Alexis Mera Damen

"What should I test first?" is one of the most common questions I get from DTC brand owners. Here's how I always attack the highest impact tests first:

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You've just converted a prospect into a customer... STOP thinking your work is done as a DTC brand. It's only just begun. The reality is, most brands can't survive off one-time customers. (Unless they sell high-ticket goods) This is why post-purchase marketing is crucial for success. It's your best chance to maximise chances of: ⤷ Building brand affinity ⤷ Increasing brand touchpoints ⤷ Ensuring correct product use ⤷ Product <> Lifestyle integration So, get creative with your emails. Stop pushing the basic 'Follow our Instagram'. Below are two great examples of an alcohol brand. 1. An email pushing creative cocktail recipes 2. An email pushing their public Spotify playlist Play the long-term game. Stop focusing on the next sale. Start focusing on giving your new customers the best possible experience.

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We audited 500+ accounts over the last 6 years. Here are the most common mistakes DTC brands are making: 1/ Not testing enough creatives Creative is the biggest lever brands can use to improve performance. Best-performing accounts are testing a high volume of creatives. At the end of the day, creative is your targeting. 2/ Overcomplicating account structure Brands are running way too many campaigns like it's 2018. Gurus think they can beat Meta's algorithm with media buying strategies. In reality, the more aggregated your account is, the better your performance. 3/ Ignoring demand trends If there is no demand for your product, you won't be able to get a positive ROAS. Like selling dog clothes during summer. Sometimes, you have to pull back your ad spend and wait. 4/ Not leveraging landing pages Most brands drive traffic to PDPs or collection pages. Leveraging dedicated landing pages like listicles or advertorials can drastically improve performance. 5/ Overlooking tracking issues Almost a third of the accounts we audit have tracking issues. It could be overreporting or underreporting. Fixing that is our first priority before we start spending money on ads. TLDR: 1/ creatives 2/ account structure 3/ demand trends 4/ landing pages 5/ tracking

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This is for all the DTC brands… You’re not doing SEO correctly. I’ve generated over £50 million for DTC brands. So trust me when I say, Most of you are missing out on multiple tactics that can help you grow. I'll break it down for you in 5 steps: 1. Technical SEO: First things first, let’s talk about the foundation. Technical SEO requires fine-tuning your site’s architecture to simplify the search engine's crawl and index. Speed, mobile-friendliness, and Core Web Vitals are the checkpoints that directly impact user experience and SEO rankings. Additionally, you can add schema markup to enhance your site's visibility and communicate directly with search engines. This helps you have an edge over your competitors. 2. Strategic Keyword Research: Moving on, keyword research is all about predicting and aligning with consumer intent. Pinpoint commercial keywords that reflect your product offers and lead customers to your sales funnel. However, don't overlook the use of informational keywords. That helps you draw in a broader audience with content that feeds into your product pages. 3. On-Page Optimization: Your product and category pages are your storefronts. So, optimize them with precision. Use targeted keywords for compelling titles, headers, and content that interest readers and convert them. You can even enhance these pages with high-quality media for engagement to gear them toward attracting the right audience. This will drive both traffic and conversions. 4. Building Your Brand’s Voice: Here’s where you actually connect with your audience. Develop a content marketing strategy that uses your informational keywords to create blog posts, guides, and videos. This content is meant to establish your brand as a thought leader. Use smart internal linking to tie this content to your main product pages. You’ll hit two birds (user journey and SEO) with one stone. 5. Advanced Link Building: Last but definitely not least, use link building. It’s a fundamental part of SEO that earns credibility and authority through quality backlinks from relevant, high-authority sites. But the key here is to think outside the box: Engage in PR, influencer collaborations, and other tactics to keep your link profile diverse. This consistent effort will boost your domain authority and strengthen your brand’s presence in the market. For DTC brands that want to push the boundaries of their potential, these 5 pillars are non-negotiable. They’re your blueprint to lead in your market.

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As a freelancer, you need to learn how to navigate the pricing vs value discussion with your clients/future clients. Never put yourself in a position where client feels okay to negotiate your value. 🫰🫰🫰

