1. “When you find good people keep them close, even if you don’t know yet how you might work with them.” #littlerituals #DTCPOD
2. “Once you take venture capital funding, the pressure to grow is on and you have to commit to a certain timeline for growing, a certain rate of growth, and a certain rate of spend.” #littlerituals #DTCPOD
3. “Even if your unit economics don’t show growth right now, there has to be reason to believe at scale you will get there.” #littlerituals #DTCPOD
4. “You have to have some sort of content strategy to keep your community engaged and some sort of community strategy to bring people together around your brand.” #littlerituals #DTCPOD
5. “In the early days, storytelling is everything, even if you don’t have a strong business yet.” #littlerituals #DTCPOD

We Speak About:

• [01:05] About Sonia and her background
• [03:05] Why Sonia made the transition to founder from investor
• [04:05] What Sonia is building at Little Rituals and what the product stands for
• [05:30] Learnings as an investor that Sonia is bringing to Little Rituals
• [09:55] How Sonia’s experience in tech has helped her build Little Rituals
• [11:45] As an investor, Sonia shares what founders often miss
• [13:45] Indicators for brand success that Sonia looks for
• [17:00] How Sonia determines whether a brand will make it or break it
• [18:45] How Sonia is making sure Little Rituals has a compelling growth story
• [19:50] Sonia’s most creative brand strategies she’s seen
• [21:30] How to handle being out of stock and avoid missed revenue
• [24:40] Sonia’s advice to brands trying to raise funding
• [27:20] Common challenges Sonia sees and how to get over them
• [30:05] What’s next for Little Rituals

We spoke to a former investor now turned founder to learn what makes brands grow

Sonia Nagar, founder of Little Rituals, joins the POD to talk about her experience as a former brand investor and now current founder.

Little Rituals offers organic caffeine-free teas and vegan vitamins for little ones (kids) to learn emotional and social skills.

Before founding Little Rituals, Sonia had experience in the tech industry and was last an investor for brands at a venture capital firm.

During her time as an investor, Sonia learned what brands that win do well and some of the pitfalls brands face.

During the early stages of a brand, storytelling and the ability to acquire customers outside of performance marketing are huge.

Ads should not be your sole acquisition strategy. This expense usually increases as your brand grows so it can make it difficult to grow if you rely on ads too much.

Investment shouldn’t always be your first strategy

Bootstrapping is a great way to grow a DTC or CPG business. Actually, it’s preferred.

The more you can hold off on outside investment, the more you can prove out your business and the more of your business you get to keep.

It’s very easy to start a store with Shopify today. With so many plugins too, try to build as much as you can on your own before raising money or spending.

Once you start growing, be on the lookout for your performance in key metrics like LTV, CAC, unit economics, organic acquisition, and ROAS.

Stay tuned as Sonia shares with us what founders often miss, how she determines whether a brand will be a success, and more.

If you’d like to learn more about Trend and our influencer marketing platform for influencers and brands visit trend.io. You can also follow us for tips on growing your following and running successful campaigns on Instagram and LinkedIn.

Mentioned Links:

Little Rituals’  website: https://www.littleritualskids.com/

Little Rituals’ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/littleritualskids/

Sonia’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sonias3/

1. “If you want to get even more mileage out of influencer and creator partnerships, you should try whitelisting and dark posting.” @jadesai94 #DTCPOD
2. “Return on ad spend can go up by 20% when using whitelisting and dark posting.” @jadesai94 #DTCPOD
3. “A big benefit of whitelisting and dark posting is that you are essentially adding new audiences you can use in ads.” @jadesai94 #DTCPOD
4. “Receiving access to an influencer’s business manager on Facebook also allows you to create lookalike audiences from their existing audience.” @jadesai94 #DTCPOD
5. “You want to run a campaign with 10, 20, or even 30 influencers and creators so you can get a good idea on what content performs best organically.” @jadesai94 #DTCPOD

We Speak About:

• [01:05] What is influencer whitelisting
• [02:00] What is influencer dark posting
• [03:15] Why to do whitelisting and dark posting
• [05:30] How to convince influencers and creators to whitelisting and dark posting
• [05:45] How whitelisting and dark posting allows you to build new audiences in ads
• [07:30] How to set up influencer whitelisting and dark posting (for influencers + brands)
• [10:05] Incentives to offer influencers and creators for whitelisting and dark posting
• [10:45] How to pick the best content to whitelist
• [13:00] How to pick the best content for dark posting
• [13:40] One of the best ways to use dark posting to generate ROI

Everything you need to know about influencer whitelisting and dark posting

Whitelisting and dark posting can be a great way to get extra mileage out of your content. It allows you to run ads with influencer content through an influencer’s account.

