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By Nick Pietropinto Ask CEOs to identify their top business goal, and many will answer, “Growing my company.” Clearly, growth is a key metric of business success. But in the world of direct-to-consumer (D2C) businesses, there’s a case to be made for placing more emphasis on scaling, rather than simply growing. Before we delve in why that is, let’s clarify what we mean by growth versus scale. For most businesses, growth refers to the amount of revenue a company adds to its coffers — typically measured every quarter. To achieve that growth, however, businesses must often grow their resources as well: for example, hire more people, invest in more technology, expand into new locations, acquire more clients, and/or secure more capital. All of which come with significant costs. As the adage goes, “It takes money to make money.” Scale, on the other hand, focuses on increasing revenues and profit margins without substantially increasing your costs. So, for example, you scale your customer base from 100 to 1,000 clients without having to hire new people or spend substantially more on advertising. More than merely growing your business, scaling requires being more efficient in doing so. D2C Brands Are Growing. But Are They Scaling? There’s no question D2C businesses are experiencing rapid growth. Around 43 percent of American consumers are now familiar with D2C brands, and 69 percent of those have made at least one D2C purchase in the past year. Experts predict that by 2025, the global D2C market will reach an astonishing $1.5 trillion. Just look at Lovevery — the D2C educational toy brand — which has experienced 1,043-percent growth during the past 5 years. And they’re not alone. The challenge is in translating that growth into sustainable revenues and profitability. Data reveals that two-thirds of the fastest-growing startups wind up failing. For instance, e-commerce fashion brand Nasty Gal enjoyed rapid growth, but failed to make a profit due to high overhead costs. And companies that have the fastest revenue growth often have poorer performance than slow-growing businesses. By no means does this mean you should avoid rapid growth. It does mean that as a D2C brand, you should be thinking strategically about how to sustain that growth while also being more efficient. That’s where scaling comes into play. To quote Hendrith Vanlon Smith, Jr., a managing partner at Mayflower-Plymouth, “Every company that intends to grow, should directly address the barriers to scaling.” There are many different ways to scale a business — from improving the supply chain to streamlining operations to adjusting pricing to automated processes. But for now, let’s focus on one of the most impactful strategies: scaling your D2C brand to drive profitability. Growing a successful D2C brand in today’s fragmented, complex, and highly competitive retail landscape while remaining profitable is no easy task. It can take tremendous amounts of time, effort, and capital that eat into revenues. The good news is there are tried-and-tested methods for scaling a D2C brand without significantly increasing your costs. Here are seven best practices we employ with great results for our D2C clients. Solve a Problem. Before you can scale, you’ve got to determine what problems your product solves. Defining your brand’s purpose is an essential first step to scaling its success. American economist and Harvard Business School professor Theodore Levitt said it best: “People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill; they want a quarter-inch hole.” So, while bells and whistles are fine and well, having a product that achieves the end-result your customers want is critical to standing out and driving demand. Target Your Audience. Without knowing exactly who your customers are, you might as well be throwing your marketing dollars into the wind. Maximizing the cost-effectiveness and ROI of your media purchases requires identifying your ideal target audience — including their buying behaviors and the media they consume. This targeted approach allows you to spend less money while reaching more prospects, which — in turn — lowers your per-lead and customer-acquisition costs. Broaden Your Media Mix. In today’s fragmented media landscape, investing all your media budget in single channel to reach your customers simply won’t cut it. The most cost-effective way to scale your reach, leads, and conversions is by creating a strategic media mix based on your target audience’s media habits. This mix should ensure that your consumers see and engage with your D2C brand on every channel and platform they use. Embrace an Omnichannel Strategy. The D2C model is no longer limited to online only. Which is why your media mix should adopt an omnichannel approach that juggles digital, social, traditional, print, outdoor, TV, video, radio, in-person, email, influencer, and more — with a highly strategic cadence that you continually fine-tune. An omnichannel approach supports an elevated customer experience, while making your D2C brand seem like it’s everywhere all at once without costing you a fortune in ad spend. Maximize Customer Lifetime Value. According to PwC’s 2023 Global Consumer Insights Pulse Survey, 58 percent of consumers are more likely to make a purchase from brands they have a direct relationship with. And McKinsey reports that D2C brands have a 50-percent higher customer lifetime value (CLV) than traditional brands. Maximizing CLV, however, requires providing an exceptional customer experience before, during, and after the purchase. That’s where having quality, trained, and well-managed call centers becomes essential to scaling while also driving revenue. Make Data-Driven Decisions. Scaling effectively requires the agility to make fast decisions and pivot on a dime. It’s critical to make sure those decisions are also driven by data. From identifying your target audience, to creating your media mix, to adjusting your omnichannel strategy, data holds the key to maximizing the return on your brand-scaling activities. Data will also show you what’s working and what isn’t, so you can target your spend and stop wasting money. Work With a Media Management Expert. Doing all the above can be a challenge, especially when you’re running a D2C business. Bringing in a media management expert can end up saving you a lot of money while scaling your brand with optimal success. The right partner will have a proven data-driven methodology, strong vendor relationships and management skills, omnichannel expertise, cost-saving strategies for media buys, and call center resources that drive CLV. They’ll help you maximize your media efficiencies, make faster decisions based on experience, do more with less, and boost sales while boosting your D2C brand. The bottom line, without scaling there is no growth. At Double Diamond VIP, we offer demonstrated expertise in scaling D2C brands while simultaneously driving revenue. The two can go hand-in-hand, and our team is ready to show you how. Learn more at www.TryD2C.com. Nick Pietropinto is the founder and CEO of Double Diamond VIP. He can be reached via email at nick@doublediamondvip.com.

By Marcelino Miyares Ten years ago, my partner and I opened the doors of d2H Partners with one burning question: “Are we crazy?” That was when direct response meant DRTV. This is not so much the case anymore, given the growing complexity of marketing in the 2020s. I am talking about CTV, OTT, ROAS, AI, and attribution just to name a few of the advances in the arsenals of account planning these days. Add “Hispanic direct response” to this mix, and you get a feel for how much more poignant our initial question has become. d2H operates as a niche-within-a-niche agency. We not only target the U.S. Hispanic consumer market. We specialize in direct-to-consumer campaigns within this multicultural segment. Looking back on these first 10 years, and despite the evolution of our trade, I can now share what we consider the five keys to our success, which is to say, a quick summary of our approach to our clients’ paths to profit in the U.S. Hispanic consumer market (HCM). Authenticity and Best Practices Let us start with what is at once the most obvious yet most subjective of premises. How do we convince advertisers that authenticity is absolutely not just about language and skin tone? Sound messaging and best media practices have less to do with reach and frequency — in other words, traditional media metrics — than with fluency and comprehension. Reaching a Spanish-dominant, or even Spanish-preferring and bilingual customers, is less about the language of their media than in-cultural insight. By this, we mean insights about the cultural cues required to get them to watch, the inhibitors that get in the way, the motivators that incite them to action, and the cultural values that grant them permission to respond. None of this can be translated — particularly across all of the screens and platforms that we manage in our media mixes today. Parallel Planning Advertisers should focus on reaching all segments across all screens with equal impact, as opposed to trying to reach them all efficiently. If you stay on the total market course, you will literally miss the mark. Account planning for the HCM should start with a blank screen and offer strategic, not convenient, solutions to parallel media plans and platforms. The traditional model defended by the large holding company agencies is to blend consumer segments into “total market” calculations with the most common denominators of messages dumbed down to allow for “representation” of all segments in any given market. We add value by illustrating that the total market approach is not as effective as a whole market approach. Social media platforms, FAST channels, and streaming platforms have pretty much obliterated the total market approach. Closing the “Per Capita” Spending Gap Total market planning comes with short- and long-term opportunity costs. The end result is an unbelievable gap in per-capita spending by segment. How can an advertiser expect the same ROI on any given Hispanic campaign when they spend seven times as much per capita (7X) in the general market as the HCM? Parallel planning requires proportional spending on every step of the customer journey. Truth to Power Spending is one axis of the English/Spanish-language media quadrant. The other is messaging. Speaking truth to power requires that we communicate micro-aggressions, flaws in authenticity, and other obvious cultural faux pas in their current advertising regimen. No doubt, this has cost us business. But it has also earned us the trust of those willing to listen enough to grow their business. Strategic vs. Tactical Decision-Making Effective multicultural planning goes way beyond short-term tactical band-aids. The decision to enter any multicultural segment ought to be a strategic one. It is about planning, not buying. It is more about insights than “profiles.” Focusing on the common denominators between customer segments may sound efficient in the C-suite, but in most cases, it ignores the cultural nuances that make multi-cultural marketing most effective when done right. We at d2H like to say to that we build brands one sale at a time. This translates to winning over one Hispanic customer at a time. Building a successful advertising agency is tough under any circumstances. Add culture to the mix and it feels more like a gauntlet. Yet here we are — 10 years later — continuing to make our point that cultural competency should be reason enough to hire a multicultural advertising partner. The rest is just noise. Marcelino Miyares, Jr. is managing partner at Los Angeles-based d2H Partners. He can be reached via email at marcelino@d2hispanic.com. For more discussion about the U.S. Hispanic Consumer Market, check out the infographics section on our website, www.d2hispanic.com. About d2H Partners d2H Partners is a Los Angeles-based, full-service Hispanic advertising agency focused on D2C and B2B​ Spanish-language campaigns targeting immigrant, first-generation, and “billenial” Hispanics. d2H specializes in creating, adapting, and delivering targeted messages to Latinos to profitably enculturate your message, media, and metrics.

