Ep 624: How Cove Soda Builds an Email and SMS List With No DTC, Trading Full Cans for Signups at Events
About this episode
Zoe Kahn discusses how Cove Soda builds its email and SMS list through innovative event marketing strategies without a direct-to-consumer website.
Subscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signup Most list-growth advice assumes you have a website people visit. Cove Soda doesn't. They sell zero sugar soda in roughly 7,000 retail doors with no real DTC store, which means no site traffic, no purchase pop-ups, and no easy email capture. Zoe Kahn runs marketing for Cove as interim VP. In this episode she breaks down how a retail-first brand still builds a direct, owned channel, why she treats in-person events as the acquisition surface, and how she competes in a soda aisle that already has Olipop and Poppi running Super Bowl ads. What you'll get: The event tactic that grows an email and SMS list without DTC: trade a full can for an opt-in How to segment by geography so US news goes to US fans and Canadian news goes to Canadian fans How she picks which events to sample at, and why marketing assets in a state change the math Using Amazon attribution links to test creative and copy when you have no DTC A clear take on why an oversaturated category is not a reason to quit The early-career mistake that shipped roughly 700 wrong orders, and what it taught her Who this is for: retail-first and omnichannel operators, beverage…
People in this episode
Guest: Zoe Kahn
Topics covered
- email marketing
- SMS marketing
- event marketing
- retail strategy
- customer acquisition
Keywords
- Cove Soda
- email list growth
- SMS list growth
- event marketing
- customer acquisition
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Cove Soda, Olipop, Poppi
Places: US, Canada
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