9:56 - From bio major to builderDaniel’s journey into entrepreneurship started as the desire to make money for weekend college fun, despite the fact that he didn’t have time to work a traditional job.“I was a biology major. I was actually going to school to be a dentist and. I always knew that I wanted to be an entrepreneur. And that's what drove me. That was interesting. And doing new projects, stuff like that. Obviously, as a 19-year-old kid, I just had no idea what I wanted to do. And the online landscape was nothing like it was today. There's so much information you can find out there, and it's so accessible, there’s communities and all that stuff going on. When I was in sophomore year of college, I had no idea you could even make money online. I had no idea that was even a thing. So it's a lot different than it is today. But what inspired me at the time was just a conversation. My friend was telling me he was making $45 a week on his phone. And I couldn't get a job, because I was focused on my studies. At first that's just what inspired me. I was like oh, I can get some money to go to the bar on the weekends. But what allowed me to really gain motivation was really I became passionate about it. Passionate about being able to grow a following, being able to engage with other people in this community, being able to learn all this new information that was solely reliant on me building something.”15:19 - The decision to ditch dental schoolDaniel’s first ventures were doing well enough that he decided they sounded more exciting than dental school.“I started that platform May going into my senior year of college. I was going to the library every day to study for my DATs. I started the platform, it started getting traction and all this stuff. So you could say I was getting distracted very often. And I would say one month of studying and I knew that, number one, I was absolutely miserable. I hated the stuff I was studying. I never really wanted to be a dentist anyways, but it was just literally torture. I was already committed and whatnot. So I knew essentially by the time I was going to take the test, which was I think in August, that I didn't want to be a dentist for sure. And I didn't get a good enough score to get me into the right dental school anyways. So that made my decision very easy. With the platform getting so much success, I decided I'll take a year after college, see what happens. And if things keep going, I can still go to dental school. I can do whatever. But there's too much of an opportunity right now.”26:31 - Hitting the ground running with GOATcaseThe phone case company GOATcase was an immediate success. The major challenge was on the fulfillment side.“We went from literally zero to a hundred in one week. How do you fulfill that? That was the biggest thing. Within one week I remember we ordered 15,000 phone cases. Where do you put them? We should've gotten a 3PL. We thought about doing that, which was definitely the biggest mistake. And many people told me I should do it, but it seemed so expensive at the time versus what we could potentially do it for. And decided not to do it, which was an awful mistake. But like you said, in the first six months, we moved four times. Imagine how much time that takes, and stress, and all this other stuff. So logistics and fulfillment or a complete shit show.”29:30 - Getting a 3PLOnce GOATcase and Daniel’s next brand, Perfect Sculpt, gained even more momentum, they were able to get a 3PL and ditch their nightmare of a warehouse.“It took us a year and a half to outsource our fulfillment. And that was when we launched our second brand Perfect Sculpt, which was substantially bigger than GOATcase even. And ended up taking more space because we went from phone cases to bras and waist trainers and shapewear, which just take a lot more space. So now we moved into a legitimate warehouse, 8,000 square feet, and had a legitimate kind of fulfillment operation going. And we just dealt with so much bullshit. Employees stealing, weird stuff going on from the security cameras, and all the stuff from managing warehouse workers that you might imagine. Just crazy stuff. And number one we weren't doing a great job from an accuracy standpoint on fulfillment. And because we had leverage because of just the volume of the business, we were able to find a 3PL that would pay. Because I got to the point where now we had substantial costs. We had our warehouse, we had a team, we had all this, we had some equipment and stuff like that. So because we had the leverage of our volume, we were able to get the 3PL to pay for the entire move, and to pay for our lease, to buy us out of our lease.”32:24 - The early days of ShopifyAt the time Daniel started his businesses, the online ecosystem we know today was in its elementary form.