ATTN Labs

ATTN Labs helps scale E-Commerce and digital products companies by developing and implement their marketing and growth strategies.  

We do this by testing and scaling ad campaigns while tracking their performance down to the dollar.  We also help to demystify attribution so decision makers can understand where to allocate their limited marketing resources. 

Our clients include rapidly growing brands in the DTC/CPG space, consumer teach, software as a service and a limited number of influencer based brands. 

The common thread for each of these brands is existing adspend and a successful product that needs experienced marketers to develop a strategy to utilize all the paid and organic channels to facilitate profitable increases in customer acquisition.

Founder

Health Via Modern Nutrition (HVMN)

Advisory Role

Botanic Tonics

Investor

OPUS

At-Home Wellness Tech for Emotional Fitness.  Working with the OPUS growth and marketing teams on customer acquisition, pre-order / pre-launch campaigns and GTM strategy.

Marketing and Strategy

The University of Chicago Booth School of Business

MS/MBA - computer science & business with a concentration in marketing analytics.  Worked with The Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation's student led startups on customer acquisition and growth.

MS/MBA Candidate

Reforge

Worked with the team that developed the Reforge Growth Series, "The most comprehensive overview available anywhere on how tech companies grow."  As an early hire I was fortunate enough to learn from Brian and his team prior to entering business school.

Growth Marketer

UMZU

Alternative health supplements brand.  Was a part of the initial round of hires for UMZU.  Worked with them on their product marketing , including branding, design, copy and product strategy.

Product Marketing Manager

United States Department of Defense

Studied at U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School, the U.S. Army’s school for the professional training of Army special operations leaders, warriors, and operators.
Selected for special operations training through a rigorous assessment and selection process; graduated from Special Operations Forces Captains Career Course.

John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School

Served as the assistant departmental lead for all matters concerning plans and operations. Responsible for preparing and supervising the execution of all training within a 900 person organization. Identified requirements and ensured training was oriented on setting conditions for improving proficiency levels across the formation. Lastly, I conducted reviews of strategic goals for synchronization and completion, while ensuring risk management was integrated across the agency.

Operations Officer (Operations Manager)

Fire Support Officer for a 10 man team charged with advising an Afghan Army infantry battalion (approx 400 soldiers) in the day to day operations and training of their organization.  Located in Panjwai Afghanistan.

Security Forces Assistance Team 48 FSO (Director of Analysis)

• Directed fire support for an infantry company assigned to 4rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division.
• Served as chief advisor for the employment of artillery, mortars, attack helicopters, and close air support to company commander of a 163-soldier infantry company during both pre-deployment training and in a volatile area of Afghanistan.

Company Fire Support Officer (Program Manager)

B.S. Mandarin, Nuclear Engineering

The U.S. Military Academy at West Point is a four-year, co-educational, federal, liberal arts
college located 50 miles north of New York City. It was founded in 1802 as America's first
college of engineering and continues today as one of our nation’s premier leader-development
institutions, consistently ranked among top colleges in the country. Its mission remains
constant—to educate, train, and inspire the Corps of Cadets so that each graduate is a
commissioned leader of character committed to the values of Duty, Honor, Country and prepared
for a career of professional excellence and service to the nation as an officer in the U. S. Army.

• Company Honor Representative at West Point

United States Military Academy at West Point

Co-Founder @ ATTN Labs | Scaling E-Commerce Growth

As the co-founder of ATTN Labs, I help growth stage eCommerce brands (10-100m arr) scale their new customer acquisition.

We do this through relentless problem solving,

focused on driving new customer acquisition.

This means relentlessly testing campaings and tracking results.

Looks like this:
↳clear reporting & communication
↳incrementality focused marketing
↳real-time reporting with your team
↳solving your problems (not the ones we've decided are important)

We've worked with some of the fastest growing brands of 2022-2023 in these categories:
↳ retail
↳food & Bev
↳snacks
↳supplements

We like to work closely with a select group of clients.

This allows us to work with them on:
↳ CRO
↳ creative development
↳ influencer recruiting and whitelisting
↳ thoughtful channel expansion
↳ retention, upsell/crosss-sell programs
↳ product bundling and offer creation

Basically we like to take on the whole DTC growth piece,

but, 

we are open to starting small.

If you are interested in learning more click the link at the top of my profile,

or, click through on my featured section to book a call.,

Media Buying Is Dying

Managing your acquisition pipeline is all that matters

Regardless of your beliefs

The platforms have changed

The skills to acquire customers have changed with them

You no longer need:

Ads Ninjas 
Secret strategies 
Special targeting 
“Ugly” ads (no trust me they always convert)

These tactics are symptoms of an inefficient market

These days, the ideal buyer looks more like a product manager

They need to be able to do things like:

Manage a testing backlog
Develop creative briefs
Interface with tracking QA
Create campaign timelines
Provide input for LP development 

If your media buyer cannot do those things it doesn’t matter how much of a ninja they are

“Media Buyers” must adapt

P.S. - Yes they still need to know what buttons to push in an ads manager 

3 Hours on YouTube can get you started there.

#paidmedia #paidads #dtcbrands #dtcmarketing

Ian Lenny

"As an entrepreneur I'll get to be my own boss..."

