The "Gen Z" Gif-based Text Salesletter (least boring TSL ever)

You know one classic tried and true approach to selling supplements:

Boring, long-form sales letters targeting Boomers 55 & up who are willing to sit through a 45-minute video sales letter presentation.

(Like this one from Glucotrust, which we’ll be breaking down next week…)

But what if you’re selling a supplement that appeals to a younger audience?

If so, you’ll want to check out this week’s Funnel of the Week deep dive:

Meet Club Early Bird, a supplement company focusing on clear energy, mood-boosting nootropics, and hydration through electrolytes.

Their signature product? The EarlyBird Morning Cocktail.

It’s fascinating to see how simple — yet effective — this product's funnel is.

And it’s jam-packed with valuable lessons you can test on your own funnels.

(Like how they’ve built what might be the least boring text sales page ever.)

This week on Funnel of the Week we had Devyn Merklin as our guest expert for our funnel breakdown. Devyn is founder of DTC health funnel experts https://thexscale.com/ and was CMO at Livingood Daily (a $100M+/yr DTC health company) where he was a key player behind them scaling from 8 to 9 figures per year.

Here’s just a quick look at 4 of the many highlights from the full funnel breakdown we’ll be covering in today’s post that you can apply asap to your own funnels…

4 profit-boosting funnel stragegies you can learn from Club Early Bird 🌪️

Strategy #1: Lead with Info: Test Ads (& offers) that lead with information first

Information is the cheapest thing to sell – whether you’re looking to “sell” a reason why the viewer should watch another second of your ad - or selling an actual info product.

And just as critical, sharing the right kind of information that’s relevant & helpful is one of the fastest ways to build all-important trust with your prospect.

Think of trust on a scale of 0-100.

How does your customer go from not trusting you at all to trusting you with their life?

Leading with the right kind of Information is a great way to build that trust…

And info is also actually a great actual product to sell on the front end, before you try and sell a supplement.

(Learn more about a type of “info/supplement” hybrid funnel in this clip here - and how this shift was transformational for one supplement company Devyn worked with).

Club Early Bird does a great job of incorporating information in both ads, offers and landing page elements:

And this extends back into the ads they use to drive traffic to these pages.

Looking at their Google & YouTube ads, you’ll see how Influencer-based, short-form content is working for them.

Note also the free ebook lead magnet - a classic case of selling info first, supplements second.

You’ll see again how the majority of ads are just focused on leading with educating the prospect about the value of their product:

How you can implement this strategy: 

• Brainstorm info you can sell as a standalone product on the front end, to both inform and build trust with your audience.

• Info products can be added to supplement offer stacks to boost perceived value, improve customer results, pre-seed future product pivots, and more

• Create short (15-30 seconds) vertical videos featuring influencers or experts discussing the benefits of your product's ingredients

• Test a 70/30 “infotainment” split: 70% educational content, 30% product promotion

• Repurpose these videos across platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts

Strategy #2: Gen Z Text Salespage - Cater to a younger demographic

A lot of people think you need a lengthy video sales letter to sell supplements. Club Early Bird is making it clear that you don’t need it. 

Their approach to content is clearly optimized for a younger audience with a shorter attention span — more interactive elements, emojis, short videos, and other attention-grabbing elements like their excellent use of GIFs:

Instead of a VSL above the fold, you get a GIF above the fold.

You also can see a GIF of the founder, Chuckie, on the landing page.

It’s one of the most engaging text sales pages for a supplement company that I’ve ever seen.

How you can implement this strategy: 

• Use the "CUB" Method: Avoid being Confusing, Unbelievable, or Boring (made famous by Agora co-founder Mark Ford)

• Use GIFs to demonstrate product usage or benefits, break up long blocks of copy

• Integrate social proof elements like customer testimonials in video format or GIF format

Strategy #3: Maximize initial cart value with pre-purchase one-time offers

This is one of the places where Club Early Bird really shines.

Here’s how their funnel breaks down:

• Front-end offer: $14 sample pack

• Upsells include subscription offers and additional products

• Total potential cart value: Close to $200 (including first rebill)

Club Early Bird uses self-liquidating offers to maximize initial cart value.

You can see how much they pack into the initial offer for just $14 — a cocktail shaker, e-book, and free shipping to start.

They add value with digital products, offer shipping protection, and include pre-transaction one-time offers.

You can see below how they are structuring an OTO to encourage subscriptions (see point below).

