Before the Internet boom and online purchases, many brands were mainly based on brick-and-mortar stores for sales. They were stores, department stores, supermarkets, and other stores that sold products from different brands. This meant that brands should have another company as an intermediary to sell their products. They could take measures to announce their product, but which they were targeting and how the product was sold was very limited.
But with the rise of e-commerce and online shopping purchases, brands were easier to eliminate intermediate distribution channels and jump into physical stores. Consequently, direct marketing to the customer (DTC) has become a popular way for brands to sell directly to customers, improve customer experience and create personalized marketing campaigns.
Developed in 2020, DTC marketing is becoming more and more popular because brands benefit from e-commerce opportunities. Here is what you need to know about DTC marketing, how it benefits your brand, and why the creation of a DTC marketing strategy can stimulate your brand visibility and sales.
What is DTC marketing?
DTC Marketing is a way for brands to target, market and sell their products to customers. This is opposed to the old way to sell, where they were counting on retailers such as stores, shopping centers and supermarkets to sell and distribute their products.
To better understand what DTC marketing is, let’s compare it with the typical sales process before the boom in electronic commerce. In the past, working with retailers was the only viable solution for brands that could not establish physical stores.
But unfortunately, this method has posed many challenges for brands.
- Marginal advantages: brands had to offer discounts to retailers so that they put their products on the shelves. This arrangement meant that the profits were marginal for brands while retailers sold them to consumers at a marked price.
- Long production time: It took time to create new products because they also had to convince retailers to buy their products. And thirdly, the brands have lost control of how their retailers sold their products, their marketing mix and their brand image.
With a DTC marketing strategy, brands could now ignore the intermediary and challenges that their sales and distribution model has posed. After purchases and online electronic commerce that has become more common, brands could now target, market, sell and distribute their products directly to the consumer or via their online store, a pop-up store, a physical shop, or a combination of these Options. This has proven that it benefits brands and customers.
DTC Marketing Benefits
Brands that have used a direct marketing strategy for consumers have found many advantages for their business and customers. Some of them include:
- More control over their marketing, sales and distribution. The brands now fully control their brand management. The DTC brands do not have to worry about retailers who put the products of their competitors next to theirs.
- Best overview of consumer behavior. The brands could only sell for retailers so that their first part data is limited to what the retailers have drawn from it. By selling consumers directly, brands could offer a wider range of products and see which products have sold better than the others.
- Reduce operating costs, profits and additional promotions. DTC brands could sell online and via their own physical stores, which lowered the marking added to their goods. In turn, brands could either transform this into additional benefits, or provide lower costs to consumers. Brands could also have their own promotions, sales and discounts, rather than not having control over the promotions of retailers.
- Stronger brand identity. Since brands now had control over the sales process, they could now create a brand identity rather than being one of the many products available at a retailer. This can be done thanks to email marketing, social media and other brand marketing strategies.
- Greater customer experience. Brands have the choice to create their own physical stores or sell online. This allowed them to manage their stores and have more control over their customer experience.
- Personalized marketing. With more control over targeting and marketing, brands can personalize marketing campaigns to adapt to their identity and the market they want to target.
DTC marketing in a post-covid world
While the use of electronic commerce and a direct consumption marketing strategy existed before the coconut pandemic, its exponential boom can be attributed to the pandemic and locking. Before the pandemic, more brands adopted a fully DTC marketing structure or explored hybrid options.
But once the pandemic started world-locking, retail as we knew had to adapt. It was about when companies started to concentrate their strategies outside of retailers but online. In addition, electronic commerce in the United States increased by 43% in 2020. This increase noted that more brands have explored marketing and electronic commerce options rather than sticking to retailers who had little or little No consumers who went to their physical stores.
Two years later, however, physical retailers are again operational. However, consumer behavior will not return to sale exclusively with retailers. Instead, more consumers have adapted to online purchases, while other users use online and offline stores. In fact, 81% of those who prefer to shop in physical stores start their online purchasing journey by doing research. This is a significant increase, up 20% compared to the previous year.
This means that DTC brands, it is because they choose to continue working with retailers, establish their own physical store, sell online or make a hybrid of the three, they have the possibility of controlling their brand identity and their digital marketing campaigns. This allows brands more ways to reach consumers.
DTC marketing strategies to develop your brand
The development of a direct effective strategy for consumer marketing can vary depending on the identity of the brand, marketing objectives, and previous digital marketing campaigns. Some ways to develop your brand online include:
- Create your brand identity. One of the challenges of electronic commerce is that your competitors range from other brands that your retailer sells to any other brand in the world which can be shipped to your target audience. The creation of a strong brand identity distinguishes you from other small brands with similar products of lower quality. It also helps customers recognize your brand and your products outside of all other brands.
- Analysis of marketing data. Take advantage of the consumer data that you can collect from your website, your electronic commerce platform, and other sources of data in the first part you have. This can give you an interesting overview of the customers you attract and your strongest products or your digital marketing campaigns. From there, you can adjust and develop your digital marketing strategy accordingly.
- Create personalized marketing efforts. One of the advantages of being a DTC brand is that you can organize your products and establish close connections with customers.
- Creation of an active presence on social networks. It is best to hire experts in social media who know how to promote relationships with customers, improve customer experience and create engaging content. Not only does social media advertise to advertise, but it is also a way to engage with customers and provide customer service to those who plan to buy, as well as after-sales services.
- Work with marketing experts by e-mail. E-mail marketing is always an effective way to provide personalized marketing, improve customer retention, create relationships with customers and provide exclusive offers to people at different stages of their purchasing journey . Working with e-mail marketing experts can help you create a engaging and efficient copy to attract customers to your online store.
- Market with old and lost customers. Do not forget the users who abandon their shopping carts or customers who have already bought in your store. Studies show that the cost of education for regular customers and remarketing for lost customers is only a fifth of the cost of attracting a new customer. This is why you should take measures to improve customer retention and improve the customer experience by promoting good relations with customers.
How PROS can help DTC brands
DTC brands have the freedom and flexibility to manage their brand and their market directly with consumers, but this is accompanied by its own challenges. Online, small brands must compete with large companies while distinguishing other young with competing means. This can also extend to the creation of a customer relationship with each client, by creating loyal customers and developing a recognizable brand. This is where the PROS digital marketing agency can help you with brand management and stand out online.
Thanks to a personalized campaign, the PROS Internet marketing agency can help DTC brands enter online projectors. Our team of digital marketing strategy consultants, experts on social networks, search engine optimization specialists, and other digital marketing professionals can stimulate brand visibility and notoriety, increase your generation prospects and establish solid customer relationships that turn into sales and improve customer retention.
Contact us today