Jake Summerhayes

Working with founders and business Leaders to craft powerful and authentic personal brands. 

Why? Because reputation matters. 

- 82% of customers trust a company when their senior management members are active on social media

- Brand messages are shared 24x more on personal accounts compared to company accounts

- Customers are willing to pay 13.5x more for elite industry experts

Yet only 1% of LinkedIn's 700 million users share weekly content. 

Our mission at Kurogo is to solve that.

Kurogo is derived from the Japanese ‘Kuroko’ referring to the black clad stagehands in traditional Japanese theatre.

The convention of wearing black implying the invisibility of the wearer on stage. 

We are your Kurogo. 

Directing, driving and delivering your personal brand from the background. 

Giving you the spotlight to excel in what you do best.

Head Of Client Services

Client: “Content approved, no changes”
Me (a nearly 30-year-old man ):

Client Services Director @ Kurogo | We create thought leaders through Personal Branding

“Who the fuck is Steven Bartlett?”

That was the response my Mrs had a few years ago when I said I wanted to watch Dragon's Den, because it was his first season.

This marketing bubble is much smaller than you think.

Go and touch some grass.

Just admit it, you’re never going to look at that saved post again…

I’m 29. I lead client services at a remote agency. 

My day: 

7:00am-1:00pm Work
1:00pm-3:00pm Break
3:00pm-4:30pm Work

Honestly any structure other than this would be bullshit, because it changes everyday.

My metrics for success are:
- Client Retention
- Team Happiness
- Team Performance

And whilst there is a list of tasks and responsibilities that fall under the pursuit of those, every day, week or month ends up being different. 

Things come up, priorities shift and I’m given the freedom to be flexible.

As long as we’re growing the business, and making progress towards those metrics, nothing else matters.

I am really not looking forward to 2026 

It's going to be an incredibly tough year for myself and Kurogo.

We're going to be dealing with a lot of consequences of 2025.

- Hitting Record MMR multiple times
- Crossing the £1,000,000 ARR mark
- Having our largest team yet 
- Having our biggest social ever
- Signing a record number of clients 
- Records across all client delivery metrics
- Record campaign performance metrics 

These are all huge problems because now we have to beat them again this year.

AND I need to hire a bunch of people to help us do it.

My steak is too juicy and my lobster is too buttery.

If you can be arsed being a part of it, keep an eye out on all personal and company socials.

We'll be releasing some roles soon...

I once fired a client during their onboarding call. 

They spent less than 15 minutes on the books.

What did the job was they were throwing around phrases like:
”What guarantees do I have after the contract ends?”
”This other agency offered me x, y and z”
”Can we add a refund if I’m not happy?”

(Bearing in mind they had already been back and forth with the sales team for over a month)

But these things weren’t the issue; they never are. 

Just symptoms of someone who’s jumped into something before they were ready. The reasons for which ultimately don’t matter. 

As soon as it becomes obvious we’re starting off on that foot, it’s best we end it before we both have a shit time and the regret spirals into resentment.

Like my first relationship
- I didn’t actually fire them, it was ‘mutual’ of course
- They went with someone else and came back a few months later
- We had a great time for 6-months and parted ways amicably 

Alls well that ends well.

When people say social media is cyclical this is what they mean…

4 years ago, I joined Kurogo as their 4th hire.

We’re now up to 20 of us with over £100k MRR.

In honour of that anniversary here’s my 4 biggest lessons beginning with f….

- Fucking focus: 1 thing done well is better than 10 things done poorly.
- Fuck Hustle Culture: Slow is smooth and smooth is fast, stop rushing
- Fucking Plan: It will never go the way you think, but it gives perspective.
- Fuck being scared of feedback: It’s never personal, but it is necessary.

4 years, 4 f’s, very fucking worth it. 

Here’s to another year of doing what we do. Sometimes wrong, mostly right, never boring.

Bonus For 2026: Fuck your shit AI content (still)

I check one number every week: client churn. If it's high, nothing else matters.

Most agency owners obsess over new leads.

But if your clients keep leaving, you’re running on a treadmill.

Acquisition feeds your ego. Retention feeds your bank balance.

Every Monday, I review churn with my senior team. If that number’s not low, nothing else in the business works. You can pile on as many new clients as you want-it’s like running a bath with the plug out.

