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DTC Podcast
Hosted by DTC Newsletter and Podcast · EN
Weekly discussions between disruptive direct to consumer ecommerce brands and our amazing team about marketing, funnels, and everything scaling related. Subscribe to our newsletter for highlights and step by step tactical insights 👉🏻 📦 directtoconsumer.co
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Ep 629: 85% of Your Email Revenue Comes From One Segment (And You're Ignoring It)
2d ago00:21:15Summary readySubscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signupJordan Gordon runs CRO and retention at Pilothouse and hosts TWBERP, The World's Best Email and Retention Podcast. He has audited somewhere in the range of 400 to 500 brands and been inside more Klaviyo accounts than almost anyone in DTC.In this All Killer No Filler episode he breaks down why most email programs are structurally backwards. 85% of campaign revenue comes from people who have visited your site recently, and yet most campaigns are sent to anyone who opened an email in the last 180 days. You are risking your entire sending reputation to chase the 15%.Then he gets to the good part: a flow he says he has basically never seen a brand run, and why it is the most valuable one you can build.For: ecommerce founders, retention leads, email marketers, CRO teams, agency operators.In this episode:Why free traffic is the "forever job" and paid is the spikeWhy small counts hide truths (nobody hits fold 10, but the people who do are your buyers)The 85/15 rule of campaign revenueHow brands blow up a Klaviyo account: too many campaigns, too-broad segments, and the sunset flow that sends to ten years of dead addresses in one goWhy recent repeat buyers are whales you should not over-messageCampaigns are zero-intent messages, so they can only ever be about newness or offersThe essentials core flow: triggered by site visit, not lifecycle, selling your hero SKU to people who came for something elseSending less in a margin-compressed Q4Subscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signupAdvertise on DTC - https://dtcnews.link/advertiseWork with Pilothouse - https://www.pilothouse.co/?utm_source=AKNF629Follow us on Instagram & Twitter - @dtcnewsletter
Summary
Bonus: The CTV Blueprint for DTC Brands: Build in Summer, Convert in Q4 (Paramount Ads Manager)
4d ago00:32:56Summary readySubscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signupMost DTC brands put the bulk of their paid budget where attention is thinnest. Viewers spend about 99 minutes per session on Connected TV and 8 minutes per session on social, yet only 9% of standard marketing budgets go to CTV. This episode is about closing that gap on CTV with the same measurement & targeting you get on social (starting at $7 CPMs!)Emily Huo built ad businesses at X (Twitter), Reddit, and Spotify, and now runs SMB advertising at Paramount. She walks through how a DTC brand actually gets onto Survivor, Landman, or RuPaul's Drag Race, what to spend, and how to know if it worked.Sign up for Paramount Ads Manager today. Get your brand on TV tomorrow.This episode, we get into:The seasonal play: build awareness over the summer, retarget in the fall, convert in Q4Why you start broad on targeting and let the data tell you who is really watching, not the persona you imported from MetaThe pixel setup that ties a TV impression to a site visit, a lead, or a purchaseThe geo holdout test for measuring halo effect with no third-party toolsWhy a 30-second unskippable spot changes how you tell a brand story when you are not a household name yetBudgeting: carve out 10% as experimental, expect a three-month ramp, scale from thereWho this is for: DTC founders and growth marketers who have maxed out social, anyone planning Q4 now, and operators curious whether CTV is real or just a hot label.What to steal: the install-pixel-now, build-in-summer, convert-in-Q4 sequence, and the broad-then-narrow targeting approach.Timestamps:0:00 Emily Huo's Journey to Paramount3:10 Why CTV Is Growing So Fast8:07 CTV Targeting vs Meta Ads12:14 CTV Budget & Testing Strategy23:18 Measuring the Halo EffectSubscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signupAdvertise on DTC - https://dtcnews.link/advertiseWork with Pilothouse - https://dtcnews.link/pilothouseFollow us on Instagram & Twitter - @dtcnewsletterWatch this interview on YouTube - https://dtcnews.link/video