Instagram users can see someone else’s post for about 24-48 hours in their organic feed. For stories, it’s only 24 hours. Once a post is gone from the organic feed, it’s doesn’t receive very many views.

You need a strategy in place to maximize the dollars you spend on influencer marketing. That’s where whitelisting and dark posting comes in.

Working with an influencer’s business account on Facebook also gives brands access to their audience. This allows brands to create lookalike audiences from creator accounts on Instagram.

Before you get started with whitelisting though, you need to get the creator to agree to do it. There are a few different offers you can make focused on exposure and money.

Stay tuned as we cover how to get your whitelisting and dark posting set up, how to help influencers set up their Facebook business manager, and how to pick the best content for this.

If you’d like to learn more about Trend and our influencer marketing platform for influencers and brands visit trend.io. You can also follow us for tips on growing your following and running successful campaigns on Instagram and LinkedIn.

Mentioned Links:

Guide on how to set up whitelisting (for influencers and brands): https://www.lumanu.com/post/how-to-guide-influencer-whitelisting

1. “The most important thing for digitally native brands is that they stand for something beyond just the product.” #theverticale #DTCPOD
2. “People don’t want to just buy stuff they want to feel like they are a part of something and feel a connection.” #theverticale #DTCPOD
3. “We really want to be an authentic third-party voice that customers can trust and trust purchasing from.” #theverticale #DTCPOD
4. “Every single brand we work with we want to make sure we’re providing value back to them.” #theverticale #DTCPOD
5. “While most consumers are excited about purchasing from DNVBs, they really need a simplified shopping experience to be more willing to purchase.” #theverticale #DTCPOD

We Speak About:

• [01:20] About The Verticale  
• [02:15] About Jaclyn, the CEO of The Verticale
• [02:50] About Michelle, the COO of The Verticale
• [04:05] DNVB vs DTC
• [05:25] The characteristics of vertical eCommerce vs other eCommerce
• [07:15] What makes a strong brand according to The Verticale
• [09:50] How The Verticale works with brands to tell their story
• [10:50] The Verticale value set
• [12:10] How The Verticale is creating customer trust 
• [14:05] What type of brands The Verticale works with
• [16:30] How The Verticale vets brands
• [19:10] Why Jaclyn and Michelle are building The Verticale
• [21:15] Why it’s getting tougher and more expensive to build brand equity
• [22:30] What Jaclyn learned about consumer habits after talking to 200 shoppers
• [25:20] The broken process of product discovery
• [27:10] What’s next for The Verticale

This DNVB marketplace is changing the consumer product discovery process

The Verticale co-founders Jaclyn Grauman and Michelle Silverstein join the DTC POD. We are talking about how the consumer discovery process is broken and how The Verticale is fixing it.

As the number of eCommerce brands increases, it’s becoming more difficult for consumers to remember and decide where to buy.

Trust for new brands is low and the total number of brands makes it difficult for consumers to remember when to buy.

You might be shopping on Instagram and come across hundreds of products. Those brands are not vetted and it may take you hours to find a decent product. Even after you purchase what you think is a good product, you may receive the product and find out it’s not as good as expected.

Finding great, mission-driven brands shouldn’t be a chore

The Verticale is hoping to cut through all the brand noise. Even though there are a lot of bad products on the market, there are still a lot of strong, mission-driven brands.

The mission-driven brands usually deliver well on product quality. Also, they usually have a strong brand story that is reflected in the product.

The Verticale is attempting to put these mission-driven brands and products together. They want to make it easier for the consumer to find great DNVB and DTC products.

The burden of finding whether a product or brand is good shouldn’t be on the consumer.

Stay tuned as The Verticale founders discuss their vetting process for brands, how they are improving consumer trust, and how to get ahead of rising acquisition costs.

