Fluency Firm

Jacob Rokeach, Founder & CEO of Fluency, spoke with Joanne Sulit, CMO of The Outset, a brand co-founded by Kate Foster and Scarlett Johansson, about launching a brand, building a community, and scaling paid acquisition while maintaining brand identity and increasing customer LTV. Watch their session: https://lnkd.in/gcwzFJ9r #theoutset #scarlettjohansson #commercenext

?????????????? ???? ?????? - ?????????? ???? ?????? ???? ?????????? ???? ?????? ?? In the remote / zoom / virtual world that we live in, spending time in-person with your clients and your team goes a long way. We had a new client kick off in September and we did an in-person strategy session at their office in NYC. We also have a bunch of clients based in the city and we spent 72 hours meeting w/ clients, seeing partners, meeting friends, talking strategy, making in-person connections, and looking at 2025. IT WAS A HUGE SUCCESS! Here’s the recap: 1?? Fluency Firm team happy hour and drinks. There were 7 of us! A couple locals, and 5 of us in town to meet with various clients. 2?? Dinner with the Conference Crew, Justin Abrams & Brandon Mitchel - so great to catchup and hear your friends talk about their success; and to share perspectives about what we are all seeing in the industry. 3?? Breakfast with the BOSS Lady Kate Weizman from Westman Atelier. 4?? Full-day on-site with the Fair Harbor to discuss Q4 strategy, attribution, creative, and dive into their awesome product. AND we had a fab dinner in Soho. 5?? Breakfast and Creative strategy with The Outset 's Kate Foster Lengyel & Lexi Kaminer; the team is always so hospitable at their office. 6?? Lunch + working session with the queen of NYC ecommerce éva Goicochea from maude . Yes, that is me with a life-size replica of their best-selling Cone. 7?? Rangers game with the one and only Harrison I. - moving you to bcc. He is another colleague turned good friend over the years. 8?? Up early Friday morning, on the plane working and back in LA by 2p. HUGE shoutout to the Fluency Team that was in the Big Apple making things happen - Ben Dickshinski Alana Bierbaum Rachael Gorder Jasmine Larsen Caitlin Elgin Erica Kaplan #fluencyfirm #agency #nyc #ecommerce

Want to win big with influencers? Start by mastering TikTok. Here's your 7-step strategy. If you are doing influencer marketing, don't sleep on TikTok. It's the 2nd largest social platform, with 120M TikTok users in the U.S. The average daily user spends 58 minutes per day on the platform. WOW! 1?? Identify the right creators Search by relevant topics and evaluate potential influencers by engagement rates. Search for niche influencers. There are many skincare creators, but they specialize in specific content or cater to a specific audience. 2?? Reach out directly TikTok is the "authenticity" platform, so it's always better to go direct instead of using an agency. Reference specific content to show your authentic interest. 3?? Set expectations Define the deliverables, but don't tell them exactly what to do or say. While there will be some guidelines, they should have creative freedom. You want it to sound and feel authentic. 4?? Leverage collaboration tools? Hashtags and branded effects will give creator content more mileage. Consider Tiktok challenges as well to surf a related trend, i.e., "Get Ready With Me." 5?? Create a mutually beneficial relationship Ensure your creators are compensated well for their efforts and pay on time. Seek to create long-term arrangements that span a few months. You might get more bang for your buck and who knows what could happen! 7?? Create a feedback loop Once the content is live, collect the data and comments. Understand what's working and what's not, and iterate by testing new angles/hooks. Also, communicate with your content creators and give them feedback based on what you see. Hopefully, it's constructive and collaborative. — Above all, make sure to be authentic. That's the name of the game on TikTok. BONUS: My favorite TikTok creator account is @Logeypump23. (I'll drop a little treat in the comments for you). #TikTok

In honor of Halloween week, we’ve got a jumpscare for you:?Black Friday is a month away. Here’s some last-minute BFCM advice from the Fluency Firm Team:?https://lnkd.in/gMj_wmt5

