Gravity Metrics: The DTC metrics that matter.

Profit is the only metric that matters.

It's that simple.

Without profit, you won't be able to sustain whatever you're doing. Either you can fund the business with cash flow. Or, you'll need to do things like give up equity or take on debt to extend your runway while trying to figure out how to not run out of money.

Getting backed into a corner because you don't have enough cash on hand isn't fun and doesn't leave many options.

All you have to worry about is profit.

Profit is what makes business possible.

But while profit is the only thing that matters, if you've just launched your business, you might not be making any yet. There's going to be a time between starting the business, when you break even, and when you start making money you can invest back into the business.

So, in the time you're not generating any profit, there are a handful of metrics you need to be tracking that will indicate whether you're heading in the right direction or not. And honestly, these are the only metrics you need to worry about once you start making a profit as well.

These are what I call Gravity Metrics. They're close to the money and illustrate how efficiently and effectively a company operates. They're not vanity metrics meant to make us feel good but distract us from what we really need to be doing. No, these are the DTC metrics that actually matter.

If you make decisions with these in mind and they're going in the right direction, everything else will work itself out.

To illustrate this, let's think about our businesses as a sailboat. It doesn't matter what size boat you're thinking of as the mechanics are all the same big or small.

Businesses should be like sailboats, elegant, sophisticated, and focused on one thing.

For fun, I like to picture my boat like this one, an elegant and sophisticated racing yacht. I mean, we all have to be working toward something, right?

Profit.

I've said this already, but I can't say it enough, profit is the most important metric for you to track. It's the money left over after you pay all of your expenses. It's Revenue, all the money you made, minus your Expenses, all the money you spend.

Now, it's ok to invest all of the money you make back into the business and not have anything left over. Tracking profit doesn't just mean stockpiling a bunch of cash you don't know what to do with. Though that can be a smart thing to do in case you ever need it.

Profit allows you to keep going if the wind ever dies down.

I also put it at the top of the list because I think it's the most important DTC metric, but it's not the first one you're going to really see. Instead, it comes from tracking all the metrics to follow.

Traffic.

Some people consider traffic a vanity metric because it's not directly related to generating revenue.

But I think that's the wrong way to think about it.

Traffic is the wind in your sails. It's the people paying attention to what you're doing and visiting your site or storefront. It's the fundamental energy that makes business possible. Without it, you don't have a business. You have an idea.

The key to traffic, though, is ensuring you're in the right place to attract the right kind of attention with the right way to capture some of it. There can be a lot of wind, but if you don't have the right boat or are trying to go in the wrong direction, the attention and traffic won't matter.

That's why we also have to care about our conversion rate once we have traffic.

Conversion Rate.

Conversion rate measures how effective you are at turning your traffic into revenue.

Conversion rate matters because it lets you know whether your marketing is working or not.

If you're able to get a lot of people visiting your site, but they don't buy anything, then you know something isn't right. Maybe your copy isn't clear, or the offer isn't compelling enough to convince them to buy. Either way, if something isn't right, conversion rate is a good place to start looking for clues into what might not be working.

For our sailboat analogy, your conversion rate is how effectively your sails capture the wind. The more wind you can harness, the faster the boat will go.

Also, it's important to know that conversion rate standards are different for every industry and niche, so there's no ideal conversion rate you should be tracking against. Instead, you need to research and find benchmarks for similar products.

Then, after achieving a solid conversion rate, you need to focus on increasing your Average Order Value.

Average Order Value.

Average Order Value, or AOV, is how strong the wind blows.

A high AOV means you're generating more revenue per order than expected. Instead of buying one product, people are buying multiple or different kinds of products. You can entice people to do this by offering volume incentives or bundling products.

The benefit of doing this is the more revenue an order generates, the less overhead it takes to service the order since there will be less to deal with than if you had many small orders.

For a newer brand, a high AOV means people like your product and are comfortable paying for it.

Customer Lifetime Value.

Now, while AOV is important, the true measure of success is Customer Lifetime Value or how much someone buys over time.

As a new brand, you probably can't calculate this just yet as you haven't been around long enough to actually know. But, what you can figure out is how many people become repeat purchasers and how long they went in between orders.

Ideally, people will buy again and buy often as this will lower your customer acquisition costs. Knowing this will also help you predict future revenue and gauge how much inventory you need to keep on hand. Because it's one thing to make a product people will buy. But it's another to create something people will buy again and tell their friends about. It's a measure of loyalty and proof you have a viable business.

Customer Lifetime value is the constant breeze that keeps your business moving toward profits.

Pay attention to what matters.

Obviously, there are more than just these five metrics.

But I don't think you need to worry about them until you have to. You don't want to get caught up optimizing for something that doesn't materially affect your business, that doesn't get you closer to profitability. Because who cares if you have an incredible Instagram CPM if the people ultimately aren't converting?

These five DTC metrics are leading indicators.

They're going to show you the overall health of your business. If things are trending in the right direction, then all good. But if one of these gravity metrics isn't trending how you think it should be, it's telling you to drop down a level or two and see what's going on.

These will help you focus on what's important and direct your attention to problems when they come up.

The trap of only focusing on profit.

And while all we need to care about is generating profit, one thing to be aware of is that profit is great, but it masks a lot of problems. So make sure you're not oblivious to or neglecting something just because there's money coming in. Because if something ever changes and the money slows down or stops altogether, you might not be able to figure out those problems quickly enough to save the business if you've ignored fundamental issues for too long.

Also, there will be times when it seems like profit doesn't matter and people are rewarding other things. Inevitably, though, people always come back to caring about profit when the market turns. So don't lose sight of it. It's your most important metric.

How to find product-market fit before launch.

I’ve quit so many projects.

Not because they weren’t good. But because I was afraid of what people would think if I talked about them.

So instead of launching the things I was spending so much time on, I’d move on to something else.

I’d rationalize this by saying things like it wasn’t good enough, my new idea is better, or the timing wasn’t right.

But really, I was afraid of it failing.

I was afraid of finding out what other people thought.

This is because I never told anyone about what I was working on. Instead, I’d work on every project quietly by myself, waiting until I thought it was “perfect” before saying anything.

But, even when I felt like something was perfect, I still wouldn’t tell anyone about it.

And the few times I did, no one cared. Maybe some people said it was cool or whatever, but nothing ever felt like it had enough interest to make me want to take it further. 

So I wouldn’t.

And, of course, I knew my first few things probably weren’t going to work out, so it was ok to think of them as learning experiences when I quit them. But after trying time and again to get something off the ground, I got tired of starting one thing after another to only give up and start all over.

After enough times of this happening, I finally realized the problem was me. I was quitting not because I thought the ideas were bad but because I didn’t want to find out what other people thought of it.

By not launching my projects, I could at least say I was successful in building the initial thing without the risk of finding out what others might think of it.

It was a personal success but not a public success. I was getting in my own way.

By not talking about what I was working on, no one else was emotionally invested in these projects like I was. And when I did have a project I wanted to talk about, no one knew why they should care or how much work it took to get to that point.

So when they didn’t care, it felt personal even though it wasn’t at all. They just had no reason to care.

Realizing this is when I decided I’d make sure people were aware of what I was doing the next time I started something.

Now, of course, we’ve all heard the advice to launch before you’re ready and that you should be embarrassed by your first iteration. And, as much as we know that’s right, it’s still hard to do because it’s not always clear what that means.

