Expert Insights: Troy from Every Man Jack
A day in the life of a retention manager in D2C
Welcome Troy! Could you give us a quick introduction of the brand and your role within Every Man Jack?
Every Man Jack is a natural men’s grooming brand that was started in 2007 in the California Bay Area. We were born in retail stores (first launching in Target) and are in most major chains in the US (and a few in Canada) and have really hit the ground hard in the past few years to also build our eCommerce site and footprint. We’re known for our affordable pricing, great scents (Sandalwood and Cedarwood are our best sellers) and it's very much a brand that people recognize from the wood grain packaging on the bottles.
I joined the team back in March in the role of Retention Marketing Manager, along with a paid social manager and PPC manager, and together with our Director of Growth we’ve formed the Performance Team which is completely focused on growing everymanjack.com. We’re a newer team and get to really immerse ourselves in the challenge of growing our eCommerce site, but with the benefit of already having a well-known brand and resources that come with that.
So how would you describe your day to day?
In the day-to-day, I manage email & SMS, our subscription program and also our blog and SEO efforts (even though that’s less explicitly tied to retention). Email is the most time intensive and the channel I’ve spent the most time on in my overall marketing career. Even though no day is really the same, I do spend the largest chunk of my time managing our content calendar, writing briefs, analysing performance, and keeping the content workflow always moving with the help of our copywriter and designer (I used to also do that work all myself back in the day, so it’s amazing having those resources).
Outside of managing email and SMS and all the content that goes through those channels, I’m always keeping an eye on my key metrics: Average Order Value, Lifetime Value, and Repeat Purchase Rate. Every piece of content that makes it’s way on to the content calendar or in one our automated flow is designed to help drive an increase in those numbers. Right now we’ve really been experimenting with bundles and pushing those hard, and based on sales it definitely looks like customers are into getting all their grooming products packaged together - making their lives easier.
And with that, optimizing the product page copy, the FAQs etc does have a large impact on our conversion metrics - so I’ve been immersed in CX and onsite copy lately too.
In terms of interactions with the team, we have a few structured marketing meetings throughout the week. So for example the one with our full marketing team is one where we all share learnings on what’s working across channels because other teams may be able to leverage those insights. So the paid social team may notice a particular piece of creative working well, which helps inspire email content. And vice versa with me identifying insights across copy / subject lines etc.
What makes up your marketing stack?
I’ve worked with both Magento and Shopify, and both have their pros and cons - but Shopify definitely integrates with every tool you’ll ever need which makes my life easier. I’m a huge Klaviyo fan for email and love Attentive for SMS. We’re not currently on Recharge yet for subscription but will be in the not-so-distant future, so looking forward to that.
Any insights on subscription boxes? Are they effective?
That’s another thing I spend quite some time on: Surveying and speaking with customers about their subscription box experience. One easy win has been to always throw in a free gift in the box, which helps our customers try new SKUs and upsell down the line. We include that along with an insert where our founder shares updates on new product lines etc.
One thing we’ve picked up on recently is that 70% of our customer base tweaks their box, so optimizing the experience to easily make adjustments to what’s in your box has become a large focus of ours.
I see your responsibilities as a retention manager merging quite a bit with CX. Do you see them as separate?
They are closely related in that both functions have a 2-way dialogue with customers. With the paid ads for example, that can be quite a 1-way-street interaction: How do we most efficiently get you to purchase? But after that - for retention, CX and even CS - we need to listen very closely to micro-interactions from our customers. That spans from fielding Facebook comments to find ways to tweaks FAQs in our product detail pages to understanding broader search behavior analysis to better identify our customers’ most acute pain points.
One last question from me: What are the biggest drivers of retention for a D2C business?
Number 1 is an effective email strategy. It’s an affordable channel and you own your data. In a time of uncertainty with all of Apple’s privacy changes happening, email has been stable - even though yes, I know Apple is coming for email tracking soon too. Testing and figuring out optimal timing for when to send the right content and offer right when customers are running out of product is massively important, as well as moving them to new categories and products.
The second most important, in my opinion, is great content. This applies to product, category, and all your site pages, as well as and especially your blog. Strong educational and value driven content is extremely effective to keep your brand top of mind before or between purchases. I want our customers to have something to engage with and learn from in those gaps between when they purchased their body wash and before they’ve run out.
Thanks Troy. Great to chat and really appreciate your insights.