By Maya Mulgaonkar and Ranjit Mulgaonkar Amazon’s Creator Connection program allows brands to connect with social media influencers and content creators through tailored campaigns without complicated contracts and excessive fees. What is the cost? Only a commission on each sale generated by a creator. The program is still in closed Beta mode at the time of writing and has only been rolled out to select sellers. Flatworld Group can participate in this program, and our clients have already seen promising results. What Is the Amazon Creator Connections Program? Creator Connection allows creators to engage with your brand through a tailored campaign. Depending on your product category (beauty, home, outdoors, toys, baby, gardening, fitness, etc.), you can open your campaign up to creators that match your requirements via the Creator Connection platform. Once they join your campaign, they can create content for their Amazon storefronts and other social media channels to help drive traffic, sales, and conversion. The creator is compensated with a predetermined commission from Amazon and/or the brand. Amazon provides the technology platform, the ability for brands and creators to communicate, and payments to creators with reporting. How Does the Brand Set up the Program? Brands approved to be in the program can create a campaign in the Creator Connection portal, which is part of Amazon Advertising. Brands set up information such as campaign start-end date, number of creators needed, product category, and commissions paid to influencers/creators for each sale, and specific products to promote. They also convey their specific campaign goals: drive product sales, build overall brand awareness, product education, etc. Brands have the option to provide the creators with a campaign-related promo code for them to give their subscribers and followers. To communicate with creators, Amazon has provided a messaging feature where you can discuss campaign specifics and determine whether they are the right fit for you. Some brands may opt to provide creators with a sample to help them understand and better demonstrate the products. Brands can monitor the performance of the Creator Connection within the campaign and on the Amazon Seller Central advertising dashboard. How Does a Creator Participate? If you want to be a creator, you can join the Amazon Associate program by providing your photo, name, interest, and links to your social media to Amazon. You will need a YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and/or TikTok account. Once approved, you can access Creator Connections using your Amazon Associate login information. Amazon also enables creators to send and receive direct messages in Creator Connections. For instance, you can chat with brands and ask campaign questions. Once creators generate posts on social media, they can provide the link to the brand. Within Creator Connections, creators can view the performance within each campaign detail page under the Earnings Reports tab, where your specific commission earnings can be seen. Amazon pays the creator once a month on orders that have shipped. How Much Can a Creator Make? Amazon gives a commission of anywhere between 1 percent and 10 percent to the creators – the commission rate depends on the product category and product price, with higher price products getting more commission. In addition, the brand can also specify an additional commission that they would offer to the creators. The creator will get the total of these two commissions. For example, if Amazon offers 4 percent and the brand offers 8 percent, the creator will get 12 percent of the sale price for each order the influencer generates. Is It Worth a Try? If you are a registered brand looking to increase brand awareness and sales, this is a program you should try. There is no upfront investment besides setup and program management, and you only pay the commission you pre-determine on a sale generated by the creator. This can be seen as a set advertising cost of sale (ACoS). Depending on your product and the creator, there can be a huge upside for the brand. Even if the campaign does not generate the expected sales, the creator will have produced positive content. Vetting the creators and communicating with them is time-consuming, and you will need a semi-dedicated resource to drive the program or outsource to an agency that can help. Note that your conversion will be impacted by your listing quality (headline, bullets, description, images, videos, A+ page, Storefront). The better the listing quality, the better the conversion. Maya Mulgaonkar is vice president of client services and Ranjit Mulgaonkar is founder and CEO at Flatworld Group, a full-service Amazon agency that helps brands to be successful on Amazon. They can be reached, respectively, via email at maya@flatworldgroup.com and ranjit@flatworldgroup.com. For more on Flatworld Group, click here.

Since the launch of the PDMI's Results Magazine in 2019, DRMetrix, an iSpot.tv company, has provided a quarterly snapshot of the leading short-form and long-form performance marketing campaigns on television. Starting in January 2024, the PDMI and DRMetrix began making that TV rankings snapshot available on a monthly basis, by releasing two months per quarter here, in the association's Web Exclusives area, with the third month continuing to appear in the quarterly edition of Results. To find the latest DRMetrix list of the top 10 brand/lead-gen short-form performance TV campaigns, top 10 traditional short-form DRTV products, and top-10 long-form products (as measured from Jan. 1-28, 2024), please click here. For more information on DRMetrix's services, visit its website here or contact the company via phone at (951) 370-1458 or via email at info@drmetrix.com.

By Nick Pietropinto To quote Bob Dylan, “The times they are a-changin’” — particularly for direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands. Rapid changes on the D2C landscape can lead to challenges and uncertainty when it comes to making key strategic decisions that impact growth. Let’s take a quick look at some of major sources of this uncertainty, starting with the economy. While predictions of a recession may be waning, D2C brands are still wary of inflation and fluctuating interest rates. JP Morgan data shows that around 79 percent of business leaders said business costs are still on the rise, and interest rates rank as a top concern for 25 percent of them. Rising global conflict and geopolitical tensions only add to economic woes — disrupting stability, supply chains, and consumer confidence. Rapid changes in media and technology, including the emergence of AI and the demise of third-party data, are further contributing to uncertainty. Consumers’ media habits have undergone major shifts in recent years and will continue to do so. Smart phone ownership has increased 41 percent globally since 2019; a record 4.9 billion people are now on social media; linear TV is in decline while streaming is expected to see 13.8-percent growth in 2024; YouTube and Twitch are gaining major traction; retail media continues to make a surge; and young consumers are spending more time on their gaming consoles than ever before. The result is a fragmented, complex, and ever-evolving media landscape that makes D2C marketers’ heads spin. The common instinct for D2C brands during uncertain times is to wait it out and hope for a return to stability. This can lead to a state of paralysis, when — in reality — it’s more important than ever to keep moving forward when confronted with challenges and change. It’s also important that those moves be directed by strategy. In times of uncertainty, hiring a media consultant may be one of the smartest strategic decisions a D2C brand can make. Here are six reasons why. 1. Control Costs According to a recent World Federation of Advertisers survey, 73 percent of businesses say they’re heavily scrutinizing their budgets in fear of an economic downturn, and 30 percent of advertisers cut their budgets in 2023. Working with a media consultant will save you the cost of hiring a permanent full-time marketing manager. A savvy media consultant will also bring the experience, connections, and strategies to help lower your customer acquisition costs and make your media budget go further. 2. Drive Revenue Change can bring challenges, but also opportunities. The right media consultant will help you: confidently navigate today and tomorrow’s complex, fragmented, and ever-shifting media landscape; find your target customers wherever they are; and drive conversions, which — in turn — drives your sales and growth. Your media consultant should also offer strategies for increasing lifetime customer value which helps offset those customer acquisition costs. 3. Fill Labor Gaps Data shows that 56 percent of businesses cite labor shortages, recruiting, and hiring among their biggest business obstacles for 2024. Research also reveals it can take up to 44 days on average to hire a new employee, and up to a year to fully onboard them. And there’s always the risk that your new hire turns out to be the wrong fit. If you’re struggling to find the right executive talent, then an experienced media consultant offers a cost-effective solution for quickly filling that gap and expanding your team’s knowledge. Media consultants aren’t as expensive as you might think, either — and surely less costly than an annual executive salary. 4. Find More Time The best D2C media consultants will bring years (if not decades) of experience and specialized expertise, as well as value-added resources and relationships they can leverage to your advantage. Entrusting a media consultant to lead and drive strategies will additionally free you and your leadership to focus on other business-critical activities and goals. A good media consultant can help unite your teams and keep their eyes on the prize. You’ll spend less time managing vendors, supervising media activities, and wondering if your marketing staff is doing what they need to get done. Considering that the average marketer works with 28 different vendors, having a media consultant manage these providers will save you significant time, headache, and costs. 5. See Continual Results and Improvement The right media consultant will be able to demonstrate ROI for your media investments and marketing efforts. To that end, look for a media expert who employs a data-driven methodology that incorporates analytics to measure results, see what’s working, and identify opportunities for improved performance across your media placement and marketing. Leveraging this data, your media consultant will be able to continually refine and recalibrate media mixes and marketing programs to generated sustained returns. 6. Be Agile and Innovative Uncertain times call for innovation and agility, not paralysis. An outside media consultant with a fresh, unbiased perspective can help you help you tackle challenges and think differently about your D2C media and marketing strategies (or help you develop one). A seasoned media pro will call on years of experience and best practices to show you smarter, more effective ways to grow your brand with a smaller budget and fewer resources. They can also help complete projects faster, avoid costly mistakes, and fast-track results without sacrificing quality. Rather than a replacement for a CMO or other marketing executives, a media consultant should be a collaborative partner who works closely with your current team to help them think and act more strategically, creatively, and efficiently. With a focus on media management, your consultant can also help you quickly adapt to and anticipate an ever-changing media landscape to optimize your mix, message, and reach. At Double Diamond VIP, that’s exactly how we approach our media consultancy — as collaborators and partners who serve as an extension of our clients’ teams. With more than two decades of D2C leadership experience, we’re ready to hit the ground running, keep our clients’ businesses moving forward, have an immediate impact, and turn times of uncertainty into catalysts for opportunity. Learn more at www.TryD2C.com. Nick Pietropinto is the founder and CEO of Double Diamond VIP. He can be reached via email at nick@doublediamondvip.com.

By Ranjit Mulgaonkar and Maya Mulgaonkar In November, Amazon announced another ground-breaking partnership with Meta (Facebook’s parent company) and SNAP to revolutionize social commerce. Social commerce, the fusion of social media and e-commerce marketing, is being chased by Meta with Instagram and Facebook, as well as by Tagshop, Snapchat, Google (YouTube), Pinterest, TikTok, Bazaarvoice, and many more companies. Social commerce is driving an increasing portion of marketing-driven revenue for e-commerce businesses. According to McKinsey, retail social commerce sales in the U.S. amounted to $45.7 billion in revenue in 2022. Experts predict that number will hit close to $80 billion by 2025. With the seamless integration between Meta/Snap and Amazon, customers can now buy Amazon products on Meta’s Facebook and Instagram and Snap without leaving the apps. By partnering with Amazon, Meta can make it easier to allow shops to sell goods on Facebook and Instagram without creating custom storefronts on those apps. Amazon extends their reach and helps merchants selling on Amazon find new customers that maybe haven’t searched for them. As explained by Amazon: “For the first time, customers will be able to shop Amazon’s Facebook and Instagram ads and check out with Amazon without leaving the social media apps. Customers in the U.S. will see real-time pricing, Prime eligibility, delivery estimates, and product details on select Amazon product ads in Facebook and Instagram as part of the new experience. For the first time, customers will be able to shop Amazon’s Facebook and Instagram ads and check out with Amazon without leaving the social media apps. Customers in the U.S. will see real-time pricing, Prime eligibility, delivery estimates, and product details on select Amazon product ads in Facebook and Instagram as part of the new experience.” Why Now? These partnerships allow Meta and Snap to compete directly with TikTok, which is introducing shoppable videos and live shopping through TikTok Shop. It allows Amazon to compete against Chinese e-commerce rivals like Temu and Shein as they increasingly try to break into the U.S. and global markets. Both Meta and Amazon stand to benefit from the partnership in terms of revenue. Meta can get better ad signals and more attributable conversions. Amazon can secure more transactions from a large discovery platform. User Experience Clicking on an Amazon ad on Facebook or Instagram now reveals a stripped-down version of the Amazon product page, complete with a prominent “Buy with Amazon” button. That means less friction for shoppers and more conversions for sellers. For shoppers, however, linking their Amazon and Meta accounts is an optional process. They can choose whether to connect their Meta and Amazon accounts together to experience a more unified shopping experience. The ads on Meta/Snap will display the up-to-date pricing information from Amazon. Amazon will share limited activity data with Meta but will not share a consumer's specific shopping actions "like purchases, product views, or searches" on Amazon. Benefits for Shoppers There is a seamless shopping experience directly within the social media apps they are already using to browse products. Shoppers can get real-time pricing, Prime eligibility, accurate delivery estimates, and product details without leaving Facebook or Instagram. With fewer clicks, the checkout process is also streamlined. Benefits for Sellers Sellers can create data-driven marketing campaigns by measuring external traffic, clicks, add-to-cart metrics, sales, and more using the Amazon Attribution tool. Final Thoughts This partnership between Amazon and Meta marks a pivotal moment in social commerce. By merging e-commerce and social media, the partnership aims to provide users with a more integrated and efficient shopping experience and sellers new channels and new customers to sell their products to. Both Meta and Snap announced partnerships with Amazon to introduce shopping features to Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. The collaborations are a competitive step against TikTok that encourages users to shop spontaneously while they use the site. Ranjit Mulgaonkar is founder and CEO and Maya Mulgaonkar is vice president of client services at Flatworld Group, a full-service Amazon agency that helps brands to be successful on Amazon. They can be reached, respectively, via email at ranjit@flatworldgroup.com and maya@flatworldgroup.com. For more on Flatworld Group, click here.