If you’d like to learn more about Trend and our influencer marketing platform for influencers and brands visit trend.io. You can also follow us for tips on growing your following and running successful campaigns on Instagram and LinkedIn. 

Mentioned Links:

The Verticale’s marketplace:  https://shop.theverticale.com/

The Verticale’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theverticale/

1. “If you’re sourcing and creating high-quality user-generated or influencer-generated content, throw it on your product page.” @jadesai94 #DTCPOD
2. “Using Trend can help guarantee that your brand consistently generates high-quality custom brand content.” @jadesai94 #DTCPOD
3. “You don’t always have to talk about product features. In fact, you should try to sell benefits or outcomes whenever possible.” @jadesai94 #DTCPOD
4. “Sprinkling in things like an FAQ or upsell opportunity can not only help seal the deal for a customer but can also increase average order value.” @jadesai94 #DTCPOD
5. “If you have a product page you would like us to teardown, email [email protected].” @jadesai94 #DTCPOD

We Speak About:

• [01:25] What Everbrand is doing differently with stock content
• [01:55] How Everbrand uses UGC and IGC on their product page
• [02:45] What Everbrand uses in addition to stock and custom brand content
• [03:20] What is Everbrand’s site is built on
• [03:50] How Everbrand displays product reviews
• [04:25] How Everbrand communicates value to consumers on their product page
• [05:20] What Everbrand is doing to visually communicate product benefits
• [06:10] The CTA you need to add to your product page
• [06:50] How Everbrand is improving their product page with Instagram content
• [07:30] What Everbrand is doing to answer questions without support tickets
• [08:30] How Everbrand creates a strong connection with shoppers

We’re tearing down one of the most complete DTC product pages we’ve ever seen

Everbrand is an eCommerce brand Trend customer with one of the best product pages we have seen.

Their product page includes great stock content, user-generated content, helpful information about the product, and more.

We decided to breakdown the elements on Everbrand’s SweatFlow Legging page that make it one of the more complete product pages we’ve seen.

This page does a great job selling benefits, adding upsell opportunities, and answering questions that shoppers may have.

Stay tuned as we breakdown the different types of content Everbrand has on its product page and how you can copy it.

If you’d like to learn more about Trend and our influencer marketing platform for influencers and brands visit trend.io. You can also follow us for tips on growing your following and running successful campaigns on Instagram and LinkedIn.

Mentioned Links:

Everbrand’s website: https://everbrand.us/

Everbrand’s SweatFlow Legging product page: https://everbrand.us/products/the-sweatflow-legging-v2

1. “I remember walking the halls of EXPO West and not really seeing any multicultural food brands. That was my ‘aha’ moment to build this brand.” @jennygao #DTCPOD
2. “I spent years sourcing the best quality ingredients all across China for my restaurants, my private dining concept, and knew that great flavors were universal.” @jennygao #DTCPOD
3. “The fact that we small-batch craft the sauces in my hometown and we use extremely specific ingredients helps set our product apart.” @jennygao #DTCPOD
4. “We decided to switch to pre-orders when we ran out of inventory and were clear in communicating when customers could expect their product.” @jennygao #DTCPOD
5. “When we had to change out supply chain from China to the US because of COVID, I actually encountered some of the same challenges I had overseas.” @jennygao #DTCPOD

We Speak About:

• [01:15] About Fly By Jing and Jing before she started her business
• [03:40] How Fly By Jing got its start
• [06:45] Why Jing decided to go the CPG route
• [09:00] How Jing used Kickstarter to fuel her business
• [10:00] How Jing was able to bridge the missing gap of high-quality Chinese products
• [11:40] Challenges Jing faced bringing high-quality products from China to the market
• [12:20] Jing talks about her brand’s moat
• [13:30] How Jing was able to scale her product
• [15:30] Jing discusses how she handled demand from her Kickstarter
• [18:30] Why Jing saw a demand increase at the beginning of COVID
• [21:30] How to handle being out of stock and avoid missed revenue
• [24:20] How Jing dealt with supply chain issues overseas due to COVID
• [27:05] Jing’s advice for other founders
• [30:20] Who and what inspires Jing
• [32:35] What’s next for Fly By Jing

Smart founders find market gaps and capitalize on them

Jing Gao, founder & CEO of Fly By Jing, joins the POD to talk about importing products and dealing with increased demand.

