DTC POD: How The Best Brands Are Built

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

“It's really all about the resources that you have and how you can really put that together” @kristenxjones  #DTCPOD“We're inclusive, and  you have to be consistent in that and really show up for every person that you represent whenever you have that type of branding.” @kristenxjones #DTCPOD“Understanding the customer journey in the beginning, I think, is the most important thing that you can do before getting started with an outline.” @kristenxjones #DTCPOD“You want it to be really clear in the beginning about what makes your brand different.” @kristenxjones #DTCPOD“Through iterating and talking to our customers and learning, we've been able to figure out exactly what they want and we've been able to continue that.” @kristenxjones #DTCPODWe Speak About:[01:08] Kristen introduces herself and SuitShop  [03:01] Managing long-form content and content marketing [06:15] Outsourcing content [09:54] The process of rebranding [14:30] Features of personalized automation marketing [18:28] Managing a hyper personalized flow  [22:18] Building an effective pay funnel  [26:48] Having enough content and creative [31:15] Secret cyber monday tip [32:45] What’s next for SuitShop and where to find the brand, and Kristen Jones onlineHow SuitShop thinks about content, email, paid ads, and growthKristen Jones, Director of marketing at SuitShop, joins the POD to give some insight on the direct-to-consumer content and creation  SuitShop is an inclusive clothing brand that specializes in suits for everyone Kristen and the brand have been focusing their efforts on curating the new brand image that highlights their inclusivity to men, women, children, and pets An approach is taken with the customer service strategy by offering a personalized automated flow system that allows for more focus on the marketing strategy Kristen recognizes that when you state what your brand stands for, It has to be part of every business decision that you're thinking aboutUnderstanding the customer journey is key to DTC growthSuitShop stands out as an eCommerce clothing line that optimizes and personalizes the customer experienceThe brand curated a personalized journey for consumers by implementing a funnel system that divides customers into 3 categories to help further assist themKristen is consistently working toward where to add value propositions or benefits versus features and ultimately curtains the best content for consumers The brand also utilizes outside sources to assist in marketing optimization Kristen recommends reaching out to potential influences and “shooting your shot” Stay tuned as Kristen discusses paid ads, email marketing, and advice for black friday and cyber monday sales 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:SuiShop’s website: https://suitshop.com/Kristen Jones twitter: https://twitter.com/kristenxjones

“A really good strategy that you can do with SMS heading into Black Friday Cyber Monday is sending an email push for SMS sign ups for early access.” @jayde3sai #DTCPOD“SMS is very different than email, in the sense that SMS messages should be more skimmable than email.” @jayde3sai #DTCPODWe Speak About:[00:41] Strategies to boost SMS sales and sign ups [04:51] Optimizing the landing page and DTC examples BFCM SMS sign up strategies plus a big landing page guideIn today’s episode of DTC Finds, we’re looking at a great Twitter thread discussing strategies for boosting SMS sales during black friday cyber monday and elements to add to the landing page.As we dive into the landing page guide from Nik Sharma, we’ll provide real DTC examples of how they improved elements of their landing pages.Stay tuned as we break down this twitter thread and learn more about how to optimize your landing page.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:BFCM SMS strategies: https://twitter.com/DTCNewsletter/status/1453727946342998029Landing page guide from Nik Sharma: https://nik.co/resources/landing-page-guide