“We were on Shopify day one. But all of stuff that we take for granted today with Shopify was nowhere near it is what it is today. And all up and all the partners on it that you mentioned weren't anywhere near as capable and mature as they are today. Klaviyo at that time was a startup. $10 billion company today. So it was a bunch of startups just getting started, and obviously their tools just weren't as mature as they are today. But it also provided a lot more opportunity, because there weren’t as many players in space in terms of competition yet, so costs for everything were cheaper.”34:04 - The decision to ignore AmazonAt the time, Daniel and his team didn’t have the bandwidth to explore Amazon. It worked out fine in their case, but today Amazon is much more attractive.“We always dabbled a tiny bit into Amazon. I never gave it a ton of mental bandwidth for myself to figure it out, so to speak. And I would say that looking back, that maybe I regret that. Just because we always had so much success with what we had in front of us. And there was always moving and change and all the stuff you need to do to operate a business day to day. Amazon is a completely separate beast itself. So it's like, to stop what I'm doing to learn it myself seemed like an arduous task. Versus where we were at and the scale we were at, you may as just hire someone to figure it out. So we never put a ton of focus into that. I think looking back it might've been a mistake. But it also just wasn't our business model. We were trying to build brands, not just sell forks or dishes or whatever. But the M&A activity in the Amazon space is a lot more active now.”36:49 - Founders shouldn’t do it allDaniel made the mistake of trying to hold all the cards in his business early on, when he should have been hiring and delegating sooner.“To build a great company, at least at the time, I felt like I had my fingerprints, so to speak, on everything. I had to manage everyone, I had to tell everyone to do anything, they were extensions of me. That's not right. Today I realize that's not the right way to do things. To build something that’s scaling fast and efficiently, you need to find great people and get them to do that stuff. And if that trust isn't there, then you can't build a real company. Now that's how I approach things, and trust in my leaders and managers and stuff like that, who are able to bring the company tons of value that’s not reliant on me.”39:34 - Why you need to be on marketplacesMarketplaces are where your customers are, pure and simple. With very few exceptions, such as subscription-based brands, Daniel thinks everyone should be on them.“The overwhelming majority of brands should be on Amazon. And you should be on every marketplace you can get on. Why? Traffic is so expensive today that unless you are wherever your customer is, it's now harder more than ever to generate profit. So customers simply go from Facebook ads to Amazon to buy products today. That's what happens. That's not questionable at this point. And if you're not there, then your competitors are there. And if your competitors are there, they're winning off your traffic and getting revenue and getting your customers. So for that reason alone, it's my opinion that you should be on every marketplace that you can get on.”43:27 - Subscriptions are the winning modelLong-term, Daniel thinks subscription-focused brands will win out due to the element of streamlined and sustained customer acquisition.“In my opinion today, if I'm launching a brand or I'm thinking about launching a brand, if it doesn't have a focus on subscription, I’m not even considering launching it. Because just like I touched upon before, it is now harder than ever to acquire customers profitably. And unless you have a really good metric for LTV and retention of your customers, it's just so hard to build a brand today. Pre iOS 14, it was extremely easy. You could for almost any type of stuff, if you had a good idea of what you're doing from an ad standpoint and creative and influencer, you could make it work. You could typically scale it pretty quickly. But with how tricky it has become since iOS 14, it's the brands that are able to focus on subscription that are thriving more than ever. Because typically the LTV is higher, they're compounding every month, and they don’t need to focus on day-to-day.”50:11 - Know your marginsIf you don’t have a high enough margin on a product, you can’t be successful.“I tell brands it would be ideal to have at least 75% margins on a product. If you’re under that, it just becomes really tough. Just from a marketing standpoint let's say advertising is 50% of your expenses. Which today a lot of brands are in that docket. And let's say, like I said, you only have 50% margin on the product. Now you're zero for everything else. You can't hire employees. You can’t pay for software. You can't you can't invest in anything like influencer content. So unless you have a good enough margin, it’s tough to really invest in a lot of things you need day to day. So roughly that's what I’d say, because then a lot of the numbers start backing out.”51:05 - You need a killer content strategyFrom working with influencers to ads, a good content strategy (or lack thereof) can make or break your business.