🚨 In today’s newsletter 🚨

• How to make sure your site passes the sniff test

• A TikTok success story

• The basics of selling on Amazon

Let’s get into it👇

#1 - 👍 How to build your site’s credibility

📰 TL;DR - Any shopper who’s ever been scammed even once by a bogus e-commerce site is hyper-aware that they need to be skeptical of new brands. This guide goes over ways to make sure your site looks legit, which gains the trust of customers. Some of it is what should be common sense, like having up-to-date contact information. A well-designed website that doesn’t look like something from 2002 is also important. Some less obvious tips include showing the names and faces of your team, and making sure to include social proof. More tips in the link!

💡 Insight - DTC sites face way more scrutiny than a trusted site like Amazon, so this stuff is important. I think social proof is your best bet. I feel way more comfortable ordering from a new site if I can see reviews, specifically reviews with pictures. That shows me other customers have in fact received what they ordered. Another thing I’ll mention is that sites with irregular-sized product images that don’t have the same style, quality, or models really raises alarm bells. Also, for the love of everything, don’t make your main email contact a Gmail or Hotmail address.

➡️ You can read the article here...

#2 - 🔥 How sending free products to Micro-Influencers has helped brands 5X revenue in 2 months

Tapping into the power of social media Micro-Influencers and a platform called Stack Influence that automates influencer collaborations at scale (hundreds of promotions a month), Amazon brands like Unilever, Magic Spoon, and Blueland have been able to grow their monthly revenue by 5X, decrease their ad costs using a war chest of influencer UGC, and build an army of affiliate marketers to consistently drive new customers.

➡️ Get Started Here

📣 If you want to reach our audience of 10,000+ DTC store owners, email [email protected] or set up call here 

#3 - 💄 This brand increased TikTok views by 800%

📰 TL;DR - Florence by Mills is a beauty brand founded by actress Millie Bobby Brown and TikTok has been instrumental to its success. TikTok is in fact the top traffic source for the DTC online store. They worked with an agency and found that lo-fi content was the way to go. That includes things like behind-the-scenes videos, but also tutorials and Q&As with Brown and other influencers. Basically, the less polished, the better. In the second half of 2022, the brand drove more than 100% YoY growth through TikTok content, all funneled to the single link on their profile page.

💡 Insight - Okay, yes, I know, some of this success its undoubtedly attributed to the fact this brand has a celebrity founder who gets featured in videos. And I’m guessing you don’t have your own actor sitting around. But the philosophy here is smart, sound, and can apply to any brand. It is a mistake to approach TikTok the same way you’d tackle Instagram. There’s a reason the most common word thrown around about TikTok marketing is “authenticity.” You want to be personal and real, like an actual person, not a faceless brand.

➡️ You can read the article here...

#4 - 🛠️ Things worth checking out

📺 YOUTUBE - YouTube has rolled out new display options for affiliate shopping links. Talk to your influencers about it!

↪ MIGRATION - Read about how Dollar Shave Club pulled off a big but successful tech stack migration.

🗣️ FEEDBACK - This Shopify podcast episode dives into how one brand uses feedback to guide their business.

🚁 DRONES - Amazon is reviving drone delivery in the UK. Read here.

🧶 ETSY - Etsy is guaranteeing delivery times for the holidays and covering the cost of refunds for late items. Read here.

#5 - 📚 Selling on Amazon 101

📰 TL;DR - Given that Amazon is the biggest e-commerce site in the entire world, you’ve probably found yourself considering selling on it (if you’re not already!). If that’s something on your mind, this is a good, introductory guide to selling on the marketplace. This covers it all, from creating a seller account, to making great product listings, to understanding the fee structure, to considering things like Amazon’s fulfillment services. It ends with a plug for WooCommerce, but is a genuinely good and thorough guide.

💡 Insight - If you really wanted to go in-depth on selling on Amazon, it would require a lot more reading. There are indeed many books on the topic! This guide will give you a good overview of Amazon selling, and enough info to get an account going, but I recommend doing a ton more research if you really want to win on the platform. Jungle Scout’s blog, for example, is an excellent resource.

➡️ You can read the article here...