So, here are three simple ways to talk about your idea before it’s ready, get people emotionally invested, and generate interest so your idea has the momentum it needs to turn into a real business.

Finally doing these things made all of the difference for me.

Have people tell you what they want.

While you might have intuition and personal insight into the problem you’re solving, the market, and your target audience, you don’t want to base everything on your assumptions.

Instead of guessing, you want to be sure you’re right about what you know.

And, to do that, you’re going to ask people to fill out a survey.

This will help you learn how people talk about products like yours, the industry you’re in, what’s important to them, and what they don’t care about. 

Ultimately this tells you who your customers really are.

And depending on the product or service you’re planning to develop, you can likely send this survey to your friends, family, and people you work with. That group should be enough people to get you started. And, when you send it to them, you can always ask them to forward it to anyone else they know who might be interested. 

Hopefully, people will forward it as this will help you get some unbiased opinions, as most of the people you know will probably try to confirm what you’re already thinking.

Then, if you want people to actually complete your survey, you have to make sure it’s not overly complicated or takes a lot of time to complete. No more than a few minutes.

Remember, they’re doing you a favor by doing this for you, so it shouldn’t be more than five or so questions, and they shouldn’t be hard to answer.

Your market survey should have questions like:

• Do you use products like this

• What’s your favorite product like this

• How often do you use products like this

• What do you like about products like this

• What don’t you like about products like this

All you’re looking for is a bit of confirmation on what you’re thinking and insight on what’s important to people.

And, of course, ask for their contact information and if it’s ok for you to follow up. Because remember, the real point of this is to get people invested in the outcome of your project, which is why the next thing we’re going to do is send them samples to test and give you feedback.

Validate your product with early adopters.

Now that you have a bit of insight into your audience and what they want, you can’t stop there.

As soon as you’re ready, you need to share a prototype with them so they can give you feedback and help you shape it into something people will buy.

You can’t wait until it’s “perfect” because it never will be, and you need other people’s input to help you make something they’re willing to pay for.

Getting this real-world feedback will also help you protect against scope creep and thinking you need to add more things to whatever you’re building so people will like it more. If you let that happen, you’ll often end up with a product no one wants rather than something you know they want.

So, give people samples and ask them for honest feedback with open-ended questions like:

• What did you like about this

• What don’t you like about this

• Would you recommend this

• If yes, what would you say

• If no, why not

• Anything else I should know

Answers to these questions will give you insight into what people value and how they talk about your product which can help guide how you market it when it comes time to launch.

And not only do these answers help guide you in the right direction, but they also give these people a sense of ownership as they see their feedback influencing the product through the various iterations. This gives these people a reason to help promote your product and make it successful once it’s ready to launch as they’ve had a hand in it.

Attract more customers with social proof.

Ok, so I know we’re skipping a lot here, and it’s really hard to create a new product. But let’s agree you’ve done your customer research, developed a prototype, and have been getting iterative feedback along the way that’s gotten you to a product you’re happy with.

So, the next thing to do is launch your brand and product.

And, now, the best part is you know it’s going to work because a bunch of people have already tried it and like it. On top of that, you have a solid list of people asking when it’s going to be available because you’ve been talking about what you’re working on and sharing the process from the start. Awesome. That’s exactly what you want.

But the one tricky thing at this point is that most, if not all, of these people are people you either know directly or are friends of friends. These people will buy and support whatever you do because they know you, which will be great for the first few days. But, unfortunately, that list of people you know, or kind of know, is going to run out pretty quickly.

So what will you do to convince the people who don’t know you?

For that, you’re going to need social proof.

People like knowing other people have had a good experience with something before they’re willing to buy it too.

So, this isn’t really something else you have to do, but while you’re validating your product with those early adopters, ask them to leave a review or give you a testimonial you can put on your site to show people that others are using and liking it.

In their reviews, you can ask them to talk about things like:

• What do they like about your product

• What has your product solved for them

• What products have they replaced now that they have yours

• What makes your product unique

Then, of course, set up a system to automatically request reviews from all of the people who buy in those initial days to show there’s momentum with more positive reactions.

The subtle difference is now, instead of building anticipation with the people you know by sharing parts of the process with them. You’re trying to make other people feel like they’re missing out if they don’t have your product because of what everyone else is saying.

Why you shouldn’t be afraid to launch your product early.

What this all comes down to isn’t so much about these tactics, but about being comfortable sharing things before you think they’re ready.

What you have to remember is, very few people are trying to do anything more than just get by. So at worst, someone who hasn’t ever tried to do something will say your idea is dumb. And, at best, people will think it’s cool that you’re trying something new.

So, care about the people who think it’s cool and use these tactics to validate your ideas and get people invested in helping you turn your idea into a business.

Want to know exactly what to say when you’re asking people what they think about your idea? I go over all of it and give you word-for-word templates in my 5-Day Brand Bootcamp.

Brand Bootcamp

$25.00

The Brand Bootcamp is a 5-day, self-paced email course guiding you step-by-step through validating an idea, designing your brand, and getting your first sales.

Full of tools, tactics, templates, and strategies, you’ll learn what’s worth worrying about now, what you can figure out later, and how to effortlessly make decisions as you continue building your brand.

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Lean eCommerce tech stack.

Some of the links in this article may be affiliate links.

Using the right tools for your business will make all the difference.

But, figuring out which to use can sometimes feel harder than coming up with your idea and starting your brand. With so many options, it's easy to get stuck overthinking what the best setup will be. Especially if you don't have experience setting up an eCommerce tech stack already. 

It feels this way because it seems like you're making a decision you have to stick with forever. And it's tough when you don't know exactly what you need or what your business will look like five or ten years from now.

So, the best thing you can do is to keep things simple.

Select platforms that do a lot but don't lock you in forever. And realize having limitations is sometimes a benefit. It means you can't overcomplicate things on your own and will have to work with what you've got. You don't want to spend time maintaining multiple systems when you should be focused on building your brand and getting more sales.

You should only allow complexity when you know exactly how it will benefit you.

So, at a minimum, to build out a lean eCommerce tech stack, you're going to need:

• An eCommerce platform

• Website analytics

• Accounting software

• Shipping platform

• Workspace tool

• Communication app

• Creative tools

• Automation

Now, I'm not saying this is all you need or that it's the absolute best eCommerce tech stack. I don't know if there is such a thing as you'll need to add or swap out more tools for your specific needs, but this is what has worked for me to get something off the ground.

Sell with Squarespace for eCommerce.

I like using Squarespace for my eCommerce platform instead of Shopify because it does everything I need to do without having to connect a bunch of third-party apps to make it all work.

Now, does doing this mean there are some things I can't do? Yes. But I'm more than happy to give up some customization for simplicity. Especially when some of the customizations are just nice to have and nothing that's business critical. By not having the option to do certain things, I don't have to think or worry about them.

And, it's not so much that I can't do something. It's more so I don't have complete control over how it's set up. I have to trust that the user experience Squarespace designed has been tested to be as efficient as possible.

So, things like being able to edit the styles of all the components but not being able to design a new component. Or not being able to customize the checkout flow. Or being able to edit the text and design of the automated emails but not being able to change when they're sent.

Small things like these where it's all there, but some of the decisions have been removed.

But, not having total control over the platform means I can spend more time creating content, marketing the brand, and ultimately getting more sales. The kinds of things that actually matter when launching a new brand.

