The Slow Growth Lever

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🚀 Why Hiring Is the Slowest Growth Lever in Your Business (And How to Fix It)

DTC brands scale ads, inventory, and customer experience in weeks—but when it comes to hiring, everything slows down. The traditional hiring process is clunky, time-consuming, and outdated, making it one of the biggest bottlenecks to growth.

While your marketing team is launching new campaigns in days, you’re stuck waiting weeks (or months) to find the right talent.

Why Hiring is Slowing Down Your Growth

Most brands don’t realize how much momentum they lose due to slow hiring. It’s not just about open roles—it’s about delayed execution, missed revenue opportunities, and stalled growth cycles.

1️⃣ The Lag Between Identifying a Need and Filling It

When brands realize they need help, they often wait too long to hire. The time spent posting job descriptions, filtering applications, and running multiple interview rounds means your business is already behind before the hire is made.

Move from reactive hiring to proactive hiring. Instead of waiting for a crisis, keep a bench of pre-vetted talent that you can activate immediately when needed. (Tools like Roocruit help DTC brands instantly match with qualified marketers instead of starting from scratch.)

2️⃣ The Overcommitment Problem: Hiring Full-Time Too Soon

Many brands believe they need a full-time marketing hire, but then realize they don’t have enough work to justify the salary. The result? Overpaid, underutilized employees—or wasted months hiring for the wrong role.

Instead of hiring full-time by default, test talent with project-based roles first. This ensures a faster match and higher ROI.

3️⃣ The Hidden Cost of “Settling” for the Wrong Hire

When hiring takes too long, brands get desperate and hire “good enough” candidates just to fill the role. But a misaligned marketer costs more than just their salary—it leads to poor campaign execution, lost revenue, and wasted months.

Prioritize speed + quality—use AI-driven hiring to match candidates based on actual experience and past performance, not just resumes. (Roocruit makes this process seamless.)

How to Fix Hiring Bottlenecks for DTC Growth

• Shift to flexible hiring—Test talent before committing.
• Use pre-vetted talent pools—Skip the job-posting cycle.
• Prioritize speed without sacrificing quality—Match roles to real needs.

Slow hiring is one of the biggest unseen bottlenecks in DTC growth—but it doesn’t have to be. The brands that win in 2025 will be the ones that scale talent as fast as they scale marketing. 

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🤖 AI Trust Outpaces Social Media – What Marketers Should Know
Insights from SEJ

A Rutgers University study reveals that Americans trust AI more than social media but remain divided on its role in daily life. As AI adoption grows, understanding consumer trust and familiarity is crucial for businesses.

• AI Earns More Public Trust Than Social Media - 47% of Americans trust AI to benefit the public, surpassing social media (39%) and even Congress (42%). Younger adults (55%) and urban residents (53%) show the highest confidence in AI.
  
• Companies Using AI Face Scrutiny - 50% of consumers trust businesses to use AI responsibly. Trust is higher among graduate-degree holders (65%) and high earners ($100K+), while rural respondents (42%) remain skeptical.
  
• Consumers Struggle to Identify AI Content - Only 13% feel very confident in spotting AI-generated content, while 30% feel somewhat confident. Higher earners and younger adults tend to be more aware, while overall familiarity remains low.
  
• AI News Faces Credibility & Awareness Challenges - 62% trust traditional journalists, while only 48% trust AI-generated news. Despite AI’s efficiency, human storytelling remains the preferred choice for content. Meanwhile, only 26% of people have heard “a lot” about AI, and the average knowledge score on an AI quiz was just 3.3 out of 8.

Consumers prefer AI efficiency but trust humans more. Brands should use AI for insights while keeping storytelling authentic. Trust-building requires clear AI disclosures.

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 👨🏻‍💻Oracle, Amazon, and Microsoft are exploring potential TikTok deals, with Oracle leading discussions. Investor groups like MrBeast’s consortium show interest, while Elon Musk declines. ByteDance pushes for joint control as U.S. negotiations intensify, racing against an April deadline.

📦Instagram’s upcoming Edits app will test new features before integrating them into the main platform. It includes AI background edits, animated images, 10-minute video recording, trending audio insights, and video analytics. If CapCut gets banned, Edits could dominate short-form content creation.

🛍️ Instagram is introducing "Optimized Target Mix," a new ad feature aimed at enhancing performance across engagement, followers, and messages. Advertisers can select from four objectives: engagement, profile visits, direct messages, or a flexible, no-preference option for broader reach.

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