Fly By Jing is  a brand that brings the deep and complex flavors of China to the world through artisanal food products.

Jing’s “aha” moment into the CPG space started with a visit to the EXPO West conference. During the conference, Jing realized how underrepresented multicultural brands were.

Before Jing started Fly By Jing, she had experience in creating restaurants. Using her experience, her motivation to bring an Chinese CPG product to the US market, and her understanding of Chinese flavors, Jing created Fly By Jing.

Ever since the beginning, Jing wanted to make sure she was bringing authentic flavors to the market. For Jing, that meant using a supply chain solely based out of China.

It was a challenge to manufacture the product overseas but Jing knew doing so would help achieve her goal of creating a superior product.

Sometimes, external factors can still derail a great product

Although Jing had found her moat, external factors challenged business growth.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Jing’s supply chain hit a snag. She had to quickly pivot and meet orders that had already been placed.

To add presure, marketing efforts pre-COVID were finally starting to pay off. Jing had a ton of demand on hand but not as much supply.

Jing was able to shift manufacturing temporarily to the US to deal with increased demand. She also did a great job managing expectations and creating a pre-order process on her site.

Even with the state of the world in flux, Jing was able to meet her orders and have very little cancellations.

Stay tuned as Jing covers how she built demand for her product, how she leveraged Kickstarter, and how she solved challenges bringing in a product from overseas.

If you’d like to learn more about Trend and our influencer marketing platform for influencers and brands visit trend.io. You can also follow us for tips on growing your following and running successful campaigns on Instagram and LinkedIn.

Mentioned Links:

Jing’s article on what she learned from making hot sauce at scale: https://medium.com/s/story/what-i-learned-from-making-hot-sauce-at-scale-2cbb8ec709ba

Jing’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/jennygao

Fly By Jing’s website: https://www.flybyjing.com/

Fly By Jing’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/flybyjing/

1. “Black Friday sales in the US have increased by over $1B every year since 2017.” @jadesai94 #DTCPOD
2. “Let consumers know when your deals are so they don’t have any reason to hesitate on purchase and holdout for a better deal” @jadesai94 #DTCPOD
3. “Discount bundles can help you get rid of slow-moving stock, allow consumers to sample less popular offers, and increase AOV.” @jadesai94 #DTCPOD
4. “Don’t run the same deal on Black Friday through Cyber Monday. If consumers miss out on a deal, offer the discount through a support ticket.” @jadesai94 #DTCPOD
5. “Performance marketing shouldn’t be your only way to promote BFCM deals.” @jadesai94 #DTCPOD

We Speak About:

• [01:35] Why this Black Friday is even more important than ever for DTC
• [02:20] How and when to reveal BFCM deals to your email list
• [03:35] The deal you should run on Black Friday
• [05:55] The deals you should run on the BFCM weekend
• [07:20] The deal you should run on Cyber Monday
• [10:00] What to do with discount popups for BFCM
• [10:20] How you can build even more rapport with customers
• [11:20] What kind of new products can you launch for BFCM
• [11:40] Are landing pages important for BFCM?
• [13:00] How to promote BFCM deals outside of performance marketing

Don’t miss these BFCM tips by Nik Sharma, Privy, and others

We’re recapping some tips for Black Friday and Cyber Monday that eCommerce and DTC experts like Nik Sharma and Privy have shared.

This year’s BFCM sales for eCommerce are going to be the highest yet.

More shoppers than ever are expected to buy online this BFCM due to the pandemic. Also, Black Friday sales in the US have increased by $1B every year since 2017.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday aren’t just about the offer you present. It’s also about how you present the offer.

You need to make your offer clear and make sure to not run it at the expense of your business.

You also need to make sure you are attacking BFCM outside of just performance marketing and email marketing. Those two channels are great but don’t forget about the value of other channels like influencer marketing.

Stay tuned as we unpack how to make your offer for BFCM standout, what deals you should run, answer whether you should use a landing page, and more.