Since the launch of the PDMI's Results Magazine in 2019, DRMetrix, an iSpot.tv company, has provided a quarterly snapshot of the leading short-form and long-form performance marketing campaigns on television. Starting in January 2024, the PDMI and DRMetrix are proud to make that snapshot available on a monthly basis, by releasing two months per quarter here, in the association's Web Exclusives area, with the third month continuing to appear in the quarterly edition of Results. To find the latest DRMetrix snapshot of the top 10 brand/lead-gen short-form performance TV campaigns, top 10 traditional short-form DRTV products, and top-10 long-form products (as measured from Nov. 27-Dec. 31, 2023), please click here. For more information on DRMetrix's services, visit its website here or contact the company via phone at (951) 370-1458 or via email at info@drmetrix.com.

By Nick Pietropinto As we bid farewell to 2023, now is the time for direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands to ready their strategies for 2024. D2C is ending the year on a high note, riding a wave of growth that shows no sign of slowing. According to eMarketer research, D2C sales are expected to exceed $160 billion by the end of 2024. With rapid D2C growth, however, comes added complexities. Let’s look at some of the 2024 D2C opportunities (and challenges) marketers should prepare for in the year ahead. First, the challenges … Cord-Cutting Continues Around the world, TV ad revenue decreased to 17.9 percent of total ad revenue in 2023. Linear TV, in particular, shows a steady downward trend, with viewership set to decline 8.6 percent in the U.S. by the end of 2023 and 10.7 percent in 2024. Data shows that media networks lost more than 1 million subscribers in Q3 alone, with the major players posting a 12-percent decline in revenue from linear ads. Across the board, cable TV has seen the repercussions of cord-cutting as more viewers abandon it for streaming platforms and premium content. Increased Competition D2C brands should brace for fierce competition in 2024, especially as more traditional retailers make a move into the D2C space. New competition additionally comes from a former D2C marketing ally: the influencer. Once seen as an effective strategy for lowering customer acquisition costs (CAC), influencer marketing is expected to become more expensive in 2024, as influencers become increasingly selective in who they sponsor and pay-to-play increases. A growing number of influencers are also choosing to launch their own D2C brands, which means D2C marketers must work harder in 2024 to build relationships with niche influencers who are genuinely passionate about their products. Higher Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC) CAC was already on the rise: between 2015 and 2020, CAC increased an astounding 60 percent and is expected to continue rising in 2024. As such, D2C brands must focus on strategies that have been proven to lower CAC in 2024, such as retargeting and re-marketing, and offset those costs by improving customer retention and lifetime customer value. Election-Year Clutter 2024 heralds an election year, which wreaks havoc on consumer attention spans, as well as the advertising landscape. Digital, social, broadcast, out of home, and print marketing channels will be inundated with political ads — driving up CPMs by between 15 percent and 50 percent. D2C brands will need to budget accordingly. The Demise of Third-Party Data D2C brands have long relied on targeted Facebook and Instagram ads to reach their ideal customers. With its iOS 14 update, however, Apple is making it easier for consumers to limit what data is shared by third-party apps, and harder for D2C marketers to leverage consumer data to find and target their customers. In 2024, many experts predict that third-party cookies that capture this data will be phased out entirely. Which means D2C brands must find creative ways to capture and leverage first-party and zero-party data — information that customers willingly hand over directly to brands to use for ad targeting. 2024 Opens Big Opportunities for D2C It’s not all doom and gloom, though. Now that we’ve addressed some of the key challenges, let’s turn to the emerging and exciting opportunities that D2C brands should be capturing in the year ahead. 1. CTV and OTT In 2023, we saw non-linear TV ad sales on video-on-demand (VOD) platforms, connected TV, and free ad-supported services (FAST) increase by 7 percent. When all is said and done, experts predict that CTV will experience 10.9-percent growth in 2023 and 13.8-percent growth in 2024. Over-the-top (OTT) platforms (think Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and YouTube) are growing like gangbusters, as well, with revenue expected to exceed $476 billion by 2027. Driving this growth, more major players are adding advertising tier options to their services in an effort to push consumers to ad-supported plans and drive up revenues. It’s working. By 2025, experts expect streaming ad spending to account for 68 percent of all television ad spend. What’s more, exciting new features like voice-activated purchases will make it possible for consumers to make direct purchases from CTV ads. 2. Retail Media Networks More D2C brands will likely take greater advantage of retail media networks (RMNs) in 2024, as well. Owned and operated by retailers like Costco or Amazon, RMNs allow D2C brands to run ads on that retailer’s website, mobile apps, streaming services, email channels, social networks, digital billboards, and in stores — and more. RMNs also equip D2C marketers with that coveted first-party data they need to target their customers. By 2028, research indicates that retail media revenue will surpass the combined revenue of linear TV and CTV. 3. AI in D2C Artificial Intelligence (AI) is on everyone’s radar, including D2C marketers. While we’re still in uncertain and ever-evolving territory here, in 2024, we anticipate the AI will play an increasingly influential role in D2C marketing. With its ability to analyze massive amounts of data, AI offers tremendous potential for customer segmentation and hyper-personalization. In 2024, this will become increasingly valuable for creating customized customer experiences, content, and campaigns that breakthrough the clutter. AI can also leverage consumer data to identify the best mix of advertising channels to drive leads and conversions. D2C marketers will additionally be looking to AI to automate time-consuming tasks and drive efficiencies — including creating copious content (key for SEO). Or take AI-driven chatbots that provide 24/7 customer support, answer common customer questions, and guide customers through the shopping funnel — leaving companies free to direct those human resources elsewhere. For more about AI in marketing, please read my AI article here. 4. Social Shopping Then there’s the growing opportunity presented by social shopping — popular with Gen Z and Millennial consumers. With Instagram’s Shoppable Posts, Facebook Shop, and TikTok Shopping, consumers can now buy D2C products directly from a social media post without having to go through the typical e-commerce checkout experience. Experts expect social commerce, also known as livestream shopping, to account for more than $30 billion in sales in 2024, and $2.9 trillion by 2026. 5. YouTube While much attention has be focused on TikTok for D2C marketing, we believe that YouTube offers more exciting potential for D2C brands in 2024. This is especially true given that TikTok is still an immature platform with looming uncertainties; consider the recent shut-down of the $1 billion TikTok creator fund that was supposed to pay video creators with large followings for posting content. YouTube, on the other hand, has shown sustained growth and stability as a platform, amassing 2.5 billion global users in 2023. Data shows that 90 percent of consumers say that they learn about new brands on YouTube, making this a highly influential channel for D2C marketers. YouTube’s Shorts video feature, launched in 2021, continues to gain traction as well, reaching more than 50 billion daily views in early 2023. Interestingly, according to Pew research, Gen Z now spends more time on YouTube than TikTok. 6. In-App Advertising In-app advertising is another area D2C brands should be exploring in 2024. Apple, for instance, plans to launch a host of ad products for native apps, as well as home/lock screen ads. Amazon is also actively growing its ad business with an aggressive goal to reach 13 percent market share by 2024, introducing new opportunities such as ad placements on Prime Video as well as at its Whole Foods stores. 7. Click & Brick Strategy Many online D2C brands are now adding a brick-and-mortar retail component ­— either opening their own physical stores or getting their products on the shelves of major retailers like Walmart and Target. Expect to see more of this hybrid click-and-brick strategy in 2024. How D2C Brands Will Thrive in 2024 One key lesson to take into 2024 is this: D2C brands must adopt a flexible, innovative, sophisticated omnichannel approach to their marketing strategies — encompassing not only traditional channels like linear TV and social media, but emerging opportunities like livestream shopping, RMNs, CTV, in-app advertising, niche influencer marketing, AI tools for targeting and data-mining, and more. This is an incredibly exciting time for D2C brands and marketers — filed with possibilities, as well as changes. As we confront the complexities of D2C in 2024, I’m reminded of this Noura quote: “With the right mindset, we can’t lose. We either practice what we’ve learned, or we learn what we need to practice.” At Double Diamond VIP, we take every challenge as an opportunity to learn and improve our D2C methodology. We remain optimistic and enthusiastic about what’s to come for our industry as well as our clients. Learn more at www.TryD2C.com. Nick Pietropinto is the founder and CEO of Double Diamond VIP. He can be reached via email at nick@doublediamondvip.com.