I also think this tradeoff is worth it because Squarespace continually adds new features to the platform. I've seen it happen where another platform will launch a new feature I'd want, and not long after, Squarespace is rolling it out as well. Most recently, they did this with product reviews.

Because of these things, I think Squarespace is the simplest and most straightforward eCommerce platform that will do everything you need while making it so easy to create a well-designed experience. Whatever you want, you can create.

And, if you ever get to the point of outgrowing it, another off-the-shelf solution isn't your answer anyway. You'll likely need to build out a completely customized solution.

Alternative eCommerce platforms:

• Shopify

• BigCommerce

• Woo Commerce

• Wix

Track and view analytics with Google Analytics.

If you have a website, you need to have analytics tracking set up for the metrics that matter. Without it, you won't know what's working, what's not, or who your customers are and where they're from. 

For this, the industry standard is Google Analytics.

Now, I know there are newer, read "niche" analytics platforms that are a bit simpler and focus more on privacy. But, they're not as established, and you're going to have to pay for them. Whereas Google Analytics is free, and it's what most people will be familiar with.

And while it can be a bit complicated to understand all the reports at first, once you spend a bit of time with them, you'll know what's important and what you can ignore.

This is the real reason to start with Google Analytics.

One day you might need all of the data it captures. So, you'll be better off tracking it from the beginning instead of trying to infer things from what you think happened because you didn't realize something was important.

And it's incredibly easy to set up. Simply add your tracking code to your site, and you'll immediately start capturing analytics.

So, while this may sound like a lot, don't worry if it seems overkill right now. Getting familiar with GA4 will only help you as you'll have more insight into your business as it grows.

Alternative analytics platforms:

• Plausibile Analytics

• Simple Analytics

Shipping with Easyship.

Then, once you start selling your products, you'll need a way to manage all of your shipments.

And aside from being able to create and track all of your shipments in one place, you will be getting access to better shipping rates by using a shipping platform. This saves you money and is one of the ways brands can offer free shipping as it becomes a manageable marketing expense when they're not having to pay full price.

Just search "shipping platform," and you'll see there are a bunch of platforms to choose from. But they all do pretty much the same thing. 

My favorite is Easyship, as it felt like the most intuitive and well designed platform of the ones I looked at. And it was the cheapest option, which is always something to consider when starting out.

Alternative shipping platforms:

• Ship Station

• Shippo

• ShipBob

Keep track of your money with Xero.

You want to save money on taxes, right? If you do, and who doesn't, you'll need to keep track of all your expenses to write things off when your taxes are due. To do this, you'll want to track your expenses throughout the year, as it's way easier to do it consistently than to try and collect everything right before the deadline. 

Accounting software will make this incredibly easy as it connects to your bank account and syncs everything automatically. All you'll have to do is make sure things are tagged to the proper accounts and attach receipts.

The two most popular ones I know of are Quickbooks and Xero. I use Xero, but I have friends who use Quickbooks, and I don't think there's much difference. They both do the same thing and are standard in the accounting industry.

You must also keep your personal and business money in different accounts as it helps separate liability should anything happen.

Alternative accounting software:

• Quickbooks Online

• Wave Accounting

• Freshbooks

Google Workspace for Email & Cloud Storage.

I hope I don't have to convince you that Google Workspace, Google's suite of business tools, is what you need to use for your email and cloud storage.

I truly don't know why you'd used anything else.

It's email, docs, spreadsheets, drive, etc. Everything you know of from Google already if you use Gmail.

And, yes, you have to pay for it, but it's worth it when you get an email @yourdomain instead of @gmail. It's more professional and makes you look like you're taking your business seriously.

Alternative workspace tools:

• Microsoft 365

If you don’t want to use either of these then you could make your own “business suite” with a bunch of different apps but it all becomes more complicated when you do that.

Communicate with Slack.

If you're just starting out, it might seem like you don't need a chat app as you don't have any other team members to chat with. But that doesn't mean having something like Slack isn't valuable.

This is because when I'm not using Slack for chat, I use it as a business dashboard to collect all of my notifications in one place.

This way, instead of checking all of my apps individually, I set up Slack integrations, so I'm getting alerts for specific things in the channels I set up. For example, mentions on Twitter will show up in #marketing, and new sales will show up in #revenue.

Doing this means I get an overview of what's going on and don't have to spend time checking multiple apps to see if there's anything I need to address. If there is, it will show up in Slack.

Alternative communication tools:

• Discord

• Telegram

Create anything with Creative Cloud.

This is the one thing where I don't really have a recommendation as it seems like the preferred design tool changes fairly regularly, and it really depends on what you're trying to do and are comfortable with.

But that said, you can't go wrong with using Adobe Creative Cloud. It's been around forever and is the most well known across industries.

So, if you're doing straightforward DTC style creative, then the photography plan with Photoshop and Lightroom should be all you need. But if you need more tools, you'll be better off getting the entire Creative Cloud suite, as paying for individual apps doesn't make sense.

Again, the best tool will be the one that does what you need and are most comfortable with.

For me, I have the full Creative Suite as I often need to edit photos in Lightroom and Photoshop, edit videos in Premiere, and occasionally create logos in Illustrator. It's just easier for me to have tools that are a part of the same family and share a similar layout.

Alternative creative tools:

• Figma

• Canva

Connect every app with Zapier.

Lastly, most, if not all, of these tools will integrate with each other. But if they don't, Zapier will help you make those connections.

Zapier is a tool that links apps together and automates tasks, so you don't have to manually do a bunch of tedious work.

This may not sound like an essential tool, but it's one that will save you time and help you do more with less. So it's one to keep in mind for when you find yourself doing the same thing over and over again, Zapier may be able to help do it for you.

Alternative automation tools:

• Automate

• IFTTT

• Make

Focus on scalability.

Alright, this is the eCommerce tech stack I recommend you start with when launching your brand. But like I said, you might have different needs and could need more tools for whatever business you're in. The point is, you want whatever tools you choose to be scalable.

While you don't need to get the most advanced tools initially, you also don't want to get things you'll quickly outgrow. You want to get set up with straightforward tools that are simple to operate while still being able to grow with you.

The last thing you'll want to do is re-platform because you didn't think ahead.

That's why I use all of the tools I talk about above. They do everything I need them to do now, and I'm confident they'll continue working for me as my business grows.

Finally, I've learned that it's sometimes worth paying for tools that will make your life easier. 

For too long I tried to save a few dollars and do things manually. But doing that meant I spent a lot of my time doing things that didn't grow the business.

So, if you find yourself doing a bunch of busy work instead of things that can grow your business, know it may be worth paying $5 a month for a tool that will simplify things or do something for you.

Knowing when to quit your side project.

So, you’re working on a side project but aren’t sure whether it’s worth it to keep going or quit?

While all of the other advice says to quit when you’re not interested anymore, when it gets too hard, or when you’re tired and just don’t have the time.

I will give you an exact answer for when you need to decide to quit or keep going.

The problem with all the other advice is that it’s subjective and makes it ok to rationalize our time away because we’ve already done so much. We think maybe giving it one more try will make all the difference when, in fact, we’re unable to see things for what they are because we’re too close to them.

Now, I’m not advocating for you to quit. But just to understand, time is your most valuable resource, and I don’t want you wasting it on something that’s not going to give you what you want.

Side project vs. side hustle vs. hobby.

