How Connor MacDonald Plans For Next Year

We need to throw out the word "brand" I think our simple, performance-marketer brains completely crumble when we try to think about building a "brand." It's abstract, it sounds antithetical to performance & growth, and it leads marketers into a lot of bad behavior Instead, you should be trying to build PERSONALITY into your company. A personality that is capable of showing up in the right context, to each persona you're trying to sell to. Think about your own personality. You show up differently to saturday night dinner with friends than you to do sunday afternoon lunch with your in laws. You might dress different, you might drink differently, and you definitely talk different. You dress differently to a concert friday night than you do to work on monday morning. You're not being fake, you're being authentically you in every one of those situations, but you're showing up in the right context for different people, places, and times. That's what our "brands" need to be able to do in 2026 and beyond. Can we show up with the proper context, to specific personas in our target audience, at the right times, on the right channels, with the right influencers & partners? That's how the next great brands are going to be built.

Yes, the majority of Americans aren't rolling in cash right now... But, the top 10% of earners are still seeing your ads, visiting your website, and spending their money. Why aren't you giving them the opportunity to give you MORE?

Discounts are like binge drinking - Lots of fun in the short term (big revenue boost) - Leads to bad behavior (hacky marketing) - Creates shallow, meaningless relationships (low LTV customers) - Terrible Hangovers (awful performance after the sale) - It's more acceptable to do around major holidays (if you're doing it august I assume your life & business are not going well) ...But a great offer is like sharing a pour of Kentucky's finest bourbon. It starts with meaningful connection (strong messaging), and creates a long lasting relationship (profitable LTV). Listen to this episode and hang around till minute 6 where I show the results of a split test where we reduced our discount from 30% to 20% and decreased our CAC, and increased CVR & RPS.

The CMO of The Ridge is back on the pod to break down how he's thinking about 2026, including 103 ideas to improve performance next year, an increased focused on retention, on-site merchandising strategy, and organic social.

The best ad I saw in all of October didn't come from a DTC brand you've heard of... It wasn't even a DTC brand... In this episode I break down the best ad of October & teach you how you should be applying the principles that make it a great ad to your next batch of creative. If you want your ads to work better, start testing creative, copy, and offers on your WEBSITE with Intelligems.io. Use code NATE10 to get 10% off your subscription price.

I think marketers should be lazy Maybe "efficient" is the better word. But tbh I'd rather lazy over a marketer who doesn't understand the difference between activity and productivity My job as a CMO is basically to make the company the most money while spending the least money Hit our biz goals as efficiently as possible. But I've been getting DMs from CEOs that sound like, "I feel like my marketing team is doing a ton of work, but we're not making an progress. What are we doing wrong? How do I change that?" So, here's how you change that. It all starts with a simple, reliable, and repeatable testing strategy that you team executes to learn things about your customers, then applies those learnings to the entire marketing funnel. Stop, read that again, slowly^ I break down specifically how to test ad creative & landers in this episode of tactical & practical, and even share some juicy results of the first split test I'm running at my new job. Tactical & Practical is sponsored by Intelligems.io - Use code NATE10 for 10% off your subscription.

