Episode #54 – The Performance Marketing Spotlight with Zach Scheimer

Marshall Nyman [00:00:02]:
Hello and welcome to the Performance Marketing Spotlight. I’m your host, Marshall nyman, founder and CEO of Nymo & Company. Each episode I bring you someone with deep experience in the performance marketing space where they share their career journey and insights about the industry. Today I have Zach Scheimer of Cricket Shirt. Welcome to the podcast, Zach.

Zach Scheimer [00:00:21]:
Thanks Marjo. Great to be here.

Marshall Nyman [00:00:23]:
Excited to have you on. Let’s get right to it. We’d love for you to tell us a little bit about yourself and introduce yourself.

Zach Scheimer [00:00:28]:
Yeah, for sure. I was just introduced recently and I’m going to steal this introduction for myself, but I was a performer, professional mascot. I’m a current stand up comedian on the side and also e commerce marketer. I think those three are so diverse and it really speaks to my diverse background, sort of how I ended up going from a professional sports mascot to, you know, working in E commerce. In the data side, it’s a very different side of everything. But it’s been a really fun career journey and the start and the finish, or at least the start and the point of that has been a really fun journey.

Marshall Nyman [00:01:04]:
You got to tell us which team.

Zach Scheimer [00:01:07]:
I technically line allowed, but it’s also one my LinkedIn so sure it’s the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Marshall Nyman [00:01:12]:
Okay, that’s pretty cool.

Zach Scheimer [00:01:15]:
It was a really, really fun thing to do to be the mascot for your hometown team. Like that was incredible experience.

Marshall Nyman [00:01:23]:
And then how did you get your start in marketing?

Zach Scheimer [00:01:26]:
Yeah, so I was an information systems major as well as sport management in college, so really wanted to be doing analytics in the sports space, but ended up starting my career at Vivid Seats in Chicago, which is a sports and entertainment ticketing company doing email marketing, but very much the technical side of email marketing. So I was designing our email templates and updating those, building out automations and Salesforce Marketing Cloud doing our analytics. Salesforce Marketing Cloud also had ampscript at the time for personalization, so I was building out our personalization. So really a nice mix of that technical side but also the execution of the emails themselves.

Marshall Nyman [00:02:10]:
And then what led you to join cricket?

Zach Scheimer [00:02:13]:
Yeah, my career sort of wound in a couple of different directions from email execution side to pure data and analytics and wanted to get back into sort of a role that I was able to do both of those in one role. And so cricket ended up being a really great landing spot for me. I’ve been able to both build our email and SMS programs as well as build our loyalty program sort of from scratch, also handle our MarTech strategy and have built out our analytics functioning for Marketing. So I’ve really been able to hit all of those touch points in one role. And that’s what drove me to accept the position really was that type of freedom.

Marshall Nyman [00:02:56]:
Tell us who Cricket Church is and what do they do?

Zach Scheimer [00:03:00]:
Yeah. So Cricket was founded. Our two founders are two childhood friends. They really wanted to bring back that 70 style polo, but modernize it and put some sort of upscale touches, if that makes sense to a golf polo. One of the things that we have in every one of our polos are collar stays. So you’ll never see sort of those bacon neck on. On the side of your golf polo. You always have those collar stays to keep the collar really crisp.

Zach Scheimer [00:03:29]:
It’s a four button placket as well, which is again, sort of that 70s style. And so that style and that mentality is really where our founders came from. They talk a lot about the 19th hole mentality. It is a golf pole, but it’s not necessarily. Our target audience is not the hardcore golfers. It’s the people that enjoy that beer at the end of 18 holes at the bar, you know, right after just, you know, having fun, was fun with friends on the course. So it’s a very distinct brand voice coming from that perspective. And it’s been a really fun brand to be a part of.

Marshall Nyman [00:04:03]:
What’s been your favorite part of working there?