“Having a good content strategy is the most important thing. And I think influencer marketing, leveraging that kind of goes hand in hand with that. Especially when it comes to building a brand, because a lot of time brands that have brand equity from the influencers you are working with, from the celebrities you are working with. Because that's how people remember a brand. It's like Nike, do you remember it was Michael Jordan. A lot of times you don't say, ‘oh, I love this brand because their ads I see on Facebook.’ It might acquire the customer, but unless you are getting the likeness from a lot of people along the way, I think it's tough to have that brand equity that a lot of people aspire to have.”Full video interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mDY_VLkWS0Daniel Snow: CEO of Snow AgencyRamon Berrios: CEO of Trend.ioBlaine Bolus: COO of Omnipanel 

During this episode, you will learn about;[00:16] What’s in for you in today’s episode[01:43] Bailee’s career background information[03:57] What is branding and the areas of business it affects[07:28] The importance of brand guide during the branding process[09:49] Branding your brand in a way that resonates with people[12:16] Validating your branding through social channels [14:01] Promoting your brand in Tik Tok when branding [16:01] Commercial Break[17:04] The secrets to a high performing landing page [21:21] Bailee’s strategy for optimizing their landing page[22:29] The elements of building a strong brand identity [24:27] Brands that keep Bailee motivated in her course [28:30] Takeaways from the guest [29:38] What next for Sharma brands and how to connect with Bailee Contributors: Bailee Cooper - Sharma BrandsJay Desai - @jayd3sai 

4:47 - The night CROSSNET was inventedChris and his friends were throwing ideas for a product invention at the wall to see if anything stuck when someone mentioned four-way volleyball.“ESPN was on in the background. Not sure if that motivated it or not, but Mike wrote down four-way beach volleyball. Mike’s one of our other co-founders, grew up playing soccer and basketball. Four-way volleyball net. And we're like, yeah, no shit. That'd be sick. Jumped on Google, and nobody had done it before. And right now it was like four in the morning, you're in your hometown farm town. It’s cool, and nobody does it, and we’re like, this is it. That's the game. So we went to bed and then the next morning we woke up, went to Walmart, got two badminton nets, cut up the center, staked them on the side of my mom's garden shed. Texted all the boys, like yo come over. And we just started making a game in the backyard, like you did when you're 12 years old.”7:47 - Building a brandChris had previously worked with his friend and brother on a startup during college. He knew that when creating his own company, he wanted to create a true brand.“I graduated with a film degree $100,000 in debt. And I was making like 40 grand a year. It wasn't sustainable. So I couldn't go home and focus on e-commerce. So I left. And my brother invented the GLUNT, which is the glass blunt, which is famous, probably the most famous glass blunt that went on for like millions of dollars in sales. It was really, really successful. And I gave up on the cane and I could have gotten involved in that. So when I started CROSSNET, I'm not giving up. I don't care how long this is going to take. It's going to work, just stay patient. So that was the e-commerce history kind of to set us up for good success because I knew I did not want to drop ship this thing. I wanted to form a brand.”12:53 - Balancing Uber and CROSSNETChris was still working in sales at Uber when he moved to Miami, juggling both his full-time job and experimenting with CROSSNET.“We started getting the proof of concept down. We had 50 units coming to the States, started selling them. And people started to take interest a little bit. I went to my boss [at Uber Eats] and I said, Hey, I don't know if I’m making the right move, but I’ve got a damn good idea. I'm going to move to Miami in two weeks. You'd either let me work remote—and this was before COVID. This is before everything—I was like, either let me work remote because this job is easy as hell and I can do it from my apartment, or I'm done. And he was so cool. And he's like, yeah, go work remote and lead the team. And I had a team of 12 people reporting to me. I led the team for six months working remote in Miami, on the beach playing CROSSNET during the day and answering emails from my phone for Uber.”16:08 - When your product is your billboardBy setting up live games in Miami and elsewhere, Chris and his team got an incredible amount of exposure that was better than any billboard.