WORKWEEK

Twitter might call this ~funnel hacking~. 

In reality, there’s no better way to study a brand, or a business than to behave like a customer. 

With that, let’s funnel hack our little hearts out! Madhappy, your most loyal customer is at it again. Put me in, coach! 

STEP 1: SEARCH FOR THE BRAND ON GOOGLE 😡 🤗

What’s crazy here is that Madhappy has 0 search ads running. 

What’s crazier is that these are the ‘People also ask’ questions that automatically pop up: 

YOU CAN’T PAY FOR THIS TYPE OF HYPE. ‘Who wears Madhappy?’ THE DREAM! 🌩

STEP 2: CHECK THE FACEBOOK ADS LIBRARY 😡 🤗

0 PAID ADS! But, how is Madhappy so famous? More on this later… 

STEP 3: GO TO THE BRAND’S WEBSITE 😡 🤗

Here, we’ve got:

📧: Klaviyo as our ESP

🛒: Rebuy’s smart cart and personalization widget 

♺: Loop Return’s as our return’s center

👨‍💻: Google’s Pixels and Meta’s Pixels

🛍: Back in Stock’s app that alerts a waitlist for relaunching sold-out SKUs 

👀: Privy’s marketing automation app (this one is a surprise to me because IMO Madhappy has likely outgrown Privy but I’d love to see how they use it – I’m nosy!) 🥸

Etc Etc so on and so forth! 

Noticeably, I’m not seeing a TikTok pixel (which I think could be a miss because even though Madhappy as a brand isn’t currently spending on TikTok Ads (or any other ad platform), they should be warming up that Pixel for their eventual future (it takes 1 second to add a new pixel and you’ll never know when you need or want to shift strategy later!) 

P.S. I’m looking at all of this with my beloved Built With! 

STEP 4: ENTER YOUR EMAIL 😡 🤗

I’m a die-hard Madhappy fan so I’m going to say this: I would prefer that Madhappy’s email capture were more apparent, and that their Accessibe widget didn’t cover it on desktop. 

This is a great example of even THE BEST have room to improve (in my humble, super-fan of Madhappy opinion). 

One more thing here: I really love Accessibe (I use it on every website that I build – it’s my favorite. The out-of-the-box Accessibe widget is BLUE). For me, no matter what, I NEVER WANT MY CLIENTS TO CHANGE THE COLOR OF THE ACCESSIBILITY WIDGET. 

I want it to be SO easy to spot and SO optimized towards readability – a blue widget is never going to break your brand. It’s what’s most helpful to the end-user and should remain in its intended colorway. 

STEP 5: SHOP AROUND 😡 🤗

Madhappy is a drop-model type of brand. They DROP LITERALLY ALL THE TIME. It’s the best. It’s also super competitive to get the size you want in the style you want. Set your alarm type of shit. 

Their website speaks to this, especially in the mega-nav. Their merchandize their site to make sure that they’re always helping you navigate QUICKLY towards the hottest collection drop. And, in times of evergreen (non-drop days), basics are still center stage in the hierarchy of the menu. 

I love this model. Newness = $$$$$$$

It’s so much easier to drop fewer items MORE often than to drop a HUGE collection and then have nothing new to talk about for a season. Madhappy is DTC royalty for this model, and I can’t tell you the amount of times I’ve had to size up or size down because I refused to miss out on the drop (but I wasn’t quick enough to grab my exact perfect hoodie). 

This is a prime example: I want a particular SWEAT SUIT in black! Not just the hoodie! But, the sweat pants are sold out in my size. And, I really want the complete set. So, I wait. PRAYING THAT ONE DAY I GET OFF OF THIS WAITLIST AND THAT THEY DROP THIS STYLE AGAIN. 

I can’t imagine a better airport outfit than this hoodie with these pants.

STEP 6: LET’S REWIND 😡 🤗

With Madhappy, everything is a little different than the competition. From all-expenses paid 5-star Aspen influencer trips (a great use for budget instead of running ads), to the fact that they never go on sale (no 10% welcome in the email capture), to the sole reliance on Instagram organic (that’s where I find out about each and every collection). 

Sure, they have a strong email and SMS strategy. And, sure, their product is REALLY, REALLY AMAZING.

But, Madhappy has established themselves as the anti-ecommerce brand in my opinion. 

No OBVIOUS tactics. No “set your alarm we’re about to stock out” type of messaging. They just do. They stock out. They don’t warn you that it will happen, because they already know you know that TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE.

I appreciate this type of brand because I think we all know that the end-customer has never been smarter. We’re quite frankly sick of brands that say, “OMG YOU SOLD US OUT IN 48 HOURS” when you know that that likely isn’t the case. We can see through it. Madhappy sees through it, and doesn’t engage. Hell ya. 

STEP 7: THE HISTORY OF MADHAPPY 😡 🤗

The Marketing Millennials actually profiled Madhappy earlier this year, you can read that HERE. 

My personal history with Madhappy? I was in Miami in December 2018 with Daniel and his cousin! We were walking around (tourists, you know) and Talia (said cousin) stops at an outdoor type of booth thingy because she saw the words MADHAPPY on the front of a hoodie and thought it seemed like a nice expression (she’s one of those LIVE LAUGH LOVE GLASS-HALF FULL TYPE OF PEOPLE so this was right up her alley!) We then checked the price tag and it was over $100 and she BOUGHT IT. And I was like OH SHIT why is this so expensive? And, then I start following them on instagram and cut to now: probably (literally) 20 sweatshirts deep at this point and no end in sight. 

IRL activation x word of mouth x exclusivity x price as a strategy. 

Madhappy forever. 😡 🤗