to be able to migrate to another part of the metaverse with their avatars and goods. 🤝

Arguably, no company will ever run the metaverse—it has to be an “embodied internet”, Zuckerberg said, “operated by many different players in a decentralized way”. 

This led to a package of bills limiting Facebook’s ability to make future acquisitions or offer services connected to its hardware products.💲 At the same time, Zuckerberg stated that the metaverse will bring multiple opportunities to creators and artists worldwide; to individuals who want to work and own homes far from today’s urban centers; and to people who live in places where opportunities for education or recreation are more limited. 💬

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Loyalty Program Over The Years That We Love

Last week, we walked you through some great ways you can take the first step towards building customer loyalty through engaging programs—we hope you’re on route to test a few out! But what are some of the great benefits you can watch out for? ✨ 

Building customer loyalty can take a while, your customers would definitely not start choosing you over the other hundreds of competitors overnight. It takes brand awareness building and nurturing to get a constant string of loyal customers making a beeline for your eCommerce store always. 

But there are a lot more benefits to creating a dedicated consumer base for your brand than just steady sales figures. 

💬 Enhances Brand Engagement

With customers reeled in, they are going to be far more interested in interacting with you on social media—may be even actively participate in helping you create UGC content! If they truly value your service and products and enjoy buying from your routine, you’d see no drop in engagement rates on all channels.

🧲 Increases Brand Affinity

With a loyal customer base engaging with your social media channels, vouching for your products/services, and spreading awareness through word-of-mouth marketing (all thanks to the loyalty programs that keep them emotionally engaged) increases your brand’s influence on potential customers. It makes your brand all the more likable online.

💲 Higher Sales (DUH!)

Emotionally invested customers spend 2X times more time on your website than visitors. They contribute to 80% of sales, helping increase your overall revenue. 

✨ Improves Customer Experience

With rewards, freebies, and redeemable gifts available for grabs, customers are bound to be engaged and excited in the pre-sales process and satisfied and happy in the post-sales stage. It improves your customers’ overall experience, helping you retain more customers. 

As usual, we won’t let you walk away from us without some great real-time examples of loyalty programs THAT WORK!

#1 Sephora’s 3-Tier Loyalty Program

Tiered loyalty programs allow your customers the opportunity to choose from a variety of membership programs that best suit their needs, further enhancing their experience with your brand.

Sephora gives its customers an option to choose from Insider, VIB, and Rouge packages. It’s such a popular program that it makes up to 80% of Sephora’s annual sales. 

#2 Blume’s Point-Based Loyalty Program

The body care products retailer, Blume has devised a perfect loyalty program that has many coming back for more. Their point system is known as Blume Bucks customers can earn by placing orders, interacting with the brand on social media, and recommending the brand to their friends and family. 

It includes incentives such as freebies, cashback, perks, etc. that can be accumulated by engagement and references, making it a game for them to stay connected with the brand.

#3 Apple’s No-Perk Loyalty Program

Apple is taking minimalism to the next level. They offer no perks, incentives, and special discounts as a part of a generalized loyalty program but still cater to a VERY loyal fanbase that swears by their products. How? 

By offering amazing products,  an excellent customer experience, and personalized benefits with each order, you can easily wow your customers into loyal consumers. 

Now that’s some serious strategy in action! When J.Lo is giving someone the standing O, they’re definitely doing something right.

To truly make your loyalty program a success, understand your consumer base to know what’ll suit their needs the best, making it a beneficial program for them to sign to.

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BRAND OF THE WEEK

It’s almost a year since Allbirds filed its IPO, and the company’s growth strategy is coming into focus. Despite the current problems, Allbirds still sees international trade as an “important element of your growth algorithm” and expects the impact on that business to be transitory.🧲

Building out an omnichannel business is also top of mind for Allbirds, as the company continues to open new stores in New York’s flatiron district and plans about 17 stores for this year. ✨

Zwillinger highlighted that omnichannel customers spend 1.6 times more than single-channel customers and physical stores have been “highly productive”, serving as an efficient way to get new customers into the fold 💬. Wedbush analysts, Tom Nikic and Ezra Weener highlighted the physical solid retail performance in emailed comments and emphasized it could be a growth driver going forward.🤝

Allbirds is no longer just pursuing sales through its own channels. The company’s new wholesale deals with Zalando and Dick’s Sporting Goods’ banner Public Lands are the first in a larger strategy to enter wholesale with selective partners. This, too, could help the brand scale. 🧾

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BRAND DEALS OF THE WEEK

Express is helping you SUIT UP. Enjoy $100 off on men’s suits & 40% off on women’s.

The Children's Place is giving you a whopping 70% off on all products!

Fossil is hosting an incredible summer sale! Check it out

Kiehl's is giving away THE PERFECT GIFT at every purchase you make. Drop by to take a look!

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TOP READS FOR THIS WEEK

👀 Google unveils new maps, shopping tools, and search insights.

🎥 YouTube launches an updated green screen option for shorts.

🤳 Snapchat's latest viral AR effect that underlines its nouns.

📷 Twitter tests a new option to start a space about a chosen Tweet.

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IN NEED OF A JOB? WE'VE GOT PLENTY AWAITING YOU!

Senior Backend Engineer - Motion Recruitment

Associate Creative Director - creative Circle

Marketing Specialist - Maryhaven Inc.

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CHOOSE SUCCESS below and have a great weekend! Get that D2C business runnin'.