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The most common Meta ad performance question eComm brands have (and struggle to answer) is this: Is it my ads or is it my website? Here's how to find out. Every site is different, but for most eCommerce business I work with, I like to see an ad link-click conversion rate (CTR) of 1.5 to 2.0%. This suggests your ads are doing their one job well: getting people curious and clicking. Once those clicks turn into website visits, ideally you have a click to conversion rate (CVR) of 1.5% to 2.0% as well. This suggests your website is doing its one job well: getting people to convert. Here's how you can check these numbers in Meta or TikTok or Google. Log in and grab this data for a set period of time (like the past two weeks): - Total Impressions - Total Link Clicks - Total Conversions Clicks / Impressions = CTR Conversions / Clicks = CVR If either one of these is below 1.5%, there's room for improvement. If one of these is much lower than the other conversion rate, that's where you should start. If your website isn't converting well and your ads are, stop spending time making new ads and starting looking at ways to optimize your website. 1. Use Google PageSpeed Insights to see if your site is loading too slowly 2. Look at data across your funnel to see at what stage you are losing people 3. Consider a landing page solution (like Pagedeck) to quickly test a fast, optimal funnel that leads to conversions 4. Make sure you have a great data connection (like Popsixle) to ensure 100% of your conversions are actually getting reporting back to your ad platforms Most brands I work with are so focused on ads, that its common to miss when there is a website problem. If you need help getting your ads or your funnel in tip-top order as you prep for the busy holiday season, drop a comment or use the meeting link on my profile to set up time together.

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Your overall sales number might not be telling the full story. Listen, if you're a DTC brand: Avoid: - Obsessing over overall sales numbers - Treating all customers the same - Ignoring the nuances in your data - Assuming a sales problem is universal Instead: - Break down sales into new and repeat customers - Analyze each group separately - Understand different customer behaviors - Tailor your strategies accordingly Rather than focusing on one big metric, it's crucial to break it down into sales from new customers versus repeat customers.

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If I was a brand owner or operator doing less than $1 million in annual DTC revenue, here’s how I’d scale past 7-figures in revenue. Full guide by a former director of e-commerce at an 8-figure apparel brand.

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(2/3)...Why do I prefer to add text blocks within an ESP? I’ve worked with an e-commerce brand that has a multilingual audience. For us marketers, it’s impossible to send emails in multiple languages. Occasionally, it might work. But for regular campaigns, no brand really does this. Instead, brands typically speak the language of their primary audience. So, if you choose English as your campaign language. Your audience can still translate the text inside Gmail, Apple Mail, or Outlook… …but only if you’ve added text using text blocks. A good email designer focuses on conversion-optimized design. And ensures the information is accessible to all types of audiences… …whether it’s a visually impaired person or someone who doesn’t speak the language. Your email layout and element positioning should cater to everyone. Also, by adding text separately, you can increase their attention span by a few seconds… …giving them something to read while images are still downloading. P.S. Check the comments for part 1. #emailmarketing  #emaildesign  #ecommerce

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The reason most $1M DTC agencies are stuck isn’t their SOPs, their teams or even their client base. And it’s not because founders are buried in the day-to-day. It's because they aren’t thinking strategically enough or pushing aggressively toward the kind of growth that breaks past the $1M plateau. It's not the SOPs or the ability to read P&L that’ll solve your growth problems. It's vision and more importantly, the balls to actually go after it without playing it safe. Incremental growth feels comfortable and that’s where many founders get stuck. They think growth has to be some steady, predictable process. In fact, it’s often messy, bold and requires big, uncomfortable moves. Here’s what keeps you back mentally: - Failed growth attempts - Partnerships that didn’t pan out - Cash flow challenges - Team turnover But I bet if you sat down with someone and actually analysed them, you’d find those "failures" are really untapped opportunities disguised as setbacks. The problem isn’t that these things happened. It’s that you’re letting them dictate your next move, instead of leveraging them to go after what you really want. The $1M bottleneck is both psychological and operational. It’s the difference between leading your business versus running it.

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I use 28 software to run my DTC growth agency. Without them, it would be hard to: - Scale brands to 7-8 figures - Create UGC at scale - Manage a team spread across 4 countries Let me break down my exact DTC software stack: 1. Creative - Air: Ad creative storage and filtering - Foreplay: Ad inspiration - Google Sheet: Researching documentation - Frame.io: Editing feedback - Backstage: Creator sourcing - ChatGPT: Scripting frameworks - Elevenlabs: Ai voiceovers - Envato: Quality stock images/videos 2. Website - Aftersell: Post-purchase upsell funnels - Replo: Landing page Builder - Rebuy: Site personalization - Microsoft Clarity: Heatmaps - Webflow: My agency's website - Okendo: Reviews - Loyalty Lion: Loyalty, rewards and referrals 3. Operations -- ClickUp: Project Management + a lot more - Slack: Communication - Loom: SOPs and walkthroughs - Docusign: Contracts - Calendly: Scheduling Meetings 4. Analytics & Data - Triple Whale: Ecom dashboard & Post-purchase surveys - Motion: Creative analysis - Varos: KPI benchmarks 5. Media Buying - Facebook Ads Manager: Manage FB Ads - TikTok Ads Manager: Manage TikTok Ads 6. Other - Fathom: AI meeting notetaker - Google Meet: Meetings - Instantly: Email outreach - Dripify: Linkedin growth - Kleo: LinkedIn post inspo The brands we support pay for software that is foundational to their business. We pay for anything that makes it easier for us to deliver a better service. What software would you add? Post inspired by Jake Abrams Keep moving forward!

