The Perspective #3

Author

Oddit Team
April 05, 2022

Welcome to the third edition of The Perspective by Oddit! 

Twice a month we send out actionable tips for creating brand-first and conversion-optimized customer experiences from the best in DTC.

In this edition 🗞:

  • Brand-first breakdown with Smpl

  • 5 questions with yo-yo master Chris Mikulin

  • Shein raises a billy

  • A playlist for inbox maintenance

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If you missed our last two editions, you can read them here! 

Brand-First Breakdown: Smpl

Smpl is a functional snack bar with superfoods, adaptogens, and nootropics for daily wellness.

We're breaking down their site and offering a couple of tweaks to make it an even better user experience and conversion machine. Let's jump in!

1. Collection page: For collection cards, creating a proper hierarchy is the name of the game

 Suggestions: 

  • Place products in rows of 2 rather than long-form cards. This makes it easier for users to explore products, and helps set content limitations. By reducing the space for each card, you are forced to simplify the information to just the necessities.

  • Always use a 1:1 aspect ratio for product images – portrait images push key content down unnecessarily and force all of these cards to be much taller than is needed.

  • All of the products in this scenario share 2 key traits – the same price, and the same quantity. Rather than calling that out on every card, simplify the experience by presenting it at the top of the collection instead.

2. Subscription page: Make sure your pricing is ALWAYS crystal clear. 

Suggestion: Does the $35 include a $10 savings, or will $10 be subtracted from this price? Because this is a subscription dedicated section we would default to the subscription (discounted) price and show the savings.

3. Product page: Ensure you include images of the physical bar

Suggestion: If you're a food brand, showing packaging PLUS what the actual product looks like can be super helpful. It doesn't need to be your feature image, but work it in throughout various points of the website. 

You want the consumer to know exactly what they're buying!  

4. Collections page: If your hover states cause parts of the card to become unreadable, they need to be updated. 

Suggestions: 

  • Add a background behind text (or at least a simple overlay) if you’re going to use a full bleed photo as a background.

  • Update hover text on the button to be black.

  • Use consistent language – make a choice between “Buy” and “Shop Now."

5. Collections page: Add more cross-sections! 

 Suggestion: Adding a few cross-sections or side-by-side cards outlining your guarantee, memberships or free shipping is a GREAT way to help convince users who aren't quite sold. 

6. Collections page: Adding FAQs to the bottom of your collections can have big benefits.  

Suggestion: FAQ content is great for SEO value while also instilling more confidence in users if they're unsure about various elements of your product. 

If you enjoyed these tips, reply to this email and let us know. We love feedback :) 

Founders Five 🖐

Founder: Chris Mikulin is the co-founder at Kulin, a brand-first performance marketing agency. 

Background: Prior to jumping into the marketing space and starting Kulin, Chris was a mechanical engineer for 9 years and the owner of a high-end yo-yo company selling millions of dollars worth of yo-yos. 

At Kulin, Chris now leads an amazing team of 18 (and growing) working with brands like Pela, Immi, Wunderkeks, and Thorn to name a few. Chris is also a Co-Founder of Oddit 👀

Question 1: You hold a degree in mechanical engineering, you were a lead mechanical engineer for 9 years at Halliburton then you jumped into the digital marketing world.

What were the events that led to the massive career shake-up?

Answer: In 2006, I started a high-end yo-yo company. It was a super niche community, but everyone connected online either through message boards or social media channels as they were getting created. For example, we were the first yo-yo company to jump on Instagram.

Over the years we sold around $2M worth of yo-yos and it was all mainly through community building, branding, and influencer marketing. I didn’t really know what influencer marketing was at the time - I was just taking cues from the skateboard industry.

Eventually, I wanted to do something new, so I figured out what my favorite things were and one of them was digital marketing. At the end of 2013, I started doing a bunch of research on how to get into this industry and that’s when I first met my business partner Cam Service. He gave me a whole bunch of tips, which led me to land a job at a local boutique agency.

I basically soaked up everything … reading blog posts, watching videos, attending conferences, joining groups, etc.

