Cameron Fischer

“30% off sitewide seems right.” This is how I used to make decisions about Black Friday/Cyber Monday promos. And I see a lot of brands doing the same today. 𝘔𝘢𝘺𝘣𝘦 they’ve crunched the numbers and know it’s profitable. But even then, they’re missing something big. They’re not analyzing which offers: → Are most profitable → Attract high-value customers → Drive long-term growth Sure, driving conversions is important - but you want your offers to drive more than just a quick win. What if they can also create momentum well beyond the Q4 peak? For more insights from me and over 20 other ecommerce experts, check out Storyly’s new guide to mastering Black Friday/Cyber Monday 2024 - I’ll drop a link in the comments. And if you’re ready to make the most of BFCM this year, shoot me a DM - I’d love to chat. P.S. I helped one of my clients unlock a 47% lift in revenue per customer through offer analysis and strategy. 🚀

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👇 Reminder to all my DTC marketers out there: Static ads are still crushing it. … And they are WAY easier to create and test. I've talked about this before And I'm going to keep talking about until it stops being true. (Bonus points: your creative team will also thank you for "easier" briefings 😜 ) Just because everybody is talking about UGC videos, never stop testing the fundamental image ads. It's also just good practice to have a healthy creative mix in your account. You don't want to become reliant on one ad type ❌ The more winners you can create, the better the performance. And the quicker you can scale 💶 Do you agree? LMK 👇 #FacebookAds #CreativeStrategy #MediaBuying

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👇 Reminder to all my DTC marketers out there: Static ads are still crushing it. … And they are WAY easier to create and test. I've talked about this before And I'm going to keep talking about until it stops being true (Bonus points: your creative team will also thank you for "easier" briefings 😜 ) Just because everybody is talking about UGC, whitelisting etc etc., never stop testing the fundamental image ads. It's also just good practice to have a healthy creative mix in your account. You don't want to become (over) reliant on one ad type ❌ The more winners you can create, the better the performance. And the quicker you can scale 💶 And something I've been playing with recently... Midjourney. Prompting skills need a little more work to take these ads to the next level, but it's fun playing with new techniques. Do you agree? LMK 👇 #FacebookAds #CreativeStrategy #MediaBuying

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A lil #TBT for ya... This was Sircle Media's first agency video from way back in 2014. So much has changed: 1- We used to focus pretty heavily on apparel brands, but that category was just not amazing and not for me. Fitmark cameo, Mark A. Samuel 2- Not one of the people in this video still works here, but I have so much love and respect for the time they put in and I keep an eye on their success out in the wild. Congrats on that Colombia win, Marvin Centeno! 3- Even our logo - We received a cease and desist from Mastercard, so yeah... Yet so much remains the same: 1- Brands need to keep up with the speed of social media, and it is impossible to do it internally. You need a partner who is always leaning forward and ahead on trends, rather than always being one step behind. 2- They need staffing and strategy, that is best done outsourced but priced and structured as if it were an internal hire. 3- I still LOVE what I do, despite all of the ups and downs that come with it. I am most proud of the fact that we have remained true to our mission, have not strayed or chased shiny objects, and have continued to double and triple down on our original thesis. Not always easy for a growing agency to do, but mission critical to our success! So, I ask you...would you hire us? #cpg #socialmediaagency #socialmediastrategy

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I run a full service marketing agency (Fluency Firm) with 30+ brands that we manage. Many of them are break even or profitable. The 3 common trends with the profitable businesses 1- solid / superior / high-quality product. Customer reviews say it all. If the product is crap, you don’t get repeat buyers, and you don’t have customer evangelists. 2- retention is key. 50%+ revenue coming from repeat customers on a monthly basis (this depends on growth and scale, but as a rule). These brands have great products that a customer is purchasing multiple times a quarter or year (refills, subscriptions, etc). Or they are an apparel brand with great merchandising and a strong customer base that keeps coming back. 3- a mix of paid acquisition and earned traffic / awareness through brand moments, PR, collabs, social media / content, and ambassadors. If a brand is expecting to buy their way to scale and stay profitable, I think it’s a long road.

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Hot take: A weak core identity accounts for ~90% of your brand's marketing, sales, and customer experience issues. Whether it's the brand heart (purpose, vision, mission, and values), your unique buying center (ICP, buyer personas, Unique Value Proposition), or your offer (Product-Service Package and Unique Selling Proposition) ... the core identity is vital for EVERY TEAM in your revenue organization. When your Core Identity is not clearly defined, communicated, and monitored by everyone in the organization, things go off the rails.