Ease customer anxieties about buying online with clear info on shipping, return policies, and more! Here are tips to boost confidence and conversions in your email strategy:?https://lnkd.in/ge6EWJeu #EcommerceTips #EmailMarketing #EmailStrategies

Growth & finance - a difficult but important marriage. If you run marketing and don’t have regular chats with finance, you need to start ASAP. When I ran DTC at Anine Bing, I worked closely with CFO, Paul Courell. I came to the role with a growth at all costs mindset, but exited focused on profitable growth. It didn’t come easy. We had many debates. Those debates shaped me into the marketer, operator, and leader that I am today. Growth & finance should align regularly in 6 areas: 1?? Forecasting Forecasting is a beast in fashion. Raw materials are ordered 12+ months in advance to match projections. The forecast needs to support inventory purchases, and the inventory needs to support the forecast. We worked on a 15-month rolling forecast, hard to maintain but worth it. Forecast using new & repeat customers. This is KEY to understanding your business and informing buying decisions. 2?? Inventory planning We drilled into what was selling and what was not – and allocated? inventory accordingly. For instance, we’d invest a healthy amount in core evergreen styles and double down on SKUs that were trending and “hopeful heroes.” That spread also covered power SKUs that drive 1st purchases & upsells. 3?? Hiring Having the right team to power the business is crucial. But each hire requires a biz case and should have positive ROI. It’s a delicate balance of not hiring too fast OR too slow. 4?? SG&A These are overhead expenses that will impact your bottom line. → SaaS costs: a huge part of the ecom playbook. → Creative, warehousing, customer experience, office, salaries, benefits, etc. Finance was a counterpart to help us evaluate SaaS, measure ROI, and sweep the deck on “shelfware.”? 5?? Customer Experience A strong marketer knows that retaining a customer is more important than acquiring a new one. Good CX is table stakes these days. And to do that, it costs time, resources, tech, and budget. Think: unboxing experience, nice packaging, samples, surprise and delight. Unchecked, every parcel would get fancy paper and handwritten notes. Every website would have True Fit and TryNow.com Customer service agents would be available via text and phone 18 hours/day Loyalty and rewards would be plentiful. A good finance counterpart will help you deliver a great CX without blowing the budget. 6?? Shipping Shipping is a can of worms. → How do we go international profitably? → Do we cover some portion of international shipping? → Domestically, can we pay extra to do Fedex when UPS doesn’t deliver on Saturday? A good partner in finance understands shipping rates and 3PL costs across vendors and geos. — This is just a glimpse of the fun and at times difficult conversations I had with Paul. Today, I am a better marketer & operator for it. Thank you Paul! #growthmarketing #finance #growth #profitandloss

Don’t make these two classic international expansion mistakes (and how to fix them). Many brands want to go international BUT make two common mistakes. ? Going international without demand. Some people think international is something that you just turn on. But going international only works when you have brand recognition and traffic. ? Going INTL with a one-size-fits-all experience. On the other hand, there are brands with international recognition and traffic but don’t have the ops or logistics to support an international business When foreign customers have a poor website experience and pay full freight for long ship times, it is NOT a winning combo. — The solution to both problems is simple - LOCALIZATION. It’s different in every market, but a few things need localization. 1?? Language You might get away with English in some countries, but the local language is ideal. If you are not translating the entire site, you should at least think about localizing checkout. 2?? Currency & Transparency Next, you should localize the buy box starting with currency. In many foreign countries, product pricing includes VAT and duties. 3?? Marketing Next, you can look at the CAC of customers from different geographies. You might see that foreign customers have higher CACs and lower conversation rates This can be a byproduct of a poor web experience, bad pricing, confusing language around what is and is not included in the price, shipping times, etc. That’s where you might start building targeted and localized campaigns that communicate your offering better. 4?? Seasonality & Forecasting Depending on the geography, you might have to plan for two sets of spring, summer, fall, and winter. Because if you are a bathing suit line and you run out of inventory after summer in the U.S., your sales in Australia will tank. 5?? Preferences Preference, style, and taste can be wildly different. For instance, in parts of Asia, being tan isn’t fashionable, so your most popular bathing suit styles might be a flop, and you may need to adapt to market tastes. Similarly, skincare tastes are different – Asian audiences seek different colors, foundations, and creams. 6?? Regulations Make sure you know the rules and regulations of the countries you are selling in. This pertains to your product and also your website (i.e., GDPR, VAT, etc.). If you are a skincare brand and want to move into the EU, there are different rules for SPF and how you market it.? ? —— Long story short, you don’t just “turn international on.” It takes a significant investment in planning and strategy to pull off. One solution: You can tap a partner like Global-e, which streamlines much of this process. if you want to get serious about international, reach out to my good friend Matthew Merrilees. #international #ecommerce #localization