Summary
Ep 628: How Unbound Merino Bootstrapped to Nine Figures Selling $90 T-Shirts
6d ago00:43:46Summary readySubscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signupDan bootstrapped Unbound Merino from a Reddit-fueled obsession with merino wool into a brand approaching nine figures in lifetime revenue, with a warehouse sale, a growing women's line, and zero outside funding.In his second appearance on the DTC Podcast, the Unbound co-founder gets specific about what actually moved the business over the last three years, why he almost lost 80% of his sales in a single day, and why he now cares more about the product and the friendships than any growth hack.What you'll learn:Why the ads Dan loves flop and the cringe ones scale, and how he made peace with itThe creative volume system that unlocked Meta scaling in 2023, and why Meta stopped working the same wayHow word of mouth (15% of new customers) and a 50/50 women's line changed the growth modelThe de minimis and tariff shock that nearly ended the company, and the scramble to open a Dallas warehouse before Liberation DayHow Unbound uses a custom AI wired into Shopify, its ERP, Asana, Slack, and Drive to triangulate why products get returnedWhy 5% of sales now come from ChatGPT and Claude, and what that means for discoveryWho this is for: bootstrapped founders, DTC operators, and anyone selling a premium product who is tired of renting customers from Meta.What to steal: the reorder-first mindset, the creative iteration loop, and the tariff survival playbook.Timestamps:00:00 Building a $90M travel apparel brand02:12 Scaling Meta with creative volume08:00 Why product quality beats acquisition tactics16:00 How tariffs nearly killed the business32:05 AI as a business advisor and data analystSubscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signupAdvertise on DTC - https://dtcnews.link/advertiseWork with Pilothouse - https://dtcnews.link/pilothouseFollow us on Instagram & Twitter - @dtcnewsletterWatch this interview on YouTube - https://dtcnews.link/video
Summary
Ep 627: Why Nick Shackelford's Personal Brand Saved His Cash Flow | Agency Confidential Preview
1w ago00:41:57Summary readySubscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signupThis week on All Killer No Filler, we're giving you a preview of Agency Confidential, the new podcast from our co-founder Jeff, and this episode's is a truly killer.Jeff sits down with Nick Shackelford, who's everywhere in DTC. Three agencies (Structured, Konstant, Lucid), an events business, and a decade of showing up on every feed, stage, and group chat. Jeff calls him the Coca-Cola of ecommerce. Eric calls him the Drake of DTC.But halfway through, Nick stops and shares something he says he's never told publicly. Last July, cash got tight and he had to bridge the gap on one of his companies. Not with a loan or a raise, but by getting paid as a public agency owner to talk about SaaS products. Ten years of being a face turned into a cash-flow lever almost no other owner has.Then it gets stranger. That same decade of posts and videos is now training data for every LLM on earth. Ask ChatGPT or Claude about DTC agencies and Nick, Structured, Konstant, and Geek Out all come up. A personal brand he built to win deal flow quietly became free distribution in a channel that didn't exist when he started.They get into the real cost of being the face, why building a faceless brand (like DTC and Pilothouse) trades built-in pull for durability, AI in the agency space, and why Nick thinks the market's about to splinter back into specialists.What they cover:The never-shared story of how Nick bridged a cash-flow gap in a rough monthWhy a personal brand is a lever most agency owners don't haveHow ten years of content became free distribution in AI searchThe real cost and risk of being the face of your agencyFace vs. faceless: durability, transferability, and selling the businessWhere Nick thinks the agency market is heading in 2026Who this is for: Agency owners, DTC operators, and founders weighing whether to build in public or build something that doesn't hinge on one person's face.Catch the preview here, and if you like it, go subscribe to Agency Confidential for the full episode.Timestamps:00:00 Nick Shackelford on building agencies and personal brands02:19 How Nick built three agencies and scaled operations11:59 Why AI is changing agency work and client communication27:56 How a personal brand became a business advantage39:18 Why AI will bring back specialized agenciesSubscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signupAdvertise on DTC - https://dtcnews.link/advertiseWork with Pilothouse - https://dtcnews.link/pilothousehttps://www.pilothouse.co/?utm_source=AKNF627Follow us on Instagram & Twitter - @dtcnewsletterWatch this interview on YouTube - https://dtcnews.link/video