What are the most effective digital marketing strategies for 2024 and how can you implement them in your business today? Are radio advertisements and television commercials outdated strategies? How can you optimize your brand to capture consumer attention? What Is a Digital Marketing Strategy? Crafting a digital marketing strategy entails evaluating the objectives attainable through online channels. The effective execution of such a strategy holds significant importance for an organization's triumph, especially in an era where an increasing number of consumers conduct business transactions using mobile devices. Understanding the distinction between digital marketing and digital strategy is crucial. Digital marketing serves as a valuable tool for achieving your objectives by establishing a strong online presence. With the prevalence of electronic devices, such as smartphones and tablets, we are constantly connected, providing ample opportunities to reach your target audience effectively. To successfully engage your target audience and accomplish your business goals, a well-crafted digital marketing strategy is crucial. This strategy serves as a means to provide value and attract potential consumers. Achieving these objectives requires a deep understanding of the platforms and channels preferred by your target audience. Marketing Strategy vs. Marketing Tactics The term "digital marketing strategy" is frequently misunderstood and conflated with other related concepts. However, a genuine marketing strategy goes beyond that. It is a comprehensive game plan that delineates how you will effectively engage your target audience and convert them into paying customers. It serves as a blueprint, guiding you towards your organization's distinctive marketing objectives. Marketing tactics encompass the precise actions that you will undertake to implement your marketing strategy. These actions may comprise a wide range of activities, carefully tailored to achieve your desired outcomes and connect with your target audience. Writing articles for your blog Posting content on social media Responding to customers on social media Sending emails to your leads Designing advertisements Marketing Strategy vs. Marketing Campaign While a marketing campaign aligns with your overall marketing strategy, it is crucial to recognize the difference between the two. A marketing strategy focuses on the broader perspective and encompasses the larger picture. Your business strategy encompasses your overall goals, as well as those of your customers, providing a roadmap for achieving both. Within this framework, a marketing campaign is a targeted promotion designed to achieve a specific objective, aligning seamlessly with your overarching strategy. Marketing campaigns typically have defined start and end dates. They are often launched to promote new products, increase website traffic, or target a different customer demographic. Why Have a Digital Marketing Strategy? In order to thrive in competitive markets, it is crucial to actively adapt and stay relevant. As the popularity of digital marketing continues to soar, industry pioneers are exploring the benefits of online marketing compared to traditional platforms such as radio, newspaper, and television, which may appear outdated. Now, you have the ultimate reward: the ability to connect with a worldwide audience. Maximize your reach and convert customers by maintaining a well-organized workflow. Key Pillars to Building a Successful Digital Marketing Strategy There are a handful of key elements you’re going to need to build a successful digital marketing strategy. S.M.A.R.T. goals: Use this list as a reminder to make your goals SMART: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely. By incorporating SMART into your strategy, you can organize your metrics and build future strategies more effectively, ultimately boosting your KPIs and ROI. Target audience: If you don’t have your avatar dialed in or if you get your target audience wrong, you’re not going to see results from your digital marketing. Make sure you know your target audience. That way, all of your content, copy, and messaging is on point moving forward. How to Identify Your Target Audience? Determining your target audience is a crucial component of crafting a successful marketing strategy. To accomplish this, it is important to grasp the demographics and psychographics of your potential customers. Here's a guide on how to approach this essential task: Important Demographics Demographics encompass the measurable attributes of your audience, including age, gender, income, education, occupation, marital status, and location. To determine the demographics of your target audience: 1. Market Research Perform thorough market research to gather valuable data about your current customer base as well as potential customers. Utilize surveys, questionnaires, and online tools to efficiently collect pertinent demographic information. 2. Competitor Analysis Analyze your competitors to identify their target audiences and determine if there are any similarities with your potential audience. This will help you gain insights into overlapping demographics and refine your marketing strategies effectively. 3. Analyze Your Customer Database To gain valuable insights, take a closer look at your existing customer database. By analyzing it, you can uncover shared demographic traits among your current customers. This information is crucial for better understanding your target audience and making informed business decisions. 4. Leverage Social Media Data/Feedback You can gain valuable insights into the demographics of your social media followers by leveraging analytics tools available on various social media platforms. Social media is also great for creating feedback loops: don’t be afraid to get your audience the stage to speak. 5. Google Analytics If you have a website, leverage the power of Google Analytics or other similar tools to analyze the demographics of your website visitors. This invaluable data will provide you with insights to better understand your audience and optimize your online presence. Important Psychographics Psychographics encompass the exploration of your audience's interests, values, lifestyles, behaviors, and psychological aspects. Understanding the psychographics of your target audience is crucial for identification and analysis. 1. Creating Your Buyer Personas Create comprehensive buyer personas that accurately depict distinct segments of your audience. These personas should encompass not only demographic details but also psychographic insights, including hobbies, aspirations, obstacles, and areas of concern. 2. Customer Surveys and Interviews To gain a profound understanding of your customers' values, interests, and motivations, it is essential to conduct surveys and interviews. By asking open-ended questions, you can delve into their lifestyle choices and beliefs, uncovering valuable insights. 3. Social Media Monitoring To gain valuable insights about your potential audience, it is crucial to monitor social media discussions pertaining to your industry, product, or service. By doing so, you can identify shared interests and concerns, allowing you to better understand and connect with your target market. 4. Use Psychographic Data Tools Leverage psychographic data tools and market research reports to gain insights into consumer behaviors, values, and interests specific to your industry. This valuable information will empower you to make informed decisions and tailor your strategies to effectively connect with your target audience. 5. Website User Behavior Gain valuable insights into visitor interactions on your website, including the pages they browse, the content they engage with, and their interest in products or services. This analysis can unveil valuable psychographic traits. Combining Demographics and Psychographics Once you’re able to collect data on demographics and psychographics, you’ll have the opportunity to build a more complete profile of your target audience. By merging these two sets of information together, you gain a deeper understanding of your ideal customers and what messaging would appeal to them. If your focus is performance marketing in the new year, you want to make sure you’re measuring the results you’re seeing. Keep in mind that your target audience may comprise various segments, each with unique characteristics. It is crucial to customize your marketing strategies and messaging accordingly. Continually monitor and enhance your understanding of your target audience as consumer preferences and market trends evolve, ensuring your marketing efforts remain relevant and effective. How to Build Your Digital Marketing Strategy In the realm of digital marketing, a multitude of strategies exists. However, not all strategies yield the same level of success. In this analysis, we will delve into the 10 most impactful digital marketing strategies currently employed in our industry. 1. Inbound Marketing Inbound marketing encompasses a comprehensive ecosystem of strategies, tools, and tactics employed by marketers to transform website visitors into paying customers. This multifaceted approach entails a range of techniques aimed at engaging and converting potential customers into loyal patrons. Content marketing Email marketing Lead generation and nurturing SEO Marketing automation Website optimization Website analytics Inbound marketing encompasses a holistic approach to engaging, qualifying, nurturing, and delighting customers and prospects. It is not a fleeting or hastily implemented strategy; instead, it emphasizes establishing enduring relationships with customers for the long haul. Why Use Inbound Marketing? Cost effective. Implementing inbound marketing strategies can result in significant cost savings while yielding a higher return on investment (ROI). By focusing on a specific target audience rather than a broad and generic approach, you increase the likelihood of achieving success. Building trust and credibility. When prospects and customers independently investigate and find that your content addresses their inquiries, your business establishes itself as a credible industry authority, rather than merely a profit-driven entity. Authentic relationships. By implementing inbound marketing strategies, you can cultivate trusted relationships that not only result in sales but also foster customer loyalty. The content produced through inbound marketing not only attracts high-quality traffic to your website but also offers visitors valuable information that motivates them to convert at every stage of the marketing funnel. 2. Search Engine Optimization Search engine optimization (SEO) involves optimizing your website and content to improve search engine rankings and drive organic traffic. It encompasses a range of tactics aimed at enhancing word choice, structure, readability, and eloquence. The goal is to achieve higher rankings in search engines while increasing the volume of organic traffic to your site. Creating high-quality content Optimizing content around keywords and user needs Incorporating meta information Ensuring your website is optimized for search engines In essence, the goal of SEO is to attract the appropriate audience naturally, generating increased leads and sales in the process. Why Use Search Engine Optimization? Better conversion rates. A well-optimized website is not only fast and user-friendly, but also seamlessly compatible with all devices. This ensures a higher likelihood of converting users into loyal customers. Build higher brand awareness. Having your content rank high in search results is crucial for establishing brand awareness and building trust with visitors. A strong online presence not only increases the likelihood of visitors purchasing your products and services but also enhances their inclination to do so. Long-term cost savings. After creating a piece of content, it should gradually attract and generate more traffic. Although it's important to consistently produce high-quality content, you'll be able to focus on users actively seeking your products and services without continuous financial investment. 3. Social Media Marketing Social media marketing leverages popular platforms such as Facebook, X/Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram to achieve its objectives. By utilizing these channels, businesses can effectively engage with their target audiences, increase brand visibility, and drive meaningful interactions. Promote your content, products or services Build brand awareness and visibility Gain fans or followers Engage current and prospective customers Drive traffic to your website To maintain consistent website traffic, likes, and followers, it is necessary to continuously invest in advertising and create a dedicated landing page for the targeted audience. Once the advertising spend concludes, so does the influx of website visitors, likes, and followers. Why Use Social Media Marketing? Lower budget to start. Even with a modest budget, social media marketing can effectively promote your brand to your audience, even when they're not actively considering it. However, to maximize your ad spend and achieve impressive conversion rates, it's crucial to incorporate A/B testing or other optimization techniques. This ensures that you get the most out of your investment and drive successful outcomes. Audience engagement. Approximately 45 percent of the global population actively engages with social media, dedicating an average of three hours per day to its use. To make the most of this opportunity, it is crucial to carefully select the appropriate channel(s), conduct thorough research on the functioning of advertising platforms, and leverage the chance to directly engage with your target audience. Improved brand loyalty. According to research, a staggering 71 percent of individuals who have a positive encounter with a brand on social media are highly inclined to recommend said brand to their friends and family. 