2 Undefeated Advertising Tactics, regardless of any algorithm change, or the channel, or the year... these two tactics, when executed well & consistently, will improve the effectiveness of your advertising 100% of the time: 1. Understand your customers' REAL consideration journey. How long does it take someone from discovery to purchase? What micro decisions do they need to make along the way before they make the final purchase decision? What are the external & internal factors that are capable of affecting that decision making process? Who (other than the brand) can affect that process? Influencers? Social proof from real customers? An authority in your space? When is the right time in their lives to make this purchase? If you don't have solid answers to those questions, then you're FORBIDDEN from listening to another marketing podcast. Don't listen to mine, don't listen to anyone else's. In fact, unfollow me on twitter until you find the right answers to those questions (HINT: you can upload all your customer reviews to Chat, ask it those questions, and it'll give you a great foundation to start with) Then, you can start crafted better messages, offers, and campaign schedules to accelerate those customer journeys and more effectively persuade more of your target audience to buy. 2. Understand how your advertising impacts your ultimate business goals. When you advertise product X, how much revenue comes in from product X? How much revenue comes in from other products who saw an ad for product X. What does the customer journey (12-month LTV) look like for customers acquired on product X? Add up all that revenue, subtract COGS, CAC, and any other costs that went into selling it (software, content creation, etc). Is it actually creating the profit you thought? Then you need to watch how your advertising inputs affects these outcomes. You might come up with an offer, like a big discount, that produces a higher 7-day ROAS. BUT, if the cohort of customers acquired on that offer are WORSE customers (less repeat purchases), then you might be hurting the long term health of the business. So, those are my 2 undefeated advertising tactics: - Understand your customers' real & complete consideration & purchase decision making process, and use that info in your marketing efforts - Understand how your advertising inputs affect the business outcomes, and make sure that aligns with what the shareholders want to happen. Stop talking about andromeda please

7 ways to measure the effectiveness of your FUNNEL FILLING: 1. Google Search Volume 2. Total REACH (all ad & organic channels) 3. Cost Per 1,000 Accounts Center Accounts Reached (Meta) 4. New Visitor Percentage (Meta) 5. Blended Cost Per New Site Session 6. Blended Cost Per New Lead 7. Revenue Per Lead (short time frame: 7-, 14-days etc) What else would you add? October is FUNNEL FILLING SZN for ecom, but a lot of marketers rely on HOPE to make sure it's going well without any concrete data, which I don't advise. Measuring these 7 metrics, and comparing them to the same time frame from last year or last sales period will give you a leading indication of how effectively you're filling the funnel, and how lucrative November & December might be for you. It's not iron clad, every year in ecom is different, but if you pull these metrics compared to last year, you'll start to see a picture of how you're stacking up year over year, and it should become clear what you need to work on before the holiday shopping season starts! T+P is sponsored by Intelligems.io - Use Code NATE10 to get 10% off your subscription and start making more money by split testing prices, offers, content, and more on your shopify store today!

None of you should be copying & pasting the same exact tactics that 9-figure brands use in their marketing to your 6-, 7-, or even 8-figure/yr brands. You should take inspiration from them, but then run those tactics through the FILTER of your brand, your budget, your bandwidth, your skillset, and your customer base, before applying those tactics. In this episode of Tactical & Practical, I talk about how we've taken inspiration from Ridge's creator strategy with MKBHD, Portland Leather Goods' Meta ad creative strategy, and how we've used similes & metaphors like great songwriters to improve our direct response copywriting. Go to Intelligems.io to start split testing high impact areas of your website and making your ad dollars more efficient! *before any of you say trickle down economics don't work so you hate this episode, shut up. Idk what trickle down economics are but I've made good money doing this^ and trickle down tactics was a catchy name for this episode. Stop being a dork.

Tactical & Practical is brought to you by Intelligems.io - your one-stop-shop for PROFIT GROWTH. Split test prices, offers, progress bars, content, and anything else you can think of on your website to maximize your top and bottom line. Here are the 3 biggest lessons I learned during my time at OG, and how you can apply them to your growth marketing channels: You’re not selling what you think you’re selling. Make sure you are marketing what your customers REALLY, maybe even subconsciously, want. Big growth doesn’t come from big ideas. Big growth comes from relentlessly testing & optimizing the fundamentals of marketing. Stack 5-10% wins over and over and over and over again, you’ll pick your head up 12 months later and realize you doubled the size of your company. Always do what’s best & what works for your brand. Don’t rely on “industry standards” or “best practices.” Feel free to take inspiration from the biggest & best brands in our industry, but make sure you run those tactics through the filter of your brand, your customers, and your budget before executing them yourself Let me know your fav lesson in the comments, thanks for listening.