First, we have to define what a side project, a side hustle, and a hobby are.

A side project is something you do for money.

A side hustle is something you’re good at and enjoy and can make money with if you want.

And, a hobby is something you do purely for fun.

Now, obviously, there are nuances to each of these and they can sometimes blend together or transition from one to another. But for this, we need to know a side project is something we’re doing for money.

Even if it’s not a lot of money right away, the purpose of a side project is to one day make a significant amount of money from it, so you don’t have to do whatever it is you’re doing now. Whereas with a side hustle, you’re often able to make money immediately, but it’s not life changing money. It’s just more than what you’re making currently.

Really it’s about leverage, where a side project leverages your skills to make something that can compound and pay off with outsized returns. A side project is where you’re trading your time for money, and you can only make as much as you’re willing to work.

This is why we need to know when it’s the right time to quit a side project. Because while there’s delayed gratification, there’s also an opportunity cost that needs to be considered. Your time is valuable, and your time today is worth more than your time in the future because if we expect something to compound, then anything past right now is only delaying things further.

So, how do we know when it’s the right time to quit a side project?

Don’t spend more than 200 hours.

I don’t think you should spend more than 200 hours on a side project before deciding to quit. And, obviously, you could decide sooner if it’s clearly not working out.

Here’s why.

If we know we only have 200 hours to make something work, then we’ll prioritize the things that matter and have the most potential upside. This will save us from falling into the trap of being fake productive and working on things that keep us busy but don’t move anything forward.

200 hours is enough time to make a real effort and see if you can get any sort of traction, but it’s not enough to let you waste your time trying to force something to work. You either get enough interest to prove you should keep going. Or, you realize maybe no one else is as interested in your thing as you hoped they’d be, and it’s time to try something else. Either way, it’s better to know sooner than later.

How long 200 hours is really. 

To prove this, here’s what 200 hours looks like for real.

Let’s assume a side project is in addition to a full-time job and whatever else you have going on. By definition, it’s “on the side,” so we have to fit this in around everything else. And, we don’t want to burn out or neglect our other responsibilities, so we have to be reasonable with how much time we think we can dedicate to this each week.

We’ll start with five hours a week. One extra hour each work day, which leaves the weekends open or available to pick up any slack if needed.

200 hours / 5 hours a week would be 40 weeks.

That’s almost an entire year, which isn’t good or bad, but you can see how you really need to make sure what you’re working on is worth it. Otherwise, you’ll have lost an entire year.

Then, if you can do eight hours a week. With one hour each work day and a few on the weekend, you’re looking at 25 weeks or half a year.

If you can up it to 10 hours a week. One hour each work day and five more on the weekend, you’re looking at 20 weeks or five months.

Any more than this, and I think you have to make more sacrifices than a side project requires. Which is fine. It’s just different and more of a second job at that point. And, for what it’s worth, this is what we hope our side project turns into, but it’s unrealistic to commit so much time to it before you know it’s working.

What you can sustain.

So, looking at this, I think dedicating 8 hours a week to a side project is the most sustainable approach. 8 hours allows you to work on it a bit each day, or if you need to, you can effectively work all Saturday or split it across the weekend. It’s manageable while still being a serious commitment.

Which if you’re willing to do that, it means you believe in the project and want to succeed. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t make the time.

So, ultimately, this gives you six months to figure out if a side project is worth it or not.

Don’t worry about sunk costs.

Now, this doesn’t mean your side project will be wildly successful after six months. Probably not at all. But after consistently dedicating 200 hours to a project, you should begin to see things that prove you’re on the right track.

Things like a prototype or MVP that real people have tested for you, a waitlist or people asking when your product will be available, or you’re continuing to see the market trend in the direction you’re heading.

Simple things, but things that take a fair about of hard work to accomplish.

This makes it easy to say that if you’re not seeing any of these things happening by this point, it’s likely time to move on.

Now, this could mean realizing the idea wasn’t as good as you thought it would be and shutting it down entirely. Or, you need to pivot and build something more in line with what people say they need.

Quitting doesn’t have to be completely yes or no. But you don’t want to be the one chasing an idea that’s not going anywhere just because you’ve been doing it for so long.

There are better opportunities out there.

The one reason why my startup could fail.

Want to know the one reason why my startup, Liip, could fail?

It’s me.

I’m the reason my startup could fail.

You probably didn’t think it would be that simple, but it is. One day I could decide to just stop.

Now, of course, I’m not planning on doing that, but a number of things could cause it to happen.

So instead of ignoring the possibility of one day giving up, here are all the reasons I can think of that would make quitting a reality. Others have called this the practice of Inversion or setting Anti-Goals. Thinking about the things you don’t want to happen, so you don’t end up there.

It’s about proactively thinking through what I can do to keep it going instead of being reactive and accepting whatever happens.

I’ve made this mistake many times before where I’ve started something, and then after a while, I’m no longer working on it and on to something else. A few of those projects were:

• Ski wax company

• Lifestyle magazine

• Athleisure brand

• Freelancer job board

• Approval tracking SaaS app

And that’s not to say these were all good ideas, or I was equally excited about all of them. Most startups don’t pan out, so it was more than likely they wouldn’t either. But I could have been better about making more of an effort as some of them came to an end because I just stopped working on them.

So here are the things I can think of that would be why my current brand could fail and what I can do to prevent that from happening.

I get bored.

I need to think bigger. Or, at least, big enough. I’ve heard others say, and now I have enough experience to know, that you’ll spend as much time on a small thing as a big thing. So it’s better to pick the bigger thing with more potential upside. If not, I might find I put in a ton of time for what amounts to pretty much nothing. Now, of course, a bigger idea may be harder to get off the ground, and I end up with zero anyway. But I will have at least given myself the chance of a worthwhile outcome.

I think what’s happened to me is I’ve worked on opportunities I felt were safe. And by safe, I mean small enough that I wouldn’t really care if they failed. I wouldn’t have to suffer any consequences. But, because I never took any risk with them, I also never gave myself the chance of real success. I was always somewhere in the middle, and nothing remarkable happens in the middle. The middle is just like everything else.

When I’m working on things that I know don’t truly matter, I get bored and start looking for the next thing.

I start chasing the next thing.

The real reason most of my business ideas have failed is that I don’t let them get far enough along to find out if they were any good or not.

Instead, I do everything to get a business ready to launch, but then I don’t do anything with it. I’m already onto the next thing. Something I find more exciting or think is a better idea.

The problem, I’ve realized, is this is a strategy I use to protect myself from having to find out if my ideas are actually any good or not. By moving on, I don’t have to find out if people want and will pay for whatever I’m selling. Instead, I get the satisfaction of knowing I can build something without risking the possibility of it not being the success I think it could be.

The trouble, though, is by not launching these projects, I’ll never know if they could be successful or not because, effectively, none of them are. I don’t allow myself to find out.

So, instead of chasing the next thing, I need to make sure the idea is big enough to keep things exciting and commit to at least launching projects, so I get real feedback.

I burn out.

What usually happens, though, is I don’t consciously decide I’ll stop working on one project and move on to the next one. No. What usually happens is I’ll just add another thing to everything else I’m already doing.

Which, obviously, I know doesn’t work, and I’d tell anyone else trying to do too much that they have to pick one or two things to focus on, and that’s it.

For whatever reason, though, I think I’m different, and this advice doesn’t apply to me.

