Hey Outliers âď¸
Hope youâre having a good weekend.
I sat down yesterday afternoon, sun beaming through the window and a chilled glass of white wine in hand (this is relevant, I promise), and dug into the story behind a brand I think youâll love and learn a lot fromâŚ
I follow a lot of founders on LinkedIn; I love the fact that everyoneâs story is different and so many are willing to share their ups and downs.
One of those founders is Laura Riches, Co-Founder of box wine brand Laylo.
If you havenât heard of Laylo before, you might be a bit concerned by the âboxed wineâ bit. Well, donât be, thatâs exactly what Laylo is doing differently!
They source top-quality wines - the sorts that would cost at least ÂŁ12 in a fancy wine merchant - and put them into boxes you can feel proud to have on your countertop.
Their boxes stay fresh for 6 weeks from opening so you can enjoy âjust one glassâ
They generate 90% less carbon than the equivalent volume of wine in glass bottles and are 100% recyclable
The team love telling stories about the wines, wine regions, and people behind the juice. Boxed wine is the perfect blank canvas.
The best bit?
Theyâve taken a scrappy, creative approach to marketing Laylo and itâs worked!
Hereâs how theyâve done itâŚ
Hereâs what to expect today:
đ° Story: How Laylo reduced their CPA by 10x
đ§ Insight: Paid social isnât the only way to grow
đŞđź DIY: How to grow without paid social
đ Good links: A content house for startups, a crash course in getting press and another cool wine story
đ°Â Story: How Laylo reduced their CPA by 10x
In 2022, Laylo spent six figures on paid social (a lot for a young and growing brand).
Now they spend zero.
Founders Laura Riches and Laura Rosenberger were tired of erratic CPAs, constantly needing to update creative andâŚ
âthe suspicion we were just funding Zuck's MMA trainingâ â Laura
The main issue they had was that funnelling money into paid social didnât really feel like them, which meant it probably didnât feel right to their customers either.
âIt just didn't feel very "us". We're a bunch of people who show up. We love tasting wine in person, telling our winemakers' stories.â â Laura
So far in 2023, theyâve only run one small retargeting campaign (making the most of their TV appearance) but their D2C business has continued to grow AND theyâve reduced their CPA by 10x.
Hereâs what theyâve been doing instead đ
âď¸ Both founders write regularly on LinkedIn which has helped them secure a feature on Sunday Brunch and build partnerships with other brands
đ Honest communication with their subscribers â they have a loyal community who buy from them regularly and recommend them to friends
đ˛ An easy-to-use referral programme. Highlighted in the main menu on their site: https://drinklaylo.com/pages/refer-a-friend-1
đˇ Took lots of high-quality images right from the beginning (really useful for organic social and landing press)
â Stuck to one thing and did it really well. No cans. No bottles. Wine, in a box, that tastes good.
đď¸ Put A LOT of effort into getting press and recommendations from wine experts â this helped them build trust and authority in the space as well as dispel the belief that all box wine is bad.
đ¨ Put a lot of work into the designs of their product so that people were proud to have them out on display, not stuck away in the cupboard.
One more thing theyâve been testing recently is door-to-door sales (a lost art) and itâs working. The CPA is good and theyâre learning A LOT about their customers.
The act of selling door-to-door might not be easy to scale but the learning is already proving incredibly valuableâŚ
âThe other thing that is already scalable is the learning... We really honed the first 10 seconds of our pitch yesterday based on seeing people's faces. It's given me loads of lines I can use elsewhere.â â Laura
Laylo has sold to thousands of customers, had their products displayed in Selfridges and appeared in a huge range of publications.
Iâm looking forward to following their journey as they continue to go from strength to strength.
Remember, paid social is great but itâs not the only way to grow a brand.
____
Follow Lauraâs journey on LinkedIn >
𧠠Insight: paid social is not your only option
Paid social is an obvious channel to try for any DTC brand but itâs easy to get sucked into thinking you HAVE to use it when itâs not actually a good idea.
For some businesses, itâs ideal but that doesnât mean itâs right for you and your brand. What you really need to assess is âhow are people going to hear about you and instantly want to give your product a go?â Offline events, influencers, brand partnerships, organic social, door-to-door sales, the options are endless but paid social is not always the answer.
đŞđźÂ DIY: How to grow without paid social (ideas)
Naturally, the chance of these ideas working for your startup depends on the product and your brand so before you start, ask yourself: âWhereâs the natural place for my product to show up in front of customers who will see trying it out as a no-brainer?â
đ Build an email list: offer valuable content thatâs interesting to your audience and make sure itâs clear why they should sign up beyond discounts and ânewsâ (no one signs up to a brandâs email list for ânewsâ â take it out of the text next to your sign-up form now)
đ Go heavy on PR: if youâve got something unique to offer your industry, get it out into publications that share your audience. This works best with a clear, single message about one product and why people NEED to hear about it.
đ Establish partnerships with other brands: working with brands that already have an audience is a great way to get in front of a new group of people. If youâre just getting started though, make sure you take on the bulk of the work for any partnership if your audience is considerably smaller.
đ Good links
đ Content creation house for founders and their startups >
đ A crash course in getting press >
đ Another great wine brand growth story >
đ Tell us what youâd like help withâŚ
We started this newsletter for entrepreneurs just like you, and we want it to be as helpful as it possibly can. So tell us what youâd like help with and weâll dig into it.
Or if thereâs a brand youâd like to know more about, let us know and weâll reach out to them.
Until next weekâŚ
Keep being an Outlier,
J + K