We talk to the coolest people on the Nerd Pod. Like Preston Rutherford, Chubbies' co-founder. Topics: 1) The WRONG metrics 2) Brand spending vs performance spending 3) Why Preston thinks brand advertising is critical 4) How Chubbies almost went bankrupt www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGad...

How Chubbies Avoided Bankruptcy and Built a Nine-Figure Brand with Preston Rutherford

YouTube video by PostPilot

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DTC Brands: look @ retail. Bonobos figured this out + dropped their CAC. Pick a good location. Get in front of your best customers. It's the path of any DTC-heavy brand. . . You start DTC, then move to Amzn. But IRL commerce is still where household names are built.

3 actual no-brainer ways to automate retention with direct mail: 1) Anti-Churn Postcards 2) Dynamic Second-Purchase Campaigns 3) VIP Auto-Winbacks Only takes minutes to set up in the PostPilot app. And this is just the tip of the ROIceberg.

We got hit up by a gym apparel brand who to acquire fitness addicts. Audience we built: ✅ Known Fitness Fanatics ✅ Dedicated Runners ✅ Yoga/Pilates Practitioners ✅ Performance Nutrition Buyers ✅ Wearable Tech Users Get your own laser-targeted prospecting audience with PostPilot. DM me.

Retail experts - direct mail’s your new brick and mortar growth lever. Four Sigmatic saw a 101% lift at WF. How we did it: 1) ID’d best Shopify customers 2) Used AcquisitionAI to build lookalike 3) Sent postcards with store-specific deals 4) Tracked results against a control store Sales doubled.

3 discount alternatives to try this BFCM + save margin: 1) New product drop Jones Road Beauty runs a masterclass doing this over BFCM. 2) Store Credit Taylor Stitch sees major success with this. 3) GWPs Your only loss is COGS, vs. potentially $100+ on a big order.

Just launched an 8fig DM program for high-AOV brand: 1) AI lookalike prospecting (150k trifolds sent) 2) Automated retargeting (welcome series + cart flows) 3) RFM-based winbacks (postcards fired by segment + timing) Killer early results.

Consider what's possible with data. A premium coffee brand wanted to prospect coffee lovers who value quality. We built them a lookalike audience using AcquisitionAI. High-income people who: buy premium coffee and love gourmet food. @PostPilot can build your delightfully snobby audience, too.

I’ve automated into the 9 figs with direct mail: By “echoing” my email programs. → VIP winbacks (auto send based on RFM) → Subs reactivation (auto send different mailers based on cancellation reason) → 2nd purchase campaigns (use 1st-2nd purchase time between orders data)

“Cash is oxygen.” I’ve said this to maybe 100 DTC founders over 15yrs. It’s usually when their brands we suffocating. (P&L heavy on the L). But in 2025, the principle should always apply. Especially heading into BFCM. Where are you spending now that isn’t helping your profitability?

Nothing destroys companies faster than employees with multiple bosses giving contradictory orders. One boss. One chain of command. Period. Matrix reporting = organizational cancer. Amazon scales because authority lines are crystal clear. How many unofficial "dotted lines" exist in your org chart?

Petite Keep got 3 sharks to buy on Shark Tank. + they’ve automated revenue with @postpilot.bsky.social for 3 years. Coincidence? 3 High-ROI results: 1) Holiday Cardalogs → 15x ROAS 2) Automated VIP winbacks → 7.31x incremental ROAS 3) Automated Handwritten Thank-You Notes → 11.1x ROAS

Most of your best buyers don’t open your emails. Send winning email campaigns via direct mail to reach the 80–90% you're missing. Easy, proven, and ready for BFCM. #ecom #DirectMail #EmailMarketing #PostPilot #CustomerRetention #BFCM

Segment by last purchase date and tailor deals. More recent = less discount. Combine with frequency for better targeting. Avoid discounting everyone or wasting spend on lost causes. #ecom #BFCM #RetentionMarketing #CustomerSegmentation #PostPilot

Postage costs stay flat while Meta CPCs explode in November. Your competitors will stuff inboxes and bid up digital. Physical mail stays uncrowded. Test now when stakes are low. #DirectMail #Q4Strategy #BlackFriday

Before strategy, fix the culture. That’s how we turned around a $150M retailer bleeding cash. #Leadership #CompanyCulture #Turnaround #BusinessGrowth #Retail

Most new buyers ignore your discount code and still buy. What that tells you about your attribution model (and your margins). #DTC #Attribution #MarketingTruths #DirectMail #Ecommerce

Psychology 101: People feel they deserve extra indulgence on birthdays. Most brands stop at email/SMS. Smart ones add postcards to birthday triggers. Result? Customers share these postcards in communities. Nobody shares birthday emails. #BirthdayMarketing #DirectMail #LoyaltyPrograms

&Collar sent VIP thank-you cards. No discount, no pitch, no product. 15x ROI. $200k revenue. Customers get hounded constantly. Rare gratitude wins. "Two-way commerce" beats sales pitches. #CustomerAppreciation #DirectMail #VIPMarketing

Direct mail crushes email response rates. But costs way more. Most brands see higher response rates, get excited, then blast 100k postcards and burn their budget. The economics only work with precision targeting, not spray and pray. #DirectMail #MarketingStrategy #CustomerRetention

Lo & Sons segmented first-time buyers by product type, sent targeted postcards for likely 2nd purchases. Results: 56%/64% repeat rates, 7x/10x ROAS. Stop blasting everyone with same offer. #DataDrivenMarketing #CustomerSegmentation #DirectMail

Navy + eCommerce taught me 3 leadership essentials: Delegation = accountability, not orders Communication = you're always selling Listening = trust All learnable. #Leadership #StartupFounders #NavyLessons

Sofia Vergara's brand had 1x customer issues. Direct mail fix: 5x ROAS non-buyers 4x 2nd purchases Physical mail > digital noise. #DirectMail #ROAS

Your best customers eventually unsubscribe. Once suppressed, they're dead to digital forever. The fix? Hit suppressed customers with 2-3+ purchases via postcard. Email can't reach them. Direct mail can. #EmailMarketing #DirectMail

Stop burning cash on Meta. Your top 20% customers already float your profitability. Better to turn minnows into whales than chase new fish. Find your whale pattern. Automate it. Print money. #DTC #marketing #directmail #ROAS

Digital trains us to think in 7-day windows. But direct mail? People order 90+ days later. That catalog in the bathroom, postcard on the fridge - persistent presence compounds. Not everything valuable fits a 7-day window. #DirectMail

We helped Portland Leather send birthday postcards with bonus points. Result? $1M+ in 6 months at 15x ROAS. Took minutes to set up, then ran on autopilot. Big wins don’t have to be hard. #DTC #lifecyclemarketing #directmail #ecommerce

Karmaloop had a record Black Friday then went bankrupt. Why? Blanket discounts trained full-price buyers to wait for deals. Afterward, we switched to targeted offers + cheap add-ons. More profit, fewer discount junkies. #DTC #BlackFriday #ecommerce

Email gets deleted. Ads get scrolled past. But that postcard sits on your kitchen counter for weeks. The test: Mail 80% of lapsed customers, hold back 20%. Both see your digital ads. Result? Mail group wins every time. #DirectMail

Discount addiction kills brands. You train bargain-hunters, then can't quit without killing sales. Most customers will pay full price if you let them. Use discount ladders, not pop-ups. Stop leading with 20% off. #ecommerce #DTC #pricing #emailmarketing