🚨 In today’s newsletter 🚨

• The best language to use in promotional copy

• DTC sellers are finding mixed results with podcast ads

• Walmart is getting aggressive about its third-party marketplace

Let’s get into it👇

#1 - 💬 Choose your promo words carefully

📰 TL;DR - This very interesting report looks at which words and phrases are best to use for e-commerce promotions. RevLifter studied millions of offers to come up with their conclusions. First, for example, it’s better to say an offer is a $x.xx off rather than a percentage for small promotions. For larger promotions, money-off had the best AOV but percentage-off had better CTR and CVR. Also, the report confirms that offering free delivery for a minimum order value is great for CTR and CVR. Also, “Black Friday” has a slight edge over “Cyber Week.” More in the link!

💡 Insight - I love this because deal language is often based on whims and branding and less often on actual data. But here’s some data! I’d also say that you should be keeping track of the language you use and A/B testing to get your own data. See which phrasing resonates most with your customers and keep at it, but also throw something new in there now and again. Follow the data and win.

➡️ You can read the article here...

#2 - 🎧 Are podcast ads worth it?

📰 TL;DR - Podcasts have always been a popular advertising medium for DTC brands (how many mattress ads have you heard by now?). But with data sharing crackdowns making targeted ads harder, podcasts are becoming even more attractive for DTC brands. Specifically, they’re looking at programmatic ads — typically pre-recorded slots, not ones spoken by podcast hosts. This report however says that results have been mixed. Some say they’ve been successful and have offered flexibility, while others say they just don’t have an impact.

💡 Insight - What I’m gleaning from this piece is that many DTC brands agree that programmatic advertising, while cheaper and easier to control, just doesn’t hit the same as when a host reads the ad themself. This makes sense. Listeners are likely to tune out what is clearly a pre-recorded ad, but may pay more attention when an ad spot fits in seamlessly and is voiced by a familiar host. I think the same can be said of ads on YouTube videos — the same principle applies. I’d say it’s worth taking a risk on host-read ads if you’re looking at podcasts.

➡️ You can read the article here...

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

#3 - 🚛 Walmart wants your goods

📰 TL;DR - Walmart is beefing up its third-party marketplace offerings and hoping to attract new sellers. At a recent sales event, more than half the items featured were from marketplace sellers. As well, about 70% of items included in the recent Walmart Plus Week were from third-party sellers. They seem to be relying on this strategy to grow the business overall. Online sales at Walmart are indeed on the rise, although Walmart very much remains the underdog marketplace compared to Amazon. For context, estimates say Walmart has about 100,000 sellers and Amazon has more than a million.

💡 Insight - So of course the question here is should you let yourself be wooed by Walmart. For some people, the very fact that Walmart isn’t Amazon is pretty attractive in itself. Some other factors are that Walmart’s marketplace is less competitive and it’s also actively invested in pushing third-party products right now. If you’re zeroed in on the US market, Walmart also makes some sense. It’s just hard to beat the huge scale and reach of Amazon. If you have the capacity, you could always do both.

➡️ You can read the article here...

#4 - 🛠️ Things worth checking out

😎 INFLUENCERS - Is influencer marketing ever not a good idea? How do you know when an influencer is worth it? Read this.

💰 FUNDING - An AI-powered contender operations workflow company that works with e-commerce brands just secured millions in funding. Read here.

📱 SOCIAL - Read about how introducing ad-free tiers on social media sites could impact advertising.

💭 ADS - Here’s a guide to everything you need to know about the new metrics for e-commerce ads.

🤝 DEALS - E-commerce VC deals are way down. See it all laid out here.

#5 - 💄 Why beauty brands are collabing with shoppers

📰 TL;DR - There’s a new trend of beauty brands collaborating with their customers to launch new products, and it’s a strategy that seems to be resonating. Kiki World, for example, is a new beauty brand that lets shoppers vote on new colors and other details of upcoming products. They’ve in fact created a community of over 5,000 people that engages in this. Other brands testing co-creation tactics include Topicals, Dieux and Bread. It shakes up the top-down experience for customers and lets them feel part of the process.

💡 Insight - Since this is an article from Glossy, it focuses on beauty brands, but I can absolutely see this strategy working for almost any sort of brand. Being part of the creation process instills a sense of loyalty in customers and is an early way to drum up anticipation for a new product. Plus, I can see people being more likely to buy something they had a small part in bringing to life. You could try this with something as simple as a poll to pick a new color for your next collection, or even a new color for an existing product.

➡️ You can read the article here...