Summary
Ep 626: How Wolfe Sells Gifting to Everyone: Top of Funnel Testing, CTV, and AI
2w ago00:36:24Summary readySubscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signupGifting is one of the biggest reasons people buy online, and most brands never build for it on purpose.Matt Heckathorn runs digital marketing at Wolfe, the company behind Gift Card Granny, PerfectGift.com, and GiftYa. His ICP is close to everyone, which kills the usual narrow-audience playbook and forces a different approach to growth.What you will learn:How a bottom-of-funnel team moved into CTV, programmatic, and out-of-home without losing measurementWhy CTV retargeting outperformed what Matt expected, and how scale made brand channels measurableHow Wolfe uses second-tier DMAs to test incrementality before spending upHow gift card fraud actually works at the physical retail level, and why it shapes the productWhere Wolfe is drawing its AI line: creative and fulfillment yes, fully agentic media buying not yetThe cost problem almost nobody is planning for as AI usage scalesWho this is for: DTC operators and growth leads working top of funnel, anyone selling into gifting, and marketers thinking through where AI fits in a real team.What to steal: The second-tier DMA incrementality test, the recipient-first product framing, and the human checkpoint on agentic media buying.Timestamps:00:00 The Future of AI in Marketing02:12 Reinventing the Gift Card Industry09:00 How Card-Linked Gifting Works15:12 Top of Funnel Messaging That Converts23:12 Building an AI-First Marketing TeamSubscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signupAdvertise on DTC - https://dtcnews.link/advertiseWork with Pilothouse - https://dtcnews.link/pilothouseFollow us on Instagram & Twitter - @dtcnewsletterWatch this interview on YouTube - https://dtcnews.link/video
Summary
Ep 625: Brand Salience for DTC: Turning Creative Into Your Targeting Layer
2w ago00:38:45Summary readySubscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signupMeta used to let you pick your customer in the backend. Those days are over. Post-Andromeda, the creative itself carries the targeting signal, which means the old spray-and-pray playbook now works against you.Rafael Gi spent a decade in traditional creative agencies, then led marketing at a nine-figure apparel brand, and now runs strategic growth and partnerships at Pilothouse. In this one he breaks down why the algorithm is forcing marketers to be good marketers again, and what that looks like in an ad account.What he gets into:Why "creative is targeting" is now literal, not a slogan, and how Meta reads your creative for who to serve it toSalience and memory structures: how brands like Volvo, Red Bull, and AG1 got remembered, and how to build the sameThe spend discrepancy that caps scaling brands: 80 percent of budget chasing 20 percent of revenueWhy structuring an ad account by product instead of by persona burns money and buries your messageThe shift from "all revenue is good revenue" to winning the customer instead of selling the productHow to evolve one message into new occasions without breaking the memory you have already builtWho this is for: DTC founders and operators between eight and nine figures who are seeing diminishing returns on creative volume and cannot figure out why more ads are not buying more growth.What to steal: the "one tank of gas, twelve cars" test for whether your budget is spread too thin, and the account-structure fix that lines your media budget up with where your revenue comes from.Timestamps:00:00 Why Meta's Andromeda Changed Marketing02:34 Creative Is the New Targeting05:55 Building Brand Salience That Lasts14:32 How to Fix Creative Strategy at Scale24:42 Applying Salience to Better Meta AdsSubscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signupAdvertise on DTC - https://dtcnews.link/advertiseWork with Pilothouse - https://www.pilothouse.co/?utm_source=AKNF625Follow us on Instagram & Twitter - @dtcnewsletterWatch this interview on YouTube - https://dtcnews.link/video