Zach Scheimer [00:04:06]:
Yeah, I would say two things, I think. One, I started at cricket when we were moving from a 12 person team to a 16 person team and we’re now over 30 people. And it’s one of the first places I’ve ever worked where everyone is really close. It’s a really close knit group. We enjoy, you know, a work happy hour or just happy hour because we’re friends. And so that’s been a really cool culture thing to be a part of. I don’t think a lot of brands are intentional about how they build a culture like Cricket is. So that culture has been really something that have an experience for and thankful for all the time.

Zach Scheimer [00:04:42]:
But I think from a work perspective, one of the things that Qriket has had since I started is that distinct brand voice. And so as a marketer, it makes my job so much easier just sticking to that brand voice and knowing our customers so well, it’s really allowed me to speak to them in a very specific way. And we’ve had a lot of success because of that.

Marshall Nyman [00:05:01]:
What is Cricket’s approach to their digital marketing strategy?

Zach Scheimer [00:05:04]:
Yeah, I think for us we’re always trying to find new acquisition funnels, but Meta continues to be sort of the lead and acquisition of how you get customers to come to the brand. And so Meta continues to be that acquisition source and then from retention side, where I’m doing it, that continues to evolve. Email and SMS are sort of the legacy channels. SMS for us has been a lot more successful year over year than email has. And so we’re trying to do a lot more testing in sms. Where can we grow that channel? I think RCS messaging that’s coming soon is one way where we’ll be able to expand that SMS capability even more. And then from the loyalty side, I think our biggest pillar for us has been the omnichannel customer experience for our loyalty members. So we built a loyalty program from scratch without a loyalty partner software.

Zach Scheimer [00:06:02]:
And so we’re able to do a lot of stuff just through Klaviyo segments, really. So the same Chrome banner that people see in our email that shows their loyalty status is going to show up on our website powered by Digio and using those Klaviyo segments. So we’re able to have that seamless loyalty customer experience across a lot of different channels. And I think that’s really helped us keep that customer experience really consistent. And our customers have very much been converting more having that consistent experience.

Marshall Nyman [00:06:36]:
What are things you’re doing to improve AOV and conversion on the site?

Zach Scheimer [00:06:39]:
Yeah, aov, we’re launching something this week that’s been a really fun thing for me to work on. So we use Rebuy as our tech partner for our cart and a lot of other things on our site. But one of the limitations is the free ship promo bar in our cart only can be changed for different customers if they’re logged in. And most customers don’t log in before they’re going through the purchase process. So we’ve added a different partner to partner with Revive. So we’re using Digio, who does our audience identification grid. They have an overlay now that’s going to go live on our cart that’ll show different touch points for customers even if they’re logged in. So loyalty is part of that.

Zach Scheimer [00:07:21]:
One of our loyalty tiers is a lot higher. And so the lower loyalty tier you get free shipping with every order. But we’re wanting people to get to that next loyalty tier. And so as you get closer, we’ll have a bar basically that shows, hey, you’re this close x amount of dollars away from this next tier. And we’re really hoping to drive ALV up by showing people how close they are to different things. And not just that free ship threshold that’s currently living there because we’re able to now target using more than just customers that are logged in. So that’s one piece for sure that we’re really working on. And I think in general, the concept does become the concept of.

Zach Scheimer [00:08:03]:
Because we’re an apparel brand trying to sell more full outfits in the summer. We’ve had shorts for a long time. This is only the second year that we’ve had pants for the fall. And so trying to get people to buy both pants and a shirt or pants and a belt or the whole look. We have pants about a shirt and a hat from us, like really trying to build that full cricket style look to build pieces on to what they already wanted to buy. When you can show them that full look and how it actually looks, I think that’s really something that encourages people to buy more products and can be an organic way to lift aov.

Marshall Nyman [00:08:39]:
Yeah, shop the style. Maybe you’re even ready to do a box.