“What ended up happening was we go to the beach every day and set up the net. Get there at nine o'clock. And 20 minutes in we’d have everybody looking at us, every single person at that beach was staring at us taking photos. It was like a billboard, but it was just our product. I always say it's really hard to market a product that nobody gets to see, unless it's just one on one. When I set up a CROSSNET, hundreds of people see it. So people would start playing. I would film ads on my phone and go home and run Facebook ads at night. Eventually what would happen was you'd be on vacation in Colorado. You'd go home. And you sell nothing in Denver. And all of a sudden we started getting sales with Denver. And I'm like, oh shit, you must be out there playing, right. So it just started snowballing. We had 50 out, and then 250, and now there's 100,000 out there. So when summer comes, it's just that perfect storm.”21:14 - The first factoryAfter nailing down a prototype, Chris and the team went out in search of a factory. They negotiated a small starting quantity for about $20,000.“At this point we typed in Aliexpress Volleyball Nets. Found a few factories, sent over an NDA, sent over the blueprint. Our co-founder Mike was an engineer, so he was good at AutoCAD and we saved the cost there. Lucky. Sent it over, said yo, we have an idea. Immediately heard, ‘sure. $500 grand.’ $500? Who the hell do you think we are, $500 grand? No chance. Found one lady that was like, all right. I can do 50 for you. And we're like, please, we promise one day we'll be the biggest company. And now we outgrew our factory. We had to find a new supplier because it became so big. But to your point, negotiate. 50 units. Okay. We’ll wire over the check for $20 grand or whatever it was. We literally had $20 grand for this whole company to start.”25:06 - The video that went viralThe best growth moment came when Chris agreed to send a free sample to someone who ended up being on an Olympic volleyball team.“Yo, let me get free samples. I'm sure you guys deal with that all the time. But it’s like you know this stuff costs money, right? Would I just light $60 on fire? Or would you give me $60 for free? Hell no, you're not giving me $60 for free. So why should I do that for you? But there's one guy, I guess he was compelling enough. And he said, send me out a sample. I said, okay, I'll send it to you. You pay for the shipping. So he pays like $200 to ship it to Latvia. I don't know where Latvia is, we just ship it. Nothing happens. Four months go by. Crickets. I’m moving on to the next thing. And my phone just starts spazzing one morning. I wake up, I got like 5 million views on this video. 10,000 comments, a quadrillions shares. And it’s these dudes in Latviaplaying on the beach. It ends up being the Latvian Olympic volleyball team. So they're on the beach, palm trees. Spike it, dig it, doing everything I can't do on a CROSSNET. And that was our first banger piece of content.”28:19 - The trouble with shippingShipping container costs have skyrocketed, but if you need product you have little choice. Chris hopes to see container costs stabilizing somewhat going forward.“Everyone talks about shipping containers. I just found out our team paid $25,000 for a container. There was 350 units in that container. My cost on these just went up $70 for this damn thing. It's just like stupid mistakes that we're making. But also we really have no choice. If we want the products here, you have to pay it. But if you're losing money on the product, you have to shut it down. Don't even sell that product. It’s a loss here at this point. Chill out until the containers come back down. So those are all things we're dealing with right now...I have seen lately that containers are coming down. A lot of boats on the water are landing, now looking for their charges from six months ago. So now I'm dealing with the billing, which sucks. But moving forward we’re seeing containers hopefully being a fraction of that $20K. So if we can get down that $12-15K range, I'd be pretty content. I don't think we're anywhere close to that $3 grand that we started at in 2018.”30:42 - Taking CROSSNET internationalToday CROSSNET has warehouses and 3PLs in Canada, Australia, and hopefully will add a greater presence in Europe soon.“I have a warehouse in Kingsville, Ontario, Canada. We opened up that last year. A warehouse in San Diego. Just opened up a 3PL in Australia, which took about a year of work. And then we're opening up a 3PL in Europe somewhere so that we can fulfill some of those countries. But it's a lot of legal work right now. You have to pay VAT fees for all the countries. And it's just a lot of headache to even deal with Europe right now. I'd love to get to Europe tomorrow, but Australia seems like it's going to be a rocket ship for us. There’s great weather, beaches. And the nice thing I'm pumped about is when it is freezing cold in Connecticut in October, November, January, February, March, go sell in Australia. Shut off all my ads in the east coast, throw them over to Australia.”34:33 - Getting off the ground in AustraliaWhile getting set up in Australia has had its challenges, Chris knows it will be well worth it.