So, what really happens is I’ll have all of these things I’m “working” on but not getting anything done. I end up being fake productive and working on things that don’t move the projects forward, and eventually, I burn out. I feel like I’m putting in all this effort but not seeing any progress. Then, once that hits, I have a hard time staying motivated, and I stop working as hard because my work doesn’t produce any results.

I have to realize, though, that it’s not that I’m not putting in enough effort. It’s that the effort is spread across too many things. I’m able to give them enough attention to stay alive but not enough to thrive. And instead of asking for help, I try and double down and do more by myself. Which is usually fine for a bit, but I only have so much time available, and it’s only a matter of time until I can’t sustain the pace I’ve gotten to.

I try to do everything myself.

If I’m truly being honest with myself about why my projects fail, it’s that I think I have to do everything myself.

And what I really need to do is learn how to delegate. To let go and be ok with someone else doing something 80% as good as I think I can. And you know what, there are going to be many things other people can do 100% better than I can if I just ask for help and let them do it.

I’m getting there, and I’m starting to see the value in having other people around with different skill sets that free me up to work on the things I’m good at and let them do what they’re good at. But it’s hard. It’s hard to give up control when I’m so used to doing things my way.

I think I’ve been so adamant about doing things myself because I want to know how everything works.

If I know how it works, even if I’m not the best at it, I can at least understand whatever needs to be done. This way, I can talk from a place of experience with whoever is doing it instead of having to guess or leave it entirely up to them. So, it’s good and bad, but without recognizing this is how I think, I make it easy to fall into the trap of getting tired and chasing the next thing when I run into something I don’t know how to do.

Simple, but not always easy.

Really, while there are many reasons why my startup could fail, it all comes down to one. And that’s me. It’s entirely up to me whether I’ll keep working on something or not. And the way to make sure I can see things through is to only work on ideas worth pursuing, not be distracted by new ideas, focus on one thing at a time, and ask for help before I need it.

It’s simple, but it’s not always easy.

Want to know how I got out of my own way and finally figured out how to see things through? I detail everything in my 5-Day Brand Bootcamp.

Brand Bootcamp

$25.00

The Brand Bootcamp is a 5-day, self-paced email course guiding you step-by-step through validating an idea, designing your brand, and getting your first sales.

Full of tools, tactics, templates, and strategies, you’ll learn what’s worth worrying about now, what you can figure out later, and how to effortlessly make decisions as you continue building your brand.

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Three launch offers that don’t devalue your brand.

Discounting prices will always be a way to increase sales of your product.

But, it's not always the best thing to do, especially at launch.

By discounting your product, you're effectively telling people it's not worth the price you say it is. Which, obviously, is not what you want people to think. Instead, we want people to feel like they're the ones who got more out of the transaction.

And, lucky for us, there are other ways we can make people feel like they're getting something extra without making it seem like you're overpriced or aren't sure about your product's value.

The three offers I like to use to do this are Free Plus Shipping, Bundles, and Free Shipping Thresholds.

Free plus shipping.

With Free Plus Shipping, you give away your product for Free while having people pay for shipping.

This works when your cost of goods sold is pretty low where you're breaking even or close to one side of it. If you're net positive, great. And if you're a bit negative, write it off as a marketing expense.

Now, because you're likely only breaking even, I don't recommend doing this all the time, but it's a great tactic when you're launching a new product and want to get it in people's hands.

By doing this, people feel like they're getting your product for free even though they have to pay for something. And, because it doesn't read like a percentage off your regular price, it's not positioned as a discount that would devalue the product. Instead, people feel like they're paying for access to a deal they'll never see again.

Product bundles.

Another way to increase perceived value is with a bundle.

You can do something like a Buy-One-Get-One offer if you have one product. Or, if you have multiple products, you could naturally group those together. With this, you're still discounting by giving away an item for free, but it doesn't feel that way to a buyer. Instead, it feels like they're getting a gift.

And, for you, bundles get more of your products into people's hands. This can help with awareness and possible repeat purchases, as people can "try before they buy."

Free shipping threshold.

Lastly, you can implement a Free Shipping Threshold where people unlock free shipping after reaching a set dollar amount.

This is less enticing for new customers as it means they have to spend more to get this offer, but most people will take advantage of it as they would rather pay to get something than pay for shipping. This is a great way to gamify the customer experience as it will increase your Average Order Value (AOV).

Also, a Free Shipping Threshold is an evergreen offer you should keep forever as no one likes paying for shipping.

Controlling perception.

Remember, the success of your brand is all about perception and what people think of it.

You don't want to become known as a discount brand as people will learn not to value your product the way you do. They'll realize you're always offering some sort of discount and won't ever pay full price. They'll just wait for the next deal.

So controlling how people think about your brand and any available offers come down to a mix of psychology and business strategy. You're not trying to trick anyone, but you need to balance what people value with what will make a difference for your business.

Even if it's clear you're doing something to make more revenue, as long as there's also a clear benefit for the person buying your product, there shouldn't be any trouble. 

You want to use offers strategically so you don't end up relying on them.

Simple DTC brand launch checklist.

Launch day is the most exciting day of starting a new brand.

It's when you go from talking about your idea to, hopefully, making money.

It's exciting because getting your first dollar is what actually validates if your idea is any good. Until then, it's all talk. This transition to reality is why launch day feels so important. You think everything needs to be absolutely perfect because if not, the brand will fail—you will have failed.

Because we put so much pressure on ourselves to make sure it's perfect, we often overcomplicate what we're trying to do. We stress over irrelevant details and worry about how we have to do everything as we try to emulate other established brands.

So, without anything relevant to reference, we try to do as much as possible—just in case. We think the more we do, the better. When, in fact, the opposite is often a better approach. Instead of trying to do everything, the best thing we can do when launching a brand is to focus on doing only a few things—the things we're good at—exceptionally well.

Everything else can come later.

So, that's what this DTC brand launch checklist is for—to help you simplify your launch plan so you can focus on what's important.

The point isn't to think about what you could do but what you need to do.

When we launched Liip, I thought we had planned for everything. But at the time, we didn't know what we didn't know. And while we did a lot, there were a number of things we should have done but didn't think about until after the fact.

So, this checklist is the things we did that I'd do again. And the things I wish we would have done.

It'll help you focus on what's essential while making sure you think through everything else so there aren't any surprises on launch day. You'll have either planned for or at least thought about whatever might come up across these five elements of a successful brand launch:

1. Pre-launch product-market fit.

2. Setting up your eCommerce engine.

3. Minimum viable media library

4. Launch day content strategy

5. Standardized order fulfillment

Ready?

Let's go.

1. Pre-launch product-market fit.

Finding product-market fit is the hardest thing to do on this checklist, but it's also the most important part of launching a brand.

By the time you're ready to launch, your product needs to have found product-market fit. So, while there may be things you'll want, or rather, have to change, you need to be confident people will buy what you're selling.

To make sure this is the case, launch day cannot be the first time they hear about your product.

It's just the first day everyone can buy it.

To find product-market fit, you need to have a group of people use your product and give you honest feedback as you develop it. You want to know what they like, what they don't, and what, if anything, they'd do differently. You especially want to pay attention to how they talk about your product so you can speak like them in your marketing. It's funny how the benefits you think are most important might not be why others like your product. 

You also need to make sure the product isn't just something they like but something they'll pay for. Many people will say they like a product but never buy it when it's available. This is especially true of your friends and family.

