đź“® Offline resurgence

Direct mail and catalogs cheaper than online clicks?

Author

Kyle Tully
December 13, 2023

Welcome to Morning Commerce!

Kyle here with another action-packed issue full of Shopify goodies:

  • Shop the window

  • Improved DMCA system

  • Run ads in AI chat experiences

  • Ads on X are more efficient and effective in Q5

  • How to train ChatGPT to write in your brand’s tone of voice

  • Catalogs and direct mail to build awareness and drive sales

  • How to meet Google and Yahoo's email sender requirements in 2024

— Kyle Tully

ACQUISITION

Catalogs and direct mail to build awareness and drive sales

With digital inboxes fast becoming a toxic wasteland of spam, irrelevant promotions, and “requests” from your “boss” to “do some work”, some brands are returning to tried and true marketing strategies like catalogs and direct mail to stand out.

These offline strategies have been largely ignored by DTC brands for the past decade thanks to cheap online marketing. But as clicks on Meta and Google properties have skyrocketed over the past few years, traditional offline marketing strategies are now in some cases cheaper than their online counterparts and are seeing a resurgence.

“If you look at CPMs and CPCs, they’re up double digits,” she said. “And with the increase in the cost of digital marketing, somehow we landed where you can send four direct mail pieces to a targeted audience for the cost of one click.”

Polly Wong

I was a freelance direct mail copywriter for many years and here are a few other things you should know about these offline strategies:

  1. They convert at a MUCH higher percentage than online.

  2. They convert in fewer touch points than online.

  3. While digital ads and emails are gone in an instant, people hold on to offline advertising from brands they like… sometimes for years. So sales will trickle in for many months after the initial campaign.

If you’re looking to break through the noise online then you might want to give offline a try. (Simple postcards are a great place to start if you’re not ready to print up an entire catalog.) Segment out your top 20% of customers and make them an offer they can’t refuse.

Run ads in AI chat experiences

Microsoft Advertising announced their Chat Ads API earlier in the year and has now announced a new partnership with Baidu Global leveraging this API.

The partnership will allow you to run ads within the Chat AI feature on the Baidu Global Keyboard. So for example, if someone is asking the AI for ideas for a birthday present for their girlfriend you could run ads on related answers that the AI provides.

This will become available in the US, Canada, United Kingdom, and Australia markets. To ensure your campaigns are eligible, make sure all your ad groups settings have “The entire Microsoft Advertising Network” selected.

Ads on X are more efficient and effective in Q5

X Business has shared data on how savvy advertisers can drive growth between now and the new year.

Q5 occurs from about mid December to mid January on X. During this time, we see reduced CPMs and cost-per-conversion as consumers shop for post-holiday deals and products to support their New Year's ambitions. Last year, X saw a 5% reduction in the average CPM and a 27% reduction in the average cost-per-conversion1.

X Business

Impressions on X across almost all categories are up during this period as people are taking time off work to spend quality time with their family’s phones.

They also shared 3 ways to take advantage of these lowered ad costs:

  1. Test Optimized Targeting which can outperform traditional targeting with an average 10% increase in click-through rates and an average 16% increase in conversion rate.

  2. Use Amplify Video to get in front of live sports video.

  3. Take advantage of vertical video, the fastest-growing surface on X.

One thing to keep in mind:

The X community notes are absolutely brutal for dropshippers, with notes regularly linking people directly to the drop ship product and letting people know they can get it for a fraction of the price elsewhere. You’ve been warned!

CONVERSION

How to train ChatGPT to write in your brand’s tone of voice

A nice little infographic and article from The Creative Marketer on how to get more out of ChatGPT:

Shop the window

If you’ve got physical stores or do the odd pop-up shop you might want to test out a “Shop the window“ call to action to grab those flighty window shoppers.

You don’t even need an app to do this. Just create a collection for your window and create a QR code that links directly to it. Boom!

Yes, we’d all like to get them to come into the store, but perhaps meeting them where they’re at would work for those who don’t have the time or would just prefer to shop in the comfort of home — something to think about.

EMAIL MARKETING

How to meet Google and Yahoo's email sender requirements in 2024

If email marketing is important to your business — and it should be — then the new sender requirements rolling out in Q1 2024 are probably the most important thing you need to check off your to-do list ASAP.

The fine folk at Klaviyo have put together a checklist to help ensure you meet the new requirements, including:

  • Remove Gmail from your friendly “from” address

  • Set up a branded sending domain

  • Set up DMARC with p=none on your root domain

  • Align your “from” address with your branded domain

  • Make it easy to unsubscribe

  • Keep spam complaints low

I know it’s techy and boring, but just do it and thank me later.

SHOPIFY NEWS

Shopify files multiple lawsuits against fraudulent DMCA claimants

Tobi Lutke shared recently they have recently filed multiple lawsuits against fraudulent DMCA takedown claimants, citing Shopify’s aggressive stance on this behaviour.

Shopify has also made big improvements in its system for dealing with DMCA takedown requests. Rather than relying on emails, it’s now managed inside Shopify. And the system itself is more robust, “we consider the claimants previous cases in order to decide what decisions to take“, says Tobi.

As someone who has witnessed first-hand an Instagram account with 30k organic followers disappear overnight thanks to fraudulent DMCA claims — taking with it a good chunk of the associated Shopify store’s revenue — I know how hurtful fake DMCA takedowns can be.

It’s awesome to see Shopify taking this issue seriously 👏

Three new Shopify updates

INSPO OF THE WEEK

I stumbled upon Kendamil this week and their animated product image in the “Why Kendamil“ section grabbed my attention. (So much so I didn’t notice the Liquid error below the headline until after I grabbed the screenshot!) I’m a big fan of using animation like this to slow the scroller down and focus attention on important sections of the page.

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