“You cannot get an Australia website without having an Australian registered business, which is crazy to me. So it took us about eight months to get a registered Australian business. You can get a domain in 30 seconds here. You have to have a registered Australian business, which took forever. So eight months of planning, we vetted a ton of 3PLs and found the one that we liked, CP3, great company. And then essentially from there, it was just lining up shipments. Trucking that directly from China to the 3PL in Australia, them unloading, making sure our SKUs are right. Product photography, making sure the Shopify is duplicated but also speaks the language, which is important. And then from there, it's finding the relevant content that sticks.”41:11 - Becoming a legitimate sportFrom partnerships with legacy players to selling at a high level, Chris’ background has allowed him to help take CROSSNET to the next step.“It's one thing to say all right, cool. We have a cool sport we made up. But it's still like, it's just a sport that you made up, it's not a real sport yet. So how do we validate, how do we make it real? So we did stuff with USA Volleyball, with Wilson, and we'll go on doing cooler brand partnerships. And for me, being 24 at the time, what better way to legitimize your sport and product than to put yourself into retail. Knowing nothing about retail, but knowing from my corporate days at like Contently where I was selling SaaS software. I was literally 22 years old. Had my nice little tie on, going in to see the CMO at like AIG, some 65-year-old lady, like Fortune 500, Fortune 50 companies. And they're talking to me in person. Like that doesn't even add up. So the way I got good at that was through LinkedIn, and that was the only way. It was crafting good messages, not the shit that you get every day.”Full video interview: https://youtu.be/D1gyFhOKQAUChris Meade - CMO of CrossnetRamon Berrios - CEO of Trend.ioBlaine Bolus - COO of Omnipanel

[00:16] What’s in for you in today’s episode[01:20] Stephanie career backstory[02:39] Ekster’s customer service before and after Stephanie joined the agency[03:39] The strategy that Stephanie followed in building a scalable team [05:18] The metrics you should focus on to meet customers’ support demands[06:27] Understanding customer psychology when selling to multiple markets  [08:56] Lessons that Stephanie learned while building a customer service team[11:08] Qualitative and quantitative measures to look into to scale tour business[12:23] Customer journey touchpoints and customer experience[14:49] The importance of customer experience in the COVID-19 era[16:47] How to differentiate your product with customer service and experience[19:05] Driving brand growth through customer experience, acquisition, and retention[20:29] Takeaways from the guest[21:39] What next for Stephanie and Ekster based on customer support[23:03] Where to learn more about Ekster and connect with Stephanie  Contributors:Stephanie Robilliard - EksterJay Desai - @jayd3sai

“As you discount your product, you could potentially see better ad conversion.” @jayde3sai #DTCPOD“Sometimes when you discount to both new and returning customers, and your margin ends up going down. ” @jayde3sai #DTCPODWe Speak About:[01:17] DTC discounting twitter threadLearn more about how and when to discount  In today’s episode of DTC Finds, we’re looking at a Twitter thread by David Rekuc, discussing discounting We’ll dive into this thread and breakdown what he has to say about it as well as our take on the pros and cons of discountingStay tuned as we learn more about this marketing strategy and its effects.If you’d like to learn more about Trend and our influencer marketing platform for influencers and brands visit trend.io. You can also follow us for tips on growing your following and running successful campaigns on Instagram and LinkedIn.Mentioned Links:David’s Twitter thread on discounting: https://twitter.com/DaveRekuc/status/1458841785292234754

“We're helping brands and agencies learn what creatives are working best and why” @rezakhadjavi #DTCPOD“Teams who take naming conventions really seriously have  a really important cultural effect.” @rezakhadjavi #DTCPOD“We want to create an environment where our creative strategy is data driven.” @rezakhadjavi  #DTCPOD“People are putting on a lot more of a creative strategist hat and thinking critically about the way that they're positioning their product.”@rezakhadjavi #DTCPOD“Most people don't know exactly what they're doing and they're trying to figure it out. So don't be discouraged.” @rezakhadjavi  #DTCPODWe Speak About:[01:46] Reza introduces himself and Motion  [02:45] Biggest challenges when finding creative [10:00] The importance of naming convention [19:39] Trends to look for when finding winning creative  [25:26] Analyzing ads by funnel stage [28:22] Ad sets for variables[32:46] Top three learnings from the field [34:23] What’s next for Motion and where to find Reza Khadjavi onlineHow to find ad creative that’s working fastReza Khadjavi, CEO of Motion, joins the POD to give some insight on the software industry’s creative strategies. Motion helps brands find creative wins.Reza recognized that there is a lot of creative out there, and finding what works can benefit a brand’s ad spending and profits.Motion takes the approach of finding successful creative through data driven strategies.Reza recognizes that there are always trends to look for when locating creative that consumers respond well to, and implementing these strategies into brands is part of their process.A big part of ad success is finding a sync between creative and funnel stageMotion looks at all kinds of creative analysis when finding what curates the most reponses. Reza recognizes that creative is meant to be very visual, and this must be acknowledged in the process of obtaining a good stream of high quality creative.  