Raisin Bread by MarketerHire - Did iOS 15 kill email marketing?

Did you notice a two-week countdown clock in the newsletter exactly two weeks ago? 

That was an accident, but also fate! It was perfectly timed to the launch of our new podcast, “Marketing is Broken!” Listen now on Spotify. 

In this issue:

• Facebook’s rebrand

• iOS 15 vs. email marketers

• Selling books on TikTok

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EXPERT Q&A

How to market books in 2021, according to a #BookTokker

If you’ve been hearing a lot of chatter about “book talk,” it may have actually been about #BookTok. 

It’s the literary side of TikTok, and it’s huge. 

The #BookTok hashtag has 24B views on TikTok and counting. Last time we checked, eight out of the 10 paperback fiction NYT bestsellers were hits on #BookTok.

But how does marketing long-form stories on a short-form video app… work, exactly? 

We asked Lauryn Hickman, a #BookTokker with ~280K followers. 

Storytimes perform.

Storytimes — in which a creator tells a first-person story to their front-facing camera — really capture attention on the app.

And doing one in character as a novel’s protagonist can hook people who don’t identify as readers, Hickman has learned.

Exhibit A: Hickman's post about Christina Lauren’s 2019 novel The Unhoneymooners, which went viral. Like, 4M-likes-and-16M-views viral.  

The day she posted it, Hickman watched the novel’s Amazon status go from “Low in stock” to “Sold out.” It eventually reached #8 on the paperback fiction bestseller list — seven places above its 2019 peak.

Pinterest visuals are trendy.

Slideshows of “lots of Pinterest photos” that capture the mood of a book can perform well, Hickman said.

Exhibit A: her TikTok titled “Convincing you to read The Love Hypothesis based on its aesthetic,” set to Taylor Swift’s “Wildest Dreams” and packed with Adam Driver cameos. 

You have 15 seconds to hook a viewer. If that. 

TikTok technically allows three-minute videos, but Hickman’s creator analytics show her that most viewers swipe away after just eight seconds. 

So shorter videos — usually less than 15 seconds — perform best.

Unpaid posts are the norm.

Most of Hickman’s posts are unpaid, she said — and that’s typical for #BookTok creators.

Publishers are launching unpaid accounts, too. Penguin Random House has a verified account with 8K+ followers.

But paid influencer posts can 100X a publisher’s reach.

These posts have to be captioned #ad, but they give publishers more control over creative concept and post timing — and access to a bigger following than they’ve amassed organically.

Hickman charges between $300 and $800 per paid campaign, and her last paid post with Harper Collins reached 200K+ people.

That’s 100X the number of followers Harper Collins has organically.

Our takeaway?

TikTok users don’t have short attention spans. They have short consideration spans. 

Hook them with quick storytimes and slick slideshows, and they’ll propel even older books onto the bestseller list.

TWEET TREAT

From Google to Facebook: Lessons from a tech giant’s rebrand

By Thursday, Facebook could have a new name. The timing, as brand strategist Amber Naslund observed in this tweet, is suspicious. It also feels strangely familiar… 

In 2015, Google created Alphabet. What can that restructuring teach us about what’s to come for Facebook? 

Maintaining brand identity

We still think of Google as Google, not Alphabet, because the main properties we interact with every day are still Google products. Plus, Alphabet still trades as GOOGL. 

But the restructuring did separate Google from Alphabet properties, to a certain extent. For instance, Google now appears as a mere case study on DeepMind’s website. 

Separating from legal issues

Google may have a “friendlier” logo these days, but it continues to face antitrust lawsuits. In fact, an ongoing suit against Google for its digital ad practices was unsealed just last Friday. 

But, as the restructuring intended, those lawsuits focus on Google, not all of Alphabet’s properties.

Putting Facebook to the test 

Facebook is expected to rebrand and restructure like Google did. But in light of the Facebook Papers and after its property-wide outage, will that even matter?

👍 Yes, Facebook should follow Google / Alphabet's lead.

👎 No, Facebook is up against way more than Google was. 

SMALL BITES

Champagne sales, cottagecore and immunity claims…

Maven’s Gagan Biyani will share startup secrets tomorrow at MarketerLive. 

Champagne sales are up because “consumers are ready to celebrate.” 🍾

Cottagecore and backyard chickens are trending on Reddit.

Amazon is doing hair salons now, but is Amazon really doing hair? 

Last week, rumors swirled that Paypal might buy Pinterest to expand ad reach … 

… but Paypal squashed that rumor in a one-sentence statement on Monday. 

Immunity claims on CPG products have 2x-ed YoY. 

Has your brand created a fictional TikTok influencer (yet)? 

Shopify’s new Spotify integration aims to “make retail everywhere.” 

Widespread price hikes don’t seem to be bothering shoppers. ​

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FROM OUR BLOG

3 hiring tips for DTC marketing, from Nik Sharma

If you’ve ever marketed — or just purchased from — a DTC brand,  you’ve probably seen Nik Sharma’s work, even if you didn’t know it. 

As the CEO of Sharma Brands, he’s worked with JUDY, Hint Water and Caraway — and he made the Forbes “30 Under 30” list at 22. 

At MarketerLive, we asked Sharma for his tips on hiring marketers at early-stage DTC companies. Here are his top three. 

1. Run organic content before paid ads. 

Sharma said many early-stage brands solidify their brand and start running ads — before they get any customer feedback.

He prefers launching with organic social and content marketing first, and building slowly towards a final brand book and paid campaigns.

2. Get creative in-house.

“Don’t spend too much on agency fees when you could build your own in-house team,” Sharma said. In-house creative teams often cost less and move faster.

3. Treat influencers like partners.

Select influencers whose brands align with yours, and focus on mutual benefit.

“The thinking should be, ‘How do we get something where both parties are equally aligned and get content out of that,’” Sharma said. 

Want more DTC hiring tips from Sharma? We collected six on our blog (and podcast).

DATA SNACK

How iOS 15 is impacting email opens (so far)

When iOS 15 rolled out on September 20, Email marketers started slooowly losing access to accurate open rates. 

The once-reliable stat is getting distorted by a new iOS 15 feature: proxy opens. 

Proxied opens, explained

When you email someone who uses Apple Mail on iOS 15, and has opted into Mail Privacy Protection (MPP), Apple downloads the email to a proxy server. 

That reads as an open to many ESPs, though the user may not have opened the email.

As of October 13, more than 10% of emails opened via Apple Mail for iPhone were opened via proxy. 

And Apple Mail for iPhone has cornered about 38% of the email market — so [scribbles furiously on napkin] 3% or more of email opens these days might be fake. 

What’s next?

So far, just 30% of iPhone users have updated to iOS 15, and not everyone is opting in to MPP, so impact has been subtle. 

But it’s poised to grow. Just yesterday, MPP became available to desktop Apple Mail users who upgrade to macOS Monterey.

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