Monday, July 24

#1 - 💋 Everyone wants a piece of Barbie

📰 TL;DR - With the movie’s release last week, we’ve entered full-blown Barbiemania. It’s been a while since we’ve seen a collective marketing push on this scale with this much excitement, and even small businesses want a piece. Even as big brands enjoy their licensing deals, small brands are finding ways to capitalize, such as on social media or in newsletter sends. Like a cocktail brand that made a Barbie-inspired drink, or dog bandanas inspired by Barbie and Ken.

💡 Insight - As long as you’re careful not to borrow protected IP, now is a great time to get in on the Barbie hype. Hot pink items are all the rage right now, for example, as people put together Barbie-inspired outfits to wear to the theatre. Some brands even seem to be sneakily adding Barbie tags to their product catalog so a search for the doll brings up pink items. If you want in, think of ways you can take “Barbie-inspired” and run with it. I’ve even seen some brands getting in on the #Barbenheimmer trend by contrasting moody items with pink goods. Have fun!

➡️ You can read the article here...

#2 - 🔥 From a $3,000 investment to $150m yearly revenue

📰 TL;DR - DTC king Nik Sharma has a great Twitter thread looking at True Classic, a menswear brand that grew into a thriving business with only a $3,000 investment upfront. The thread breaks down 6 levers of their growth, from paid ads, to keeping a lean team, to mastering creative, to delivering a white glove experience. Each point comes along with examples, including some of their ads. Overall it’s a great case study!

💡 Insight - Nik Sharma really knows his stuff and I appreciate that he put together such a comprehensive case study (that you don’t need to like/follow/tweet to see). I really enjoyed the ads included, which were created with some comedian friends of the brand. I also loved over 5, about optimizing for gift giving. Even though it’s a menswear brand, they found out that women account for 40% of purchases, especially around the holidays, because they’re giving gifts. They then optimized ads for that. Smart!

➡️ You can see the tweets here…

📣 If you want to reach our audience of 10,000+ DTC store owners, tap here 

#3 - 🧶 Is Threads worth your time?

📰 TL;DR - Now that Threads has had some time to breathe, it’s worth asking: should you bother with it? This piece breaks down Threads’ success so far, including its incredibly fast user growth. Right now, Threads is being perceived as a friendlier platform than Twitter, including for brands. Well, right now the platform has a lot of flexibility, but many brands still seem hesitant. More of a wait and see game. As this points out, now is a good time to do some social listening on the platform to see if it’s a good place for your marketing efforts.

💡 Insight - One thing I haven’t seen pointed out anywhere is that Threads has a leg up on Twitter for brands because there’s already an eager audience. Threads ported over followers from Instagram, and Instagram is a platform where people are far more likely to follow brands than Twitter. That’s an advantage. I think it’s far too soon to give Threads as much attention as Instagram or TikTok, but I see no reason not to hop on and experiment with content. If it lands, great. If not, at least you didn’t waste too much time. I also think we’re not too far from seeing case studies of brands who are making the platform work.

➡️ You can read the article here...

#4 - 🛠️ Things worth checking out

🤝 HIRE - I trust MarketerHire for all my freelance & marketing assistant needs! They will match you with a top 1% marketer who is fully vetted here.

🍷 ALCOHOL - Selling booze online has been tricky due to regulations, but the CEO of DRINKS seems optimistic. Here’s an interview with him.

📚 BOOKS - Looking for some fresh reads about growing a business? Here’s a book list for you.

👙 CUUP - FullBeauty Brands has scooped up DTC bra brand Cuup, adding to its growing portfolio. Read here.

🫧 BUBBLE - Skincare brand Bubble is following many competitors’ steps and selling at Ulta. Read here.

#5 - 📲 Meet TikTok Shop’s first UK brand

📰 TL;DR - Here’s an interview with eFones, a UK brand that has gone all-in on TikTok Shop. The tech brand was a bit of a guinea pig for TikTok Shop but has found success using with some 9,000 influencers of various audience sizes. Influencers can actually put in a request for a sample and then produce content for the brand. Others, they reach out to and pay them for content. They’ve also done some livestream shopping, though it sounds like influencers are what really made the difference.

💡 Insight - Look, this isn’t the best-produced video in the world but it’s a rare find to see a TikTok Shop participant digging into how they use the platform for e-commerce, so I really think this is worth a listen. It also shows that simply being on TikTok Shop isn’t enough — you need to leverage influencers, which is really the magic of TikTok anyway. Definitely worth a listen if you’re thinking about using TikTok as a shopping channel.

➡️ You can watch the interview here...