Rethinking top-of-funnel in 2025

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In this episode, Nik Sharma (founder of Sharma Brands) returns to the pod to dig into how DTC brands should be thinking right now: simple, tested offers for Black Friday/Cyber Week, and how to turn those one‑time buyers into repeat customers.

For DTC operators scaling from ~$50 M to $500 M:

• What makes a Black Friday offer work (hint: simple, tested, clear).
• Why retention after the sale is your leverage — and how to bake it into flows, creative and post‑purchase experience.
• The internal creative strategist role: why brands who won the recent platform updates had strong in‑house creative ideation, not just an agency doing the work.
• The “two‑layer strategy” to ads: first who, then why — and how that applies to landing pages, creatives and funnels.
• Why many brands still get tracking/events wrong on landing pages and why that kills scale.

Who this is for: Founders, growth leads and performance marketers in DTC brands who are heading into Q4 and want to both hit a big seasonal number and build playbooks for 2025.

What to steal:

• A plain‑text thank‑you email from the founder that goes out post‑purchase (low cost, high emotional return).
• Structure your Black Friday/Cyber Week offer now: test ahead, keep it simple, and communicate what’s included vs not.
• Build the “creative strategist” role internally: someone whose job is crafting hooks, angles and formats for your brand (not just delegating to the agency).

Timestamps

00:00 Retention mindset after Black Friday

02:00 Building simple and effective BFCM offers

04:00 Why most Black Friday customers don't return

06:00 Creative strategy and the Andromeda update

08:00 Why brands need an internal creative strategist

10:00 Going deeper on avatars and buyer psychology

12:00 Marpipe and the importance of better DPAs

14:00 Rethinking top-of-funnel in 2025

16:00 Cutting through the noise with creators and TikTok

18:00 Pharmacy trends, GLP-1s, peptides, and affiliates

20:00 Supplements, problem-solution marketing, and AI prompts

22:00 How Nik uses AI for reporting and creative inputs

24:00 Sharma Brands acquisition and team evolution

26:00 Sleep optimization and Q4 habits

28:00 Landing page fundamentals and data accuracy

Hashtags

#dtcpodcast #niksharma #sharmabrands #ecommercegrowth #bfcm2025 #blackfridaystrategy #d2cpodcast #directtoconsumer #marketingstrategy #facebookads #retentionmarketing #creativestrategy #andromeda #paidmedia #landingpages #marpipe #tiktokmarketing

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