DTC Podcast

Subscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signup This week we return with the Pilothouse founder team to discuss the agency's wild growth and how we've stayed aligned and in-sync while growing from 16 employees 74 during eight months.  📦  How to hire entrepreneurs and GROW equity  📦  Aligning incentives with all staff AND clients 📦  The next opportunities for Digital Agencies 📦  Instilling team vision and values 📦  Over-communication as a rule 📦  Making sure you have everyone on the right seats 📦  Becoming a DEEP integration partner and what that means for our funnel 📦  Business development via content (DTC newsletter anyone?) Subscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signup Advertise on DTC - https://dtcnews.link/advertise Work with Pilothouse - https://dtcnews.link/pilothouse Follow us on Instagram & Twitter - @dtcnewsletter Watch this interview on YouTube - https://dtcnews.link/video

Subscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signup As an agency partner to ❄️ Snow, we’ve enjoyed a front row seat to their journey of both category dominance, and category creation. We caught up with Josh on a podcast to discuss growth in all its dimensions.  Elizetxe’s (pronounced el-is-et-chay) superpower is his commitment to challenging the status quo. His trailblazing attitude inspires others to think differently.  When it comes to growth, Josh is always willing to explore and experiment in many dimensions at once, both through ad-driven DTC, retail, billboards and more. What follows is an unpacking of Josh’s central ideas about growth that he’s learned throughout the process of scaling his company beyond $100M. Prepare to grow your operation 🔵 Head & the heart: It is essential to have clarifying conversations to determine what success means to you, and what end goal you’re looking to achieve. Is your goal to provide for 5 to 10 people? Are you looking to create a generational company you can pass down to your children? Dig deep to unpack what making an impact means for you and your business. As Elizetxe puts it, thinking about scale starts in your brain and your heart.  🔵 Brace yourself: Be proactive as you prepare to scale. Take what you’re doing and multiply it by 100. What systems and how many people will you need to accommodate that growth? Start to take the next best affordable steps to work towards that goal, putting in place the building blocks for that growth moment.  🔵 Macro management: Elizetxe advocates a high-expectation, low-pressure managerial style. Give your hiree’s full control. Be sure to brace yourself for growing pains in delegation and relinquishing control when scaling to a bigger team. A lot of stress can be reduced by due diligence in the hiring process - hire someone you trust to sit in the driver’s seat.  🔵 Swim with sharks: As you scale, hire those that share your risk appetite. You want your team filled with scrappy folks who are operating on your level. Only egotistical leaders are intimidated by hiring entrepreneurial forces to be reckoned with.  Subscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signup Advertise on DTC - https://dtcnews.link/advertise Work with Pilothouse - https://dtcnews.link/pilothouse Follow us on Instagram & Twitter - @dtcnewsletter Watch this interview on YouTube - https://dtcnews.link/video

Subscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signup Hello and welcome to this week’s edition of the All Killer No Filler podcast where we hang out with the talented members of the Pilothouse agency to tease out the key insights, distinctions, and updates that you need to know to grow your DTC brand fast. My name’s Kyle Guilfoyle and today I’m super excited to be joined by Pilothouse co-founder Kyle Hitchcox as well as our in-house copywriting team Alora Bossy, Brad Knell, and David Franklin. Today we’re going to be nerding out about copy.  What is copy, anyway? And specifically, I’m curious how you explain it to ‘non-marketers’? We like to start episodes with a ‘value rocket’ by asking the question: what’s one thing about copywriting most people don’t know that they probably should? Why is copy important? // OR more interesting → Can you take me back to the time you realized copy was an important skill? What does it mean to be a conversion copywriter? I often think becoming a copywriter is kinda like learning a new language. How would you describe the evolution of, say, someone who knows nothing about copy to becoming a strong copywriter? Also New School vs. Old School → Brad and David have been at this game a loooong time, and Alora, while experienced, hasn’t been at it for -- how long have you guys been at it? -- 15-20 years (or however long it’s been) What steps do you recommend someone take to become a strong copywriter in the shortest amount of time? So the skill of copy kind of has ‘sub skills’ -- offers, hooks, stories, transitions, voice/tone, etc -- do you see copy similarly? If so, what do you think is the most important ‘sub skill’ to master first and why? How do you approach offers? What makes a winning offer? What are your all-time favourite copy tools and resources? Favourite copywriters? Subscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signup Advertise on DTC - https://dtcnews.link/advertise Work with Pilothouse - https://dtcnews.link/pilothouse Follow us on Instagram & Twitter - @dtcnewsletter Watch this interview on YouTube - https://dtcnews.link/video

Subscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signup Not getting the results you want with your influencer campaigns? We’re here to help! Step 1. Sign up for our Flywheel Challenge (Only a few spots left and closing the doors on Saturday for REALS.) Step 2. Listen to our conversation with Roger Figueiredo the VP of Marketing and Sales Development for hashtag paid, a leading platform for executing influencer campaigns. We pick Roger’s brain on all things influencer marketing, take a peek at the highlights below: 🚫 Are you making the #1 influencer marketing mistake? 🔎 Celebrity Influencers vs. Nano Influencers 📄 The Art of Whitelisting ⏳ Take Time With Your Customers 💵 Creator Compensation Listen to the full pod for a debrief on the COVID-induced creator economy, why legacy brands are reluctant to jump into influencer marketing, how to effectively measure influencer targeting and a laxative case study in influencer authenticity. Subscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signup Advertise on DTC - https://dtcnews.link/advertise Work with Pilothouse - https://dtcnews.link/pilothouse Follow us on Instagram & Twitter - @dtcnewsletter Watch this interview on YouTube - https://dtcnews.link/video

Subscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signup For this week's Pilothouse podcast Ask yourself: what am I doing in the account hour-by-hour, day-to-day? Then, how can I automate that. 📦 This cast breaks down our favorite automations for testing, stop loss, and optimization. 📦 The ad testing automation that gives you scalable data at a fraction of the cost 📦 The Stop-loss automation that adds 20% to your bottom line 📦 What happens when you over automate things, and how to avoid it 📦 Ultimate naming conventions for campaigns Subscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signup Advertise on DTC - https://dtcnews.link/advertise Work with Pilothouse - https://dtcnews.link/pilothouse Follow us on Instagram & Twitter - @dtcnewsletter Watch this interview on YouTube - https://dtcnews.link/video

Subscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signup ⏳ How much time and effort can having a set of principles for business and life that you've honed down to sharp blades to help you pare down to what's really important? The answer is in this podcast.. Jason Akatiff is the founder of a4d.com, a powerhouse affiliate marketing network, as well as ecommerce brands BauBax and Boundery.   Jason has been a performance marketer since the 90’s and is an advisor and overall DTC strategy expert who has generated a quarter-billion dollars in affiliate commissions (and billions in ecommerce sales) throughout his career. He’s also a mentor of Eric’s - basically making him DTC’s Obi-Wan Kenobi.  Watch this week’s sneak preview as Jason shares his take on what has been happening in the affiliate space during COVID-19 and discusses his guiding principles,100 of which he has recently shared on his blog. Here are three fundamental principles he unpacks on the pod:  Never build something for cash flow alone. Always build for cash flow and value creation. You’ll make a lot more (with a lot fewer taxes) selling what you’ve created if executed right. Be efficient in your solutions and help. Synthesize long-winded answers down to the core of the issue (this principle led to the creation of Akatiff’s blog).  Train your talented people to be system builders. Focus on building and creating new and different things that other people haven’t been able to do.  You can find Jason’s other 97 principles on business, vision/planning, process, hr/culture, and tech/dev, over at https://jasonakatiff.com (highly recommended). Take a listen to the full value-packed conversation on our podcast. We run the gamut from HR and structuring strategy to skill development, COVID-19 responses, to further Star Wars references, and why you should be taking 100+ days of vacation a year.  Subscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signup Advertise on DTC - https://dtcnews.link/advertise Work with Pilothouse - https://dtcnews.link/pilothouse Follow us on Instagram & Twitter - @dtcnewsletter Watch this interview on YouTube - https://dtcnews.link/video

Subscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signup This week on AKNF we are joined by Pilothouse Senior Media Buyers Raven Dixon and Stu Mason for a rapid fire discussion of the tactics and strategies that are moving the needle for our agency this week. Off the top we discuss "what to do when you need to test new assets and Facebook continually wants to go back to the same well?" To Join the DTC Influencer Flywheel Challenge (course) Nov 10-13, join the waiting list here: https://learn.directtoconsumer.co/influencer We cover: 📦 How to create REAL urgency and leverage scarcity with your ads (especially around BFCM) 📦 Consider your MARGIN first when advertising on Facebook (and what to do if your product has a low AOV).  📦 Digging deep on Pre-sales landing page data to optimize and improve 📦 The POWER of Pre-orders (the ultimate brand flex) 📦 Don't be afraid of letting it all hang out and put your EGO in your ads 📦  How long do we have jobs? The Future of Facebook Ads in a world of smart automation. To Join the DTC Influencer Flywheel Challenge (course) Nov 10-13, join the waiting list here: https://learn.directtoconsumer.co/influencer Subscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signup Advertise on DTC - https://dtcnews.link/advertise Work with Pilothouse - https://dtcnews.link/pilothouse Follow us on Instagram & Twitter - @dtcnewsletter Watch this interview on YouTube - https://dtcnews.link/video

Subscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signup 🤗  Hey y'all! This pod with Molly Borman from JustNips For All was a lot of fun and filled with high-value topics that we don’t often talk about on DTC. Check it out.  As marketers, our first impulse is to buy ads to grow our business. For many of us, this approach has worked wonders. But what if you couldn’t advertise on social media at all? Meet the indomitable Molly Boorman, founder and CEO of Just Nips Fake Nipples, the fastest growing breast cancer nipple accessory on the market, and author of The Instagram Iceberg, a #1 New Release on Amazon.  After Instagram’s restrictive policies resulted in Just Nips being removed from the platform, Molly pivoted to a social media free strategy and is pioneering what she calls “The Iceberg.” The Iceberg is everything other than social media that goes on under the surface to make your business grow.  Molly’s path found her scaling her company with attention to detail, word of mouth, PR, community and more.  Listen for Molly’s “marketing epiphany” and other impactful insights in the pod:  📦 The power of word of mouth, grassroots community building, and the shift to hyper-locality  📦  The necessity of authenticity and storytelling and how to sell your story to the press  📦  Why dumping your money into Facebook ads (blindly) is never the answer  📦  Experiences of a first-time founder, and a temperature check on the entrepreneurial climate Listen to the full pod for Molly’s Just Nips journey, along with her titillating takes, tips, and refreshing approach to socials.  Subscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signup Advertise on DTC - https://dtcnews.link/advertise Work with Pilothouse - https://dtcnews.link/pilothouse Follow us on Instagram & Twitter - @dtcnewsletter Watch this interview on YouTube - https://dtcnews.link/video

Subscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signup We had a VERY exciting week at Pilothouse, due mainly to Amazon PRIME Day.  We've been growing our Amazon. This year for one client we did over $100K in revenue, just on Amazon this past week.  We go deep on Amazon and how to: 📦 Optimize your Amazon listing (images, bullet points, keywords, product description + content) 📦 PPC campaigns for maximizing Prime Day 📦 How to use ACOS to maximum effect (Amazon Cost of Sale) 📦 The Benefits of Maximizing Prime Day for BCFM and Organic (Getting on the Top 100 List) 📦 Promoting Amazon listings with Facebook Ads (Facebook Amazon Bridge) to Rapidly launch products 📦 How to leverage FBM (fulfilled by Merchant) listings along with regular FBA Subscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signup Advertise on DTC - https://dtcnews.link/advertise Work with Pilothouse - https://dtcnews.link/pilothouse Follow us on Instagram & Twitter - @dtcnewsletter Watch this interview on YouTube - https://dtcnews.link/video

Subscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signup Marketing in a restricted industry? Interested in subscription-based sales? This one's for you!  In our latest pod, we chat with Simon Solis Cohen of Highway 29 Creative - an expert in DTC wine marketing.  With a hospitality background and experience in the Napa wine scene, Simon took his passion for wine to the digital marketing space specializing in e-commerce, marketing, and DTC sales for the wine industry.  We’ve decanted key takeaways from our chat to help you crush your DTC marketing goals. Get it? Wine? Crushing grapes? No? You’ve stopped reading? Great. (or should I say, grape 🍇) 🍷 Build a one to one relationship  🍷 Be the star of your own story 🍷 Lean into lifestyle  🍷  Harnessing UGC reviews 🍷  OG DTC & Subscription Sips Wine Clubs are having a bit of a reckoning at the moment, reevaluating their legacy structure in light of new offerings in the DTC Market. Historically, wine subscriptions have held a more old school “you get what you get and you don’t get upset” mentality, offering 1-3 shipments a year, with predetermined options. Now, looking at other subscription models of have changed this - wine needs to evolve. Rather than forcing your client to take six bottles of whatever you decide, when you decide - now wine club members can choose their frequency, their quantity, and their product - give the customer choice to cater their experience to their needs/wants.  Don't want to just hear it through the grapevine? To learn more about Simon’s 5 stage wine marketing funnel, why cab sauv is king, the legacy of Sideways, and harvesting geekiness in the wine industry. Watch the full video here: https://youtu.be/zaeG2w-jpaA Subscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signup Advertise on DTC - https://dtcnews.link/advertise Work with Pilothouse - https://dtcnews.link/pilothouse Follow us on Instagram & Twitter - @dtcnewsletter Watch this interview on YouTube - https://dtcnews.link/video