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Stuff D2C brands 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 is hurting marketing performance: (Hint: It’s 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 ad-related.) → Not enough creative → Signal loss → “The algorithm” What’s 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 to blame: → The post-click experience → Campaign setup misaligned to goals → Lack of a cohesive, long-term strategy → Over-reliance on ads (especially lower-funnel ads) → Creative that doesn’t meet the audience where they’re at You can keep blaming the technology and keep throwing more creative into the mix, but that won’t solve the real problems. A strategic, holistic approach will. Want to explore what this could look like for your business? Let’s chat. DM me to learn more.

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I’ve had a unique opportunity to see hundreds of DTC brand P&Ls. Here are 2 important insights I’ve gleaned that you might find helpful: 1. Brands that scale to $30m+ with Meta as their main acquisition channel can turn a profit at a +/- 2 MER. How is this possible? High gross margins, like 80%+ high. 2. Profitable brands that have lower gross margins <50% are only able to scale profitably if they have a super high MER, like 8+, and super lower fixed overhead <10% of revenue. MER is typically super high for these brands because their products lend themselves to high repeat purchase rates. They also tend to see success scaling within channels like influencer. The question is where is the ceiling on their growth and what happens when they need to turn to paid acquisition? Their margin profile probably can’t support heavy spend on platforms like Meta. The takeaway? There’s no one size fits all approach to scaling DTC profitably. But - There is a constraint on which marketing channels you can scale profitably, and it’s largely dependent on your gross margins and fixed overhead costs. The best of both worlds is keeping overhead lean and designing high gross margin into your products. Do you agree with my assessment here?

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A Senior Manager at a $10B beauty and cosmetics retailer recently told me: “We’re on the lookout for new MarTech solutions.” As the driver behind their go-to-market strategy, she’s created a long list of tech to explore… Like: - CDPs - CRMs - A/B testing tools - Affiliate programs - Better attribution tools - Loyalty program platforms And topping her list → “We need a CDP – badly.” She needs a new CDP to perform several key functions... Including: - Managing efficient A/B testing - Creating customer segments for targeted marketing - And understanding how people are interacting with their site As for the other tech, she’s not sold on any one solution just yet. She needs to make sure they’ll help drive her 2024 goals… Including: - Strengthening brand awareness - And improving their site experience - To optimize and boost their conversion rates A bonus — Any tech that can help her monitor her top KPIs – impressions, traffic, ROAS, and blended customer acquisition cost – will be sure to catch her eye. __ Vendors who showcase their MarTech as essential aids to achieving her 2024 goals will likely win her business. But to position your pitch as the *perfect* solution to her problems… You’ll want to highlight all the “icing on the cake” features she cares about too. And the best way to do that is with detailed intel on her past experiences (exactly like the kind we provide at @Alium.) For instance: - Personalization options - An intuitive user interface - Identity resolution features - Easy integration with Shopify - Mobile-targeted experience options Vendors – How would you pitch this client?

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Some products just don’t work for scaling DTC profitably. Why? The unit economics needed to scale profitably aren’t there. One example that comes to mind is the vast majority of food and bev products. If your product mix has low AOV and high (shipping + fulfillment cost)/AOV, chances are you won’t have enough room in your contribution margin before marketing to afford the CAC you need scale through DTC advertising channels. There are some exceptions to this rule, but generally speaking, the products that crush DTC have higher AOVs and higher margins before marketing, allowing sufficient CAC budget to scale. Do you agree?

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For years I’ve been on the data-side of the ECOM equation. “𝒀𝒐𝒖’𝒓𝒆 𝑬𝑪𝑶𝑴, 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒎𝒂𝒓𝒌𝒆𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈.” “𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒓𝒌𝒆𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒆𝒂𝒎 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒆.” But in the past couple months I’ve played a lead creative strategist role and it’s both invigorating and eye-opening. While there’s much to say about the media buyer/creative strategist role, I’ll save that for another post... For now, here are a few things I’ve learned (and re-learned): (1) 𝐂𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐚 𝐬𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦. 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤 𝐢𝐭. You have to have a flywheel of creative to fuel your ad accounts. In a perfect world this means something like: Day 1 - analyzing performance Day 2 - briefing Day 3 - approving/revising Day 4 - launch Rinse and repeat You get a predictable 10+ new creatives per week, and everything is hunky dory. But we don’t live in a perfect world. Business priorities shift, things take longer to approve, or budgets get adjusted. Allow yourself (and your team) to draw outside of the lines of the system. (2) 𝐃𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐢𝐭. Angles, hooks, concepts, formats, off-image copy & headlines, audience segments… the list goes on. I tried to systematize our briefs and naming conventions to define the concept, angle, hook, and format for every ad. Then I threw it out the window. Give me a good angle and the reason behind it. Then let’s test it. (3) 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐚 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐚 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲. If the media buyer is only responsible for providing the data, they have no motivation to contextualize it. If they are also responsible for the performance of new creative, they will make sure all new creative is going in the right direction based on what the data is telling them. This is where systemization can become an enemy more than a friend. If you systematize your reporting too much, you may be grabbing “insights” that are really nothing. You have to allow for flexibility in reporting to allow the data to tell its story. For the experienced creative strategists out there... agree or disagree?