Says the guy who's never started a business.

I can 100% say, I've never had more "𝘣𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘴" then I do now.

As an agency co-founder with an amazing team,
and an all-star roster of clients.

I'm basically a customer service rep for:
 -> our team members
 -> our clients
 -> our support staff

This isn't a bad thing.

In the military, I remember a Navy SEAL officer telling me about the job of a SEAL platoon leader. 

"up and out" ~ was the phrase he used to describe the officer's responsibility.

The leader was responsible for the team's planning, especially infil and exfil.

It wasn't the most glamorous but it was critical. 

While you're job as an entrepreneur isn't like that of a SEAL platoon leader, it does involve facilitating other people's best work.

...

What have you learning about entrepreneurship?

P.S. - the little boy in the photos is currently my biggest "boss"

Everyone thinks media buyers should know 2-3 channels

But I prefer buyers that master just 1 

Here's how you can build mastery without loosing other skills

Here's what that looks like. 
• Build mastery on 1 
• Be familiar with 1-2 others
  
→ learn any other platform "just-in-time" as needed

Say your typical media buyer decides to master Meta...

This means:
• multiple clients 
• agency jobs
• or scaling one brand

While doing any of these the buyer could learn TikTok or GAds for smaller less time intensive clients or while working on their own projects. 

In this case, if you were mastering Meta, it might make sense to become competent or just dangerous enough on TikTok and to have a more general understanding of Google ads.

This means being able to setup and run accounts but never considering it your main thing.

it takes effort to master a channel,
so focus until you are sure you reach high-level skills and confidence on 1 channel.

...

What do you think, master one channel or many?

Agencies want 7-figure marketers for 90k/yr

Brands want agencies with 7-figure marketers for 10k/mo

Both parties are surprised when results suck and "churn" is high...

In the words of the great Warren Buffet:

"𝘐𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢 𝘥𝘶𝘮𝘣 𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘴𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘮, 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘥𝘶𝘮𝘣 𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘴"

Every problem agencies and brand have in hiring the best marketers and getting results comes down to incentives. 

This mostly means finding marketers that deserve lots of $$$, getting them the best career changing projects, excellent teams to work with and compensating well for their time. 

The 6 biggest struggles agencies have:

1. Finding good clients
2. Keeping good clients
3. Finding good talent
4. Keeping good talent
5. Consistent quality with scale

If you have the same struggles, here's my advice:

1. Incentivize properly

...


What do you struggle with?

Influencers are the new owners,

DTC Brands are working for them now,

because distribution is all that matters.

With tools like trnd.io,

influencers can own their own storefront,

so no more:
• Afiliate Links
• URL Redirects
• UTMs
• Waiting for affiliate payouts

In fact, last week I was talking with Mike Rama from Brands Meet Creators and he mentioned their partnership with TikTok that lets creators track their sales directly through the platform (𝘯𝘰 3𝘳𝘥 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘺 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨).

Influencers can really "own" the distribution.

So these days, 

Brand are competing for:
• Influencer Audiences
• Authority sites
• Qualified Lists

of these, 

the biggest opportunity is with Influencer audiences.

Influencers realize this,

They want:
• % of sales
• long term contracts
• product input
• Equity

They don't need to wait around for offers.

They can:
• Recruiting eComm operators
• Hire retail consultant
• Hire marketers
• Bring products to market

Some are even creating their own investment syndicates and backing portfolios of brands.

This isn't the first time this shift has occurred.

In Peter Thiel's book "Zero to One", he mentions a similar change in tech that took place after the "Dot Com Boom".

Tons of entrepreneurs were bringing new "tech" to market.

The main barrier to entry for new products shifted from "tech" to "distribution".

Building wasn't the problem...

getting users was.

This is similar to the change in eComm right now....

5-10 year ago anyone who had a product could sell (𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘥𝘳𝘰𝘱-𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴 ~ 𝘚𝘩𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘧𝘺 + 𝘍𝘉 𝘈𝘥𝘴)

Now the game has changed... you need an advantage on the distribution side.
 -> A way into people's hands (online)
 -> and a way onto shelves (retail).

#1 requires help from influencers.

So, 

just like the best "growth" experts gained leverage in Silicone Valley: -> (𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘩 𝘗𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘺𝘢)

the best influencer are gaining leverage in eComm: 
-> (𝘔𝘳𝘉𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘵)

-

Moral of the story,

for eComm operators....