I always like to remind myself that my friends aren't my customers.

But, while there's no definitive way to say for sure whether you have product-market fit or not, if you can check these things off, you likely do:

• You know who is and who isn't your ideal customer

• You know what your audience values and how your product fits into their lives

• You know how they talk about your product

• You have a point of view and a way to position your product that's different from your competitors

• You have people asking for your product before it's on sale, or they've signed up for a waitlist

• You have positive pre-launch reviews from your early adopters

Pre-launch product-market fit can be a bit hard to define other than "you know it when you have it." So look for signals of demand and momentum as those will be the best indicators of whether you're heading in the right direction.

Before you keep going, though, know the rest of this doesn't matter if you don't have a product people want. So, make sure you figure this out first.

2. Setting up your eCommerce engine.

Your site is the center of your business and will connect everything you do.

However, when you start, there's only one thing you need to optimize for—getting sales. This is why we're not going to create a bunch of pages right now and only worry about the ones that move people to buy. We want to create as little friction as possible between someone visiting the site and checking out.

To do that, you only need 3-5 pages.

• A Home page which I think should be your shop page as all we want people to do is buy our products

• A product detail page, or pages, to explain the product benefits and why someone should buy them

• An about page to tell our story as no one knows anything about you or why you exist; bonus points if you have a photo or video of yourself or the team

• An FAQ page will increase your credibility by subtly telling people that others are interested in your product

• Miscellaneous Terms & Conditions, Privacy Policy, Shipping & Return Policy pages are also good to have as they make you look more legitimate, and some platforms require them anyway

Then, you want to optimize these pages for basic SEO with unique page names, keywords, meta descriptions, clean URLs, etc. SEO is a long game, so you likely won't see it bringing in substantial traffic initially. But, tightening these things up helps create a better user experience for those visiting your site and lays the foundation for more traffic in the future.

So, since we can't rely on SEO right now, the site then needs to do these other things to capture user info and allow us to start building relationships.

• Have a newsletter sign up in the footer, so it's on every page, and include it in the checkout flow

• Set up an automated welcome email or series and make it as personal as possible

• Allow people to create accounts so they can save their info for future purchases

• Link to your social channels to give people a place to connect with you as the site won't have much to interact with

• Add Google Analytics so you can track your most important metrics

• Add a Meta pixel so you can run retargeting ads and track conversions

• Add a Google AdWords pixel for remarketing and tracking conversions

Even if you don't have plans to use some of these things yet, you need to take advantage of the traffic spike you'll see on launch day. Because if you don't set up ways to reconnect with people, they may come once and never again.

3. Minimum viable media library.

The easiest thing to overlook during a brand launch is the media assets.

It's not that you won't think about them. It's that you will try to get away with doing what you think is just enough.

A content library, though, is one of the areas where you actually can't have too much. The more, the better. You don't know what opportunities might come up that you'll need an asset for. So, even if you think you're investing too much time or money into creating assets now, you should know you're not wasting resources. You can use them later for something else.

To know what assets you'll need, you need to plan ahead for the three types of media: Earned, Owned, and Paid.

Earned media.

Earned media are the things people say or post about you that you haven't paid for or created yourself.

• Press

• Interviews

• Influencers

• User-Generated Content (UGC)

Owned media.

Owned media are the things you do on the channels you control.

• Company blog

• Email list

• Social media channels

Paid media.

Paid media is when you pay for placements or boost your posts.

• Influencers

• Social

• Search

• Native

• Outdoor

• Display

While there's a lot to think about, the best part is how you can use assets across media types. So it's really not as much as it sounds like. You just don't want to republish something without optimizing it for each platform—this isn't 2012 Facebook and Twitter anymore.

And while there are so many different media placements, you don't have to do them all at the start. Instead, you need to pick the channels that make sense for your brand, your audiences, and what you can manage.

To do that, a minimum viable media library would look something like this:

• 3-5 Hero and product detail photos

• 5-10 Lifestyle photos that feature the product

• 5-10 Lifestyle photos without product if it makes sense and you can get them

• 5-10 UGC, or what looks like UGC photos or video

• 3-5 Vertical videos for stories

This gets you about 20 different assets at a minimum, which should be enough to build out the channels you plan to start with and a couple extra for whatever comes up.

But remember, this is the minimum for launch day. You still need to think about what assets you'll need for days post-launch as you're going to want to build momentum with the people who are now hopefully following you.

For that, I would double down on some lifestyle and UGC type assets as they'll be the most versatile.

4. Launch day content strategy.

With your new asset library, you will want to start posting content on all of your channels ahead of your launch day. Even if you don't plan on using a platform, you don't want people showing up and there not being anything. So, publish 6-12 posts on each page, so they're not empty, and then use the bio to direct people to where you'll be more active.

And if you haven't gotten all of your social handles, do it now. Seriously, you don't want to find out the handle you want was available, but you waited too long, and now someone else has it. The same goes for any new platform that pops up. Just get it. You never know what's going to be popular.

Then, once your platforms are set up, here's what you need to think about as you plan your launch strategy.

• Decide what your compelling launch offer will be

• Develop and schedule your pre-planned content calendar

• Define an audience for paid media and retargeting

• Plan for what organic posts you'll put money behind

• Set up a retargeting campaign

Something we didn't plan for when we launched Liip was having assets we could give people to post about it on their feeds. We didn't even think about it until people started asking us how they could share our product and links.

What we should have done was have a few assets and pre-written copy we could send people, so it was plug-and-play for them.

It wasn't the worst that we didn't have this, but it was an easy thing we could have done that would have probably made a difference.

5. Standardized order fulfillment.

Having more orders to fulfill than you anticipated is a good problem to have. But know, whether it's your first time launching a product or not, it's going to take way longer to get things packaged and shipped than you think it will. That's why we try to automate or plan ahead for all the other things because fulfillment will take priority once orders start coming in.

Now, of course, you want to get orders out as quickly as possible, so the product gets to your new customers as soon as possible. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't set expectations for how orders will be shipped, when they'll go out, and when people can expect them to be delivered.

Most customer complaints happen because something wasn't communicated. So being upfront about this stuff goes a long way. And, as a new brand, most people understand if things take a bit longer if you tell them why.

So, here's what you want to do to keep this manageable:

• Pick one carrier—this way, you don't have to manage shipments going to different drop-off locations

• Offer one standard shipping option to keep things simple—this will also help limit your costs if you're offering Free Shipping

• Have at least two shipping boxes, mailers, envelopes, etc—one for small orders and one for big orders

• Set a cut-off time for order fulfillment—for example, orders before 2pm ship the same day, and orders after 2pm will ship the next

• Find out when the final pickup time is at your carrier location and be there well beforehand—otherwise, your packages will sit there until the next day

Also, get some extra help if you can.

Having another set of hands to do anything will make such a difference when you're focused on getting orders out. Either you'll be able to get more orders packed and shipped together. Or, you can free up some of your time to focus on other launch related things like responding to questions or continuing to promote the product.

Whatever happens, it will be better if you don't have to do it all yourself.

Launch is just the start.

So, will your launch day be perfect?

No. It won't be. Nothing ever is.

But this simple checklist will help you think through the critical things that will give you the best chance of success.

And, just because something is here doesn't mean you have to do it. Instead, you should use this checklist as a guideline to decide what's right for you.

Like I said, this is built from things we did that I'd do again and the things I wish we should have done.

