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! Wonder Valley, you’re up! 🏜

STEP 1:

🌵Search for the brand on Google. 🌵

*you’re about to get set yourself up to get hit with a bunch of the brand’s ads – this is what we’re going for! You can also always stalk a brand’s ads via TikTok’s Creative Center and check out their ads via  Facebook Ads Library – free and shows you not only what creative is out and about – but where that creative leads (landing pages, collections, PDP, you name it).  

Wonder Valley is running paid search. They are doing a good job of pushing their customers to their owned DTC site, but there is a tiny little glitch in the matrix wholesaler that is boxing them out. There’s nothing more painful, to me, than not showing up ahead of your wholesale accounts in SEM. Joanna Czech shows 1st. 🥀

STEP 2:

🚦Click through to the brand’s website.🚦

Well, well well. I’ll cut straight to the chase. Wonder Valley’s website is so much more perfect than expected. Their website is actually one of my favorite websites in the entire world. Take that Joanna Czech. 🌹

Back to why I love Wonder Valley. Let’s dissect the email capture: 

🏜: Leads with the offer – doesn’t get cute with it. This is preferred. 

🏜: “Join us in Wonder Valley” – Wonder Valley is a place (in Joshua Tree, CA), a DTC brand, and a wholesaler, all in 1. By giving them my name and info, I’ve accepted my invitation to this mythical place. Sure, I plan to join them from my sofa in ATX. But I’ve been invited, and that’s warm. 

🏜: Movement! The blinking, animated cursor that leads me to where I need to. type. The beautiful, ASSORTMENT of assets that gif on the right. The way this entire popup isn’t as boring as they usually come. I appreciate it, I gave my email over happily, and this is 1 of many examples that we’ll see today of Wonder Valley hitting above their weight class. 

STEP 3:

🕵️‍♀️ Now that I’m on the site let’s stalk the tech stack. 🕵️‍♀️

Here we can see a Shopify site equipped with: 

📧: Klaviyo as their ESP

👢:  Back in Stock (Shopify app that lets you create a waitlist for sold out SKUs)

📲: Emotive for SMS

🛒: ShareASale for affiliates

🐳: Triple Whale for Attribution

What I like about this tech stack (that I looked up for free with Built With) is how unstacked it is. I don’t see every software in the world. I see a refined list – only what they need. I respect this. I hope for this. 

Would I add a few tools to our kit if I worked with Wonder Valley? Absolutely – because they are missing a few that would help them grow . Namely we’re missing:

1️⃣. Listrak GXP so that they can capture and convert and IDENTIFY their anonymous traffic (this is guaranteed revenue)

2️⃣. Octane AI so that we can create a quiz-funnel to direct our customer to the right products (this will help their AOV)

3️⃣. Microsoft Clarity for heatmapping (this is free)

STEP 4:

🫒 Look at STUDY the homepage and PDP 🫒

Let me start here (the promobar):

^ Matches the color of the CTA and this yellow color is otherwise used SPARINGLY. This is correct. This promobar is meant to inspire SHOPPING. 

The button iconography that is placed as the spacer between each announcement is GENIUS. Why write shop now when you can DRAW a CTA BUTTON! I’m going to copy this. xo 

1 test I’d love for them to run: Instead of just mentioning the free shipping on domestic orders over $50, let’s add in some proof. An example of what I mean is found here on ARMRA’s site.

^^ this lets you use that EVER-IMPORTANT TOP-OF-PAGE SPACE to add in a vote of confidence. Yes, a new shopper cares about free shipping. But, a new shopper also loves seeing that there were happy shoppers that came before them. This # of customers and 5-star mention is that social proof that will make them more comfortable spending their money on your brand. Try it! A/B test it with ABLyft and report back. 

Moving right along, the homepage is part collections page. Which I REALLY LOVE FOR THEM. It’s giving Calle Del Mar, but in a more conventional way. Mixing the predictable (full bleed hero banner) with the unhinged (Calle Del Mar takes the full-tilt approach to this and just shows their entire collection). 

How Wonder Valley does this is how I’d do this. I love this site, have I mentioned that? ❤️‍🔥

Now, kindly direct your attention to their PDP for their hero Hinoki Body Oil (I have this, I use it exclusively, and it’s incredible). 

This PDP shines below the fold. There’s a ton of product education. A ton of tricks. A true way to undersand why this is the body oil to end all body oils. 

Above the fold, we just need more content. A carousel of images (ideally at least 4) would do us wonders. Maybe the 2nd image could be an infographic with a comparison chart? 

STEP 5:

🏝 Explore the rest of the site 🏝

This about us page is in my North Star, best websites of all time, hall of fame. 

DAY TO NIGHT!!!!! AHHH!!!! Who thought of this? Can you send them my love? 

STEP 6:

🏃🏻‍♀️ Hit social 🏃🏻‍♀️

1️⃣. Check Instagram 

2️⃣. Pinterest (43K monthly views – I can see why!!)

STEP 7:

🧛🏻‍♀️ Time to shop 🧛🏻‍♀️ (our specialty!) 

We’ve added to cart! 

And this cart has heart. I love the gift note. I love the scrolling product-reccos. I love the shipping threshold progress-bar. I would check to make sure that there are no products that aren’t in stock in the product reccos (nothing with a Notify Me). This is an easy sub but could have impact. 

Wonder Valley would be the sweetest gift. The gift note in the cart reminds me of that. I appreciate this! 

STEP 8:

🏜 Enjoy Your Purchase! 🏜

Why study from afar when you can study the packaging, too? I’ve placed MANY Wonder Valley orders in my day, and each time I’m reminded that this brand is worth supporting.

You know me. I buy a lot of shit online. I do not take pictures of every brand’s packaging. Because most brands phone this in. Can I show you my favorite detail? 

Each bottle was perfectly, carefully, and beautifully hand-twisted into the craft paper that they are rolled into. I don’t know if hand-twisted is the proper industry term for this. These bottles weren’t chucked into a big fugly box with extra paper that wastes. They were hand-twisted, 1 by 1, and protected by just the exact amount of material that there needed to be.

This is welcoming.  Welcome to Wonder Valley. https://welcometowondervalley.com/