If you’d like to learn more about Trend and our influencer marketing platform for influencers and brands visit trend.io. You can also follow us for tips on growing your following and running successful campaigns on Instagram and LinkedIn.

Mentioned Links:

Nik Sharma’s Masterclass on BFCM: https://www.privy.com/masterclass/video/bfcm-with-nik-sharma

Tips from eCommerce and DTC experts for BFCM: https://unbounce.com/campaign-strategy/black-friday-tips-more-online-sales

Nik Sharma’s email list: https://sharma.ck.page/

1. “To get meaningful results from focus groups in CPG, you need to know who your target customer is, conduct blind product testing, and A/B test.” @aishacee #DTCPOD
2. “The amount of product research you need to conduct is going to depend on your industry and your experience in your space.” @aishacee #DTCPOD
3. “We waited until feedback said 90% of our customers loved our product and found it useful before deciding to launch.” @aishacee #DTCPOD
4. “When customers share their thoughts over email, I’ll often jump on the phone with them to better understand what they think about the product.” @aishacee #DTCPOD
5. “Get feedback on your product that helps you understand how your product makes customers feel and what is the use-case.” @aishacee #DTCPOD

We Speak About:

• [01:00] About Moment  
• [03:40] How Aisha got into the beverage industry
• [05:00] How Aisha’s last job at McKinsey & Company shaped Moment
• [06:15] How Aisha shaves product costs
• [08:00] Aisha’s process for collecting customer feedback
• [11:55] How Moment landed on its final flavors to go to market 
• [14:30] Aisha’s advice for how much product feedback you should collect
• [18:00] How Aisha came to the decision to stop collecting feedback and launch
• [20:15] Where Moment conducted its pre-launch feedback
• [20:50] How Aisha is collecting feedback post-launch
• [23:00] Aisha shares 3 key tips for collecting feedback
• [24:55] Who Aisha looks to for inspiration
• [26:35] Aisha’s advice for other founders
• [28:25] What’s next for Moment

Useful product feedback starts with having a clear understanding of your target customer

Aisha Chottani, co-founder of Moment, joins the POD to talk about product feedback. Moment is a natural botanical beverage.

The idea of Moment came as a result of Aisha’s own experiences. As an employee of McKinsey & Company, the constant work made Aisha crave a beverage that could help provide relaxation.

Before launching Moment, Aisha and her co-founder spent about 2 years conducting product research and feedback.

Aisha spent much of that time trying to understand who her target customer was, what their taste preferences were, and what kind of beverages were they looking for.

Being on top of current trends and taste preferences is extremely important when building a CPG product.

Aisha’s experience at McKinsey & Company allowed her to conduct great product research and ultimately land on the three flavors that now make up Moment.

They tested many different combinations and conducted many focus groups (closed and open) to really understand what their target customer was looking for.

Product feedback doesn’t just stop at pre-launch

Aisha credit continuous product feedback as a reason Moment has been successful.

Even after launch, Aisha sends out product surveys, responds to DMs, and is active on email.

Occasionally, she will even ask customers who respond via email to hop on a call for more product feedback.

It’s important to know what your customers like about your product and maybe even more important to understand what they DON’T like.

You need to have an ongoing feedback loop to help drive your product forward and have mass appeal.

Stay tuned as Aisha also gives three key tips for collecting feedback, answers how much product feedback you should get, and shares when you should launch your product.

If you’d like to learn more about Trend and our influencer marketing platform for influencers and brands visit trend.io. You can also follow us for tips on growing your following and running successful campaigns on Instagram and LinkedIn.

Mentioned Links:

Moment’s website: https://drinkmoment.com/

Moment’s Instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/drinkmoment/

Moment’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCM9ICwTJLSjTrHa9lUEmmgA

Connect with Aisha: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aishacee/

1. “The recovery rate for cart abandonment is almost 2.5x greater using texts than email.” @yotpo #DTCPOD
2. “If you don’t have brand right, you’re going to be starting with a rocky foundation. Make sure to do this in-house and don’t outsource it.” @jjeremycai #DTCPOD
3. “Having a clean list has helped us get really high open-rates. We automatically unsubscribe anyone who hasn’t engaged with an email in 120 days.” @nomadgoods #DTCPOD
4. “Take things from culture that already exist and put them into your brand.” @DeeCharlemagne #DTCPOD
5. “Every time we make another run of limited-edition cans we test something new in the process - content, email, new way of launching it.” @uglyhugh #DTCPOD