Here’s what moved our retention from “average” to “best-in-class” in the last 6 months:

1. Set real expectations.
Tempting to promise the world in sales calls. But if you do, you’ll deal with unhappy clients and refunds. Be clear about what they get and what they don’t.

2. Nail the first 30 days.
Onboarding sets the tone. Give them a win in the first 48 hours. Show progress, no matter how small. Always tell them what’s next. Uncertainty kills trust.

3. Over-communicate.
We send weekly roundups: what we did, results, stats, next steps. Monthly reports give the big picture. Never let a client wonder if you’re working for them.

4. Do what you say, when you say.
Missed deadlines are worse than missed features. I left an agency once, not because they failed to deliver, but because they never did it on time. Consistency > fireworks.

5. Incentivise your team on retention.
Forget fancy bonus schemes. Reward your team for keeping clients. Simple target, simple reward.

Retention is not just about service. It’s about trust, clarity, and doing the basics right every time.

Want to scale? Obsess over churn.

ps. Save this post for the week you feel like you’re losing clients faster than you gain them.

Every business has three core systems:

1️⃣ Acquisition (get attention and leads)
2️⃣ Value Delivery (give clients what you promised)
3️⃣ Infrastructure (everything behind the scenes)

Most people scale the first one too early. 
They pour fuel on the fire before fixing leaks.

Here’s my rule: Don’t scale until less than 10% of your clients have problems. 

If you ignore this, you only scale the headaches.

Client experience is the same. 

Call clients at key points. 
Ask where the process broke. 
Use their feedback to smooth the journey.

Acquisition feeds your ego. Retention feeds your bank balance.

Everyone loves chasing new clients. Feels good. Makes you look busy. But if you can’t keep them, you’re running a business with the plug out.

Here’s what I see all the time:

- People refuse to work for free, saying they’re “worth more.” They spend 6 months searching for that first paid client.
- Meanwhile, the ones willing to work for free land their first client in 30 days, get proof, and start charging real money within 60.
- The ego crowd is still arguing about their value. The others are building a real business.

You don’t need to quit your day job to start. Validate your offer. Get a few case studies. Then focus on what actually matters: keeping those clients.

Retaining clients is where the real game starts. Most people obsess over acquisition. But acquisition is vanity. Retention is sanity.

Here are 5 things that have doubled our retention rate in the last 6 months:

1️⃣ Set real expectations. Overpromise in sales and you’ll create unhappy clients who leave fast. Be honest about what you deliver.

2️⃣ Nail the first 30 days. Give your client a clear win within 48 hours. Remove uncertainty. Let them know what happens next. First impressions stick.

3️⃣ Weekly communication. Every Friday, we send clients a roundup: what we did, what worked, and what’s next. If you don’t remind clients of your value, they’ll forget it.

4️⃣ Do what you say, when you say it. I’ve left agencies-not because the work was bad, but because promises weren’t kept. Reliability beats over-delivery every time.

5️⃣ Incentivise your team for retention. Tie bonuses to client stickiness, not just acquisition. The team cares about what you measure.

If you can’t retain clients, you’ll never scale. It’s that simple.

Acquisition is loud. Retention is quiet-but it’s where the money is.

Save this for the days you’re tempted to chase shiny new leads.

Helping DTC Brands Drive Predictable, Profitable Growth 📧 | Over $115M in Email Revenue For Clients | DM me ‘EMAIL’ to chat

Building Kensington Media House: a leading Retention Marketing Agency for DTC brands.

→ Top Klaviyo & Omnisend partner
→ Over $300M generated for clients
→ Worked with over 130 brands since we launched

If you want to learn more about how we can do this for your DTC store, book an introductory meeting with myself below where I'll share exactly how we produce the results that we do whilst building out a roadmap custom to your business on how you can do exactly the same:

https://calendly.com/d/yxt-prp-tgw

We are also always hiring and looking for best-in-class talent. Check out our open roles and how to apply here: https://www.kensingtonmediahouse.com/careers

Or, connect with us on YouTube!
https://youtube.com/@kensingtonmediahouse

Conor Sunderland

We just doubled a campaign's revenue with one simple trick.
Here's what we did:

We noticed "Toddler Tantrums" was crushing it as an email angle for this client.