"Start courting the best distribution partners right now"

Look at recruiting influencers as it's own sales process.

Or,

if you really want to go HAM, look at it like you are trying to raise money.

 -> Put your best foot forward
 -> offer a compelling vision for partnership
 -> play the numbers game

With influencers gaining leverage, you need a "deep bench" of talent.

This means large pipelines of potential partners you are making deals with.

This is THE highest leverage activity in DTC.

#dtcmarketing #cpgbrands #paidmedia #influencermarketing 

"Are you guys just pushing buttons?"

Real questions from a client...

Clearly we something was "off".

Regardless, 

this comment caused me to STOP.

If someone asks you this, KNOW you are not providing the right kind of value.

Whether that's in:
-> the problem you're solving
-> the process you use
-> the way you explain it
-> what you prioritize

doesn't matter

in service, the experience is paramount.

If you aren't providing it, (𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘶𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘵'𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘤𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘵)

you need to figure out what you can do to improve the experience.

In this case,

we took 3 steps:
-> "offline" user interview
-> diagnose misalignment
-> develop plan of action

Through this process we realized that we weren't "showing" our work enough.

Specifically,  

the client wanted to see "behind the curtain" on how our creative development was executed. 

They were unsure about how our editors were using the feedback from the platforms and their team.

Once they saw how we managed the process they were more then satisfied...

They saw:
 - brand specific project board for requests
 - standardized brief templates
 - scripting for UGC creators and influencers
 - bookings request for studio product shoots

literally a team of strategist and editors helping them to grow,
and a thoughtful process to make it happen according to live feedback from the account. 

From the clients POV (The experience) it felt like nothing was getting tested when the tests were being put up in the account without talking about our process. 

and from the experience perspective, that's all that mattered.

Once we had a higher frequency of updates, even with the same amount of test, the client was satisfied.

...

Who else has faced similar issues?

DTC brands are getting destroyed by DWC incumbents.

Here's why 👇

DWC stands for (Direct with Consumer).

It’s a phrase coined by Nicholas Ling, Co-founder of Pattern Brands.

Nicholas uses this phrase to describe a brand that primarily engages in a 2 way communication with customers in order to reflexively develop products and strategy.

This is the DTC version of what Dave Gerhardt talks about when he tells founders and CEOs to get in front of their customers on social and start a 2-way dialogue.

The reason for this is that it allows you to do what Category Pirates calls “Prosecuting The Magic Triangle”.

This magic triangle refers to a “data flywheel” that allows you to continually iterate/refine your category, company and product design.

The sole purpose of this DTC channel is to establish this “data flywheel” (2-way dialogue with your customers) as quickly as possible.

When you can transition this 2-way dialogue into a community, you have a brand you are building with your customer. (DWC)

This community gives you real-time feedback on your product & brand positioning which helps to inform your strategy. (The Magic Triangle)

Starting this 2-way conversation doesn’t have to be difficult. 

You can start with these:

✅ Customer Surveys using platforms like SurveyMonkey 
✅ Asynchronous Interviews using platforms like VideoAsk 
✅ Email invites to private communities like Circle or Skool 
✅ Ads comments Q&A and DM invites for special offers
✅ Customer service sales scripts on platforms like Gorgias 

These are some of the easiest ideas to start with.

But,

There are endless ways to start to establish this relationship with your customers.

The”North Star” for your brand should be the creation of a positive “human” experience.

The best way I’ve seen this described is by Pattern Brands Chief Creative Officer Emmett Shine:

“A great brand is like a great person, you trust them, enjoy their company, and want to spend time in their presence.”

Couldn’t agree more.

If you keep that quote in mind and continually think of ways to enhance the relationship with your customers in that light, you can’t go wrong.

In future posts I’ll talk about specifics for the next step (Building the community).

P.S. - Don't feel limited by the specific tech I mention above like "Discord" that's just a great place holder for { insert convenient place people can hang out }.

What else? 👇


Marketers with “fuzzy” thinking are getting replaced.

In demand marketers use frameworks, here’s why 👇

When I first read Brian Balfour's blog (formerly coelevate.com) I knew he was “doing something different”.

But,

I couldn’t really put my finger on what that "something" was. 

Regardless, I knew Brain was a great person to learn from so I started following everything I could from his company Reforge .

I was even fortunate enough to get to participate in one of the 2017 Growth Series cohorts.

This opened my eyes to the power of content to create community and scale expertise.

The most powerful lesson I learned came from Susan Su (former VP of marketing at Reforge). 

Working with me on post edits for the Reforge blog, Susan told me:

“you need to productize content, think of each blog post like a product, the reader needs to be able to enter at any point and receive value”.

