#93 The Least Boring Weekly Newsletter

June 01, 2022 • Estimated Reading Time: 10 minutes

Good Morning Readers!🌄

Here’s to hoping for a successful day ahead.

The most awaited Netflix show is back with a sequel! Did you binge the latest episodes of Stranger Things too? 

While many had been on the edge of their seats upon hearing about the upcoming season, they certainly didn’t expect the sheer number of paid sponsorships Netflix would be plugging into the show. 

During season 3, Netflix worked with 75 brands for Stranger Things product tie-ins but now, things look a little different. 

Netflix, the entertainment giant that used to provide brands with the most coveted sponsorships owing to its crowd of 150 million+ subscribers, is now facing the other end of the deal. With a huge loss in subscriber count and a stock drop of 37% within a week, it is losing credibility. Additionally, they are now having to compete with HBO Max, Prime Video, Paramount Plus, Disney Plus, and other platforms which are airing promising content at the same time as the show.

So how is Netflix clapping back? From an increase in brand sponsorships on and off the show to airing the show in two segments, the company is trying to force people in staying on the platform a lot longer. 

Whether it’s placing your Dominoes order mentally to witnessing stranger things at Baskin Robbins, stay tuned for a lot more creative ways to consume content at Netflix. 

Almund’s newsletter will give you all kinds of tips for D2C brands and much much more.

Alright, so let’s get right to it!

This newsletter is going to dive into:

📷 How Inflation Is Impacting The Retail Industry

🛃 Knock Knock. Who’s There? Customer Data For You.

🎥 Video Bites: All Things DTC!

📕 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!

What's Cooking, Huh?

Retail stocks see a rebound owing to a short but hefty list of problems with inflation taking a heavy toll. Due to extremely erratic and unpredictable consumer behavior as well as reports of the retail giant, Kohl, receiving competitor takeover offers, the retail sector is seeing a selloff amidst decreasing profits. 

Large retailers, such as Target and Walmart, reported some not-so-great earnings in the past weeks and warned the industry about inflation impacting profits, and resulting in losses. This caused a large selloff in retail stocks owing to recession fears. 

But not every retailer is seeing declining numbers on their reports. Dick’s Sporting Goods saw a rise of 10% in its market shares after previously seeing a sharp fall of 20%, according to Vital Knowledge founder, Adam Crisafulli. The SPDR S&P Retail ETF also, gained 6% this Wednesday.

But the issue isn’t simply monetary. To fight off the supply chain issues that most of these retailers faced last year, they overestimated their sales resulting in overstocking of supplies and now facing too overflowing inventories with not enough sales. 

The companies that have, for years, relied on the predictable nature of the American consumer base now face the challenge of finding ways around this newfound issue. With consumer demands becoming hard to predict and quick to pivot, the “retailers are going to be in a feast-or-famine environment for the next few quarters,” says Andy Kapyrin, chief investment officer at RegentAtlantic.

Knock Knock. Who’s There? Customer Data For You.

Let go of the assumption that most of your audience doesn’t wish to have their data tracked. Salesforce conducted a study that stated that 79% of the DTC audience wishes for marketers to send them a personalized experience and offers and, for that, they don’t mind their purchase history being tracked. Now that’s A LOT of customers. 

So, Why Should You Collect Data?

Customer data is crucial in understanding your audience's behavior—buyer personas, basic details, their shopping habits, online behavior, and more. This can help you develop targeted ads and experiences that can help your customers have a better time when interacting with your eCommerce store. 

This information can also be helpful when curating personalized offers and discounts for your customers as well as running targeted ad campaigns. 

You could even use the insights when shaping future products, solutions, and/or services for your customers to provide them with a more customer-centric experience. 

Let’s say your brand is facing a slow month at the store and you’re looking for ways to generate more traffic to your eCommerce website. You could pull out a detailed report on who shopped from your store at the same time over the last couple of years and segment them accordingly. Perhaps reaching out to them with a few great product images, a limited period offer, or a special discount can have them coming back to you. Sounds great, doesn’t it?

Collecting data isn’t as shady as it may seem anymore. You can give your customers a seamless experience online while extracting the required information. Here are some of the most common ways DTC brands do so.

💻 Website

You can start data collection as soon as someone drops on your website! Consider plugging in a chatbox or pop-ups that prompt them to submit some basic information such as name & email address for an offer.

Actively survey the data collected on Google Analytics or other third-party analytics tools to see who your online visitors are and how you can better cater to their needs. 

💳 Online Transactions

With each transaction a customer makes, you can collect their transactional data. This records a history including the point-of-sale, customer journey, and more. Furthermore, you could track the coupon code they used, which platform redirected them to your website, and what their general interaction with the website looks like. 

📝 Surveys

Surveys on the website, on third-party websites, or sent to the customers via their email—all bring you a lot of information that can be useful. You could send these surveys post-purchase or post-purchase returns to collect more information on their highlights and frustrations when shopping at your store. 

📱 Social Media

Social media channels are a great way to legally collect user data and segment it according to your needs. With users constantly interacting with you—liking and commenting on your posts, responding to your questions, and sharing your content, you can learn who your potential customers are. Use social media features for engagement such as Quizzes, Questions, Polls, Sliders, and personal DMs. 

Hosting giveaways and contests here would be a great idea! This would have you not only attract a more relevant audience but also give you a chance to gather more personal data. 

🎁 Loyalty Programs

If a customer is in the process of signing up for a loyalty program, they’ve already made up their mind! With all the incentives in mind, your customers will surely be willing to give away some additional information that you request during the process. 

Thankfully, many automated systems have built-in customer management and segmentation systems to be integrated into your brand’s original process seamlessly. This allows you to easily get real-time reports to understand your customers better.

If you wish to run more effective campaigns and attract a relevant audience, consider investing in a tool early on that can help you do so easily.

And before we move on to our next segment—have you signed up for our BETA Program yet?

Don’t miss the chance 🎫 to get exclusive access to THE automation tool you’ll ever need as a DTC business. Just fill out this form (would take you 1-minute) & we’ll reach out to you.

Video Bites: All Things DTC!

This week, we chose to break down this fantastic video from Sheertex!

If you’ve been reading our newsletter for a while (we hope you have), you’d know just how much we advocate for and encourage authentic, real, and unfiltered content from DTC brands from across the world. This video from Sheertex ticks all the boxes.

➡️ The ad jumps between a studio space featuring models showing you the product in a professional setting and real-world users in their homes talking about the products.

➡️ The authentic display of content generated by users in favor of the brand makes the video all the more believable. 

➡️ The video also shows all the USPs of the brand in a very simple & straightforward manner, letting you in on ALL the good stuff that comes with Sheetex tights. 

The video is so simple and efficient that we can’t help but praise the amazing work by the brand. Go ahead and check out Sheertex for more!

Top Reads of the week

Meta is releasing the latest Facebook graphics and updates in the marketing API.

Tiktok shares the new insights for an effective promotional approach in the app.

Traveling this summer would get difficult and more costly.

LinkedIn just dropped some insights on the rise in the number of remote job postings.

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

Sr. Assistant Manager - Under Armour

DTC Operations Manager - Love Shack Fancy

Social Media Manager - Raytheon Technologies 

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