So we built a quick landing page in Gem Pages with the exact same messaging.

The results?
→ Previous emails: $5.8k and $6.2k
→ Same angle with congruent landing page: $10,988

That's nearly 2x the revenue.

Why does this work so well?

Because congruence = conversions.

When someone clicks an email about toddler tantrums and lands on a page talking about the same problem, there's zero friction.

They're already sold on the angle. The landing page just needs to close them.

Most brands sleep on this but it's genuinely free money sitting on the table.

Test it with your next winning email angle and watch what happens.

What's your best performing email angle right now?

#DTC #emailmarketing #ecommerce

ALWAYS HIRING: Check My About Section | Helping DTC Brands Drive Predictable, Profitable Growth 📧 | Over $300M in Email Revenue For Clients | DM me ‘EMAIL’ to chat

Unpopular opinion: Seasonal campaigns still crush.

I know what you're thinking.

"Everyone does them, they must be played out by now."

Wrong.

People do them BECAUSE they work.

Take Dry January for example.

We run this campaign for clients every year and it performs regardless of industry.

The screenshots show two Dry January campaigns we sent recently.

Both absolutely printed money.

Why do seasonal campaigns work so well?

Because your customers are already thinking about them.

The cultural moment is doing half the marketing work for you.

You're just connecting your product to something already on their mind.

Don't overthink it. Don't try to be too clever and avoid them because "everyone else is doing it."

Everyone else is doing it because it drives revenue.

Jump on the next seasonal moment and ride the wave.

#DTC #emailmarketing #ecommerce

Quick redesign for one of Ireland’s best-known brands - O'Neills Irish International Sports Co. Ltd.

Here's what we changed:

- Added CTA button directly to hero image
- Moved main CTA below product showcase (not above it)
- Made that CTA bigger + full width for better clicks
- Added Trustpilot reviews at bottom for social proof

Small tweaks, big results. Sometimes it's not about reinventing the wheel, just putting it in the right place.

#DTC #emailmarketing #ecommerce

Our AI tech stack will 5x our team's output in 2026
(And most agencies are still using ChatGPT like it's 2023)

While everyone's arguing about whether AI will replace marketers, we've been building an unfair advantage.

These five tools are turning our team of 20 into a team that operates like 100.
Here's what's actually working:

- Claude for copywriting

By far the best LLM for email copy right now.

We train Claude projects on each client's brand voice, past winners and tone guidelines. The output is scary good.

It writes like a human who actually understands persuasion. Not some robot regurgitating features.

- Google Gemini for ad analysis

This is the secret weapon nobody's talking about.

Gemini can analyze video ads and break down everything. Copy, scene selection, narrative flow, setting, who the creator is. It's the best LLM for this specific use case.

We feed it competitor ads and it reverse engineers what's working. Game changer.

- Nano Banana for static ads

We're cranking out winning static ads for ecom brands in one prompt.

What used to take our designers hours now takes minutes.

Video functionality is coming soon too. Follow me for updates on that.

- Midjourney for UGC content

AI-generated UGC videos are getting really good now.

We're not at 100% yet, but we're close enough that it's worth testing. The cost savings are insane compared to traditional UGC creators.

- KMH Email Marketing Strategist (our custom GPT)

This is our secret sauce.

We trained a custom GPT on all our internal SOPs, past campaign winners and strategy frameworks. It writes banger emails AND helps with strategy and data reporting.

It thinks like our best strategists, but it never sleeps.

The result?

We're producing more winning content in less time than ever before. Our clients are seeing better results and we're not burning out our team.

AI isn't replacing marketers.

It's separating the ones who adapt from the ones who don't.

What AI tools are you using that actually move the needle? Drop them in the comments.

P.S. Want access to our KMH Email Strategist custom GPT? Comment 'STRATEGIST' below and I'll send it over.

#DTC #emailmarketing #ecommerce

PSA: You need to re-send your winning emails way more often
↳ Here's proof it works.

We took an old winner that did $31k during a sale period for one of our clients.

Removed the discount offer completely and re-sent it months later.

Result? $21k in revenue.

For context, regular campaigns for this product usually do $8-12k.

Why does this work so well?

Your list is constantly changing. New subscribers join every week who never saw that original email. Your engaged segments shift. People who ignored it the first time might be ready to buy now.