Zach Scheimer [00:08:45]:
It would be great. I think that’s one thing that really the ethos that we use in marketing here is test into it. Like, we’re never just going to go full sail on something, we’re always going to test into it. And I really enjoy that. For me personally, I joked about this a few weeks ago. I’m having some back injuries right now and I was literally ab testing which back brace was working better for me. Like, I think it’s just so ingrained in me at this point that, like, you got to test into things and when you see great results, it’s amazing. Then you can really push the throttle forward and when you don’t, you can pull back and not sort of have too much risk out there while you’re.

Zach Scheimer [00:09:23]:
You’re sort of testing into it. So that’s been a really positive thing for me at cricket that we really have that strict guidelines of how we test into things. And so often we do see the positive results, but we don’t have to put a heavy risk on it.

Marshall Nyman [00:09:38]:
Testing is so important. I feel like so few brands really actually test things and they just kind of decide and run with it and not really looking at the data or the analytics behind why they should make the right decision for sure.

Zach Scheimer [00:09:50]:
And I think one of the funniest things that people have told me when I’ve talked about our testing. So we have a model on our site, his name’s Chad, he’s all over our website and we’ve been using him for a long time. And he also Works for other brands. It’s not an exclusive model for us. And so we were trying to figure out like should we be using other models if we’ve been using him too long? We love working with Chad but it was something we were trying to just get a grasp of, like is he too out there that they won’t be thinking of our brand, they’ll just be thinking of Benz barrels when they see him. And so we’ve done a few AB tests on our emails of using Chad versus other models and Chad wins every time is the hero image. And so for us, like, even like something like as silly as that, when you’re trying to make a decision, just look at what the numbers tell you. And that’s really helpful.

Zach Scheimer [00:10:39]:
And so the smallest things you can really see insights from if you put the right testing around it.

Marshall Nyman [00:10:45]:
How has the brand been impacted by all the changes in the marketing space the last few years?

Zach Scheimer [00:10:49]:
Yeah, I think in a lot of ways, I mean we, I mean most recently tariffs we were lucky enough to not have that affect us for the spring launch. But for our fall launch we have been impacted by tariffs and had to increase some pricing, but not a ton. We were able to absorb it in a lot of different ways so it wasn’t too much of a strain on our customers. But that was something, you know, really recently that we’ve had to sort of figure out a strategy behind is that’s changing. I would say the other biggest thing that we’ve really evolved with is our data structure because of Apple Privacy. I think that’s such a big one for email marketers. Specifically where open rate used to be a go to stat that you’re going to look at when you’re looking at email marketing. And now it’s much harder to rely on because anyone who has turned on Apple privacy settings for their mail, whether it’s Apple Mail or Gmail, if they’ve turned that on.

Zach Scheimer [00:11:46]:
Any email service provider automatically marks that as an open. And so it’s inflating the open rates. Our open rates are around 64%. That’s not actually how many people are opening our emails. I know that. And so coming up for 10 years in email before Apple privacy, that was what you looked at. And so subject line testing for instance becomes harder because open rate is less of a SAP that you can rely on. Same thing with engagement.

Zach Scheimer [00:12:16]:
We used to trust click through rate, which is clicks divided by opens. Now we have to do just pure click rate which is clicks divided by delivered. Because we can’t really trust that opens number as a foolproof metric anymore. And so on the data side, it has become harder to really lock in on what’s happening because of that change. I think that’s such a big one. And I would say the other one that we’re starting to really adapt with is AI. We haven’t used it as much on the creative side of things. We’ve used a little bit for copywriting, but I would say one of the big areas that we’re using AI is trying to either automate processes or for me, look into complex data sets that are hard to either navigate or for us, like we don’t have the storage capacity in the database to get all the data points that we can get from some of our partners that can just API in and get these answers for us.

Zach Scheimer [00:13:14]:
So I think that’s another one that’s really affecting how we approach things is what can we use to help us make decisions.

Marshall Nyman [00:13:23]:
How is Cricket tackling influencer marketing?