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Your ROAS numbers are lying to you. Especially for DTC brands that rely heavily on paid media for customer acquisition. Here's how the best brands actually measure growth in 2024... 1️⃣ The New Math 👇 Forget 'good' ROAS targets. They're meaningless now. Elite brands are looking at rolling 30-day incrementality tests: Pause all Meta ads in specific geos for 2 weeks, measure total revenue impact, and then calculate true ROAS. Most discover they're 40% lower than reported. Do the same for other channels, there's tons of valuable information at Haus blog (I'll add link in comments) about incrementally - the new gold standard for optimizing ROI 2️⃣ The Creative Arbitrage 👇 Here's what's actually working: Brands doing 3-day creative testing cycles with 20+ variations are seeing 2x better results than those optimizing for audience targeting. The privacy changes mean creative is your only real lever left. I have a solid creative testing framework that I'll be happy to share - just let me know in the comments... 👉 The First-Party Data Reality Everyone talks about first-party data, but here's the truth: Unless you have purchase frequency under 60 days, your email list is depreciating faster than you can build it. The winning strategy isn't collection – it's activation velocity. Sounds familiar? What did I miss? #ecommerce #dtc #bfcm #success #2025

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You don't need to build a unicorn monster. Aim for $10M ARR with 80% margins. There's beauty (and fortune) in serving the forgotten millions in niche markets. How to pre-launch when you don’t have any physical product to ship: - Set up a simple landing page with a heavy discount to gauge interest - Collect emails and track pre-orders - Toss it up with crushing ads (start with $15-20K) and analyze results or hire someone to do it - Go nuts with nurturing that list (create storylines, go crazy with your page, copy, and visuals) - Adjust every $5K in spend to boost conversion rates - Have less ego. If engagement is low, it's a signal to pivot or rethink your concept. Build what made the original product special, serve users who resist change, and stay profitably "small". Want more solid gold? Comment “launch“ below.

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Hot take - I don't actually think statistically based demand plans are effective for younger brands going through the growth phase. The data is just not consistent enough and there's not enough to reach statistically significant models. Instead I like to forecast based off of the marketing plan, some historicals, sales channel expansion plans and site conversion forecasts. In doing this, it becomes even more important to: 1) Scenario plan 2) Gain alignment from your cross functional partners 3) Ensure there's a VERY clear picture on how the actualized forecast inputs are performing and how that impacts your supply 4) Make supply adjustments at least once a week. Hi I'm Mary Kate 👋 ! I do supply chain and ops consulting for growing brands. I optimize operations to help brands scale to meet growing demand while finding opportunities for savings. 3 ways that I can help you with your business: 1️⃣ Fractional support - overseeing your supply chain from both the strategic and tactical levels. 2️⃣ Value based projects. Need help figuring out how much inventory to purchase to avoid over/understock or where you're getting nailed on fulfillment costs? I can help there! 3️⃣ GTM planning. Lead and facilitate new product launches or new partner launches to ensure a smooth transition. Book a 30 min session with me to discuss your business's needs using the link in the comments!

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Real growth in DTC is rare. Here’s how 50+ $100M brands achieve it. 1. Know their category     - who they're competing against     - what competitors are getting wrong     - how they can do it differently In positioning the product/brand it needs to be different.  In CPG "better/cheaper/fast" isn't enough. 2. Closed loop on creative feedback    - a system to analyze top creative    - reflexively circulate those back into the editing process    - avoid over-optimizing a "local maximum" in their testing landscape Your team is lost if they don't have a process to measure creative results towards inputs into their editing process... same for teams that don't have a cadence for retesting styles that previously failed but have not been tested in { X } days (𝘐𝘵 𝘥𝘦𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘥). 3. Margins on specific customers    - AOV per offer per channel    - 60-180 LTV per offer per channel    - how those 👆 translate to gross margin None of these marketing numbers matter if it doesn't translate into gross margin.  Too many times we see affiliate commissions and discount codes crush cohort values to the point where were companies are loosing money on their "best performing" campaigns.  If you don't have someone internally tracking these numbers find someone who can. 4. Strategic plan for retail expansion     - their "ideal" ordering for account expansion     - plan to support new locations with DTC advertising     - try before you buy (in-store) offers so customers recognize you on shelves No point in getting into a big retailer if you are going to get bounced right out.  Retail expansion requires a strategic plan to use DTC channels and other retail locations to build up your word-of-mouth marketing in specific geographic areas in service of those all important "sell through" metrics. What else? ... If you like this, make sure to share and repost for your DTC/CPG friends!