The point is to do everything you can to be prepared but not overextend yourself to where you're not doing anything well.

Focus on the few things that will make a difference now and figure out the rest later.

Really, preparing to launch a new DTC brand comes down to two things. First, automate everything you can. And second, only worry about what you can control and be ok with whatever else happens.

No matter what, your launch day is going to feel incredibly important. And it is. But remember, it's just one day in what you hope to be a long journey.

So, you have to be ready to adapt, willing to change, and want to learn, as launching your brand is the only way you will get to the next step—proving it is good enough to become a real business.

Our plan to increase organic traffic on liipbrand.com with content.

Since we launched Liip eight months ago in September 2021, all of our site traffic has come from us promoting the brand on social media or talking with people we've met.

This, of course, got us our family and friends and friends of friends—people we knew—visiting the site and buying from us. And because we knew them, or they knew of us, we never really had to convince them to buy as they were going to support us no matter what.

Because of this, we didn't worry about putting too much information on the site when we launched. We purposely made it as simple as possible because, at the time, all we needed was for people to add our product to their cart and checkout. We could figure the rest out later.

Well… now it's later, and the site needs to do more.

We need to increase our organic traffic to attract new people to the site and convince them to buy our product without having a relationship with them or talking directly to us. We need to prove to them we have a product that's not only worth trying but one they should spend money on. We need to educate people about the benefits of our product and what goes into it and communicate the values of our brand so they feel aligned and a part of it.

So, to grow the brand, we believe if we create valuable content that attracts people to the site and gives them a good experience, they will be more likely to buy our product.

Starting with low traffic.

The key part of this is the "valuable content that attracts people to the site."

Right now, we have our home page, which is our product landing page, three product detail pages, an about page, FAQs, and a handful of miscellaneous terms and conditions pages. And, really, there's not much on all of those pages. They are pretty thin with the minimum amount of content necessary.

And, because our content is so limited, it doesn't draw people to the site.

Our page views on liipbrand.com from our launch on September 1, 2021, through May 24, 2022.

As you can see, other than the traffic spike when we launched the brand and a few others around some holidays, our traffic remains pretty consistently low, between 0-10 page views per day. Or, basically, nothing.

But, while that could seem like a bad thing, you have to remember we really haven't done anything with the site that would increase organic traffic.

So, that's what we're going to do.

We are going to make the pages we have work harder for us than they are now by adding more content to them. We are going to do keyword research to better understand search intent. And then, we are going to add pages and content to the site to attract new people who've never heard of us before based on those keywords.

Also, disregard the revenue numbers in the chart. I haven't connected the checkout flow to GA4, so that's why those are reading $0.00. Trust me, even though our traffic is low, we have sales ;)

Attracting organic traffic.

Ultimately, this is going to be a traffic acquisition experiment.

Instead of trying to build an audience through social media where we have to post and update our feed constantly, we are going to focus on capturing organic traffic with evergreen content. This type of content has infinite leverage as it can stay relevant for a long time once it's published, possibly forever, without you having to do anything more with it.

By focusing on search engine optimization content, we can begin to position ourselves as a credible brand without interacting with people one-to-one by providing valuable information to people searching for answers to questions on the internet.

Now, of course, these won't be just any questions but things related to lip care and the cosmetics industry.

The goal is to get people to the site and give them the information they are looking for. Not to try and sell things to them. But, obviously, since they are on our site, if they then decide to view our products, the option to purchase will be there for them.

Ultimately, I want this content to give people a positive perception of the brand, so they become ambassadors and repeat purchasers.

From 0 to 100 daily page views.

Tactically we will do this in three steps.

1. Develop a list of product-related keywords we want the brand to rank for in the future

2. Add more product information and brand storytelling to the existing pages

3. Publish new articles focused on unique long-tail keywords we believe we can rank for quickly

SEO isn't something that happens overnight, so we'll have to monitor our performance to see what's working and what's not. But the thing is, when done right, SEO content can keep compounding long after it's published. And that's the true value in focusing on this type of evergreen growth strategy now instead of more fleeting social posts.

We're building for the long term.

So, to have something to optimize for, my goal is to go from 0-10 daily page views to 100 daily page views in a year. June 1, 2022, to June 1, 2023, and I plan to publish at least 20 articles to make this happen.

Doing the math, if each of these 20 new articles can attract 5 page views a day, then we reach the goal of 100 page views a day.

Honestly, I think 100 daily page views is a bit of a low target, and page views might not even be the right metric to measure, but it's a 10x increase from where we're at, and we have to start somewhere.

Now, while there's nothing to show for it yet, I wrote this article to keep myself accountable and share a behind-the-scenes look at how I'm thinking about growing Liip. That said, if you have any SEO tips or suggestions for what I should do, please share them. Otherwise, I'll be back with an update relatively soon.

How to start a DTC brand with a limited budget.

If you want to start a DTC company, you're either going to spend a lot to have things done for you or do a lot of it yourself.

This is how to do it yourself.

Unlike a digital product which you can theoretically create for free, creating a physical product requires inventory. So, at the very least, you will have to spend something to develop or buy a product you can sell.

But before we get to that, a DTC company is two things. A brand and a product.

The brand is how you communicate. And the product is what people buy.

It doesn't matter whether you start with a product or a brand. If you start with a product, you can create a brand around it. Or, if you have an idea for a great brand, you could then develop a product for it. All that matters is that you have at least one of these before you get started.

Before we get into it, parts of this guide may seem incredibly simple. And it's meant to be. But it's these simple things that are often overlooked in the beginning because they don't seem necessary. Skipping them, though, can make your life much harder and may determine whether or not your business has a chance of being successful.

And, so you know this isn't just theory, I will use Liip, the lip balm brand we started, as an example throughout.

Ready? Here's how to start a DTC company when you're doing a lot of it yourself.

Creating your DTC branding.

Developing a brand is challenging because it's so subjective. It's easy to get hung up trying to decide because you don't know the right answer. And, what you like might not be what everyone else likes.

This is why the best thing to do is to simplify.

Don't try and do too much in the beginning. Obviously, when you look at established brands, you'll see all they're doing and want it too. But you have to remember those brands didn't start with everything. Brands are built over time. And really, that's what a brand is—the result of many small things working together to create something bigger than its parts.

So, yes, you need something, but don't worry too much about the brand in the beginning.

All you need is a name, logo, typography, and brand colors. And that's pretty much it. Maybe some photos or illustrations if they help communicate what you and your product are all about. But not much else. 

Simply, do everything you can not to overcomplicate this.

Coming up with your brand name.

It needs to be memorable. So it can either be unique or literal. I tend to go towards literal as it can help communicate what the brand and product are about.

For example, Liip is perfect. It's short, easy to say, and immediately gives people an idea of what products the company probably sells.

Liip wasn't our first idea, though. We started out wanting a Scandinavian name so we could have a cool letter modifier like ø, ä, or something like that. And, when we found out the Norwegian word for lip is Läpp, we thought it was great. But as much as we tried to make it work, we couldn't get away from saying "lap" even though Läpp is pronounced "lip" in Norweigan. We also realized if we couldn't stop ourselves from saying it incorrectly, we definitely didn't want to be correcting everyone else we wanted to buy our product. 

So, knowing we wanted to keep the same sentiment in the name, we simplified it and stylized the spelling we are used to with an extra "i" to make it Liip. This got us the double dots, formally called an umlaut, and an easy-to-pronounce brand name that isn't confusing at all.