Zach Scheimer [00:13:25]:
Yeah, it’s been a really interesting thing for us. We’ve tried it in a few different ways and we haven’t found the exact right strategy yet. I would still say it’s something that we’re trying to lean into, but it’s just trying to find the right strategy. Our average customer is a 35 to 65 year old dad. And so there is a very specific influencer type that will work for that group of people. And we’ve had some success with some, but not on a large scale. The one that we’ve really found success with is actually women. So during gifting times, whether it’s Father’s Day or pstm, we found that female influencers doing like gift wrap opening and talking about why they like these shirts for their husbands has been really powerful for the female audience of gifters.

Zach Scheimer [00:14:21]:
And so it’s not our target audience for for normal things we have launched women slime scents. But for our influencer, we’ve been able to find more of influencer marketing that works on female gifters for the most part, more than our normal men buyers.

Marshall Nyman [00:14:36]:
I’m the target demographic, but I’m not the target shopper. Somebody would buy it for me. I know. So I think you’re spot on with that. We talked a little bit about the analytics and some of the challenges there. So how are you dealing with tracking and attribution issues? What are you looking at to measure?

Zach Scheimer [00:14:55]:
Yeah, I think we’re a little bit different than a lot of retention marketers. So we’re using last touch attribution across all channels. And the reason for doing that is so that we can be looking at every channel on the same level. We know that it’s the most conservative attribution model, but Facebook and Google and Klaviyo for us all have different attribution models. And so if you try looking at all of those with their models, you’re going to have shown more sales than you actually have because there’s cross channel everything. And so like for email, for me specifically, we’re using Last Touch. I know it’s the most conservative. We also have the Klaviyo numbers that are a little bit more liberal with what our sales are.

Zach Scheimer [00:15:40]:
We know directionally that they’re very similar. So we look at both. But for the most part we are looking at Last Touch so that it’s standard across the board.

Marshall Nyman [00:15:51]:
What are some challenges you’re facing as a marketer?

Zach Scheimer [00:15:55]:
Yeah, I think for us this year email has been more of a challenge than it’s been in past years. We’re trying to evolve what we’re doing in a lot of ways. We’re doing a lot of testing. One of the things that I’ve talked to a lot of people about is that we’re actually, we’re trying to look at from our just our buyers from our email. What are they buying? Are they actually buying the products that we’re featuring in that email? And only about half of the orders are coming from email are actually the products that we’re featuring in a given email. And so for me as a marketer that says we need to have more things like a shop to look slice or a slice that shows things you’ve viewed or added your cart somewhere on the email so that there’s more places for you to see content that’s not just the things that we think you should be seeing. And from a segmentation perspective, I think that shows us that we’re hitting people at the right time, but maybe just not the right message all the time. And so we’re also working on our segmentation strategy to sort of lock up, making sure we’re hitting people more people at that right moment and giving them the wider array of things to click on and email.

Marshall Nyman [00:17:07]:
Any predictions on the future of digital marketing?

Zach Scheimer [00:17:12]:
Yeah, that’s so it’s definitely something I’m thinking about and also try not to think about at the same time. I think there’s so many changes. Like I don’t think I would have predicted two years ago that AI would be such a big part of what I do. And so it’s hard. But I think AI is going to be continued to be super powerful for marketers. And I don’t think it will ever take the job of marketers. But I think it can help. Like even with copywriting that I’ve used it for, it’s a good first draft.

Zach Scheimer [00:17:45]:
Um, whether I’m writing for standup or professionally, like writer’s block is a real thing. And so having AI able to write that first draft for you sort of eliminates that friction of I don’t even know where to start on this. It gives you that starting block. So I don’t think it’s ever going to be able to get your brand voice perfect. But there are things like Klaviyo’s AI that lets you plug in your brand guidelines or Shopify’s AI that has every single product description you’ve ever written. And so there are models that you can use that have that data sort of already that can help. But I still think the human touch is always going to be something that’s needed on that. But AI is definitely going to continue to be more and more involved.