Winners are winners for a reason.

If an email crushed it once, the angle, copy, and offer clearly resonated with your audience.

Don't just archive it and move on.

Here's what we do:
- Track top-performing campaigns every month
- Build a swipe file of winners
- Re-send them 60-90 days later (sometimes sooner for fast-growing lists)
- Adjust the offer or subject line slightly if needed

This strategy alone adds thousands in revenue per month for our clients without creating new content.

Stop leaving money on the table.

Your best emails deserve a second (and third) life.

What's the best-performing email you've ever sent? Have you re-sent it?

#DTC #emailmarketing #ecommerce

This women's supplement brand just hit $10M/month in revenue
↳ Zero VC funding. Zero external capital.

While Grüns raised tens of millions and Athletic Greens burned through funding rounds, Primal Queen scaled past them all by being forced to stay profitable from day one.

The brand? Primal Queen.

They sell organ-based supplements (beef organs, colostrum) targeting hormone health and energy for women whose doctors keep dismissing their symptoms.

Here's how they crushed it:

- TikTok Shop domination
Massive affiliate network pumping out viral creator content every single month. These videos don't just stay on TikTok though.

- Meta ads at scale
Over 1,300 active ads on their brand page alone. Add in third-party whitelisting and you're looking at 2,000+ ads running simultaneously.

They repurpose those viral TikToks straight into Meta for insane reach.

But their Meta-native ads? Absolute masterpieces.

Real pain points women actually face:
- Doctors pushing antidepressants instead of solutions
- Birth control as a bandaid
- Being told to "just live with it"

The hook? No product drop for at least 15 seconds. They build the emotional struggle first with actors or creators, then reveal the solution.

One killer landing page

- Everything funnels to a single, brutally optimized page:
- Hero section hitting those frustrations hard
- Classic problem-agitate-solution framework
- Founder story (her failed fixes before discovering ancestral nutrition)
- Mountains of social proof
- Urgency and scarcity throughout
- Smart fear positioning around conventional "solutions"

The offer that converts

Three-month auto-ship bundle (buy two, get one free style) stacked with freebies. Mystery gifts, pill cases, ebooks. Makes the value feel massive while locking people into subscriptions via Loop.

Loop themselves did a thread showing Primal Queen went from $2M to $30M run rate in 18 months. Now they're past $10M MRR.

The lesson?

Study brands forced to be profitable, not the ones burning investor cash.

Primal Queen is the real DTC playbook right now.

What do you think? Underrated or overhyped?

#DTC #emailmarketing #ecommerce

Primal Queen Brand Breakdown

We tested a "Lucky Bag" offer for a client last month
↳ Had to cancel the sale early because everything sold out.

Here's what we did:

Customers got a random mix of products at a discount. Mystery products, random selection.

It opens a loop in people's minds. They HAVE to know what's inside.

We sent 3 emails over two days.

Total revenue: $113,800+

The sale was supposed to run for the full two days.

We had to cancel day two because they sold out in under 24 hours.

Why does this work?

Mystery offers tap into curiosity in a way standard discounts simply can't.

It's the same psychology behind:
- Loot boxes in games
- Mystery flavors
- Grab bags at events
- Unboxing content

People are hardwired to want to solve the mystery.

For DTC brands, this is perfect for:
- Moving excess inventory
- Testing new products with your audience
- Creating urgency (limited quantity by nature)
- Driving impulse purchases

The key is making the perceived value way higher than the price point.

If you're sitting on inventory you need to move or want to create serious buzz around a sale, test a mystery offer.

It works insanely well.

Have you tried mystery or lucky bag offers? What happened?

We've used this copywriting framework to generate $300M+ for clients
(And I've never seen anyone talk about it)

Most email marketers think good copy is about clever headlines and witty puns.

They're wrong.

Great copy triggers specific psychological principles that make people want to buy.

Robert Cialdini laid out 6 core weapons in his book Influence, and we've been weaponizing them in email marketing for years.

Here's how we use each one:

1. Reciprocity

Stop sending sales emails every damn day.

Your list will hate you for it.

We follow a 4:1 ratio. Four content-heavy campaigns, one direct sales push.