4. Pay-Per-Click Marketing Pay-per-click advertising, also known as PPC, is a strategic approach where advertisers pay for each click on their online ads. This method is commonly employed through platforms like Google Ads, Bing Ads, and other search engines, presenting an effective means of connecting with individuals actively searching for terms relevant to your business. Costs for campaigns can vary greatly, from affordable options to monthly investments of thousands of dollars, depending on the campaign's scale and scope. Additionally, once a campaign is discontinued, the traffic it generates also comes to a halt. When users interact with pay-per-click ads, they are led to dedicated landing pages designed to motivate them to take specific actions. Make a purchase Complete a form Download a report, or more If you implement a PPC campaign, your primary goal will likely be to increase sales or leads. Why Use PPC? Simple data tracking. Using a PPC platform like Google Ads enables you to monitor the number of ad views, clicks, and conversions. This valuable information provides instant insights into the performance of your campaigns. Controlled spend. PPC advertising operates on a pay-as-you-go model, providing flexibility to modify or pause underperforming ad campaigns without any obligation to a specific advertising budget. This allows you to optimize your advertising spend while retaining full control over your campaigns. Immediate results. While marketing techniques such as SEO and content marketing require time to yield results, PPC advertising provides a rapid and effective solution for launching campaigns and achieving immediate outcomes. 5. Email Marketing Email marketing is a strategic approach to nurture connections with your audience, leveraging promotional and informational emails. Its purpose is to cultivate relationships, transform prospects into loyal buyers, and convert one-time purchasers into devoted brand enthusiasts. These emails may cover exclusive offers, highlight website content, announce upcoming sales, or convey general messages on behalf of your business. Why Use Email Marketing? High-quality leads. Ensure that your emails include links to relevant pages on your website. Key performance indicators to track are the open rate (the number of recipients who open your email) and the click-through rate (the ratio of users who click on a link in the email to the number of users who opened it). Low starting costs. When it comes to marketing strategies like direct mail, SEM, and SMM, email marketing stands out as a cost-effective option. With email marketing, your investment includes a subscription to software that can send thousands of emails simultaneously, as well as the cost of someone to manage the program. This approach not only saves you money but also allows for efficient and widespread communication with your target audience. Delivers targeted messages. Every individual on an email list has willingly subscribed to receive the information you've offered. This implies that they are genuinely interested in hearing from you. By strategically segmenting your list, you can provide highly personalized content that is more likely to resonate with your audience. This targeted approach ensures that your messages are well-received and effectively cater to the specific needs and interests of each recipient. 6. Account-Based Marketing Account-based marketing (ABM) is a great B2B marketing strategy that focuses on specific accounts of your choosing. Its purpose is to assist sales and marketing teams in swiftly guiding prospects through the sales funnel. Through ABM, you can effectively target the accounts that hold the utmost significance for your business. Why Use Account-Based Marketing? Personal marketing. Account-based marketing (ABM) takes a bespoke approach to marketing, crafting personalized messages for target accounts. By leveraging customer insights, you can tailor your campaigns to address their unique requirements. This ensures a more effective and engaging marketing strategy that resonates with your audience. Teamwork and collaboration. With ABM, sales and marketing teams are able to work together so they can identify key accounts and design personalized campaigns. ABM encourages teamwork as the group will focus on moving accounts through the sales pipeline. Sales cycles shortened. The B2B sales process is usually slow because there are multiple people involved in making a final purchase decision. With ABM, the sales cycle is expedited because the primary decision maker, and all other relevant prospects, can be nurtured simultaneously with content created specifically for them. 7. Video Marketing Stats have shown that video is the best type of content to deliver to customers. Video can be used to promote your products and services. On top of that, video can be used for product demos, interviews, reviews, customer testimonials, or how-to videos. Videos are also easy to add to your website, PPC landing pages, or social media outlets to encourage more conversions and sales. KPIs may include: Engagement. Likes, comments, etc. Watch time. Time spent watching video View count. How many times it was watched. Click-through rate. How many users clicked through to the website. Conversion rate. Number of leads, prospects, or customers content generates. Why Use Video Marketing? Benefits SEO. According to a study by Vidyard, marketers who incorporate videos on their websites are 53 times more likely to appear on the first page of Google search results. This is because videos enhance SEO, thereby improving the ranking of web pages. By utilizing videos, marketers can significantly boost their online visibility and reach a wider audience. Higher conversion rates. By incorporating video on a landing page, marketers can achieve a remarkable boost in conversion rates, with potential increases of up to 34 percent, as reported by Unbounce. This highlights the undeniable impact and effectiveness of video content in capturing and engaging audiences. Improved brand association. Not only do videos lead to improved conversion rates, but they also result in a staggering 139 percent increase in brand association. Furthermore, a remarkable 92 percent of consumers share the videos they watch with others. (Source: WebFX) 8. Chatbots During the past decade, chatbots and messaging apps have gained widespread popularity and are now recognized as valuable tools for both marketing and customer service. With approximately 1.4 billion users of messaging apps, there is a significant audience that is comfortable engaging with chatbots. Brands leverage chatbots to enhance customer experiences and drive business growth, including: Dealing with customer complaints Answering questions about products Promoting live events According to research conducted by Drift, despite the various applications of chatbots, the top anticipated use is obtaining quick answers during emergencies. Therefore, it is advisable to keep chatbots simple for optimal effectiveness. Why Use Chatbots? Quick answers. People go online with a task in mind. They want an answer fast. Chatbots can help people to get quick answers and resolve complaints, which can have a positive impact on brand sentiment. Better customer experience. People told Drift they would use a chatbot to "get detailed explanations" and to "find a human customer service assistant." Both help to improve a customer’s experience with your brand. Sell your products. A chatbot might seem an odd place to convert sales. But 18 percent of people said they would buy a basic item through a chatbot, while 22 percent would use one to explore ideas for purchases. 9. Podcasts Podcasts had a big year in 2023, and we expect 2024 to be no different. You’ll definitely want to make sure a podcast is in your audio marketing strategy. According to Demand Sage, there are more than 5 million podcasts globally, with more than 70 million episodes between them. There are 464.7 million podcast listeners globally as of December 2023. This number is predicted to reach 504.9 million by the end of 2024. Why Use Podcasts? Cost effective. As long as you have an iPhone or computer mic, you can create a podcast with minimal associated costs. Easy to create. Thanks to platforms like Anchor FM, creating podcasts and uploading them to the web is simple. Easy to use networks. Many platforms that allow you to build and upload podcasts have networks of partners and affiliates where your podcast episodes can easily be shared. 10. Affiliate Marketing Affiliate marketing is a great way to get your products and services out to the market quickly. It allows you to tap into affiliate programs where tens of thousands of affiliates already exist. According to Authority Hacker, the global affiliate marketing industry is worth more than $17 billion. The global affiliate marketing industry is expected to grow to a market size of $27.8 billion by 2027. Affiliate marketing is responsible for 16 percent of all internet orders in the U.S., and 81 percent of brands use affiliate programs to boost brand awareness and drive sales. Why Use Affiliate Marketing? Affiliate platforms. There are thousands of affiliate marketing platforms out there to join, making it simple to get started with affiliate marketing. Affiliate networks. Some of the largest affiliate marketing platforms give you immediate access to thousands of affiliate marketers ready to share your products and services. Final Thoughts on Digital Marketing Strategy The field of digital marketing is in a perpetual state of evolution, making it challenging to stay abreast of the latest trends. Additionally, crafting captivating content and cutting through the noise can prove to be quite arduous. After all, numerous brands are vying for the attention of your target audience, promoting their own offerings. To ensure your digital marketing strategy drives results: Create content specific to your audience's questions, wants, and needs Build authentic relationships and grow your network Showcase your expertise through great content Always be mindful of your competition and what they do Join groups like PDMI that allow you to engage with other entrepreneurs Moreover, do not hesitate to venture into uncharted territory or abandon ineffective approaches. A remarkable aspect of digital marketing strategies lies in their immediate measurability. Focus your efforts on successful endeavors and discontinue those that yield no results. Want to Join a Thriving Community of Digital Marketers? If you want to learn more about being successful in digital marketing and want to rub shoulders with some of the most successful entrepreneurs on the planet, make sure to join PDMI. You can become a member here.

Digital marketing is a term that’s commonly used, but not always fully understood. At the purest level, it covers any marketing that uses electronic devices and can be used by marketing experts to convey promotional messaging and measure its impact through your customer journey. In real-world use, digital marketing typically refers to marketing campaigns that appear on a computer, phone, tablet, or any other electronic device. It can take many forms, including online video, display ads, search engine marketing, paid social ads, and social media posts. Digital marketing is often compared to “traditional marketing” such as magazine ads, billboards, and direct mail. Oddly, television is usually lumped in with traditional marketing. What Is Digital Marketing? The term digital marketing refers to the use of websites, apps, mobile devices, social media, search engines, paid advertising, podcast, and other digital means to promote and sell products and services. Digital marketing has grown in popularity since widespread adoption of the internet in the 1990s. While digital marketing involves many of the same foundational elements as traditional marketing and is often considered an additional way for companies to approach consumers and understand their behavior. Today, companies are able to utilize both traditional and digital marketing techniques in their strategies. But digital marketing also comes with its own set of challenges. We bring up performance marketing a lot. Performance marketing is marketing based solely on business outcomes and data. You’re looking for a specific outcome, right? You always have to keep that in mind and make sure your tracking your digital marketing data and analytics. Inbound Marketing and Digital Marketing Two marketing terms you want to get familiar with are inbound marketing and digital marketing. Digital marketing uses many of the same tools and software as inbound marketing: email, content, or infographics. Both of them exist to attract the attention of prospects through the buyer’s journey, ultimately turning them into paying customers. With that being said, these two approaches take different views of the relationship between the vehicle that will be used and the end goal of the campaign. Digital marketing focuses on how tools or digital channels can convert prospects into paying customers. For example, a company's digital marketing strategy may use multiple online platforms or it may center all of its efforts on a single platform. One company may choose to focus solely on creating content on social media platforms like Facebook, X, and Instagram. Another company may have several vehicles to reach their audience: they may use social media, search engine optimization, and email marketing to accomplish their goals. With inbound marketing, you use a different approach. First, you identify the main goal you want to achieve, then you figure out the best tools and channels available to reach your target customers. Let’s say a company wants to grow its website traffic to generate more prospects and leads. In this specific scenario, you could focus on content marketing and SEO to create relevant SEO-optimized keywords targeted content to rank in Google. This would result in more optimized content, including blogs, landing pages, and other content assets. The biggest key we want you to remember is the fact that you don’t have to choose between using digital marketing or inbound marketing. Rather, we usually encourage you to use them both together. Inbound marketing provides structure and purpose for effective digital marketing to digital marketing efforts, making sure that each digital marketing channel works toward a goal. Why Is Digital Marketing Important? If you want to grow your company online, you need effective digital marketing strategies. Any type of marketing can help your business thrive.  