Zach Scheimer [00:18:27]:
And I think the other thing that we don’t even necessarily realize is how important mobile messaging is. And RCS is part of that change. But I talked about this earlier, like email is having less success than SMS from a year over year perspective. And I think it is because more people are shopping from their phones. And so I think RCS messaging comes into that SMS sort of taking over as more of a channel that you want to be pushing for. And so currently most people, when you get to a website and you see the sign up unit, email address is first and phone number is second, like that may be something in the future that’s flipped where the phone number is the more important thing to get from customers. And I would say the last thing that’s that’s really changing is the personalized customer experience that being more and more important. And I think in marketing circles we talk about all the time showing someone’s first name is not personalization.

Zach Scheimer [00:19:26]:
That’s the bare minimum you can do. But I really do think like even product recommendations on a website like that is personalization. And so getting it so it’s a more curated shopping experience so there’s less friction getting someone from landing on your website to actually making the purchase. Personalization and showing more curated things is what helps remove that friction. So I think that’s going to become more and more important as we go on.

Marshall Nyman [00:19:55]:
And what’s been your favorite part of working in the Digital marketing space.

Zach Scheimer [00:20:00]:
I’ll say something very specific. This past year and a half, really, I’ve rebuilt Cricket’s market marketing tech stack. We’ve made a lot of changes from going from one tech partner to another. We’ve added a few different tech partners. And my, my thought process going into it was I want a tech stack that works like a puzzle. I want puzzle pieces that fit together, that can communicate together. And we don’t have to worry about how is this going to get information to that. It’s just going to work together seamlessly.

Zach Scheimer [00:20:34]:
And I’ve been so thankful that that’s worked and it’s been such a rewarding process to go through, not only from a tech perspective, but from, from a person to person perspective. I’ve made a lot of good relationships at our tech partners and made a lot of combinations of tech partners working together. And so it really has become more of a, a social experiment than a tech stack. Like I’m bringing people together and that social aspect of a very technical thing has been so rewarding for me.

Marshall Nyman [00:21:09]:
And just to kind of typo, you’re saying before that keeps the human touch important and maybe AI won’t be replacing us so quickly.

Zach Scheimer [00:21:17]:
Exactly. Like I think those, those human touch points. I think empathy is another big thing that, like, I don’t think we can train a computer to have empathy. And so I think those very baseline human things are always going to be.

Marshall Nyman [00:21:31]:
Important as marketers and maybe just laying in bed and thinking about how to best run a campaign. Computers aren’t doing that either.

Zach Scheimer [00:21:41]:
I hate when I’m in the shower because that’s where my best thinking comes and I’m thinking about work stuff. I’m like, no, this is not the time I need to turn off, not continue thinking about how is this campaign going to do tomorrow. It’s definitely something that AI is not going to be able to accomplish, that’s for sure.

Marshall Nyman [00:21:59]:
Well, a big thank you to Zach for joining the podcast this week. Some great insights into his background and his role at Cricket Shirts. What’s the best way for listeners to connect with you?

Zach Scheimer [00:22:09]:
I would suggest on LinkedIn, it’s Zach Scheimer on LinkedIn and if you listened and enjoyed and want to continue a conversation, reach out and would love to have a conversation and maybe even a.

Marshall Nyman [00:22:21]:
Little stand up comedy and maybe a.

Zach Scheimer [00:22:23]:
Little bit of stand up comedy too. If you search hard enough on the Internet, you’ll find some.

Marshall Nyman [00:22:27]:
Well, again, thank you to Zach for joining our podcast and to our producer, Leon Sonkin. If you’ve enjoyed this content. Please give us a like and follow. Thank you for listening in. I’m Marshall Nyman, host of the Performance Marketing Spotlight and Founder and CEO of Naimo and Company signing off. Thank you and have a great one.