Motion uses a funnel stage when running the same analysis to see where the creative fits best.  The brand has fostered further success by viewing the process as adding and alerting a few variables at a time to see what works.Reza recommends flipping between stage funnels to see what creative works best where.Stay tuned as Reza discusses more about motion and their strategies for optimizing and finding creative content for brands.If you’d like to learn more about Trend and our influencer marketing platform for influencers and brands visit trend.io. You can also follow us for tips on growing your following and running successful campaigns on Instagram and LinkedIn.Mentioned Links:Motion website: https://motionapp.com/Reza Khadjavi’s twitter: https://twitter.com/rezakhadjavi

“Not all organic creative can be paid creative and not all paid creative can be organic creative” @flexiblefoodie #DTCPOD“If you don't have the right partners in place, it's only going to cost you more down the road, so put time in your creating process.” @flexiblefoodie #DTCPOD“Just because you have the assets you have doesn't mean you have to present them in the way that you have them.” @flexiblefoodie #DTCPOD“People don't want to see product after product after product, and so you need to find a way to mention the product in different buckets.” @flexiblefoodie  #DTCPOD“TikTok creative does not need to be perfect because it could be the simplest, stupidest thing in the world, but it could take off in 2 seconds” @flexiblefoodie #DTCPODWe Speak About:[01:04] Kendall introduces herself and Flexible Creative  [03:48] Common and effective social growth strategy themes [05:34] What to consider when creating content [08:29] furthering connections and eliciting a response [13:48] Influencer strategy vs. social strategy [17:02] Creator strategies [22:20] Key learning and tips from utilizing TikTok[28:25] What’s next for Kendall Dickieson and where to her and the brand onlineHow to grow your Instagram and TikTok account to thousands of followersKendall Dickieson, Founder of Flexible Creative, joins the POD to give some insight on customer acquisition and building a presence on social media.Flexible creative is a business that helps brands share their story and build connections to their audience to unlock customer acquisition organicallyKendall specializes in optimizing DTC and CGP brands presence across multiple niches through social management. Kendall takes an approach of prioritizing distribution for social growth and recommends investing in strategy first before execution.Kendall recognizes the importance of being detail oriented with creative and limiting broad approaches.To win on social content, it’s important to not overthink itFlexible Creative stands out as a brand growth business due to Kendall’s extensive experience with social creative . While it is important to think outside the box with social marketing, sometimes it’s about working smarter not harder. Kendall takes the approach of tieing engagement back to products and brands rather than overstimulating customers with the same social engagement .  The brand has also fostered further growth for brands by acknowledging the success that video platforms, such as TikTok, can bring.Kendall recommends producing and distributing content on a whim, because these can often outperform strategically designed content on platforms such as TikTok. Stay tuned as Kendall discusses ways to work with creators and the importance of driving community first. If you’d like to learn more about Trend and our influencer marketing platform for influencers and brands visit trend.io. You can also follow us for tips on growing your following and running successful campaigns on Instagram and LinkedIn.Mentioned Links:Kendall Dickieson website: https://www.kendalldickieson.com/Kendall Dickieson twitter: https://twitter.com/flexiblefoodie

“It's common nowadays to see lots of discounts around the holiday season, and so why not take this opportunity to really ramp up your sales ” @jayde3sai #DTCPOD“Bundles give you an opportunity to generate more value out of each transaction” @jayde3sai #DTCPODWe Speak About:[00:44] Black friday and cyber monday strategy article [01:47] Rewards and bundle discounts [04:20] Testing new products and categories [06:25] Giving Tuesday Tips and tricks for generating the most value out of black friday and cyber monday  In today’s episode of DTC Finds, we’re looking at an article by Nik Sharma discussing great sales strategies for the holidays and providing unique promotions to boost sales.We’ll share some of the best strategies from this article and dive into how to offer these deals to customers.Stay tuned as we break down these unique holiday sales strategies as well as how to optimize the customer experience during holiday shopping.  If you’d like to learn more about Trend and our influencer marketing platform for influencers and brands visit trend.io. You can also follow us for tips on growing your following and running successful campaigns on Instagram and LinkedIn.Mentioned Links: https://www.shopify.ca/blog/ask-nik-black-friday-cyber-monday-sales-strategies