It also made the logo easy to create.

Designing your first logo.

When you’re starting out you are of course going to think you need an iconic logo like Apple or Nike. Something dynamic that adapts to whatever context it’s in and holds its own against the brands everyone knows and loves.

But really, all you need is a wordmark, a stylized version of your brand name.

A wordmark accomplishes two of the most important things a logo needs to do. First, it communicates who your company is. And second, it makes it memorable. When no one knows who you are, those two things are all you need to worry about.

Then, as your brand grows and you need more assets, you can expand your branding to include other variations that can be more contextually relevant. Until then, though, don't do more than you absolutely need to.

For Liip, the logo was easy. Since we had a Scandinavian-influenced name, it was obvious that the design aesthetic would make its way into the logo. The double dots of the "i" were going to carry the weight of our logo design, and it was simply a matter of stylizing it in a way that helped it stand out.

To do that, we focused on typography.

Choosing typography for your brand.

If your logo communicates your name, the typography communicates the character of your brand.

This is because it's easy to manipulate to communicate different things. Unlike your logo, which you won't want to change, you can change how people perceive your words with the design of the typography. Something in italics means something different than if it were bold.

And the size of typography makes a difference too. Big, and it's more intense or lively. Small, and it's more serious and considered. You get to make these decisions as you build out your typography stack to influence how people perceive your brand.

Since there are so many more variables, you should choose no more than two different fonts—one for headers and one for body copy. But, ideally, if you can, I think it's best only to choose one.

That's what we did for Liip. We found Source Sans Pro worked perfectly for the logo. And instead of trying to find another font to complement it, we decided to use it for everything. Then, all we had to do was set different weights and sizes to create a hierarchy between the headers and body copy.

To find a font, you can use Google Fonts for free, or if you have a Creative Cloud subscription, you can use Adobe Fonts. These have hundreds of fonts to search through, so you'll more than likely find something. And, it's so helpful to use their intuitive filters to narrow things down to what you like.

Also, I know some designers won't agree with my advice of using a standard font for a logo, but a custom logo isn't the point of this article, and it shouldn't be a priority for anyone starting a DTC brand.

The next thing that can give your brand personality is color.

Choosing colors for your brand.

Every color means something different.

Red is intense and energetic. Orange is youthful and enthusiastic. Yellow is lively and spontaneous. Green is for growth and stability. Blue is calm and intelligent. Purple is for luxury and mystery. Pink is playful and approachable. Brown is honest and friendly. Black is elegant and powerful. White is minimalistic and clean. And, gray is formal and professional.

This is why it's a big deal to choose a color to represent your brand. Whatever you pick changes the way people think of it. So if you want to use color, I think you should use black and white as your base and then pick one accent color to highlight and emphasize different things in your design.

Liip is a hydrating lip balm, so it made sense to use blue as our accent color, given water is associated with blue.

If you need help, coolors.co is a great app to see how different colors work together and create your brand color palette.

Then lastly, imagery helps set the tone of the brand.

Picking images for your brand.

You'll need two types of images—product photography and lifestyle photography.

eCommerce Product photography.

Since we're selling a physical product, at a minimum, you're going to need ecommerce product photography. And, as the name implies, these are images of your product.

These are usually products shot against a white or single-color background for eCommerce sites.

For product photography, I would use Soona Studios. They have a great portfolio, have worked with brands you've probably heard of, and are affordable.

Brand lifestyle photography.

Then, for brand lifestyle photography, unless you're a photographer and can take the photos you want, start by finding free images with Unsplash. Lifestyle images show off places or activities that relate to the people you want to attract to your brand. They can help people see your company as "a brand for them."

Lifestyle images are less important initially, so if you can get something 80% right, that's good enough. You don't need lifestyle images with your product in them yet, either. It is just something that helps convey the tone of your brand and get people to relate to it.

Professional photography is expensive and is something you can do later once you know things are working.

Lean DTC branding.

Ok, I hope you can tell by now the point of this is to help you get started as quickly as possible and not get caught up worrying about things that don't matter just yet. Since you don't yet know what works and what doesn't, it's best to do as little as possible without looking like you're cutting corners. Then, once people interact with your brand, you'll quickly understand how people react to it and make informed decisions on what to do next.

Here's a recap of what the lean DTC branding package looks like:

• One brand name

• One wordmark logo

• One headline font

• One body font

• One brand color

• Product photography

• Free lifestyle images

Next, let's go through product considerations so you can launch your brand and start getting sales.

DTC Product.

​​​​Answering these questions will be easy if you already know what you're selling, as the product will dictate the answers. But, if you don't yet know what you want to sell, they will help you find a product that fits your strategy. 

These are the questions we asked ourselves that led us to the idea of creating a lip balm brand. There were certain things we knew we wanted, and lip balm happened to be one of the product ideas we thought we had a unique perspective on. So, while this section is shorter, you must spend more time on it as it's critical to get your product right. 

Unlike your brand, which you can change and adapt as needed, you have to commit to your product. Or, at least to the category, because if you completely change your product, you're essentially changing your brand along with it. So, if you don't want to run the risk of having to start over, it'll be best to think through and answer these questions before you get started.

These considerations fall into a few groups: Product category, Production & DTC Fulfillment, Product marketing, Financial considerations, and Unique knowledge.

Product category.

• Am I entering an established category or creating a new one?

• Do people need to be educated on the category, or do they already understand it?

• Are people loyal to another brand, or are they willing to try new products?

Production & DTC fulfillment.

• Can I make this product myself, or do I need to find a supplier?

• Are there any restrictions, guidelines, or compliance requirements I need to follow?

• Does the product need to be stored, and where will I keep it?

• Can I get the product or raw materials from more than one supplier?

• Is the product easy to ship, or will I need to figure out a unique solution?

• Can I handle fulfillment, or do I need a 3PL?

Product marketing.

• What is my unique selling point, and how is my product different?

• What is my primary marketing channel?

• Who is my target market?

• Are there any restrictions or guidelines for marketing products like mine?

Financial considerations.

• Do people buy this product once, or is it a repeat purchase?

• Does the product have a high or low margin?

• What is the average price of similar products?

• Am I going to price my product as premium, standard, or budget?

• Is the product cheap to produce or acquire?

• What are my sales channels – e-commerce, wholesale, retail?

Unique knowledge.

• Do I have experience with this product and category?

• Do I have relationships and connections which can help me?

• Am I interested in this product and category?

• What skills do I have that will give me an advantage?

• Am I excited about building this brand?

Launching your brand.

There are obviously many more things to consider when starting a DTC brand, but you'll know you're on your way if you can answer these. And as I said earlier, if you don't yet know what product you want to sell, using these questions to narrow down your options will help you make an informed decision so you understand what you're getting into.

What this approach does is help guide us to work on things that matter now without getting caught up in something we don't have to worry about just yet. This is why we start with a simple branding package and straightforward product considerations so we can go from thinking about an idea to selling a product as quickly as possible.

This guide is just to get us started in the right direction. Launching the business is an entirely other thing and requires its own article.

But then, once we have a business to work on, we can look at testing our ideas and optimizing our product and brand. Because without both of these things first, a brand and a product, you can't start a DTC company.

One way to not spend a lot of money on this stuff is to work fast. My 5-Day Brand Bootcamp will take you from an idea to a validated business in under a week.

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