Intentwise’s Post

Think D2C Success Is About Just Ads and Discounts? Think Again, My Friend! 😂 If you’re a D2C founder, I bet you’re searching for that perfect marketing formula. But here’s the truth: 🚫 It’s not about running the fanciest ads. 🚫 It’s not about spamming every platform. 🚫 And definitely not about slashing prices just to get customers. The real game-changer? 👉 Tapping into your customers’ emotions. The best D2C brands are doing a few things right: 1️⃣ They’re laser-focused on the customer journey. They know their buyers inside out. Every ad, message, and touchpoint hits the customer emotionally. Example: Look at Wakefit—they’re not just selling mattresses. They focus on sleep as a whole experience. From sleep tips to customer stories, they market in a way that helps people feel understood in their quest for better rest. 2️⃣ They build communities, not just sell products. These brands create a loyal fanbase that sticks around for more than just the product—they’re part of something bigger. Example: The The Souled Store has built a strong community around pop culture. Their fans don’t just buy T-shirts; they feel like they’re part of a tribe that celebrates their favorite shows and movies. 3️⃣ They experiment like crazy. The most successful D2C brands are always testing, learning, and improving faster than the competition. Example: Licious, The online meat delivery platform, is always adapting to what customers want. From special cuts to new recipes, they listen to feedback and adjust fast, keeping customers coming back for more. It’s no longer enough to be a "cool" brand. The D2C brands crushing it today are those that truly connect with customers' emotions and build something more meaningful. So, what’s been working (or not working) for you in getting customers hooked? Or if you’re feeling stuck, just drop me a message.

𝐀𝐦𝐚𝐳𝐨𝐧 𝐁𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐈𝐭’𝐬 𝐄𝐱𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝟏. 𝐁𝐢𝐝 𝐀𝐝𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬: Adjust bids to prioritize B2B placements based on their specific performance metrics. For example, if certain keywords are driving more clicks or conversions from business buyers, increase bids to capture this high-value traffic. 𝟐. 𝐓𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐁𝟐𝐁 𝐁𝐮𝐲𝐞𝐫𝐬: With tailored metrics, you can focus on high-volume, business-relevant keywords. 𝟑. 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐜 𝐒𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠: The B2B market on Amazon is growing. This feature gives insights to identify trends, align budgets, and test campaigns for maximum ROI in this segment. 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐓𝐞𝐬𝐭: 𝘾𝙪𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙢 𝘽𝙞𝙙𝙨 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝘽2𝘽 𝙋𝙡𝙖𝙘𝙚𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙨 𝙏𝙖𝙧𝙜𝙚𝙩 𝘽𝙪𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙨-𝙎𝙥𝙚𝙘𝙞𝙛𝙞𝙘 𝙆𝙚𝙮𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙙𝙨 𝙈𝙤𝙣𝙞𝙩𝙤𝙧 𝙈𝙚𝙩𝙧𝙞𝙘𝙨 𝐌𝐲 𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬: Testing this feature is a must, especially if you’re in categories that align well with business buyers (e.g., office supplies, bulk food items, or tools). It’s also great for sellers looking to diversify their customer base. Are there any specific products or campaigns you’d like to test this with?𝐋𝐞𝐭 𝐦𝐞 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐈 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩 𝐫𝐞𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐲! #AmazonAds #PPCUpdates #B2BMarketing #AmazonBusiness #DigitalMarketing #Advertising #amazon #amazonppc #ppc #amazonadvertising #advertising #amazonpl #amazonfba

Thinking About Selling on Amazon? Read This First. For young, direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands, Amazon can look like an easy path to sales. But if you’re building your brand for long-term growth, here’s why it might be worth holding off before you jump into Amazon too soon: 1️⃣ Build Self-Sufficiency First Before relying on any marketplace, get comfortable growing your own ecosystem. Can you: Master direct response marketing? Drive traffic to your own website? Build an email list? Convert those visitors into loyal customers? Increase the repeat purchases of your customers? Master these skills first. Once you know how to create demand, drive traffic, and nurture customer relationships, you have power. Relying too early on Amazon can make brands skip this essential growth phase, leading to dependency on a platform outside their control. 2️⃣ Keep Your Data Close When you sell on Amazon, you’re handing over critical customer data. Wouldn’t you rather understand your own customers, track their behaviors, and own those insights? Amazon only gets stronger with each data point you give them. But when you control your data, you can learn, improve, and build a brand that truly resonates with your audience. Don’t give up the chance to strengthen your house. 3️⃣ Avoid Unnecessary Competition When you launch on Amazon, you’re putting yourself in direct view of competitors who might offer knock-off versions of your product at a cheaper price. Why alert them to your success and strategy? Focus on developing and refining your brand away from the hyper-competitive Amazon environment, so you’re ready to compete on your terms when the time is right. 4️⃣ The Price of Success on Amazon To stand out on Amazon, you need to advertise heavily, paying high fees for visibility—and yet, you still don’t own the customer relationship. You don’t get the data, the insights, or the chance to build your email list. Amazon reaps the rewards of your effort and investment. While I don’t discourage Amazon entirely, I’ve found that it can sometimes lead early-stage brands to get comfortable in someone else’s ecosystem. And that’s risky. Grow Your Own Ecosystem First. Focus on your own growth, learn what works for your brand, test and iterate—then, when you’re strong and ready, Amazon will be there. Yes, Amazon holds 38% of the US eCommerce market, but if you have a clear value proposition and truly understand how you’re superior, customers will find you, and their actions will tell you if you are successful or need to sharpen your ecosystem. 👉 After driving over +$100 million in DTC revenue without Amazon, I can tell you it’s possible. Amazon’s power is undeniable, but the real question is: do you want to give up your own? My take: self-sufficiency is powerful and it provides freedom. When you don't need Amazon in order to grow year over year, and instead you can choose whether or not Amazon is for you - now that's power.

