Thursday, August 17

#1 - 😎 When founders become influencers

📰 TL;DR - I usually avoid paywalled articles here, but this is a very interesting piece. It’s about DTC founders who have become influencers for the brand themselves. Think of Emily Weiss (formerly) of Glossier, or Ty Haney of Outdoor Voices, or Diamond of Hill House Home and their famous nap dresses. There seems to be evidence that featuring these founders does more for engagement rates than other paid influencers. Turning founders into influencers has some major advantages — like, that they’re free and already majorly invested in the success of the brand. There are some specific examples in the article.

💡 Insight - Founders-as-influencers have been a strong point of DTC brands, and really worth considering. Who knows more and is more enthusiastic about your brand than you? Interestingly, this article notes, many of the founders doing this happen to be women. That makes sense considering social media is largely made up of women. That also points to the idea that founders-as-influencers work best if that founder can really represent the customers as well. For example, if you have a personal story to share that connects to the product, that’s really powerful.

➡️ 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, tap here 

#3 - 🤔 Everything you need to know about endorsement disclosure

📰 TL;DR - The FTC has recently updated guidelines about disclosures for paid influencers working with brands. This piece, written by a lawyer, has some great tips for complying. First, and this is important, err on the side of caution. It’s better to over-disclose than the opposite. She also provides some examples of how to disclose, like including:

• Ad:

• Paid ad

• #ad

• Advertising:

• Advertisement

• Sponsored by XYZ

• Promotion by XYZ

💡 Insight - This is a great piece to bookmark now and refer back to often. She also gives some tips about what under-disclosing means, such as simply having a discount code. I know there was a general train of thought that disclosures take away from the power of a post, but I don’t think that’s really the case. For example, TikTok’s now allows several thousand words for a caption. Not only is that great for SEO purposes, but it makes the disclosure more subtle. It’s also worth noting that built-in disclosure tools on places like Instagram may not be sufficient in the eyes of a court. So, again: make it clear, make it visible, and avoid trouble.

➡️ You can read the article here...

#4 - 🛠️ Things worth checking out

💃🏽 TIKTOK - Read up on the latest changes at TikTok that you should know.

🤖 GEN AI - Here’s an interesting look at how generative AI is being used to reduce e-commerce returns.

🎧 PODCASTS - Check out this list of podcasts all about social media marketing.

🙏 CULT STATUS - What elevates a brand from simply popular to being a cult favorite? Read some thoughts here.

📦 RETURNS - Here’s what to think about when you’re thinking about the cost of returns.

#5 - 🚿 Function of Beauty’s wholesale strategy

📰 TL;DR - Function of Beauty is a DTC haircare brand that started out with a cool premise: complete a quiz and get a custom formula, complete with choosing your own scent. That came along with subscriptions, of course. But how can that translate to wholesale? Well, the brand has dipped its toe in that now and what’s come out is an exclusive line for Sephora. As well, they’re now in Target (and Shoppers in Canada) with a range of formulas for different hair types.

💡 Insight - This just seems like a really smart approach to wholesale. If you want the OG custom formulas, you still need to go to Function of Beauty’s website, but in stores you can get a taste of their formulas. They’re not trying to recreate the DTC experience entirely, but offering a sample. Surely some people will stick with the store formulas, but I can definitely see this driving new customers to the website for the custom stuff. Think about how this could apply to your brand: what would a wholesale offering look like? What would be different or exclusive about it? How would it drive people back to your site?

➡️ You can read the article here...