That stuck with me.

Years later, on Maja Voje's EP-124 of the ProductLed Podcast, I heard Elena Verna mention the power of “Frameworks”.

Elena talked about how everything changed for her after she attended Reforge and learned to create frameworks (using content products) to explain growth processes to students.

At that moment “it” clicked for me.

The “something different” Brian and the rest of the Reforge community was doing was creating visual frameworks to explain growth processes.

They were productizing expertise in visual and written content. 

I was struck by the simplicity of this process and how easy it was to overlook it's impact on clients and customers.

It’s also made me realize how this visual mapping of processes is missing from marketing (outside of Saas).

There is a huge opportunity for marketers that can align team efforts around processes they can explain in and "easy-to-understand" manner.

...

Who is mapping processes like this?

Selling a CPG company is a process!

DTC is just one part,

The other two are your supply chain

And your retail expansion plan.

Sure, there are some CPG COs that sell based off DTC numbers alone,

but those are few and far between.

For the majority of CPG companies wanting to sell,

investors will be looking at "doors" or number of retail locations you are in.

This means having solid SPINS data to back up you eComm numbers.

So how do you get great eComm sales data,

in a bunch of retail locations and

sell-through rates that lend credibility to the story you are telling investors?

After all,

that's the way most CPG COs attract a strategic buyer or impressive multiples from a PE group.

So how can you do all that?

Well,

That's a lot for one post,

but I can break down the DTC Components of that puzzle.

For anyone trying to sell a CPG CO,

DTC should:
• Work to decrease marginal CAC
• So you can
• Build your customer database
• So you can
• Generate customer insights

These insights allow you to:
• Develop more attractive messaging
• Discover adjacent ICPs
• Create the perfect "try before you buy" offer
• Build your ICP story for retail

Your ICP Story for retail consists of who you are selling to and how you'll attract them to new retail locations.

This is built on:
• Qualitative data from real customer feedback
• Sell through rates at other retail locations

The second one is a chicken and egg problem if you aren't in any retail locations.

This is where partnering with a retail consultant is critical,

someone who's done this before,

Once you have that, your DTC brand can help you with the rest.

Try before you buy is a critical piece of this puzzle.

In Geographic areas where you are launching new retail campaigns,

You want to:
• Let people know what stores you are in
• Develop a trial pack

"Letting people know what stores you are in",

can be as simple as ads with the retail locations logo.

"developing a trial pack" is the try-before-you-buy offer,

The purpose of this is to:

get your product in people's hands before they are staring at a wall of products "in-store".

Ideally, in new GEOs you are launching in,

you want people to have seen and ad for your product that SHOWS the retail location you are launching into

and,

you want them to have ordered a low cost trial pack.

This trial pack IS NOT optimized for profitability...

It's optimized for:
• 1st time trials
• Close to break even blended CAC is a 90-120 day window

I'm going to leave it here for today,

This is enough to give anyone some ideas about DTC's role in retail expansion

and ultimately,

growing the multiple for your CPG CO.

If you enjoyed this, make sure to repost for any DTC operator in your network!

And, if you liked it,

let me know which part you'd like more details on in a future post 👇

hashtag#dtcmarketing hashtag#cpg hashtag#paidmedia hashtag#shopify 

Last week I had a discovery call with a 10-Figure brand, 

I was shocked to hear about their 2 "Big problems"

This companies valuation was just shy of 3 Billion...

The craziest part,

I hear similar problems from 8 figure brands every week.  

The problems:
 -> Siloed functions in the company
 -> Lack of a "source of truth" for tracking


I get the "Siloed functions" problem,
as a company grows communication gets harder.

The shocking part was the issues with tracking...

This company had:
 -> multi-millions marketing budget
 -> in-house data team
 -> top tier engineers
 -> support staff

yet they couldn't get a unified "source of truth" for their tracking & analytics...

This was THE ONE THING that was holding the company back.

The specific problem?

No plan to get clear definitions of MQLs or SQLs.

Because of this, there was no agreement on lead standards,
so the marketing and sales teams were not aligned....

Yes, this wasn't my typical DTC discovery call,

but, 

we see the same issues all the time between driving demand and capturing demand in the marketing DTC brands are doing. 

In DTC we talk about this as driving "incremental" revenue.

This is a fancy way of saying brand new qualified customers, very similar to MQLs in B2B.

B2B companies want new leads that are qualified to send to sales (MQLs)
DTC companies want new traffic that's qualified to send to a sales page.

Both types of companies need systems to track the level of qualification of their users.

Whether you're asking users for a form fill or a low friction first purchase, 
the qualification of the user taking that action is what matters. 

...

Is "tracking" every companies main problem?

#dtcmarketing #b2bmarketing #marketing 

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