I wrote this for Nectar (and Amazon) but the rules are applicable for every form of digital marketing (just replace unit sales with whatever you want your final action to be). It's longer and richer than a typical post. Sorry it requires you to think. But it will also teach you a lot. Think of the levers you can pull to incrementally improve your marketing efforts. Impressions = Being seen Clicks = Being hooked Converting = Doing the thing you want I wrote this guide complete with the concepts, the numbers to run as an example, as well as a nifty slider tool so you can see how improving any one of the three things gives you a cumulative affect. Link to article: https://lnkd.in/ehHZEn_m #digitalmarketing #b2b #b2c #ecommerce

𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗜 𝗛𝗲𝗹𝗽 𝗖𝗣𝗚 𝗖𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗳𝘆 𝗖𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗔𝗰𝗾𝘂𝗶𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗖𝗼𝘀𝘁 (𝗖𝗔𝗖) 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 One of the biggest challenges I see with growing CPG brands is making sense of customer acquisition costs when juggling multiple channels. You might sell through distributors, who then sell to retailers, and you might also have a robust direct-to-consumer (D2C) presence on your e-commerce site and Amazon. Lumping all those expenses into one CAC metric can lead to confusion and wrong decisions on how to use your limited marketing funds best. Here’s how I break it down with my clients: 1. D2C CAC   First, we separate all direct-to-consumer marketing and advertising costs—everything from Facebook ads, influencer campaigns, and Amazon PPC to email marketing and promotional offers—and separate them out entirely. Then, we calculate how much it costs to acquire one online customer and compare it to that customer's lifetime value (LTV). If the LTV is significantly higher than the CAC, that channel works. If not, we make adjustments or scale back. 2. Retail (B2B) CAC  Next, we treat each retail “door” (store location) as a separate customer. We aggregate all non-D2C marketing costs—trade shows, trade spend, sales commissions, product demos, branding, and broker fees—and divide that total by the number of doors. That figure becomes our CAC for landing a retail account. From there, we look at each retailer’s profitability. Which ones are performing best? Which ones offer the most consistent reorder volume? By focusing on the winners, we get more bang for our buck. 3. Accurate Bookkeeping To pull this off, you need to bucket expenses correctly in your chart of accounts. If you lump everything into a single “marketing” line, you’ll never get an accurate read on which channels genuinely work for you.  I won’t pretend this approach is perfect—it’s a simplified model. But in my experience, it’s effective and actionable for most entrepreneurs. It helps them quickly see whether their D2C or retail strategy is bringing in a fair return, and it illuminates where they might need to pivot. If you’ve struggled to nail down your CAC, try breaking it up this way. You may find it’s all you need to make more intelligent marketing and sales decisions for your growing CPG brand.

Your ROAS obsession is costing you profits. I see many brands being obsessed with trying to acquire more and more new customers and looking into metrics like CPA and ROAS only... And this might be holding them back from TRUE growth! Why? Because while they are chasing new customers at a high cost (YoY advertising costs are increasing) they are ignoring two critical revenue drivers: 1️⃣ Average Order Value (AOV): getting customers to spend more per transaction. 2️⃣ Customer Retention: keeping them coming back for more. Here are some tips brands can follow in order to achieve this: 📌 Upselling and bundling: Think about Amazon’s “frequently bought together.” It works for a reason, right? 📌 Retention-driven campaigns: Build loyalty programs that reward repeat purchases. 📌 Community-building: create a space where they can feel connected and stay up-to-date. Whether it’s a private group, exclusive rewards, or even responding to UGC content. Sense of belonging & exclusivity fosters loyalty and repeat purchases. 📌 Emailing: this can be your retention powerhouse. Send value-packed content, exclusive offers, and personalized product recommendations to keep customers engaged. Please don't get me wrong. New customers are great but real profitability lies in nurturing the ones you already have. What are the strategies to increase your AOV and bring existing customers back? ---- Follow 🧎♀️➡️ Nicole Tozzo Chiarello for more tips!

We are #generalists. When faced with a problem, we can do what is needed to solve it. - Have a conversion issue? Let’s A/B test and find the fix. - Contribution margin too low? We’ll dig in and find improvements. - Email marketing not effective? Let’s segment and send targeted messaging. Generalists are effective at driving constant improvement. Generalists keep learning because they find it fun. Generalists have a holistic perspective because they understand how the pieces fit together. We solve problems. Like the esteemed Vanilla Ice. #ecommerce #amazon #shopify #digitalmarketing

“Tired of customers Googling answers YOU should be providing?" Fact: 95% of B2B buyers now use search engines to research business purchases. Don't let big retailers be seen as the experts! Product comparisons, use-case demos, troubleshooting guides specifically for your industry... this kind of content wins trust. When customers see you as THE resource, they'll come to you before searching elsewhere. Check our blog for content ideas & platforms that make it easy 👉 https://lnkd.in/eWFgvSNX #B2Bcontentmarketing #ecommercestrategy # thoughleadership