“We're basically curating all of the Web's emerging brands, culture defining brands all in one place.” @maggiebethgibson #DTCPOD“We're trying to simplify the vast web of DTC brands that are currently continuing to pop up in the market” @maggiebethgibson #DTCPOD“We really want to give a voice to underrepresented founders and allow people to shop on their brand values and support the brands that align with those values.” @maggiebethgibson #DTCPOD“We test and try every product that is on our site.” @maggiebethgibson #DTCPODWe Speak About:[01:04] Maggie introduces herself and The Fascination [03:53] the opportunities that drew Maggie to the brand [05:44] The increase in online brand marketplaces [07:58] What’s missing from the brand website [10:22] Navigating what brands to pick[13:10] The Fascination playbook [14:25] The evolved marketplace [16:44] Common theme among successful brands  [19:04] The old school way [20:20] Bundling products from different places  [22:23] Consumer behavior and the online marketplace [25:32] Favorite DTC brands [26:33] What’s next for The Fascination[28:13] Where to find the brand, and Maggie Gibson onlineA view at the future of DTCMaggie Gibson, Head of partnerships and merchandising at The Fascination , joins the POD to give some insight on the media brand’s mission and consumer behavior The Fascination is a resource aimed at helping consumers shop, discover, and and research products customized to their needsMaggie recognizes that each consumer has their own individual needs and potential unrecognized needs, and she works to help consumers fulfill these needs A unique approach the brand takes is testing every product they recommend before showcasing it to the consumerMaggie recognizes that provisioning personal product feedback not aly helps the consumer but also helps the brand improve through recommendations Important values for consumers in the age of DTCThe Fascination stands out as a unique platform that aims to give honest reviews of products and provide the best experiences for consumers and their needs The brand further provides bundle suggestions for products Maggie looks for two distinctive factors when taking on a brand, which consist of the quality of the product and the impact it will have on numerous factors The online media platform has fostered further popularity by prioritizing each consumers values and pairing them with the values of a brandMaggie acknowledges how the virtual marketplace is influencing consumer behavior, and this factor un taken into account when predicting how future consumer will shopStay tuned as Maggie discusses top brands on their platform and how the distinguish between good and bad products If you’d like to learn more about Trend and our influencer marketing platform for influencers and brands visit trend.io. You can also follow us for tips on growing your following and running successful campaigns on Instagram and LinkedIn.Mentioned Links:The Fascination website: https://thefascination.com/Maggie Gibson’s Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maggiebethgibson/

“An editor’s pick section for your blog is great because you have some really high performing content that maybe is performing well on search or something that you want to highlight specifically that you think is important to helping people and guiding people through the purchase process.” @jayde3sai #DTCPOD“Make sure you have some strong internal linking. That's a good SEO that you can do to help improve the performance of your individual blog pages. ” @jayde3sai #DTCPODWe Speak About:[00:39] Twitter discussion for CPG brands with great blogs[05:37] eCommerce transactional emails Learn more about what makes a great brand blog and how to optimize your transactional emails In today’s episode of DTC Finds, we’re looking at a Twitter discussion on great CPG blogs and sharing a great resource you can use for inspiration for your transactional emailsWe’ll share some of the best examples from the Twitter discussion and then look at this swipe file from Wonderment for transactional emails!Stay tuned as we break down unique blog posts and strategies from top brands as well as how to stay connected with customers through the buying process.  If you’d like to learn more about Trend and our influencer marketing platform for influencers and brands visit trend.io. You can also follow us for tips on growing your following and running successful campaigns on Instagram and LinkedIn.Mentioned Links:Twitter discussion on CPG blogs: https://twitter.com/kaleighf/status/1453481617163444229Wonderment transactional email swipe file: https://www.wonderment.com/ecom-txn-swipe-file