Content ideas that actually work:
→ Industry myth-busting
→ Press features
→ UGC compilation
→ Product deep dives
→ "Which product is right for you" quizzes

When we do sell, we rotate offers based on segments. Buyers get different deals than leads.

Test these: % off, $ amount off, bundles, free gifts, free shipping.

2. Commitment & Consistency

Segment properly or die trying.

Buyers need different messaging than leads. Simple as that.

If they've purchased before, remind them how good it felt. If they haven't, focus on getting them to try.

3. Social Proof

Raw testimonials crush polished ones every time.

The messier and more authentic, the better.

We plaster customer reviews throughout every template. TrustPilot scores, influencer endorsements, real customer stories.

4. Authority

"As seen in" blocks should be fixtures in your templates.

Press logos, professional endorsements, expert recommendations.

Authority transfers credibility instantly.

5. Liking

Here's a secret: Use a character to send your emails.

We create fictional brand voices (always female, seems to perform better) and it changes everything.

Emails write themselves. Customers reply like they're talking to a real person. 

Your deliverability improves because of engagement.

It's wild watching customers politely respond to "Emma" when she doesn't exist.

6. Scarcity

Only use real scarcity. Never fake it.

Countdown timers for actual deadlines. Stock alerts for genuine inventory issues.

This principle is nuclear, so use it wisely.

Lie once and your credibility is torched forever.

The lesson?

Stop writing clever copy and start writing persuasive copy.

These six principles have been battle-tested for decades.

Use them right and you'll print money.

What's the biggest copywriting mistake you see brands making?

#DTC #emailmarketing #ecommerce

This footwear brand is quietly outgrowing Allbirds and Hoka
↳ And you've probably never heard of them.

Hike Footwear makes barefoot-style shoes targeting foot pain, bunions, plantar fasciitis, and chronic issues most brands ignore.

They're bootstrapped, pulling 1.5M+ monthly site visits, and scaling profitably.

Here's their playbook:

- Meta ads at scale

Hundreds of active ads, but the real genius is how they hack Facebook's algorithm for hyper-niche pockets.

They're basically running 10+ mini-brands simultaneously:

- Medical workers on their feet for 12-hour shifts
- Older folks with chronic back pain
- Athletes in recovery
- Rheumatoid arthritis sufferers
- Anyone with brutal foot agony

The messaging gets ultra-specific too. Dark pain points like "Doctors said surgery, try this instead" or "Survive 12-hour shifts without agony."

Most brands are terrified of niching this hard. They think Meta can't find enough people.

Hike proves the opposite. Dial your messaging personally and volume explodes.

- Custom advertorial pages

When an angle wins for a demographic, they hit them with a tailored landing page mirroring that exact pain and solution.

No generic one-size-fits-all pages. Conversion-optimized for each pocket.

- One-click upsells

Insoles, bundles, add-ons at checkout boosting AOV by at least 10%. That extra margin lets them push higher CPAs on Meta while staying wildly profitable.

10% AOV lift? Absolute game-changer for ad spend efficiency.

- Elite email flows

Their welcome series uses storytelling to build trust fast. Abandoned cart sequences with urgency and strategic discounts. Post-purchase upsells combined with real value.

They send at least 4 emails weekly focused on pain-relief tips like "Hike hacks for arthritis." Educational, not pushy. Turns buyers into repeat customers.

Email marketing is how Hike preserves long-term profitability. They've built a massive CRM to launch new offers to without relying purely on cold traffic.

The takeaway?

Go narrow on your messaging. Build funnels per demographic. Stack upsells. 

Nail your email game.

That's how bootstrapped brands win.

Want a full guide on how 9-figure DTC brands like Hike build bulletproof email systems? Comment 'HIKE' and I'll send you our 75-page breakdown.

#DTC #emailmarketing #ecommerce

Hike Footwear Brand Breakdown

Getting too clever with your sales can lose you money.
Here's what happened:

A client wanted us to test a long educational email during one of their sales.

They thought it would build more trust and drive better conversions.

I wasn't convinced but we agreed to A/B test it.

The results?

The straight sale email did 4X the revenue of the educational version.

Not 10% better. Not 50% better.

Four times better.

The lesson?

When you're running a sale, people want to know about the sale.

Don't bury your offer in education. Don't make them work for it.

Just tell them what you're selling and why they should buy it now.