However, digital marketing has become increasingly important because of how accessible digital channels are. From social media to text messages, there are many ways to use digital marketing tactics in order to communicate with your target audience. Additionally, digital marketing has minimal upfront cost, making it cost-effective for small businesses. B2B vs. B2C Digital Marketing Let’s talk about using digital marketing for B2B and B2C businesses. Digital marketing strategies work for B2B (business-to-business) as well as B2C (business-to-consumer) companies. With that being said, you likely wouldn’t use the same marketing strategy because one campaign is trying to reach consumers while the other is trying to reach businesses. Or would you? Let’s take a closer look at how digital marketing is used in B2B and B2C marketing strategies: B2B clients will usually have longer duration decision-making processes, meaning it takes longer (and more effort on your end) to get them to convert. Due to this, you want to use relationship-building strategies to build more touchpoints with them. On the other hand, B2C customers tend to respond better to short-term offers and messages, so you usually don’t need long sequences to convert them. When it comes to B2B transactions, they’re often built on logic and evidence. This is why skilled B2B digital marketers would present data to back that in proposals. B2C content is usually emotionally focused, wanting to make the customer feel good about the purchase they’re getting ready to make. When B2B companies are making decisions, they usually involve multiple people. The marketing materials that best drive these decisions tend to be shareable and downloadable. On the other side, B2C customers usually want a one-on-one connection with the brand. 64 percent of B2B buyers report that podcasts were helpful at the beginning of their buying journey. The majority (80 percent) of B2B decision-makers prefer learning about a potential vendor through content-like articles. 62 percent of B2C marketers plan to use influencer marketing. B2C marketers dedicate an average 26 percent of their total marketing budget toward content marketing. The most successful content marketers dedicate 40 percent. There will always be exceptions to every rule. A B2C company with a high-ticket product, such as a car or computer, might offer more informative and serious content. As a result, your digital marketing strategy always needs to be geared toward your own customer base, whether you're B2B or B2C. Knowing your target audience is key to running successful marketing campaigns; that goes for both B2B and B2C companies. Take a look at your current audience to create well-informed and targeted online marketing campaigns. Doing so ensures your marketing efforts are effective and you can capture the attention of the “right” customers. Types of Digital Marketing There are as many specializations within digital marketing as there are ways of interacting using digital media. Here are a few key examples of types of digital marketing tactics. 1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Search engine optimization, or SEO, is referred to as a digital marketing tool and digital marketing strategy. How you view that doesn’t matter, but know that SEO can help you rank keywords on the first page of Google. That is powerful. SEO is a science because it requires you to research and weigh different SEO ranking factors to achieve the highest possible ranking on a search engine results page (SERP). In total, there are thought to be more than 200 different SEO ranking factors, but you only need to worry about a handful of them. These include: Quality level of your content Internal SEO structure Mobile-friendliness and ease of use Quality of inbound links and backlinks In addition to what you see above, you need to optimize your technical SEO, as well. This involves all the back-end components of your site. This includes URL structure, downloading times, uploading times, crawling, broken pages, and broken links. Improving your technical SEO can help search engines better navigate and crawl your site. Ultimately, the goal is to rank on the first page of a search engine’s result page. This ensures that those searching for a specific query related to your services or products can easily be found. While there are many different search engines, digital marketers will usually focus on Google since it's a global leader in the search engine market. Stats differ depending on the source, but it’s believed that Google owns more than 70 percent of search engine share. SEO is not easy — there’s no magic button for ranking high on search engines. Google and other search engines change their algorithms all the time to keep marketers honest, so it's impossible to make exact predictions. What you can do is closely monitor your page's performance and make adjustments to your SEO strategy as needed. 2. Content Marketing The quality of your content is a big deal, and not only for SEO purposes. Your content needs to convert your audience to paying customers. This is why we’re not fans of AI content. Yes, AI content can have a purpose but until it can write better copy, it won’t be on our website. Like we touched on earlier, the quality of your content is a key component of an optimized page. As a result, SEO is a major factor in content marketing, a strategy that focuses on the distribution of relevant and valuable content to a target audience. As with any marketing strategy, the goal of content marketing is to attract leads that ultimately convert into customers. This method is different than traditional advertising. Rather than enticing prospects with potential value from a product or service, it offers value for free in the form of written material, such as: Blogs or articles E-books and guides Newsletters Video or audio transcripts Whitepapers Infographics Content marketing is one of the most effective strategies you can use, and there are plenty of stats to prove it: 92 percent of marketers believe that their company values content as an important asset 84 percent of consumers expect companies to produce entertaining and helpful content experiences 62 percent of companies that have at least 5,000 employees produce content every day Although content marketing can be effective, a lot of companies struggle with it. Anyone writing content must have the ability to properly search-optimize the content so it can rank high in Google. On top of that, the content needs to engage your audience. When the content is relevant, it can establish strong relationships throughout your pipeline, and that’s essential for turning prospects into clients. In order to create content that’s highly relevant and engaging, you must identify your target audience. You need to ask, "Who are we trying to reach with our content marketing?" Once you have your target audience identified, you can then determine the exact type of content that needs to be created. No matter what type of content you create, you should always try to stick to best practices. This means making content that’s grammatically correct, free of errors, easy to understand, relevant, and interesting. Your content should also funnel readers to the next stage in the pipeline, whether that’s a free consultation with a sales representative or a signup page. 3. Social Media Marketing Social media marketing (SMM) is another effective digital marketing strategy that utilizes social media platforms to drive traffic and brand awareness by engaging people in discussion online. You can use social media marketing to highlight your brand, products, services, culture, and more. With billions of people spending their time engaging on social media platforms, focusing on social media marketing can be worthwhile. The most popular digital platforms for social media marketing are Facebook, X/Twitter, and Instagram, with LinkedIn and YouTube not far behind. You can use one social media platform or all of them; it really depends on your goals and audience. For example, if you want to find new leads for your fintech startup, targeting your audience on LinkedIn is a good idea since industry professionals are active on the platform. On the other hand, running social media ads on Instagram may be better for your brand if you run a B2C focused on younger consumers. Since social media marketing involves active audience participation, it has become a popular way of getting attention. It's the most popular content medium for B2C digital marketers at 96 percent, and it's gaining ground in the B2B sphere as well. According to the Content Marketing Institute, 61 percent of B2B content marketers increased their use of social media last year and that is expected to grow even higher this year. Social media marketing offers built-in engagement metrics, which are extremely useful in helping you to understand how well you're reaching your audience. You get to decide which types of interactions mean the most to you, whether that means the number of shares, comments, or total clicks to your website. Direct purchase may not even be a goal of your social media marketing strategy. Many brands use social media marketing to start dialogues with audiences rather than encourage them to spend money right away. This is especially common in brands that target older audiences or offer products and services not appropriate for impulse buys. It all depends on your company's social media marketing goals. To create an effective social media marketing strategy, it’s crucial to follow best practices. Here are a few of the most important social media marketing best practices: Craft high-quality and engaging content Reply to comments and questions in a professional manner Create a social media posting schedule Post at the right time Hire social media managers to support your marketing efforts Know your audience and which social media channels they’re most active on 4. Pay-Per-Click Marketing Pay-per-click, or PPC, is a form of digital marketing in which you pay a fee every time someone clicks on your digital ads. Rather than paying a set amount to constantly run targeted ads on online channels, you only pay for the ads individuals interact with. How and when people see your ad is a bit more complicated. A lot of digital marketers will use PPC because you can get a campaign going in a few minutes, vs. SEO alone that can take weeks/months to see results. One of the most common types of PPC is search engine marketing (SEM). This is because Google is the most popular search engine, and many companies choose to use Google Ads. You want to have a basic idea of how Google Ads works. When a spot is available on a search engine results page, also known as a SERP, the engine fills the spot with what is essentially an instant auction. An algorithm prioritizes each available ad based on a number of factors, including: Ad scoring Headline relevance Keyword relevance Landing page quality Bid amount With Google PPC, your ads can be placed in a few different areas. There are four sponsored ad locations on most pages, placed at the top of search engine result pages based on the factors we just listed above. If competition for the spots is very competitive, your ads may not show until the bottom of the first page or may appear on the second page. Each PPC campaign has one or more target actions that viewers are meant to complete after clicking an ad. These actions are known as conversions, and they can be transactional or non-transactional. Making a purchase is a conversion, but so is a newsletter signup or a call made to your home office. Whatever you choose as your target conversions, you can track them via your chosen digital marketing channels to see how your campaign is doing. Google Ads tracks several KPIs, but you can also use Google Analytics (G4). 5. Email Marketing While email marketing may feel “outdated” by many marketers, it is still one of the most effective strategies to generate leads and turn leads into customers. The concept of email marketing is simple: you send a promotional message and hope that your prospect clicks on it. However, the execution is much more complex. First of all, you have to make sure that your emails are wanted. This means having an opt-in list that does the following: Individualizes the content, both in the body and in the subject line States clearly what kind of emails the subscriber will get An email signature that offers a clear unsubscribe option Integrates both transactional and promotional emails You want your prospects to see your campaign as a valued service, not just as a promotional tool. Email marketing is a proven, effective technique all on its own: 89 percent of surveyed professionals named it as their most effective lead generator. It can be even better if you incorporate other digital marketing techniques such as marketing automation, which lets you segment and schedule your emails so that they meet your customer's needs more effectively. If you’re considering email marketing, here are a few tips that can help you craft great email marketing campaigns: Segment your audience to send relevant campaigns to the right people Ensure emails look good on mobile devices Create a campaign schedule Run A/B tests 6. Affiliate Marketing Affiliate marketing is a digital marketing tactic that lets someone make money by promoting another person's products or services. You could be either the promoter or the business who works with the promoter, but the process is the same in either case. With affiliate marketing, you get paid using a revenue sharing model. If you're the affiliate, you get a commission every time someone purchases the item that you promote. If you're the merchant, you pay the affiliate for every sale they help you make. Tracking links can track sales if needed, but many affiliate partners have tools and software that allow you to track how many sales come from your affiliate links. There are many different strategies used to promote affiliate products and services. For example, some affiliate marketers may choose to review a product or service, they can then promote that review to their followers. The amount of affiliate partners you choose is up to you: some prefer to work with a single partner while others may have multiple affiliate marketing relationships. Whether you want to be an affiliate or find one, the first step is to make a connection with the other party. You can use digital channels designed to connect affiliates with retailers, or you can start or join a single-retailer program. If you're a retailer and you choose to work directly with affiliates, there are many things you can do to make your program appealing to potential promoters. You'll need to provide those affiliates with the tools that they need to succeed. That includes incentives for great results, as well as marketing tools and pre-made materials. 7. Influencer Marketing Like affiliate marketing, influencer marketing relies on working with an influencer to accomplish your goals. An influencer will usually have a large following: it could be a celebrity, industry expert, or well-known content creator. In many cases, these influencers will endorse your products or services to their followers on several social media channels. Influencer marketing is not confined to one industry or niche. In fact, it works well for B2B and B2C companies that want to reach new audiences quickly. You have to be careful when choosing influencers. It’s important to partner with reputable influencers since they’re essentially representing your brand. The wrong influencer can tarnish the trust consumers have with your business. 