Cheap is expensive.

This is the motto of all mottos. It applies to any and everything in life, in theory, and in commerce.

As a marketer, if you give me a sales goal, I have just one question:  

WHAT’S THE BUDGET? 

With ample ad spend and the right team (so long as there’s PRODUCT MARKET FIT), almost anything is possible. 

But, all budgets and all growth marketers are not created equal. You see, how you OPERATIONALIZE your budget is the secret sauce. 

Here’s what I mean: 

A GROWTH MARKETER who is only responsible for a top-line sales target (revenue) can’t make operationally wise decisions. Operationally wise decisions = your company’s financial health.  

For example, if your growth team is only measured and rewarded based on top-line rev #s, they’re bound to make one of the following MISTAKES:

1. Launching an offer that is TOO STEEP. 

If I were judged on ROAS and booked revenue only, I’d be incentivized to push for discounts and sales that disrespect margin. When you disrespect margin, you fuck up your P&L. When you fuck up your P&L, over enough time, you fuck up your business.

2. Running TOO MANY SALES. 

More revenue is always better than less revenue right? No, no it’s not. 

You can not celebrate every holiday. Well you can, if that’s fun for you, by all means, please go for it — Enjoy St. Patrick’s Day. Enjoy National Cupcake Day. Throw a party. 

But if you’re a growth marketer and you’re using every EXCUSE in the book to launch a sale, you’re cruising for a bruising.

We teach people how to TREAT US. We also teach customers how to treat us. Discounts and sales need to be carefully planned, CAREFULLY SPACED OUT, and they must balance brand growth with brand equity. If you’re selling a product that is usually $70, but if you go on sale for 40% off for some random holiday that isn’t significant, you are stomping on your brand’s perceived value. 

Train your customers to shop when they are ready. Do not train your customers to hold until the next sale you run. IF THEY WON’T BUY ON A RANDOM WEDNESDAY AT 9PM, YOU’RE IN TROUBLE.

P.S: A brand that won’t be named sent me the following campaign emails in March alone: spring into spring sale (30% off), national cocktail day (20% off), lucky you st Patrick’s day sale (30% off), founder’s birthday sale (40% off). HELLO 911! I’D LIKE TO REPORT A CRIME.

Desperado.

My point is: THERE’S ALWAYS A FINANCIALLY HEALTHY WAY TO DRIVE CONVERSION AND THERE’S ALWAYS A CREATIVE WAY TO BOOK MORE ORDERS IN A DAY. Optimize your landing pages. Test a new platform. Try OOH. 

Try anything really, so long as you don’t cheapen your biggest asset: your product. 

It’s not WENT-TO-MARKET. It’s Go-to-Market. It’s happening now, and it happens every day for every brand that’s out in the ether. We have to carefully craft how we show up. We have to act like a premium brand in a sea of competitors.  

IT’S CALLED GO-TO-MILLIONS, AND THE STRATEGY IS FUTURE-FOCUSED.

In my opinion, the best businesses are run by scrappy operators. Scrappy doesn’t mean stingy. The best operators spend money on:

️ Better TALENT 

️ BETTER eco-friendly packaging  

️ Better TECHNOLOGY 

️ BETTER advertising  

️ Better, more EFFICIENT fulfillment 

️ Acquiring BETTER, stickier customers who aren’t lured in by an excessive  offer  

And, the BEST OPERATORS know that cheap is and will forever be expensive:

: Underpaying great talent today, a dream team that leaves tomorrow. 

: Running a random sale today, lowering your price tomorrow. 

: A website overloaded with apps and a prebuilt theme, SLOW site speed and bad conversion rate tomorrow. 

: Acquiring the wrong subscriber today through a STEEP offer (low CAC, low LTV), having to find a new customer tomorrow.

ON THIS EPISODE OF SHOP TIL WE DROP

‍♀️: K18 hair mask – Aquis’s cooler, younger sister. We had a brand collab with Acuqis back in my Poosh Days! HAVE LOVED THEIR PRODUCTS EVER SINCE. So when Acquis launched K18, I knew I’d try it one day or another. That day was today. Special shoutout to my BFF/ coworker Carly for influencing this purchase – we are terrible shopping influences on each other but YOLO. 

  ‍♀️: Kos Vanilla Protein Powder – I actually am writing this week’s newsletter from beautiful NYC! In town to hang with the Sharma Brands team, and that means one thing and one thing only: going to Nik’s favorite bodega every morning post our 7am team Rumble class. We all copied Nik’s daily smoothie order, and it was love at first sip. The star of the show? Kos’s VEGAN protein powder. DTC and is good for the planet and doesn’t taste like shit!!!!!   

: Eberjay MONOGRAMMED jammies – the cost per wear here is fab. I do laundry according to my pajama rotation. It’s Eberjay’s world and I’m just living in it. I made sure to put the word MONOGRAMMED IN ALL CAPS – this is essential and I will be sleeping in matching MONOGRAMMED jammies for the rest of my life.

: Whole milk and Almond milk and Oat milk – recently, I’ve been very into mixing up my coffee. I like to keep it fresh, but this is new for me. Some days I’m a Whole Milk latte gal. Others, a trendy Oat Milk iced vanilla latte chickie, and other days I’m a dash of Almond milk health queen. WHO WILL I BE TODAY? How do you take your coffee and do you ALWAYS TAKE YOUR COFFEE THAT WAY? Or do you mix it up?  

: My wedding shoes – you thought I’d go on a work trip to NYC and not arrive a day early to shop? T-minus 4 days! Can’t show you the shoes because my fiancé reads this (@daniel you better be reading this – HELLLOOO! Are you there???)