What Is Direct to Consumer Marketing? + How Content & Inbound Marketing Fits In
What Is Direct to Consumer Marketing? + How Content & Inbound Marketing Fits In by Julia McCoy | Jul 28, 2020 | Content Marketing Your business can lose a ton of money if you stick to your traditional B2C campaign. This is because consumers have radically evolved in the last decade. Here’s proof: Foot traffic to retail stores has declined, causing an avalanche of store closures. Millennials are the largest adult generation to date, and their habits include ignoring paid ads, using ad blockers, and resisting outbound marketing practices. Millennials value experience over material things, making traditional marketing strategies fall flat with them. So, what can you do to save your business? Well, it’s simple. All you need to do is adapt to the way consumers want to connect to brands today. It boils down to four words: direct to consumer marketing. In today’s blog, I’ll show you exactly what it means, why you should do it, and how you can start up your own successful (but not costly) D2C campaign. Ready to start? Let’s dive in! [bctt tweet=”Scary fact: Your business can lose a ton of money if you stick to a traditional B2C campaign. ? Why? Consumers’ buying habits have radically evolved in the last decade. The antidote? ? Direct to consumer marketing. Learn all about it:” username=”ExpWriters”] What is Direct to Consumer Marketing? Direct to consumer marketing is simply marketing done without middlemen. While a traditional B2C campaign involves a retailer, an ad agency, a publisher, and other middlemen, a D2C marketing campaign involves only the brand and the buyer. Here’s how HubSpot defines the term.[bctt tweet=”What is direct to consumer marketing? Marketing done without middlemen. It’s just the brand and the buyer. ?” username=”ExpWriters”] So, let’s imagine you’re selling shoes. Here are two scenarios for your marketing campaign. Traditional B2C Campaign: You sell your shoes at a retailer like Walmart, paying for ads to get your brand in front of potential customers. Buyers walk into the store and interact with your brand through salespeople not connected with your company. You have no way of knowing if buyers are happy with your product. Direct to Consumer Marketing Campaign: You sell your shoes straight to customers through your online store. If they have questions, they can ask you directly. They order and you send your product straight to their doorstep. You get feedback and suggestions to improve your brand and better fit it to your target audience. Direct to consumer marketing is minimalist, simple, and involves nurturing personal relationships with customers. 3 Reasons Why You Should Commit to Direct to Consumer Marketing Thinking of starting a direct to consumer marketing campaign? Here are three big advantages to convince you to begin right away. Advantage #1: You Can Deliver a Personalized Message to Potential Consumers Direct to consumer marketing allows you to collect data straight from your consumers. Because you know your audience well, you can craft a brand message that speaks straight to them. And this works. In fact, 34% of all consumers make an unplanned purchase when they read personalized content from a brand. What’s more, 86% of all buyers say personalization has an impact on their purchasing decision. Advantage #2: You Can Give Consumers the Option of Personalizing Your Product For instance, consumers can request specialized print or packaging. You can add in freebies based on your knowledge of a particular buyer. A great example of personalization is The New York Time’s NYT Cooking subscription.Source: nytimes.com Subscribers to NYT Cooking get their own personalized digital cookbook. They can use it to discover, save, and organize recipes they love on the platform. Advantage #3: You Can Get Rid of the Profit Share This is obvious when you’re selling your products at a huge conglomerate like Walmart. But even if you sell your products online, a middleman like Amazon still lowers your profit share. A professional account on the platform plus fees add up to as much as 15% of your product’s price. On the other hand, direct to consumer marketing allows you to eliminate the middleman and gain all the profit. You can even beat out your competition by offering your products at lower prices. How to Start Up a Direct to Consumer Marketing Campaign that Works A powerful direct to consumer marketing campaign won’t sprout up overnight. It requires hard work, consistency, and the valuable tips below. 1. Find Your Brand Voice Branding is essential in direct to consumer marketing. This is because your brand comes in direct contact with your consumers. So, you need to be clear about who your audience is, your mission, and your brand style. A. Create Buyer Personas The first step in molding your brand voice is knowing who your audience is. Only by understanding their needs, desires, and beliefs will you be able to truly reach them with your product. So, how do you create buyer personas that work? First, collect data on your buyers. You can do this by using Google Analytics and doing surveys. Find out who’s buying from you. Then, find similarities in the data. You can use these similarities to come up with fictional characters your brand speaks directly to in a marketing campaign. For instance, you find out most of your buyers are women over 40. They’re stay-at-home moms who don’t feel guilty about spending money for their kids. Use this information to create your buyer persona. For example, you can call your 40-year-old stay-at-home mom Mildred. She loves splurging on her kids, but she’s worried they’ll end up spoiled. Create your message around Mildred’s needs and beliefs. Whenever you sit down to create or improve a product, write content, or start a marketing campaign, do it to improve Mildred’s life. B. Put Your Mission Statement Out Front and Center What is your brand’s mission? How does it stand out from your competitors? How can your brand serve your consumers? Write the answers to these questions down, then use the information to create a tagline consumers can’t resist. Here’s an excellent example from Mailchimp. C. Come Up with a Brand Style Guide Your brand style guide will keep you consistent as you market straight … Read more