Summary
Ep 624: How Cove Soda Builds an Email and SMS List With No DTC, Trading Full Cans for Signups at Events
3w ago00:46:09Summary readySubscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signupMost list-growth advice assumes you have a website people visit. Cove Soda doesn't. They sell zero sugar soda in roughly 7,000 retail doors with no real DTC store, which means no site traffic, no purchase pop-ups, and no easy email capture.Zoe Kahn runs marketing for Cove as interim VP. In this episode she breaks down how a retail-first brand still builds a direct, owned channel, why she treats in-person events as the acquisition surface, and how she competes in a soda aisle that already has Olipop and Poppi running Super Bowl ads.What you'll get:The event tactic that grows an email and SMS list without DTC: trade a full can for an opt-inHow to segment by geography so US news goes to US fans and Canadian news goes to Canadian fansHow she picks which events to sample at, and why marketing assets in a state change the mathUsing Amazon attribution links to test creative and copy when you have no DTCA clear take on why an oversaturated category is not a reason to quitThe early-career mistake that shipped roughly 700 wrong orders, and what it taught herWho this is for: retail-first and omnichannel operators, beverage and CPG founders, retention and lifecycle marketers, and anyone who has been told they can't build a list without DTC.What to steal: the can-for-email swap at events, geographic list segmentation, and an event-selection checklist built on demographic fit and asset location.0:00 Intro3:16 Building a Canadian Brand in the US7:55 How Cove Soda Stands Out in a Crowded Market10:09 Using QR Codes to Grow Email and SMS Lists17:50 Practical AI Workflows for Marketing TeamsSubscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signupAdvertise on DTC - https://dtcnews.link/advertiseWork with Pilothouse - https://dtcnews.link/pilothouseFollow us on Instagram & Twitter - @dtcnewsletterWatch this interview on YouTube - https://dtcnews.link/video
Summary
Ep 623: Your Google Product Feed Is the Most Overlooked Lever in AI Shopping (with Pilothouse)
3w ago00:25:37Summary readySubscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signupGoogle search is changing under everyone's feet. AI overviews are eating the top of the funnel, exact match stopped being exact years ago, and shoppers now type full paragraphs instead of two keywords. Doug, who leads Google at Pilothouse, breaks down what actually came out of Google Marketing Live 2026 and what DTC operators should do about it.He runs the Google paid side for DTC brands at Pilothouse, so this is the operator read, not the press release.What you get:Why transactional shopping queries still convert while top-of-funnel search moves into AI overviewsWhat AI Max for Shopping means for how your products get matched to conversational queriesWhy your Merchant Center feed is the most undervalued performance lever you controlHow far Claude or Gemini can get you on a feed audit, and where you still need a humanWhy "keywordless" is the direction, and what targeting intent looks like nowThe measurement gap on YouTube and demand generation, and what Google is testing to close itWho this is for: DTC founders and operators running or buying Google Ads, plus anyone trying to understand AI's effect on Shopping and search.What to steal: audit your product feed before you touch anything else. Most brands copy-paste their site into the feed or rely on an automated integration and leave half the attributes empty. That is the cheap win.Timestamps:0:00 Intro1:47 Google Ads and AI Search Changes5:30 Biggest Google Marketing Live 2026 Announcements7:50 Why Google Shopping Feed Optimization Matters12:04 Why the Future of Search Is Keywordless15:45 Measuring Demand Generation on YouTubeSubscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signupAdvertise on DTC - https://dtcnews.link/advertiseWork with Pilothouse - https://www.pilothouse.co/?utm_source=AKNF623Follow us on Instagram & Twitter - @dtcnewsletterWatch this interview on YouTube - https://dtcnews.link/video
