Father's Day Bust

This was a tough month. Originally, when Dad's Club launched, I thought that Father's Day and Black Friday / Cyber Monday would be our highest growth days.

I mean, what could be a better gift than a Dad's Club membership for Father's Day?

We had been planning for Father's Day for months prior, and the plan was two-fold:

• Run a Facebook ad campaign with a Father's Day gifting message
• Partner with content creators & micro-influencers to run Instagram giveaways for Dad's Club memberships

Both campaigns flopped. The Father's Day gifting campaign on Facebook ended up costing 5x the Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) as when we run ads directly to dads to signup. And we didn't run nearly as many giveaways as we had planned.

If there was a gift that we got from this month, it's been the feedback from those that didn't give Dad's Club as a gift:

• Many moms and grandparents were fearful that giving a Dad's Club membership to a dad may inadvertently offend them by sending a not-so-subtle message that they need to be a more active, engaged father. Some even compared it to giving a Peloton to a new mom after they have a baby (uh oh!).
• Many moms liked the idea of Dad's Club, but they said they wanted to be able to access the membership & resources themselves!

Initially, we had launched Dad's Club as a way to niche down. The parenting market is very crowded, and there is not a shortage of resources & communities for new moms. The Blue Ocean Strategy (Kim & Mauborgne) suggests that you should go into spaces untainted by competition.

Although the month didn't go as planned, we did learn a lot. And we're getting ready to make a big pivot based on these learnings...

Onward,