We Speak About:

• [01:35] What we learned about SMS marketing from Yotpo
• [03:35] What we learned from Jeremy Cai, founder of Italic, on getting brand right
• [04:00] How NOMAD gets 70% open-rates on emails
• [06:00] How AVEC taught us to tell a better brand story
• [07:25] What learned from Ugly Drinks about how to test better

Here are 5 great tips for eCommerce and DTC from some of the smartest founders and marketers

We’re recapping five of our favorite tips from some of our most recent guests.

These actionable tips are definitely worth their weight in gold.

We have brought on a lot of great marketers and founders recently. As result, we have expanded our knowledge of eCommerce and DTC.

They have shared great actionable tips that brands in eCommerce and direct to consumer can use right now to help grow their business.

The tips span from SMS marketing to email marketing to brand storytelling and more.

You will find some of the best tips in the quotes above. This recap also includes two tips from some of the guests featured in this episode.

These tips are must-follows for brands. We highly recommend implementing all of the tips mentioned in the episode.

If you’d like to learn more about Trend and our influencer marketing platform for influencers and brands visit trend.io. You can also follow us for tips on growing your following and running successful campaigns on Instagram and LinkedIn.

1. “For a brand that’s sub-$10M in revenue, there has to be some kind of economic moat in the company that gets them to $10M.” @mrsharma #DTCPOD
2. “You have to be consistently focused on product launches, figuring out what’s coming next, and listening to the customer.” @mrsharma #DTCPOD
3. “Performance marketing should extend something that is already great. It shouldn’t be the tactic to build the business.” @mrsharma #DTCPOD
4. “Having a developer on board allows you to move quickly - you can make changes, build landing pages, test site changes, implement pixels faster.” @mrsharma #DTCPOD
5. “From the brands that I’ve seen grow the best, you have to be testing and launching new creative on a weekly basis.” @mrsharma #DTCPOD

We Speak About:

• [01:00] About Nik  
• [02:35] What Nik looks for before investing in a DTC brand
• [04:00] Nik’s advice for staying ahead of competitors
• [05:35] What Nik thinks about first-mover advantages
• [07:00] Nik’s thoughts on performance marketing and growth strategies
• [10:15] Nik’s take on balancing moving fast, being good, and beating competitors
• [12:25] Why you need to be profitable or breakeven on the first purchase
• [13:25] How brands can be successful
• [14:45] The importance of having a developer on your team
• [15:05] What some of the smarter DTC brands are doing with pixels
• [17:30] Why Nik loves user-generated content
• [19:05] The importance of having a huge stack of creative ready to go
• [20:25] The brands Nik looks at for inspiration
• [21:35] What’s next for Sharma brands

If you want to stay ahead of the competition, you need a moat

Nik Sharma, CEO of Sharma Brands and an active investor in the DTC space, joins the POD to talk all things DTC.

Nik has worked with a lot of notable DTC brands including Judy, Hint, Dream Pops, and more.

To reach a $10M level, Nik says that brands need to have an economic moat. That’s essentially a distinct advantage that competitors will have a difficult time copying.

Your moat could be ingredients that people don’t have as easy access to, supply chain benefits people don’t have access to, or even a celebrity endorsement.

Even though you need to have a moat, you don’t need to worry about your competition a much.

With a moat, it’s going to be very difficult for competitors to just copy your brand. Nik says you really shouldn’t even worry about them much.

Having a moat isn’t the only ingredient to success

It’s true, the $10M-plus brands do have a distinct competitive advantage. But if you’re not careful, you could blow that advantage.

One of the pitfalls Nik says to look out for is performance marketing.

Performance marketing should be used to extend something that’s already great, not build the business.

Being too reliant on performance marketing or gaining press is a dangerous path. Nik has seen many brands fail this way.

If you go the performance marketing route, make sure that you are breaking even or being profitable on first purchase.

Nik also suggests adding a developer to your team. A developer can help you test changes on your website faster, launch new pixels, and be more agile.