Summary
Ep 622: How Outway Runs Canada and the US as Two Separate Businesses
4w ago00:42:52Summary readyMost brands expand into the US and treat it like the same business with a different shipping label. Outway learned it is not.Taylor Fraser is the Chief Growth Officer at Outway, the Canadian performance sock brand. In this episode he breaks down why Outway now runs Canada and the US as two distinct businesses, why he dropped retargeting on Meta entirely, and why a sub eight-figure brand cannot optimize its website to growth.What you'll learn:Why Outway swapped the CMO role for a Chief Growth Officer and split growth into performance, retention, and e-commerceWhy Canadian and US customers buy so differently, and how Outway split the two businesses on the backend and frontendWhy the team runs no retargeting and lets the algorithm handle itWhy simple store-wide discounts beat clever BOGO offers, and why the mystery pair became a "golden handcuffs" attachWhy you cannot CRO your way to growth under a certain revenue line, and what to do insteadWhy Outway rides external moments like Mother's Day and Prime Day instead of manufacturing its own salesHow the team uses AI daily for reporting, data pulls, and custom dashboardsWho this is for: DTC operators, growth and performance marketers, and founders selling across more than one country.What to steal: the two-businesses framework for cross-border selling, and the decision to stop manufacturing fake sales and ride moments customers already care about.Timestamps:00:00 Meta Doesn't Need Retargeting Campaigns13:06 How Andromeda Changed Meta Ads18:11 The Creative Volume Debate21:08 Why Scaling in the U.S. Is Harder Than Canada35:20 Why More Ads Beat CRO for GrowthSubscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signupAdvertise on DTC - https://dtcnews.link/advertiseWork with Pilothouse - https://dtcnews.link/pilothouseFollow us on Instagram & Twitter - @dtcnewsletterWatch this interview on YouTube - https://dtcnews.link/video
Summary
Ep 621: Anything is possible now – The AI Creative Stack
Jun 1900:17:28Summary readySubscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signupBraydon from Pilothouse joins for a fast AI check-in on what the team is actually shipping right now. Not theory. The exact tools, prompts, and workflows behind their current creative output.If you run growth or creative at a DTC brand or agency, this is a look at how one team is collapsing production time on landing pages, video ads, and founder content using AI.The sub-agent "council" prompt: rewrite a landing page eight ways, with each sub-agent playing a role (copywriter, CEO, customer, CRO expert), then have the council rate the versions and a final decision maker pick the winner.How to keep Claude fast on long projects: ask the chat to summarize itself into a markdown file, then carry that into a fresh chat instead of letting one thread balloon.Higgsfield as a model aggregator: one place to run VO3, Kling, ElevenLabs, and image models, with one-click image-to-video and multiple aspect ratios.The founder avatar workflow: build a 30-second explainer with B-roll and slow zooms, clone the founder's voice in ElevenLabs, and ship it the same afternoon.Why Braydon leans into obviously-AI creative (claymation, Pixar-style) instead of trying to pass synthetic people as real.How Meta's Andromeda rewards ads that improve the scroll, and why social boosting organic winners is finding new scale.Who this is for:DTC operators, growth marketers, and agency creative leads who want a current, practical AI workflow rather than a hype reel.What to steal:The sub-agent council prompt, the Higgsfield image-to-video and voice-clone pipeline, and the social boosting approach to finding ad winners.Timestamps:00:29 Fable AI and One-Shot Development06:54 Higgsfield for AI Creative Production10:33 New AI Advertising Disclosure Rules13:15 AI Search, SEO, and Answer Engines14:33 How Andromeda Rewards Better Ad ExperiencesSubscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signupAdvertise on DTC - https://dtcnews.link/advertiseWork with Pilothouse - https://www.pilothouse.co/?utm_source=AKNF621Follow us on Instagram & Twitter - @dtcnewsletterWatch this interview on YouTube - https://dtcnews.link/video
Summary