Offers ultimately convince people during promotional periods.

Save the education for your regular campaigns when you're building the 
relationship.

But when it's time to sell? Sell.

#DTC #emailmarketing #ecommerce

Your emails aren't broken. Your reputation is.

Here's what I mean:

I audited a brand last week doing £280k/month. Their campaigns were getting 18% open rates when they should be hitting 45%+.

The founder kept asking about the email copy, the design, the subject lines.

None of that mattered.

Gmail and Yahoo had already decided these emails weren't worth showing to people.

Here's how deliverability actually works:

Inbox providers track your sending reputation. If you've had poor open rates and weak engagement historically, they remember. You get labeled as low priority.

Your emails go to promotions. Or spam. Your open rates stay terrible. The cycle continues.

But if you have strong engagement? You get the primary inbox. Better placement. Better results.

The fix is simple (but takes discipline):

Stop mailing your entire list right now.

Send exclusively to your 7-day engaged segment for the next 2-4 weeks. Let inbox providers see that people actually want your emails.

Your open rates will jump to 55-60%+.

Then slowly expand. Mail 14-day engaged. Then 30-day. Keep watching your metrics.

Your goal is to hit 180-day engaged with 40%+ open rates across the board.

We've used this process to rescue dozens of accounts with terrible deliverability. It works every single time.

Bad deliverability isn't a content problem. It's a reputation problem.

Fix the reputation and everything else fixes itself.

---

P.S. Want our full deliverability repair guide that shows exactly how to rebuild your sender reputation?

Comment 'DELIVERABILITY' and I'll send it over

#emailmarketing #DTC #deliverability

We made £16,000 from one email by removing the hero image.

Let me explain:

Most e-commerce brands think every email needs a massive designed header, tons of graphics, and a polished layout.

But there's a format that often outperforms: Branded plain text.

It's not a boring text-only email. It's a clean layout with your logo, some product images, social proof... but no big flashy header graphic.

Why does this crush?

Because it doesn't look like an ad. It looks like a real email from a real person.

People actually read it instead of scanning and closing.

Last month we ran a test for a client:

↳ Designed email with hero image: £7,494 in revenue

↳ Branded plain text (same offer, same list): £16,000

More than double the revenue from the exact same audience.

The lesson? Sometimes stripping back your design is exactly what converts.

Your emails don't need to look like a Vogue spread. They need to get read and drive clicks.

We use this format constantly for our clients and it prints money.

Worth testing for your brand? Absolutely.

---

P.S. Want to see examples of high-converting branded plain text emails we've built?

Comment 'PLAINTEXT' and I'll send them over

#emailmarketing #ecommerce #DTC

If you're gearing up for Black Friday, do this one thing first:

Clean your list. Aggressively.

I'm serious. BFCM is the perfect opportunity to suppress profiles that are either:

a) Not going to get emailed during this period anyway

b) Haven't engaged with a single email in months

Too many brands are scared to suppress people. They think a bigger list = more revenue.

Wrong.

A bloated list with dead profiles kills your deliverability, tanks your open rates, and costs you money every single month in ESP fees.

During BFCM when you're sending high volume, this gets even worse.

Use the segment definition in the image below as a starting point for who to suppress.

If someone hasn't opened an email in 180+ days and you're not planning to win them back during BFCM, why are you paying to keep them on your list?

Cut them loose.

Your deliverability will improve. Your open rates will jump. Your ESP bill will drop.

And you'll make more money from the people who actually want to hear from you.

Do the list clean now before BFCM hits. You'll thank me later.

#BFCM #emailmarketing #DTC

This segment is a hidden profit center most brands ignore.
Here's the truth about customer lifetime value:

60%+ of your LTV comes in the first 90 days after someone's first purchase.

Yet most brands treat these customers the same as everyone else on their list.

Big mistake.

Start doing this instead:
→ Create a segment of customers who placed their first order in the last 90 days
→ Send targeted emails specifically to this group
→ Track the results separately

Why does this work?

Because these customers are still attentive. They're still excited about your brand.

Pushing up their LTV while they actually care is the easiest revenue win email can give you.

And it's not just revenue. It's profit.

These customers already converted once. The CAC is paid. Everything from here is margin.

If you're not segmenting and targeting your 0-90 day customers differently, you're leaving serious money on the table.

