Mark A. Samuel’s Post

View profile for Mark A. Samuel

Founder and CEO at IWON Organics | Health and Wellness

You can have a profitable DTC strategy. Here's a quick take... It's OK to lose money to acquire a customer. But you have to build out a financial metric that shows when that customer will be a profit center. If you don't, and you're just spending aimlessly to hear the cash register on your Shopify account "ring," you'll be in a world of trouble. Some quick-fire items... - If you don't have returning customers, it won't work. - If you don't know if you have returning customers, it won't work. - If you don't know how much you spend to acquire a customer, it won't work. - If you aren't testing different ads, emails and funnel strategies, it won't work. - If you don't have the right person helping you, it won't work. - If you don't know your numbers, it won't work. DTC is getting thrown around a lot. Don't get sucked into the hype. It's a unique channel, one that needs to be taken serious. In short... Understand DTC to its core. All pieces. And know your numbers. I hope that helps. #dtc #sales #cpg

Katherine Harvey

Cofounder & CEO of Bare Bones

3y

All. Of. This. We did our share of stumbling around, and have learned all of this the hard way. Keep sharing these insights, the industry needs them.

Bryan Corbett

VP, Supply Chain Executive @ Barrett Distribution | Sales | Marketing | Business Development | eCommerce | Omnichannel | Transportation & Small Parcel | DTC SME | 3PL Contract Logistics | Ex-Founder

3y

And don't forget, partnering with the right 3PL Mark A. Samuel ;).. especially one who won't hide your true costs in line items fees.

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Tom Enns

Graduate from spreadsheets to Bigquery | SQL | Bigquery | APIs | DBT | Looker | Auto-analyze all your data sources in one place.

3y

Build a data pipeline to track the LTV of the customer back to the original ad spend and ad creative (or email).

Raman V Nathan

Helping to get jobs done faster, better and easier with Gen AI, LLMs, high quality data, advanced analytics, AI/ML, data engineering tools and platforms, Loves to catch up with friends, alums for some good laughs.

3y

Completely agree on customer metrics. One good thing about DTC is that DTC data (with repeat customers) can also be used to show unique consumer profile or insights to retail category managers. Additionally, if possible one can show a strong local uptake, so you can launch new products quickly and use this channel to enter into retail store shelves faster. Plus now we have a whole DoorDash like companies also helping consumers order snacks as well. Arshad Bahl

Chloe Addis

Head of Marketing | B2B Technology

3y

Thanks Mark, some really great points. Invest in reliable data to understand what results are expected before throwing money at it

Lynn Cude

Sr. Leader, Business Development & Sales | Leading Digital Strategy, Broadcast, Podcasts and Marketing Campaigns.

3y

Nailed it!

big fan of subscriptions. Makes the most sense, cuts through the noise, you can find your tribe.

Suzie Yorke

CEO of FourX Better Chocolates, CMO, Board member, 11X Ironman Finisher; 🏳️🌈 Founder of Award-Winning Love Good Fats: $100mil in Rev. in 3 years. Speaker; Women and LGBT+ Business Advocate; Marketing Executive

3y

love love this post Mark - so timely too!! Keep on posting my friend.. I read every one... send many of them along and most of them, make me smile and give me good ideas! xoxo

Casey Plachek

Head of Supply Chain at Wuffes

3y

Can we PLEASE open a clubhouse chat on the above topic?!

👉 Will Laurenson

CRO for eCom brands - turning traffic into customers using "The U.A.M Method"

3y

Love ALL of the above. So many brands rely on paid ads to acquire new but neglect existing customers. Repurchase is earned, not given.

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