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70% of A/B tests deliver zero impact. Here’s why. Most ecommerce brands think A/B testing is a quick win.  But it’s rarely that simple.  Here’s what’s really happening:  1️⃣ Testing the wrong things – Minor tweaks won’t move the needle.  2️⃣ Ignoring sample sizes – Without enough data, results are unreliable.  3️⃣ Jumping to conclusions – Correlation isn’t causation.  Want better results? Start here:  - Prioritise high-impact areas. - Test bold changes that target usability, anxiety, or motivation (UAM).  - Get the data right. - Use tools like heatmaps and user interviews to identify friction points first.  - Run tests long enough. - Aim for statistical significance, not fast answers.  Effective testing is part art, part science.  Done right, it’s the key to unlocking higher conversions.  What’s been your biggest A/B testing fail (or win)? #cro #dtc #ecommerce #shopify #digitalmarketing

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Brand Marketing Leaders & Innovators: Tell me if you relate: As an innovator, a business leader, and for SURE as a parent, I’ve been conditioned to 𝙚𝙢𝙗𝙧𝙖𝙘𝙚 𝙛𝙖𝙞𝙡𝙪𝙧𝙚 𝙖𝙨 𝙖𝙣 𝙞𝙢𝙥𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙛𝙪𝙡 𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙤𝙥𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙪𝙣𝙞𝙩𝙮. Yes, hindsight is 20/20. 👓 Yes, Monday morning quarterbacking can be tiresome. 🏈 And looking at your own mistakes 🔍is not exactly Comfortable. But I’ve never regretted a good Post Mortem: putting in the work to diagnose a failed product launch, bad hire, or misguided strategy with a balanced look at what I/my team could have done differently, and what we couldn't have known or changed. I'm a fan of giving ourselves grace if we truly “𝘮𝘢𝘥𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘥𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘸𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦.” Look back, reassess, grow. Right? Well, Yes and No. 😕 A recent article from Kellogg Insight (link in comments) digs into research by Lauren Eskreis-Winkler suggesting that 𝘧𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘥𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘭𝘺 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘶𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘤𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘦’𝘳𝘦 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘧𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘢𝘣𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘯 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘴, due to 𝗢𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗶𝘀𝗺 𝗕𝗶𝗮𝘀. We overestimate the likelihood of positive outcomes and underestimate the likelihood of negative ones. (Side note: Is anyone else having flashbacks to Econ 101 and that loss aversion idea: Failures Loom Larger Than Successes?! I unearth this from the dusty attic of my 🧠and it’s no longer true?! Sigh…) The upshot: in overestimating our likelihood to succeed, 𝙬𝙚’𝙧𝙚 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙙𝙤𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙖𝙨 𝙜𝙤𝙤𝙙 𝙖 𝙟𝙤𝙗 𝙖𝙨 𝙬𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙠 𝙖𝙩 𝙧𝙚𝙫𝙞𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙛𝙪𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙚 𝙗𝙚𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙞𝙤𝙧, even when we can pinpoint what decisions led to the negative outcome. Definition of Insanity, anyone?! I’m no neuroscientist. I can’t explain why we fall into this trap, but I’m pointing it out so we can be more aware. By taking the article's counsel to “adopt a more clear-eyed view of the truth, tune in to failure and learn and grow from the experience.” A few tangible ways we can try to do this: ✅𝗗𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗚𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗽𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗶𝘁: A post-mortem should be an individual thought exercise first. In doing it as a group, we rely on “collective selective memory”, not just our own. ✅ 𝗗𝗼𝗰𝘂𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗙𝗮𝗶𝗹 𝗶𝗻 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲:  Waiting until long after a failure has happened to scrutinize it allows the emotions to settle, but memory can be a tricky thing. ✅ 𝗔𝗽𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗔𝗽𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘀: Next time around, stay in tune as things progress, and see where you can directly compare now vs when/how things went South before. Then, when you hit that juncture, 🛑 and say –let’s NOT repeat that! 𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙨𝙤𝙢𝙚 𝙬𝙖𝙮𝙨 𝙮𝙤𝙪’𝙫𝙚 𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙣𝙚𝙙 (𝙤𝙧 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙣𝙚𝙙) 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙛𝙖𝙞𝙡𝙪𝙧𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙙𝙤 𝙗𝙚𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙣𝙚𝙭𝙩 𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚? #failforward #cultureofinnovation #innovation #growthmindset

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We took a supplement brand’s CVR from 1.25% to 3.10%. Also boosting AOV from £31 to £48. We used this exact strategy to get them these results: → Stopped pushing single SKUs only as ads. → Created a “Welcome Kit” bundle SKU to boost AOV and NC-ROAS. → Treated this as a new customer only offer. → Moved away from standard product pages. → Helped them build out a high-converting landing page to drive traffic to instead. Great seeing just how big of a difference one pivot can make.

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