8. Native Advertising Native advertising is meant to blend in with surrounding content so that it’s less blatantly obvious as a paid advertisement. Native advertising was created in reaction to the cynicism of today's consumers toward ads. Knowing that the creator of an ad pays to run it, many consumers will conclude that the ad is biased and consequently ignore it. A native ad gets around this bias by offering information or entertainment before it gets to anything promotional, downplaying the "ad" aspect. It’s important to always label your native ads clearly. Use words like “promoted” or “sponsored.” If those indicators are concealed, readers might end up spending significant time engaging with the content before they realize that it's advertising. When your consumers know exactly what they're getting, they'll feel better about your content and your brand. Native ads are meant to be less obtrusive than traditional ads, but they’re not meant to be deceptive. 9. Marketing Automation Marketing automation uses software to power digital marketing campaigns, improving the efficiency and relevance of advertising. As a result, you can focus on creating the strategy behind your digital marketing efforts instead of cumbersome and time-consuming processes. While marketing automation may seem like a luxury tool your business can do without, it can significantly improve the engagement between you and your audience. The stats back it. 90 percent of US consumers reported that personalization is either “very” or “somewhat” appealing 81 percent of consumers would like to engage with brands that try to understand them better 77 percent of companies say real-time personalization is valuable, but 60 percent of them struggle with it Marketing automation lets companies keep up with the expectation of personalization. It allows brands to: Collect and analyze key consumer data and information Build targeted marketing campaigns for users Send and post digital marketing messages at the right times to the right audiences Many marketing automation tools use prospect engagement (or lack thereof) with a particular message to determine when and how to reach out next. This level of real-time customization means that you can effectively create an individualized marketing strategy for each customer without a big-time commitment. 10. Mobile Marketing Having the ability to reach your target audience on mobile is key to your success in 2024 and beyond. Mobile marketing is exactly as described: it’s a digital marketing strategy that allows you to engage with your target audience on their mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets. This can be via SMS and MMS messages, social media notifications, mobile app alerts, and more. It’s crucial to ensure that all content is optimized for mobile devices. According to the Pew Research Center, 85 percent of Americans own a smartphone, so your marketing efforts can go a long way when you create content for both computers and mobile phones/tablets. Think about it: do you always carry your iPhone everywhere you go? Having the ability to reach users on mobile is key to running successful digital marketing campaigns, no matter what vehicle you decide to use. 11. Podcast Marketing One of the most popular ways for users to consume content is through podcasts, and we don’t expect that to change in 2024. In the U.S. alone, 64 percent of people have listened to a podcast at least once. In years past, podcasts were not well known. Now, thanks to popular podcasts like The Joe Rogan Experience, the majority of the population globally knows what a podcast is and how to access them. 79 percent of people in the U.S. are now familiar with the concept of podcasting. There are more than 5 million podcasts globally, with more than 70 million episodes between them. There are 464.7 million podcast listeners globally as of December 2023. This number is predicted to reach 504.9 million by the end of 2024. Audio marketing can play a key role in your business today as more users are introduced to podcasts. 12. Television Ads While the amount of consumers watching television has decreased steadily over the last decade, TV ads are still great for reaching a large portion of your target audience quickly. We’ve seen direct response TV ads change a company’s trajectory overnight. Plus, with a lot less competition, TV advertisements are going for really good prices compared to what those prices were years ago. The global number of TV viewers in the 'TV Viewers' segment of the media market was forecast to continuously increase between 2023 and 2028 by in total 0.2 billion users (+3.66 percent). After the ninth consecutive increasing year, the indicator is estimated to reach 5.7 billion users and therefore a new peak in 2028. The Benefits of Digital Marketing Digital marketing has become prominent largely because it reaches such a wide audience of people. However, it also offers a number of other advantages that can boost your marketing efforts. These are a few more of the benefits of digital marketing: Big geographical reach: When you post an ad online, people can see it no matter where they are (provided you haven’t limited your ad geographically). This makes it easy to grow your market reach and connect with a larger audience across different digital channels. Can be cost efficient: Digital marketing not only reaches a broader audience than traditional marketing but also carries a lower cost. Overhead costs for newspaper ads, television spots, and other traditional marketing opportunities can be high. They also give you less control over whether your target audiences will see those messages in the first place. Easy to get started: It only takes one content asset to start building attention for your services and products. You can create an email marketing campaign that delivers messages to targeted customer lists on a schedule, and it's easy to change that schedule or the content if you need to do so. Track results and KPIs: With digital marketing, there’s a wide range of tools out there that allow you to track key KPIs. For example, Google Analytics (now G4) can track the traffic coming to your website, and it can also track conversions. Gathering important data: Digital marketing allows you to gather customer data in a way that offline marketing can't. Data collected digitally tends to be much more precise and specific. Gathering this data allows you to see what works and what doesn’t, which allows you to make adjustments to get the best possible results. Connecting with your customers: Digital marketing lets you communicate with your customers in real-time. More importantly, it allows them to communicate with you. Customer feedback is essential to your growth. Tracking customer’s actions: Digital marketing lets your customers take action immediately after viewing your ad or content. With traditional advertisements, the most immediate result you can hope for is a phone call shortly after someone views your ad. But how often does someone have the time to reach out to a company while they're doing the dishes, driving down the highway, or updating records at work? With digital marketing, they can click a link or save a blog post and move along the sales funnel right away. They might not make a purchase immediately, but they'll stay connected with you and give you a chance to interact with them further. How to Create a Digital Marketing Strategy For many small businesses and beginner digital marketers, getting started with digital marketing can be a big challenge. The good news: there’s no right or wrong answer. Your digital marketing strategy is going to be one that transitions and adapts as you go. If you’ve never run digital marketing campaigns, you don’t have an idea of what works and what doesn’t, so there will be trial and error. That’s fine, though: this is how we find campaigns that work, and you can take what works and make it better. However, you can create an effective digital marketing strategy to increase brand awareness, engagement, and sales by using the following steps as your starting point. Setting goals: Setting specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely (SMART) goals is crucial for any marketing strategy. While there are many goals you may want to achieve, try to focus on the ones that will propel your strategy forward instead of causing it to remain stagnant. Your target audience: Before starting any marketing campaign, it’s best to identify your target audience. Your target audience is the group of people you want your campaign to reach based on similar attributes, such as age, gender, demographic, or purchasing behavior. Having a good understanding of your target audience can help you determine the next steps of the strategy. Choosing marketing platforms: Once you know your target audience, you can then begin to figure out what marketing platforms are best to reach them. If you’re trying to reach B2B, LinkedIn would be a good place to start. If you’re trying to reach a younger audience, TikTok may be the best vehicle for that. Choosing a budget: A budget ensures you’re spending your money effectively towards your goals instead of overspending on digital marketing channels that may not provide the desired results. Consider your SMART goals and the digital channel you’re planning to use to create a budget. Choosing your specific campaign channels: From PPC and SEO to content marketing or social media, you have to determine what channels are going to be best for you. Which digital marketing channels you use often depends on your goals, audience, and budget. Collect, evaluate, and refine: Rarely will you launch a marketing campaign and it's “perfect” out of the gate. It’s up to you to collect data, evaluate that data, and make adjustments to improve your campaigns. The data will always tell you what’s working and what is not, so make sure you’re tracking it and paying close attention to what it’s telling you about your campaigns. You Can’t Go Without Digital Marketing Digital marketing should be one of the primary focuses of almost any business’s overall marketing strategy. Never before has there been a way to stay in such consistent contact with your customers, and nothing else offers the level of personalization that digital data can provide. The more you embrace the possibilities of digital marketing, the more you'll be able to realize your company's growth potential. Want to Join a Thriving Community of Digital Marketers? If you want to learn more about being successful in digital marketing and e-commerce, or get to connect with successful entrepreneurs from around the world, make sure to join PDMI. You can become a member here.

By Ranjit Mulgaonkar and Maya Mulgaonkar For the longest time, I wondered when Shopify, the most dominant e-commerce platform would launch its own marketplace. Last month, it happened: Shopify launched an AI-driven, web-based marketplace — Shop AI — that competes directly against Amazon at shop.app/search. Some Facts About Shopify If all its merchants were treated as one, Shopify is the second-largest e-commerce retailer in the U.S. Globally, Shopify is used by 4.36 million online stores in 175 countries, with 2.6 million stores in the U.S. Shopify Plus, a higher end version of Shopify specific to larger brands and large-scale businesses, has 32,181 Shopify Plus stores across 175 countries — 18,767 stores in U.S. More than 700 million consumers shop in the stores on Shopify platform, generating more than $200 billion in gross merchandise value. Some of the top brands on Shopify Plus include Kylie Cosmetics, Skims, Sephora, Red Bull, Heinz, WWE, Allbirds, Lindt, Fitbit, Hasbro, Netflix, and Tesla. How Is Shopify Marketplace Different From Amazon? There are a few differences between Amazon and Shopify marketplace implementations. Amazon sellers list and sell products on Amazon Marketplace, and if the seller has a trademark, they get a storefront on Amazon. The consumer can buy individual products from the product listing or by visiting the seller’s storefront. If the consumer clicks on any products within the storefront to buy, they are taken to the individual product listing on Amazon to buy.In other words, Amazon Marketplace keeps the consumer within Amazon platform throughout the search, browse, and shopping experience. Products from any Shopify stores are available to any consumer on the web by visiting the individual stores online. The brands can also sell products on marketplaces like Amazon, Walmart, eBay, Etsy, and social media platforms Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest where Shopify sellers can generate incremental revenue. Shop AI is an overlay on all the Shopify stores where the consumers can buy products from multiple sellers (merchants) seamlessly in a single shopping-cart transaction. The consumer can search, browse, and shop across all stores with a unified shopping cart. The consumer can also visit the merchant’s Shopify store and purchase products from individual merchants. Shop AI incorporates all products sold by stores using Shopify’s e-commerce platform. The user interface contrasts Amazon’s cluttered and busy UI. Its minimalist and simple design will allow shoppers quickly find and purchase products. Shopify is also using AI to provide personalized product recommendations based on customer’s past browsing and purchase history. The feature that truly makes it unique and is part of the marketplace’s name is its AI shopping assistant, which appears as a sidebar and can be used to refine the product search. The AI shopping assistant can be turned off if the consumer wishes. What Does This Mean? Even with the marketplace functionality, Shopify does not become a retailer but simply an easier way to shop across millions of brands with universal search and shopping cart. On the other hand, Amazon is a combination of retail and marketplace, since Amazon sells products as a retailer from brands (wholesale) as well as 200 of Amazon’s private label brands. If you’re interested in hosting an online store with Shopify and having your products appear in its new web-based marketplace, their plans start at $5 per month including a free-trial opportunity. Ranjit Mulgaonkar is founder and CEO and Maya Mulgaonkar is vice president of account management at Flatworld Group, a full-service Amazon agency that helps brands to be successful on Amazon. They can be reached, respectively, via email at ranjit@flatworldgroup.com and maya@flatworldgroup.com. For more on Flatworld Group, click here.

