The Only "Creative Strategy" Newsletter You Need To Read This Weekend

Hey there,

Welcome back for another bite to chew on.

We hope you’re having a great weekend with your loved ones, and are ready to take the week by storm!

We get asked a lot about how we are planning to go about running Coffee over Cardio and how we are going to take the brand off the ground. 

Now… of course - we can't cover all of this in one newsletter.

Because you’d probably stop reading halfway through.

So instead - we're going to split it up into multiple newsletters. 

In today's newsletter, we'll give you a sneak peek into the creative strategy behind Coffee Over Cardio - and how we're going to nail the "paid ads" piece.

Why? 

Because - a lot of DTC brands overcomplicate their creative strategy & process 

… but, it doesn't have to be that way.

All you need is some solid frameworks, processes, and a few helping hands.

But… before we dive into that - we have two things to share with you:

1). We recently launched a new podcast series called Chew On CRO. Together with Ned Macpherson, founder of Endrock - a boutique CRO agency, we’ll teach you battle-tested CRO lesson from hundreds of the leading DTC brands. Listen to the first episode HERE

2). On the 9th of November, we’re hosting an event in LA with over 140 founders and over $1 billion worth of sales in ONE single room. Go HERE to get on the list for the LA event. If you want to sign up for any of our other events - go HERE

Now, without further ado - let's dive straight into it! 

The boring work…. getting insights from customer reviews

We've talked a lot about going through customer reviews before… 

And yes - we know it's extremely boring once you get past the 100th review. 

But guess what… that's where the real golden nuggets lie.

Going through these allows you to understand your customers on a deeper level, and thereby making your ads more efficient.

Why?

Because no one likes a product that's being shoved down their throats with "value-props" which doesn't resonate with them.

… and unfortunately - that's how most ads from DTC brands are

Instead - what customers are looking for is: 

• Brands that truly understand the problems they are going through… 

• Brands that are dedicated to building products that solve those specific problems 

• Brands that understand how to communicate their solution using the "language" of the customer

That's ultimately what consumers want. 

They want solutions to their problems communicated in a simple way that helps them make sure that they're actually making the right decision.

If you do this, your ads will automatically convert at a higher rate than before.

Likewise - Consumers don't like being "talked at" but like being "talked to".

So, your focus needs to be on how you can achieve this

Now, you may be asking, "HOW?"

… and that's where these reviews, ad comments and community posts come in.

But don't worry… 

We're not asking you to read through every single review one by one. 

Instead - what we recommend you do is; 

- Read 100-200 of them so YOU can internalize and understand how your customers speak.

- Download a CSV with all the reviews and upload it to ChatGPT

- Get ChatGPT to perform an analysis of the most frequent words used, most frequent problems, etc.

Now - another reason why we spend so much time reading reviews is because it helps us come up with better angles faster. 

Consumers buy for a variety of different reasons… even if they have the same "overall" problem. 

… and therefore - one of the highest leverage activities you can do (especially with a newer brand) is angle testing. 

Here are some of the angles we're testing at Coffee Over Cardio as of right now

• Us vs. Them

  • Coffee Vs. Energy Drinks

  • Coffee Vs. Matcha

  • Coffee Vs. Tea

  • Etc…

• Health angle

  • Example of headline: Need a memory boost?

  • Example of headline: Memory boost in a cup

  • Example of headline: Get healthy energy for 0 calories

• Mood Boost

  • Example of headline: When a Pick-Me-up is needed, coffee gives the best hugs

  • Example of headline: Coffee. Adulting Made Easier

  • Example of headline: Coffee. Making People Bareable Again

• Energy angle

  • Example of headline: It’s always Coffee O Clock

• Premium Flavor angle

  • Example of headline: Don't Settle for Bland when we have the Flavor!

  • Example of headline: We have the Flavors Others Wish They Had

Diversifying the creative mix

Now - after we've tested our initial batch of "angles" and (hopefully) found one or more winning angles…

It's time to double down. 

And the way you double down on a winning angle is by diversifying the creative mix around that angle. 

Meaning…

• You create polished video ads for that angle

• You create lo-fi video ads for that angle

• You create polished statics for that angle

• You create lo-fi statics for that angle

And then you see what sticks and what doesn't. 

Plain and simple. No need to overcomplicate it more than this. 

Create a well-coordinated testing plan, stick to it, find the winners, and double down on those.

Test tracking

Now… 

Testing ads is one thing. 

Understanding what creatives work is another thing

But… 

Documenting the learnings from each test and making them a company "asset" is something I see media buyers neglect a lot. 

Heck - I even used to neglect this a lot too (until quite recently actually)

When you're testing A LOT, and you're testing FAST - the worst thing you can do is NOT remembering to document the results of the test

Why? 

Because - if it's all in your head and based on your gut intuition, a few things can happen; 

A) You can forget what tests you've already run and not run over the span of a few months or years - and therefore, YOU might start testing something that's already been tested 

or… 

B) You hire someone to fill your job, and then they start testing everything that you have already tested - thus wasting time AND money… again

To avoid this - we're tracking all of our tests in a testing sheet like the one shown below (Download a copy of the sheet + 5 other FREE resources HERE)

Essentially - the metrics we're tracking in this sheet are;

• Start date

• End Date

• Status

• Link - If Started

• Label / Name

• What is being changed from Baseline?

• Angle / Unique Differentiation

• Hypothesis Rational

• Impact Scale

• Traffic Split

• Traffic to Baseline

• Traffic to conquerer

• CVR% on Baseline

• CVR% on Conquerer

• Revenue Per User - Baseline

• Revenue Per User - Conquerer

• If winner;

  • Has the test been implemented

  • If no, Expectected implementation date

Tool of the week

One of the biggest mistakes we’ve made with Obvi, that we WILL NOT do with Coffee Over Cardio and Paw Rangers - is being too slow with internationalizing.

Here’s why

Although the US alone is a big enough market to sell for A TON of money - there’s no escaping that it’s also one of the most expensive & competitive countries to advertise in. 

… and therefore - it can be pretty damn hard to find good profitability in some of the very saturated industries such as apparel & supplements. 

But…

What if we told you that you can slash your CAC by 30-40%, WITHOUT making the biggest changes to your store, your ads, or your 3PL.

Would be pretty sick, right?

Well - it actually is very possible.

We’ve done this at Obvi with the help of OpenBorder.

OpenBorder helps you with everything from international logistics to price conversion on websites, and even global advertising strategy.

International sales currently make up over 40% of our total sales - and we’re approximately 30% more efficient internationally than domestically.

So - if you want to start selling globally, we definitely recommend you to reach out to Darwish Gani & Openborder

PS: Darwish is also the founder of a well-known, 9-figure DTC brand called Lumin. So he knows a thing or two about the game ;)

#ProudPartner

Thanks for reading along

As always, we appreciate you taking the time to read this. We hope we were able to provide some value to you and look forward to serving you again on Wednesday.

All the best,

Ron and Ash