How you can implement this strategy: 

• Add a low-cost, high-perceived-value add-on (like shipping protection) at checkout

• Create a one-click upsell offer before checkout (e.g., "Add a travel-size version for 50% off")

• Bundle complementary products at a discount

• Offer a digital product (like an ebook or video course) as a low-cost add-on

• Implement a spend threshold for free shipping to encourage larger orders

PS - we did a more in-depth look at 3 specific ways Club Early Bird is boosting AOV, before the purchase in a Funnel of the Week blog post here:

Strategy #4: Upsell for continuity

Though this is the fifth item on our list, it may be the most important takeaway you can learn from this funnel.

Don’t just upsell for more initial revenue – upsell for continuity.

We talked about this much more in the full breakdown inside the Funnel of the Week Members Area, but summarizing here:

For this funnel, all roads lead to a subscription purchase.

Club Early Bird offers a $54 subscription every 6 weeks, framing it as a "VIP Club" membership with additional benefits.

Here’s a quick look at the post-purchase process:

Depending on which front end offer you take ($14 sample pack or the $68 bundle) eventually you’ll see a sneaky $0.00 upsell positioning tactic on the pre-purchase or post-purchase upsell page:

Depending on what you purchase, you might also see this one time offer for their sleep product (which is a great complement to the morning-focused main offer)

(And while we’re on the topic of sleep suppelements and recurring revenue, make sure to check out this post we did with Moonbrew all about the 10 subscription churn cutting tactics they’re using to maximize recurring revenue…)

How you can implement this strategy: 

• Offer a significant discount (15-25%) for subscription orders

• Provide exclusive benefits for subscribers (early access to new products, free shipping, etc.)

• Allow flexible subscription management (easy pausing, rescheduling, or cancellation) to reduce friction

BONUS: 2 ways you could improve this funnel

On our call, Devyn had some great suggestions for ways Club Early Bird could also improve the funnel to boost conversions & AOV. Here are 2:

1. Upgrade the e-comm platform

Club Early Bird's current setup on Shopify is limiting its potential.

Shopify's restriction to just two upsells is holding them back from maximizing their average order value.

By upgrading to a more flexible e-commerce platform or integrating with a specialized funnel builder, they could unlock a world of possibilities. Think unlimited upsells, downsells, and order bumps.

The fix? I recommend a product like Checkout Champ that would integrate seamlessly with Shopify, allowing Club Early Bird to keep their existing inventory management and fulfillment processes while expanding their funnel capabilities.

2. Build out the upsell/downsell presentation even more

The copy / presentation for Club Early Bird's current upsell offers, while functional, feels a bit like kind of an afterthought.

(And they are not alone. Other funnels we’ve analyzed so far have even had the WRONG product image & descriptions for offers in their upsell flow)

There's a golden opportunity here to create a more engaging and persuasive upsell journey for their customers.

Instead of simple text-based upsells, they could implement short, punchy VSLs for each offer. These videos could dive deeper into the benefits of each product, showcasing how they complement the main offer and fit into the customer's daily routine.

Go through the best Direct Response funnels from the most experienced offer “factories” and you’ll get hit with a seemingly unending upsell funnel.

So don’t be scared to keep selling (relevant) offers until they start saying no.

Also, don’t overlook your downsell flow. Especially when you’re selling a lower ticket front end product. Club Early Bird’s downsell flow could also be more extensive, which would help make that low-priced front end offer even more sustainable on cold traffic.

But overall, Club Early Bird is doing a lot of things right, and if you’re looking for an example of a modern brand that speaks to a younger audience and uses smart direct response tactics, be sure to check them out.

And btw - this is just a taste of what we have in store for you for this week’s Funnel of the Week installment inside our Funnel of the Week Members Area, where we did a full breakdown of Club Early Bird’s entire marketing stack, including this interactive funnel map:

All the email & SMS swipes…

As well as an hour-long deep dive on the purchase to upsell funnel with Devyn Merklin:

(Go here to watch one clip where we go into detail on these pre-purchase AOV boosters.)

Devyn is the founder of thexscale.com and is the marketing genius behind DTC health brand Livingood Daily's rise from a low 7 figures/year to a $100M+ per year DTC health mega brand.

Go here to learn more about Devyn or to his LinkedIn to get in touch.

More on What’s Inside Funnel of the Week Members Area

The big idea of Funnel of the Week is this:

We break down a new DTC funnel (including ads, front end offer, upsells, post-purchase emails/sms/etc.), each and every week.

Here’s a quick Google doc walking through what we at Funnel of the Week has got in store for you, each and every week:

Check it out. We’re doing a special “early bird” price for access for a limited time.

And if you want great funnel insights delivered to your email inbox, multiple times per week? Go here to sign up for our Funnel of the Week email newsletter (it’s free) funneloftheweek.com

That’s all for today.

Have a great week!

The Funnel of the Week Team

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PPPS: Got a funnel you think we should break down? We’d love to hear your suggestions!