AI trusts this 2-person brand more than L’Oréal

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Good morning!

In today’s newsletter,

This issue takes 2 minutes to read.

Check out our DTC tool stack here

Let’s dive into it👇

Live today. (No recordings. No second chances.)

In a few hours, we’re discussing how a skincare brand with 2 employees beat L'Oréal at trust, and how your brand can replicate their strategy to win organic AI recommendations.

Top-tier operators and founders have already registered for the session:

How a Skincare Brand With 2 Employees Beat L'Oréal at Trust: Why Verifiable Brands Will Win the Next Decade of Commerce.

Delivered at 1pm ET / 10am PT by Ankur Modi (ex-Meta, Ex-Amazon systems architect, & NASDAQ IPO veteran)

We’ll cover:

P.S: We’ll open the floor to live Q&A - treat this as a high-level strategic session, and bring tough questions your team can’t solve. Please note: the webinar will not be recorded due to data privacy for all brands attending/sensitive case studies used

Bonus for live attendees: Bring your store URL. 

We are dedicating portion of the call to Free Live Store Audits. Ankur will show you exactly where your competitors are outperforming you and how to fix it on the spot.

Stop trying to out-spend the empires. It’s time to out-trust-signal them.

👉 Last chance to join and request a live audit (check your email for webinar details).

Buffer analyzed 1.8 million YouTube videos and found that long-form videos and Shorts peak at almost opposite times.

Long-form videos perform best Sunday through Tuesday, posted in the morning between 8 and 11 a.m. Sunday at 10 a.m. is the single highest-performing slot of the entire week.

Shorts are the opposite. They peak in the evenings between 6 and 9 p.m., with Friday as the strongest day.

That said, these are averages across 1.8 million videos. Your audience may behave differently.

Check YouTube Studio's Audience tab and find the timing that suits best for your audience.

1. Go to YouTube Studio

2. Check out your YouTube analytics

3. Navigate to Audience

Your viewers’ most active times will be in the darkest purple and the least active times in the lightest purple.

Action Summary:

Credit: Buffer

Right now, buyers are asking AI:
“What’s the best collagen powder for women over 40?”
“What’s a good non-toxic candle brand that actually smells strong?”
“Best dog harness for small dogs that pull?”

And AI is deciding which brands get recommended.

The problem here is this: most ecommerce stores are still optimized for traditional SEO…. not AI recommendation engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, Google Shopping, and Bing.

So even if you have a great product, strong reviews, and proven sales…AI may never recommend your brand.

Which means competitors who optimize early can quietly dominate the next wave of organic ecommerce traffic while everyone else keeps fighting over paid ads.

That’s why we created the 90-Day AI Visibility Sprint™.

We help Shopify brands optimize 1 product so AI can actually understand, trust, and recommend it organically.

Here’s what’s included:
• AI Visibility Audit showing how your product currently performs in AI search
• Full optimization for 1 product page
• Store-wide metadata + schema cleanup
• AI recommendation positioning
• At least 1 third-party brand mention to strengthen AI trust signals

Built for Shopify stores with at least one product already generating $1k+/month.

$497.

90-day guarantee:
If your product doesn’t meet AI visibility standards within 90 days, we keep working for free until it does.

Sarah, an influencer marketing operator who matches creators with brands, shares how years running campaigns across hundreds of brands shaped her no-nonsense playbook for DTC founders trying to get real ROI from influencer marketing.

Know your numbers before you spend

Before you contact a single creator, figure out your target CPC or CPM, then work backwards. What does this creator cost? How many clicks can you expect from their stories? If the math doesn't work on paper, it won't work in real life.

Follower count is the last thing to look at

A creator with 2M followers averaging 50K views and 50 comments will almost always underperform a creator with 20K followers averaging the same views at a fraction of the price. Look at the comments. Real questions from real people convert.

One post proves nothing

Give creators 90 days with a consistent schedule before making any decisions. Drop what isn't moving. Keep what is, and run it as paid ads.

Action Summary:

🎙️ Listen to the episode here: YouTube | Spotify | Amazon

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