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Your taste doesn’t matter when creating converting content Only results do. When I work with clients on ad creatives, this is the mantra we live by. It’s not about what we think looks good or what we personally prefer. It’s about what actually converts. In online marketing, your taste doesn’t matter. The only thing that counts is what drives clicks, leads, and sales.  Marketing is an art form, sure, but it’s one where the audience decides what’s great—not us. So the next time you’re crafting an ad, ask yourself: are you designing for your own satisfaction, or are you designing to get results? Because in this game, results are all that matter. That’s the only thing that defines success. -- Repost 🔁 if your taste is great. Follow me 🔔 if want to learn copy that converts.

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DTC growth isn’t that complicated. As a brand, you need to do 3 things well: 1. Drive more people to your site 2. Get more of them to buy 3. Earn their trust enough so they spend more Here are 33 actionable tactics within those 3 categories. [Steal these to understand exactly how to grow your brand.]

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Soar With Us spent £4M + on TikTok in May. The most effective trends we observed (steal these for your DTC brand): 1/ “If you’re googling this” hook is performing well. It instantly hits pain points the viewer might be struggling with. Makes them feel less alone and positions your product as the solution. 2/ Summer angles starting to pick up a ton of traction. Start incorporating summer concepts and plan ahead. Double down on this over the next 30 days to leverage seasonality. 3/ FaceTime skit = guaranteed entertainment. A fun and engaging way to highlight USPs. Keeps the creative light and breezy instead of being salesy. 4/ Leading with the hook of “testing on BF/GF” is a winning strategy. Producing strong TSR and retention rates. Leverages our human tendency to relate and impress. 5/ Split-screen testimonials outperforming most other concepts. Effective way to showcase social proof in retargeting ads. Also brings a fresh approach to the strategy of highlighting social proof. What creative trends have worked well for your DTC brand lately? Leave a comment below to share your winning strategies with my network 💬

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Myths about DTC eComm - You can't scale if your AOV is less than $30 - You shouldn't enter a category that is already competitive - You can never compete against established players with huge budgets Reality: - Native Deodorant has a price point of $13 and scaled to $100M in two years - True Classic entered one of the most competitive fashion categories - basic tees, and has done $250M in revenue since launching in 2019 - HiSmile competes against toothpaste giants and is set to hit $200M in revenue. Don’t believe everything you read - know your customer and your category and you can prove the rule makers wrong.

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Snag grew their DTC from $0 - Over $30m+ in 3 years. Here’s how they did it: ➤ Problem-Focused Conception While out shopping, Brie realized her tights were slipping down. Growing frustrated, she asked some friends of hers if they experienced something similar. Turns out every single one of her friends had the same issue. This was natural fuel for her to look into things further. ➤ Data = Unfair Advantage Brie didn't have a background in marketing. Instead, her data-oriented mind gave her an advantage by looking at things a little differently. She ran a Google Survey of 3000 women to find out who else struggled to find a pair of tights that fit. The answer? 90% of 3000 people. Bingo. Opportunity validated. The data also showed how: → The market was commoditized → Men made most of the product purchases (Crazy right?) → Most women accepted poor fitting tights as the norm This inspired her to really look into solving this problem, and her search for suppliers began. ➤ Knew the numbers Before launch, Brie’s focus to really get a grip on her numbers really paid off. Since the sales were through DTC, she knew she needed: → 25% of revenue back into marketing → First-order profit → Small seed round to fund initial stock order Armed with the validation from the survey and some strong number-crunching, Snag launched. They cleared £300k/mo in under a year. The emphasis of being profitable from the first order was key to allow her to scale forward and further invest in marketing. ➤ Applied Zero-Party Data & Customer Service This is where Brie’s data-oriented approach really shone a light on how Snag scaled rapidly. The pandemic caused havoc for many brands, including Snag. Over 60% of the business disappeared overnight, and they went into negative. They had Facebook debt that had to be paid. Fast. Or Snag would die. That’s when Brie turned to her customers for answers. Her customers suggested a brilliant offer: 2 tights for the price of one, but the second pair gets sent in 6 months. The offer worked - Snag survived. And eventually thrived. This was a genius idea to help relate to her customers. ➤  Applied the ‘3-Piece’ DTC Law Finally, Brie understood the fundamental law of DTC. → Commitment to customer service → Great product experience → Solve a big problem Since all 3 were checked, the rest was down to semantics, unit economics, and following marketing fundamentals. ➤  Final Thoughts As a data analyst, Brie’s final words of advice were super impactful and really hit home. Yes, data is important, but it’s even more important that each data point is an actual human being, not just a number on a spreadsheet. Combining the importance of data with the understanding that each data point is a human is a brilliant formula for growth. What else would you add?

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