Welcome to the 21st issue of Always Be Learning. The newsletter that Larry David referred to as "prettyyy, prettyyy, prettyyy, prettyyy good."

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Today's ABL issue is brought to you by beam.

I've struggled with sleep for YEARS. Tossing and turning all night. Taking hours just to fall asleep. And it always left me with less energy the next day.

That all changed when I discovered beam. I use their products almost every night about an hour before I want to fall asleep. Whether it's their Dream Powder or Dream Capsules, I know I'm going to get a solid night of sleep - without fail.

For all you hardcore ABL subscribers - I actually did my first marketing breakdown on beam back in June (they're pretty good marketers too!).

So if you've struggled with sleep like me, give 'em a look. Their Dream Powder is a great place to start. 👇

Today's Marketing Breakdown:

Today, I'm going to break down an A/B test that I recently ran at my full-time job - The Beard Club.

The results were impressive with nice upticks on LTV and retention (more on that later) - so I thought it could be helpful for you all as well!

What was the test on?

The test was focused on our email onboarding series for new customers.

Because we're a monthly subscription business, the first 30 days are crucial.

What was the goal?

If we can increase month 2 retention and LTV for our most popular first-order SKU, that can have a major impact on the business.

And if we could find good results with one kit, we can probably implement the learnings with our other kits.

What was the test?

This test was all about educational content.

For additional context, our Advanced Beard Growth Kit is designed for guys who struggle to grow a full beard. Their biggest pain points are patchiness and/or slow growth.

For our customers to get the most out of this kit, they need to stick with our beard care routine for 3-5 months (sometimes less).

That means our product education needs to be about building a habit to achieve their desired beard goals.

So we split new customers out into two different branches.

Branch #1:

14 educational emails over 30 days tailored specifically to the kit they just purchased.

• Email #1:

  • Welcome + high-level overview of what's in their kit

• Emails #2-8:

  • A dedicated breakdown of each product in their kit (7 total), what the product does, and videos showing how to use it.

• Emails #9-14:

  • 6 educational emails promoting the importance of a consistent routine, how to overcome early growing pains, etc.

The first 8 emails were sent on 8 consecutive days to get them up to speed as their kit arrived.

The last 6 emails were spread out more evenly - 1 every 4 days.

On Day 30, they would be due for their first recurring order.

Branch #2:

5 educational emails sent over 30 days - 1 every 6 days.

The idea here was that we'll let our product manuals do all of the heavy lifting for product education.

And the emails would all be focused on routine, beard care, etc.

What were the results and what did we learn?

1. We saw an 11.82% uplift in month 2 retention rate for the group that received Branch #1 (the version with 14 emails).

2. We saw a similar 10.97% uplift in customer LTV for the Branch #1 group.

This is HUGE for us considering this is our most popular kit and the fact that a...

One thing worth noting is that this was no easy task.

It took us 2-3 weeks to plan out and set up the educational content for the winning branch.

But we have now confirmed with data, that this is time well spent.

Most companies will not spend the time putting together an in-depth customer onboarding experience like this because it is time-consuming and often not a one-size-fits-all approach (e.g. this test only applied to 1 of our 8 main kits)

But this is what customers want and need. A personalized experience that shows them exactly what they need to do to get the most out of your product.

As for next steps, we'll continue to optimize our current onboarding series for the Advanced Beard Growth Kit and roll out a similar playbook for all of our other kits.

Bottom Line:

Not every product or service requires THIS much in-depth education.

BUT, it rarely hurts to over-communicate. It almost always hurts when you under-communicate.

Do what's best for your brand. Show your customers the value they're getting from your business!

Speaking of value... I know the guy who creates the coupons at The Beard Club (spoiler: it's me). If you're interested in trying us out, hit me with a reply to this email and I'll hook you up with a discount! 🤝

There you have it! 1 marketing tip to help grow your DTC business.

Here’s what else I’m checking out in the DTC marketing world:

1. Master these 13 cognitive biases to influence purchasers and 3x your sales

2. 10 psychology principles that will make you a better marketer (from a $100MM marketer)

3. Discover how the best brands use text messages to engage mobile consumers & drive revenue

Last but not least, check out our TripleDouble slack community for senior DTC marketers!

It's 100% free to apply and has over 25 of the smartest Founders, CMOs, and VPs working in the DTC space today.

I shared the test results from this newsletter in the slack community 2 weeks ago. Plus, some other interesting test results that haven't made it to this newsletter yet 👀

Want in on this action? Submit your free application today and we'll get back to you asap.

Hope this has been helpful!

If you enjoyed it, please forward it along to your marketing friends.

See ya next Thursday,

Joe

P.S. Whenever you're ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. Join the waitlist for my Email Marketing 101 course (click here).

2. Apply to join my free slack community of DTC marketing leaders (click here).

3. Sponsor my newsletter and get your brand or business in front of your fellow ABL subscribers (reply to this email).

P.P.S. And if you want to start writing your own newsletter on beehiiv, get started here!