This Mistake Could Cost Your Brand BIG TIME

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Welcome to this issue of The DTC Insider newsletter. 👋

We'll deliver the latest growth marketing news and trends in the DTC space straight to your inbox.

Topics we’ll cover today:

💠 This Mistake Could Cost Your Brand BIG TIME

💠 Big Changes to Instagram's Algorithm

💠 The Latest Marketing News in The DTC Space

This Mistake Could Cost Your Brand BIG TIME

Many brands need to start decreasing costs.

But they are doing it wrong.

Things are tougher than ever, and being profitable is what matters.

However, cutting expenses is far from being the biggest lever to accomplish that.

After all, how much can you cut before it hurts your business?

It's only a race to the bottom.

Here's what you can do instead:

Focus on strategies to increase revenue AND profits.

Want some examples of things you can implement right away?

Let's do it!

➝ Pre-cart AOV boosters:

• Incentivize larger orders: for example, select by default more quantity of a product (when applies…ie. “2 packs”), or offer a discount for buying more.

• Bundles: mix and match. Choose 3 products or more and get a discount. The more products, the higher the discount.

• Free Shipping thresholds: don’t base this on AOV. Set the threshold a few dollars over the biggest cluster of customers’ AOV + the cost of shipping. Be careful with this one, as it could backfire.

• Gamified cart: ie. "You're $1 away from a free bottle of wine".

• Discount ladders: the more you purchase, the more you save.

➝ Post-purchase upsells: 

• MORE of what they bought

• High-affinity products

• Leads: offering a complementary service/product in the industry (ie. promoting pet insurance if you sell products for pets, and getting paid by each email sent to them)

• Thank-you page offers.

➝ Email flows:

• Post-purchase: one-time deals, high-affinity products, education on what they bought.

• Customer win-back: reduce the time between purchases and increase the LTV.

• Replenishment flow: automatically identify opportunities for up-selling your customers.

• Loyalty: remind them to redeem points, or to refer a friend in exchange for a benefit.

➝ Partner up with non-competitive brands targeting your same audience.

➝ Create content: organic + ads is a great combination and a great way to decrease ad costs.

I can keep going...

But as you see, there are no excuses to be working on increasing your revenue & profits with these strategies and more.

Anything else you'd add?

--

If you own or work for a DTC brand and need help growing and boosting profitability, feel free to book a discovery call with my team at BSR Digital and we'll see how we can help.

Big Changes to Instagram's Algorithm

Instagram has recently announced a major algorithm update.

Which is designed to help ensure that original content posters get more traction, as opposed to those who repost their work.

While also giving smaller accounts more opportunities.

Here are the specific updates:

➝ 1. Removing aggregator accounts from recommendations:

Instagram said that accounts that repeatedly (10 or more times in the last 30 days) post content from other Instagram users that they didn’t create will not be shown in surfaces where they recommend content.

This is a big move, considering the traction that aggregator accounts get in the app.

➝ 2. Adding labels to reposted content:

Instagram is now looking to redirect users towards the original creators of content in the app.

As you can see in these examples, when Instagram detects that you are the original creator of a post, it will drive more traffic to your upload, as opposed to reposts of the same.

That could provide a major boost for original creators.

Especially considering the amount of attention that re-posts get in the app.

Viral content often gets a lot more distribution from re-usage, and if Instagram’s able to ensure that the original creator gets all of that attention, that could significantly boost creator traction and engagement.

➝ 3. Replacing reposts with original content in recommendations:

Similar to the first point, Instagram will also now look to highlight more original content in recommendations, by switching out re-posts with the original.

According to the company: “When we find two or more identical pieces of content on Instagram, we will only recommend the original one. This means that the original content will directly replace the reposted content in recommendations.”.

This provides more motivation for people to post original content to the app.

Knowing that they’ll get priority, even if it’s re-posted and re-purposed by aggregator accounts.

➝ 4. Smaller creators will get more distribution:

Finally, Instagram is looking to shine a spotlight on smaller, newer accounts, as opposed to prioritizing the biggest and most prominent creators.

“Historically because of how we’ve ranked content, creators with large followings and aggregators of reposted content have gotten more reach in recommendations than smaller, original content creators. We think it’s important to correct this to give all creators a more equal chance of breaking through to new audiences.”

Instagram’s new approach will see that all new content will get more initial reach, with the posts that see the most engagement in that initial test audience then getting more distribution.

Of course, we won’t know the value of this until it’s rolled out, but in theory, this could ensure that smaller IG accounts get more traction, by prioritizing them over the usual recommendations.

But that is also a risk.

As many users of the platform engage with AI-recommended content, based on their preferences.

Now, if they'll push content from new accounts, it'll need to be as interesting to keep users engaged on the platform.

Most Brands Are Overlooking This Growth Lever

In this episode of The DTC Insider podcast, Brian Roisentul covers the most recent marketing news in the DTC space.

And some of them are 💣 💣 💣

Want to know what it's about? Listen to the episode.

We discussed:

👉 What will happen with TikTok?

👉 Big news for Google Ads

👉 Instagram's new AI and how it impacts brands

🎧 Tune in to our latest episode: https://thedtcinsider.com/c/podcast

Want to check out more podcast episodes?

Here are some of the top-listened episodes:

💎 How Frost Buddy Went From $0 to $30M in Under 3 Years with Brock Mammoser

💎 Jon Loomer’s Take on the Evolution of Paid Ads and The Importance of Short-form Video with Jon Loomer

💎 Supplement Brand Bootstrapped $10,000 and Built It Into Sales of $30 Million in Three Years with Ronak Shah

💎 Give Up Your Stuff, Not Your Dream with Jules Weldon and Stacey Pierce

💎 LinkedIn's "Top E-Commerce Voice" Reveals The #1 Struggle for DTC Brands with Neal Goyal

Work for a DTC Brand?

Do you own or work for a DTC brand and are feeling a bit stuck in your brand's growth journey?

At BSR Digital, we've been in the trenches with DTC brands since 2013, helping them break through barriers and soar to new heights.

If you're ready to shake things up and turbocharge your growth, let's chat!

Book a discovery call with us, and let's brainstorm some game-changing ideas together.

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