Many brands don’t think of hiring a developer in-house but Nik says it can be hugely beneficial.

With pixels, you can even fire certain pixels based on average order value.

Make sure you also focus on user-generated content

Another key element to success is authentic content.

Content that looks native to a platform performs better on that platform because that’s what non-sponsored content looks like as well.

The best brands have a huge stack of creative ready to go. They are testing and launching creative on a weekly basis.

Stay tuned as Nik discusses other ways brands can be successful, what he looks at before investing in a brand, and what brands he looks to for inspiration.

If you’d like to learn more about Trend and our influencer marketing platform for influencers and brands visit trend.io. You can also follow us for tips on growing your following and running successful campaigns on Instagram and LinkedIn. 

Mentioned Links:

Nik’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/mrsharma

Text Nik: 917-905-2340

1. “You shouldn’t look at the competition you should create a brand that stands for what you stand for and what you want to disrupt.” @uglyhugh #DTCPOD
2. “I always recommend taking a night to sleep on ideas that can have a big impact on your business. Your thinking might be different the next morning.” @uglyhugh #DTCPOD
3. “If you put a product into a store you probably won’t hear back until 12 months whereas with DTC you can get feedback within 2 weeks.” @uglyhugh #DTCPOD
4. “Every time we make another run of limited-edition cans we test something new in the process - content, email, new way of launching it.” @uglyhugh #DTCPOD
5. “The beauty of being a first-time founder is you get to be scrappy, make things happen, and learn from your mistakes.” @uglyhugh #DTCPOD

We Speak About:

• [01:10] About Ugly Drinks 
• [02:50] How Hugh came up with the idea for Ugly Drinks
• [05:20] The story behind Ugly Drinks’ branding
• [07:15] How Ugly Drinks’ brand identity has evolved
• [09:45] About Ugly Drinks’ big investment into community marketing
• [12:35] How Ugly Drinks gathers community feedback
• [15:50] What Hugh had to change to expand into the US market
• [18:30] The scrappy things Hugh and his team did to be successful
• [21:30] Hugh’s mentors and influences
• [24:20] Hugh’s advice for other founders

A great brand isn’t built overnight

Hugh Thomas, CEO and Co-Founder of Ugly Drinks, joins the podcast to talk about his founder story.

A little about Ugly Drinks - it’s a beverage brand that sells flavored sparkling water.

Even though Ugly Drinks has only been around 2015, Hugh and his team have built an incredibly strong brand.

Every detail from what the company stands for, the imagery, and even the community has been carefully crafted.

The Ugly Drinks brand looks like a finished product but the “ugly” truth is, the brand is continuing to evolve.

Ugly Drinks has already had three iterations of the brand already. The first was to raise capital, the second version was the refinement, and the third version was done as the product expanded.

As the brand grows, Hugh and his team keep testing out new ideas and new flavors to continue refining and growing the brand.

Even the strongest brands need a strong community

Ugly Drinks has built a strong brand internally and externally.

For Ugly Drinks, even product users have branded themselves. The most loyal fans describe themselves as part of the Ugly Mob or Ugly Squad.

The Ugly Mob has been a key part of Ugly Drinks’ growth. By having a strong community, the beverage brand has been able to accelerate word of mouth.

The Ugly Mob isn’t just great for word of mouth though. Hugh and his team have helped foster a sense of community from the internal team as well.

They have a private Facebook group that is used to collect product feedback. They also often ask buyers to give their feedback.

Loyal fans are even asked to share ideas for new flavors. The ideas end up driving the product roadmap for Ugly Drinks.

Stay tuned as Hugh also discusses how long it took to develop the brand, what they learned from entering a new market, and some of the scrappy things they have done to be successful.

If you’d like to learn more about Trend and our influencer marketing platform for influencers and brands visit trend.io. You can also follow us for tips on growing your following and running successful campaigns on Instagram and LinkedIn. 

Mentioned Links:

The Ugly Drinks website: https://uglydrinks.com/

The Ugly Drinks Twitter account: https://twitter.com/uglydrinks

The Ugly Drinks Tik Tok account: https://www.tiktok.com/@uglydrinks

Hugh’s Twitter: 

https://twitter.com/uglyhugh