?? The Meta Ads playbook for BFCM Success At Fluency Firm we are deep in BFCM prep mode right now. Check out the video where I break down 4 tips for success on META this November ?? ?? 1?? Leverage recent promo wins to inform your offer and creative strategy 2?? Customize for every Funnel stage - take a full-funnel approach 3?? Bold, High-Contrast Visuals will drive more engagement and conversions 4?? Nail the first 3 seconds - spell your offer out quickly in your video content Shout out to Alana Bierbaum & Rachael Gorder for help on this one. #BFCM #meta #metaads #blackfriday #cybermonday

66 Days Until BFCM And only 39 days until November 1. We started planning BFCM with our CRM & Lifecycle brands in June. Now we are going over prep, plans, and best practices with our paid and acquisition clients. The team put together a 30 slide brief to review with clients, so this is the first of 4 posts covering best practices and deep dives for Meta, Creative, and Google. But lets start with a BFCM road map on how to play your cards over the coming months and what to expect. ?? September September starts with Labor Day sales, and many brands extend those sales after Labor Day.. Last week, most brands returned to full price, so it’s not uncommon to see conversion rates decline and some softer performance. It’s time to transition to your new collection, and seasonal SKUs; and creative from the hot summer vibe to a cozy warm fall. Outside of seasonality, this is a great time to focus on testing evergreen concepts. CPMs are seasonally low now, so start building your funnel, email lists, and retargeting audiences. ?? October October is going to be a funky month. Most brands are not discounting and buyers are primed to wait for BFCM deals. But they are still window shopping and putting items in their cart. Sales may be soft, so it’s tempting to hold back spend. But now is the time to ramp up the top of the funnel. CPMs are going to be way higher in November, so use your budget to aggressively build retargeting and email lists. ?? BFCMber People think Black Friday and Cyber Monday literally happens on Friday and Monday after Thanksgiving. It’s been starting earlier and earlier and for some brands BFCM is running the entire month of November, hence the name “BFCMber!” This year, we might see some pricing spikes leading up to Election Day (separate post to come this). CPMs always increasein November and spike over BFCM. This can be offset with a discounting and sale strategy. ?? December This year will be unusual because Cyber Monday falls on December 2nd. This? impacts brands in two ways. 1) One less week to advertise before shipping cutoffs. Be sure to message key shipping cutoffs leading up? ~12/15 (ground) and ~12/19 (expedited). 2) Revenue predictions and YoY comps will be with 2 keys sale days in December. Plan & budget accordingly! We may see a longer Cyber Week due to Black Friday being 5 days later this year. CPCs will decrease after Cyber Week. Pull back budgets and focus on self-gifters and gift card shoppers. Refresh your CRM lists post BFCM, because it’s not over til the fat lady sings. Increase budgets post-holiday and reengage shoppers with customer match. Because 64% of holiday shoppers make a purchase between 12/26 - 1/3. — That’s our plan for the remainder of year. If you found this useful, give me a follow, ring the ?? in my profile and stayed tuned for 3 more BFCM related posts!

?? Job Alert ?? Job: Marketing Coordinator Location: Remote (US-based) Fluency Firm is looking for a social media savvy, hungry individual that has a couple years of experience and wants to learn about marketing, work at an agency, and work with some awesome brands. If you are that person, or you know someone that is, DM me ASAP! #hiring #job #newrole #career #marketing https://lnkd.in/guWWKa4e