Try it for one month and let me know what happens.

#DTC #emailmarketing #ecommerce

We re-use this winning angle every January without fail
↳ And it crushes every single time.

The angle? Habit Stacking

We position our client's products alongside habits people already have.

For example:
"Add this to your morning coffee routine"
"Stack this with your daily walk"
"Make this part of your skincare ritual"

It works because you're not asking people to create entirely new behaviors. 

You're just adding one small thing to what they're already doing.

The psychology is powerful. New habits are hard. Piggybacking on existing ones? Easy.

Results from our latest campaign using this angle:

$12,018 in revenue from one email

For context, $8k per campaign is solid performance for this client.

This angle consistently outperforms by 30-50%.

Why January specifically?

Everyone's thinking about habits. New year, new routines, fresh starts. It's the perfect storm for habit stacking messaging.

But honestly, this angle works year-round. We just lean into it harder in Q1.
If you're looking for a fresh campaign idea that doesn't require reinventing the wheel, try habit stacking.

Find the existing routines your customers have and show them how your product fits seamlessly into those moments.

What winning angles do you re-use consistently? Let me know below.

#DTC #emailmarketing #ecommerce

Just redesigned a Vivobarefoot sale email

Here's what we changed:

- Shorter, bigger headline screaming "UP TO 40% OFF"
- Added CTA button directly to hero image
- Bigger CTA at email bottom for maximum impact
- Trustpilot reviews block to seal the deal

Sometimes you need to SHOUT about your sale.

#DTC #emailmarketing #ecommerce

Stop running "20% off" sales and try this instead
↳ We just did $125k in 4 days with one simple tweak.

For a client's January sale, instead of the standard discount, we ran: Buy 2, Get 1 Free

Ran it January 1st through 4th. Four days total.

The results:

Email 1: $42,463
Email 2: $42,025
Email 3: $37,963
Email 4: $52,140
Email 5: $30,744

Total: $125,764 in four days.

Side note: This brand runs 12-hour click attribution (the strictest setting possible), so real revenue was likely way higher.

Why did this work so well?

The math feels different to customers. It's more exciting than seeing another percentage off. And it moves inventory FAST.

People love the perception of getting something free, even though the discount value is similar to 33% off.

The psychology just hits different.

If you're planning a January sale to kickstart momentum, don't default to your usual discount structure.

Test something fresh:
- Buy X, Get Y Free
- Mystery bundles
- Tiered gifts with purchase
- Lucky bag offers

Novelty drives action. Your list is tired of seeing the same 20% off.

Give them something that makes them stop scrolling.

What's the most creative sale offer you've run? Drop it in the comments.

#DTC #emailmarketing #ecommerce

Running out of email campaign ideas?

Here's how I solve this for our clients every single week:

Most brands I talk to hit a wall with email ideation. They send the same tired campaigns on repeat, their list gets bored, and revenue tanks.

But here's the thing: the best ideas already exist. You just need to know where to look.

1. Competitor Analysis

Sign up to your competitors' lists. Steal their best concepts (not their copy). Use owletter.com to track what they're sending without destroying your inbox.

2. Email Databases

Milled.com and reallygoodemails.com are absolute gold mines. I can scroll for 20 minutes and come away with campaign ideas for the next month.

3. AI (but you need good prompts)

ChatGPT can generate endless ideas if you prompt it correctly. Most people just ask "give me 10 email ideas" and wonder why they get garbage.

You need to feed it your brand info, your USPs, your audience. Then it actually works.

4. Content Repurposing

Got blog content sitting there for SEO? Turn those into email campaigns. Dead simple and your copywriting is already done.

We produce 1700+ email campaigns per month for clients using these exact methods.

The brands that scale their email channel aren't the ones with the most creative team. They're the ones with the best systems for finding ideas.

Stop overthinking it. Start systematizing it.

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P.S. Want the full SOP we use internally to never run out of campaign ideas?

Comment 'IDEAS' below and I'll send it over (no opt-in needed)

#DTC #emailmarketing #ecommerce

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Jake Summerhayes

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taplio

The Battle

Jake Summerhayes

Conor Sunderland

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Jake Summerhayes's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreConor Sunderland's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreJake Summerhayes's LinkedIn Performance