In the previous decades, if you had a business idea and dreamt of turning your product into a household name, you didn’t have a lot of options if you didn’t have connections in the industry. Due to this, the most viable option was to collaborate with the prominent resellers in your industry. If you have a product that revolutionized the home, you’d have to reach out to retail giants like Home Depot or Lowes. These resellers played the role of gatekeepers, crushing the aspirations of numerous emerging businesses. Moreover, even after receiving purchase orders from buyers, brands had limited authority over the sales process and seldom gained access to valuable customer data. The good news - my how things have changed! The emergence of ecommerce and digital marketing platforms has revolutionized the way businesses connect with their customers. By bypassing resellers, companies can now establish direct relationships with their target audience. This shift has given rise to a new form of marketing known as Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) marketing, enabling brands to effectively engage and interact with their customer base. We’ve discussed direct response marketing in-depth on the website, today we’re going to give you the full rundown on DTC marketing - let’s get going. What Is DTC Marketing? DTC marketing, short for "direct-to-consumer marketing," encompasses the strategies employed by businesses to sell products directly to customers, bypassing middlemen such as department stores and third-party online retailers. This approach includes leveraging social media, email marketing, influencer collaborations, and establishing a retail presence. By adopting these tactics, businesses can establish a direct connection with their target audience, fostering brand loyalty and maximizing sales potential. Drawing a comparison between DTC marketing and a more traditional approach like B2C marketing can provide valuable insights. B2C marketing, short for "business-to-consumer marketing," involves resellers promoting products from their vendors directly to customers. In a B2C business model, brands sell their products through third-party resellers, who are also responsible for promoting these products. Conversely, in DTC marketing, brands directly engage with customers and have access to valuable customer data. This direct approach allows brands to optimize their marketing strategies and enhance customer relationships. DTC Marketing Strategies The most successful direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands adopt an omnichannel marketing approach: one that is implemented across multiple channels, encompassing offline marketing, social media, mobile, and more. It is advisable to incorporate as many of these marketing tactics as possible to maximize effectiveness and reach. Retail Stores Many direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands begin their journey by selling their products online. Once they have established a dedicated customer base, it becomes a natural progression to consider opening a retail store. This step allows them to forge deeper connections with their customers and attract new enthusiasts. Retail stores serve as a powerful DTC strategy, exposing the brand to potential customers who may not have encountered it otherwise. By strategically positioning your brand, you can capture the attention of passersby and create opportunities for growth. To determine the ideal location for your inaugural store, analyze the customer concentration data on your ecommerce platform. Once you've identified the areas with the highest customer base, explore the availability of commercial spaces there. For more insights, you can refer to this informative article on choosing the right retail space. Social Media Consistently posting on social media is a top strategy to keep your brand at the forefront of customers' minds. There's a lot of popular social platforms you can use, Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok, and others. Social media is a great tool for engaging with customers. From Facebook groups to Instagram Stories’ polls and Q&A features, social media can give you the tools and audience access to see success. For the majority of you reading this, you can find your target audience via social media. If not, no worry, there's several DTC marketing strategies in this list you can use instead. When we broke down mobile marketing, we discussed that over 4 out 5 consumers now have a mobile phone. We carry our smartphone everywhere we go, when you can reach your target audience via social media on mobile, the results can be life changing. Email Marketing We're big fans of email marketing. While some influencers continue to claim email is dead, we know email is going to be big in 2024 and beyond. While social media has a place in DTC marketing, email marketing will likely be your most important DTC strategy. This is because email doesn’t rely on algorithms that limit who and when messages are seen. With email marketing, you have full control when users receive content, that's a powerful difference maker. It allows you to send regular updates to your general audience and send targeted messages to specific segments of your email list. For instance, if you offer 30-day provisions of pet food, consider sending timely reorder reminders to customers who are about to run out within a week. Many email marketing platforms can automate this reminder process for your convenience. Advertising In addition to implementing organic direct-to-consumer marketing strategies, it is also beneficial to allocate resources towards paid advertising. Utilize data from your point of sale (POS) and ecommerce platform to gain insights into your customers' media preferences. This information will enable you to identify suitable advertising opportunities and tailor your approach accordingly. For instance, suppose your customers dedicate two hours daily to scrolling through Instagram. In that case, it would be wise to allocate resources towards social media ads using Facebook's Ads Manager (which conveniently allows you to set up ads for both Facebook and Instagram). Alternatively, if your target audience tunes into political radio programs, you might consider producing audio commercials and sponsoring relevant podcasts or live shows. Challenges of DTC marketing Promoting a direct-to-consumer brand can be a fulfilling pursuit, yet it is not without its fair share of challenges. Before delving into the realm of DTC marketing, it is crucial to carefully contemplate and address these obstacles. Investment Problem: When promoting a DTC brand, it's crucial to establish brand awareness from the ground up, as you don't have the advantage of being associated with a well-known department store or retailer to begin with. This is one of the biggest challenges you’re going to face. Solutions: To overcome this, there are several effective strategies you should consider using here. One option is to explore crowdfunding and collaborate with investors to secure the necessary funds for marketing investments. Alternatively, you can unleash your creativity and tap into low-cost guerrilla marketing ideas. By adopting these approaches, you can navigate the obstacle with ingenuity and resourcefulness while achieving your desired outcomes. Branding Problem: Since you don't have resellers to depend on, the responsibility of spreading the word about your brand falls on your internal team and resources. It is crucial to educate customers about your products and effectively communicate their value to ensure customer loyalty. Solution: To effectively address the risk associated with DTC marketing, it is crucial to adopt an omnichannel approach. Embrace and implement all available DTC strategies, and then optimize your approach based on the ROI observed from each channel. By doing so, you can ensure a comprehensive and efficient marketing strategy while retaining the original meaning. Vulnerable to imitation Problem: If a well-established reseller becomes aware of the success of your products, it can be alarmingly simple for them to imitate and ultimately push you out of the market. After all, they already possess brand recognition and financial resources to replicate your efforts. Solutions: To outshine the competition, strive to surpass their standards. Focus on enhancing the quality of your products and cultivating a brand that fosters unwavering customer loyalty. Additionally, safeguard your business against imitation by securing patents. The Future of Direct-to-Consumer Marketing Thanks to the advancements in ecommerce technology and digital marketing platforms, businesses now have the opportunity to directly target customers, eliminating the need for intermediaries. This direct connection empowers brands to gather valuable customer data and provide them with more personalized experiences. As a result, direct-to-consumer (DTC) marketing will continue to prioritize a customer-centric approach, ensuring long-term success in the ever-evolving marketplace. It is predicted that direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands, already having independent reputations apart from third-party retailers, will incorporate resellers into their marketing strategies. A notable example is the partnership between DTC sustainable fashion brand Reformation and Anthropologie. Reformation's clothing will now be available in Anthropologie's stores and on their website. DTC brands are entering the traditional retail landscape on their own terms, having already established themselves as household names. How To Build Success Direct-To-Consumer Marketing Campaigns Direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands heavily rely on the power of marketing, more so than traditional brands. In particular, establishing a strong presence at the top-of-the-funnel is vital for launching their products successfully. Once they achieve this, they can sustain continuous growth. In this section, we explore (5) proven tactics employed by leading DTC brands to maximize the impact of their marketing efforts. 1. Collecting And Analyzing Market Data If you want to consistently improve your DTC and marketing campaigns, you need the ability to collect and analyze data. For direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands, understanding their customers is vital to your success. Unlike other consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands, DTC brands need to establish intimate connections with their customers. To achieve this, it is imperative to gather and analyze high-quality customer data whenever feasible. By doing so, DTC brands can enhance their understanding of their customers and optimize their strategies accordingly. As the ability to use cookies continues to disappear, DTC brands must be willing to establish meaningful connections with digital marketing platforms and media vendors to collect as much data as possible from their marketing efforts. Although this data may be aggregated and lack specific consumer information, certain marketing performance measurement solutions can transform this generalized data into more precise insights. By doing so, you can gain a deeper understanding of your customers while utilizing less data. Make sure you give your customers an opportunity to share their experiences, creating these feedback loops is essential to the growth of your company. This data is just as valuable as data collected via cookies. In fact, they’re more personal and the data is often more accurate. A simple Facebook group would give customers a stage to voice. 2. Building The Identity Of Your Brand Direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands cannot rely solely on enticing prices at retail stores to introduce customers to their products. After all, that goes against the very essence of being a true DTC brand! Likewise, simply listing items for sale online and relying solely on pricing strategies is not enough to attract customers. In an era where countless online sellers come and go, consumers are skeptical of products that can only be found on the internet. To earn their trust, a strong brand presence is crucial. Therefore, it is crucial to establish a robust identity that enables customers to immediately connect your products with positivity. Additionally, ensure that this strong brand identity permeates across all channels where you maintain a presence. By doing so, customers will be able to easily recognize and trust your products at a mere glance. 3. Leverage The Power Of Social Media Social media is an incredibly potent tool, particularly for expanding and amplifying awareness of your brand. Your social media page serves as a curated space, allowing you to share captivating information about your products and reach a vast audience simultaneously. It also offers an opportunity for direct interaction with consumers, which is especially crucial for DTC brands that rarely, if ever, have face-to-face encounters with their customers. This direct engagement can provide valuable suggestions for improving existing products or inspiring compelling ideas for new ones. Moreover, when a customer shares one of your brand's posts, it serves as an implicit endorsement, further strengthening your brand's reputation. 4. Follow-Up And Email Marketing Direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands often heavily depend on digital channels. However, it's important to note that many of these channels operate as "walled gardens." This implies that you don't have the ability to independently verify the accuracy of your data, there's limited granularity, and ultimately, you're at the platform's mercy when it comes to distributing your message. Direct-to-consumer (DTC) marketers have the advantage of full control when it comes to email marketing. By having a customer's email address, you can establish direct communication and gather detailed insights into their engagement with your outreach efforts. This valuable data can then be utilized in your marketing performance measurement platform to drive future campaigns, regardless of the channels your customers prefer. 5. Personal Shopping Experiences Matter Personalization plays a crucial role in enabling DTC brands to establish stronger connections with customers. By finely curating products and messaging to meet individual customer needs, DTC brands can thrive in the digital-first landscape. In an online environment where competition is fierce, personalization is not just an option but a necessity. It empowers brands to stand out, making their products the obvious choice for customers. DTC brands must have accurate data and analytics in order to achieve their goals. However, the impending cookieless future poses a challenge as granular and precise data becomes scarce. This obstacle hampers the potential for personalized marketing. Fortunately, with a robust marketing performance measurement solution that offers disaggregation capabilities, you can ensure that relevant messaging reaches everyone, even in the absence of precise data. Successful DTC Marketing Companies During the period from early 2000 to 2010, a wave of emerging companies began harnessing the vast potential of the Internet. Pioneering brands such as Warby Parker, Bonobos, and Everlane embraced this opportunity by establishing their digital e-commerce stores. Through strategic promotion on social media platforms, they successfully acquired customers and directly engaged in selling their products. Direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands are often synonymous with millennial shoppers. These consumers prioritize their experience and gravitate towards brands they perceive as dependable and trustworthy. Modern DTC practices include sending personalized emails, utilizing distinctive Instagrammable packaging, and delivering exceptional customer service. By embracing these strategies, DTC brands can effectively connect with their target audience and cultivate lasting relationships. If you're eager to discover the direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands that are poised to make waves this year, then look no further. Here is a carefully curated selection of DTC brands that deserve your attention. Keep these brands on your radar and stay ahead of the game! 1. Smile Club Direct Year founded: 2014 Location: Nashville, Tennessee Smile Direct Club is a direct-to-consumer brand that offers teeth aligners and whiteners. The process entails customers either requesting a kit or visiting their SmileShops to have their teeth scanned. Expert orthodontists and dentists carefully assess if the client qualifies for aligners. Those who are eligible receive a personalized treatment plan that includes regular check-ins, aligners, and assessments throughout the duration of their treatment. 2. Allbirds Year founded: 2014 Location: San Francisco, California Allbirds has gained recognition for its exquisite line of Merino wool products. It all began with groundbreaking Merino wool footwear, and the brand has since diversified its offerings. By prioritizing eco-friendly products, the company not only produces distinctive items but also provides a sustainable solution that aligns perfectly with its core values. 3. Stitchfix Year founded: 2011 Location: San Francisco, California Stitch Fix has revolutionized the clothing shopping industry by offering consumers a convenient alternative to the traditional shopping experience. With their curated sets of clothing, known as "fixes," customers no longer have to endure the hassle of browsing through numerous items. By taking a style quiz and providing feedback on their preferences, clients receive a personalized clothing box filled with garments that are both stylish and practical. This innovative approach ensures that customers receive a tailored selection of clothing that perfectly suits their needs and preferences. Want to Join a Thriving Community of E-commerce Entrepreneurs? If you want to learn more about being successful in e-commerce and want to rub shoulders with some of the most successful entrepreneurs on the planet, make sure to join PDMI. You can become a member here.