From there I fell in love with Facebook Advertising and met Andrew Foxwell and Jon Loomer. I was actually one of the first members to join the Power Hitters Club.

From 2014 to 2020 I worked my way up, moving from agency to agency. Which eventually led me to connect with Cam again in November of 2020. We were both looking for our next move, and both saw something in e-commerce. So I teamed up with Cam and his partners Taylor and Shaun, and together we created Kulin and Oddit.

In general, with Digital Marketing (especially Facebook Ads) I still feel like I’m an engineer … you use all of the same skills with problem-solving, troubleshooting, designing strategies, and optimization. I’ve honestly never felt more at home doing what I’m doing now. It’s wild how things just came together like this.

Question 2: What are three things you look for when hiring a new performance marketer on the Kulin squad?

Answer: 1. Are they able to teach themselves new things and can they speak to any examples of this.

2. Are they strong problem solvers with an ability to think quickly.

3. Are they humble and empathetic.

Question 3: You worked your way up through the ranks at a few different agencies in the paid media world for years before founding Kulin.

What are 3 things that impacted you as an employee (good or bad) that you’re always conscious of as you grow the team and manage people within the agency?

Answer: You can’t wait around for people to teach you things. If you want to learn something, go do it. Buy the webinar, get the books, read those blog posts, hire a coach, find a mentor, etc. There is so much info online that you can learn. If you want to grow in this industry you need to take charge of your own education.

Being a high performer, I found myself burning out almost every year at whatever agency I was at. I would put everything I had into my work, which was good for my career, but bad for my health and family. At most agencies I was the only digital marketer, so there was a lot I had to figure out on my own and I often felt like an island.

With Kulin, we emphasize that no one is an island. You can’t do everything on your own, which is why it’s important to collaborate.

Sometimes I wish I would have been a bit more patient instead of trying to take on everything. I missed out on a lot when my kids were young.

I’ve had a lot of horrible bosses and a couple of really good ones. It really sucked working for the bad ones, but those experiences taught me a lot about how to do things differently.

Question 4: What’s the most interesting campaign you’ve been a part of, regardless of spend, and why?

Answer: One of the most interesting campaigns I’ve ever been a part of was for Thorn.org. It’s an organization that was founded by Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore to eliminate child sexual abuse from the internet.

We managed the media plan and media buy across multiple channels to help educate kids and caregivers about the dangers of grooming and the signs to look out for.

At previous agencies, a number of us on the team worked on several behavior change campaigns, so it was super rewarding to be able to do this kind of work at Kulin where we can make an impact on the world.

Question 5: Okay…since you’re a legend and founder in the competitive Yoyo world,  what’s the most underrated Yoyo trick of all time, and the most overrated? 

Answer: It’s really difficult to say. I guess the most overrated would be when people who don’t know anything about modern yoyoing say “That’s cool, but can you walk the dog?”.

Everyone says that and it’s so unoriginal. Like okay, how about I grind my $150 metal yo-yo on the sidewalk. No thanks!

The most underrated yo-yo trick of all time would be everything Zach Gormley, the 2015 World Champion, did in his routine. It was a huge honor to sponsor him and help him get to this point.

Classifieds 🔎

✅ We’re growing like mad at Oddit and we’re looking for a junior designer & account coordinator with experience in ecomm/DTC to join our squad. 

🔵 New brands we discovered this month: Almond Cow, My Cube, Gigantic, and Moju Drinks.   

🤣 DTC Twitter is sharing the ONE marketing tool that completely changed their business. Check out the answers! 

💰 Shein, the fast fashion e-commerce company, is aiming to raise $1 billion at a valuation of $100 billion.

Bonus  

We've been putting together killer playlists for various moods. 

This month we’re releasing: music for inbox maintenance 

Give it a listen! (Only available on Spotify for now. Sorry, Apple peeps 😅)

Want your own brand-first breakdown? 🚨

Check out the solo, essential and premium reports!

We’ll boost your DTC brand guaranteed. If you don’t find any value you’ll get all your $$ back. No questions asked. 

The Perspective is written by Shaun Brandt, Taylor Davies, and Thomas Schreiber

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