The future of retail and marketing techniques that encourage purchases is personal and direct. This is the goal of the direct-to-consumer (D2C for short) approach, in which the customer journey is closely aligned with the interests and possibilities of the end customer. Instead of relying on a fixed sales and advertising channel, D2C picks up customers where they are online. This allows you to use direct customer contact and expand your sales options.
When consumers interact with a brand, they now expect personalized advice and products that are tailored to their needs. Retailers who offer personalized goods benefit from this in particular. This could be a personalized muesli, a printable T-shirt or a combinable bookshelf. However, classic products can also be offered in such a way that the personal sales level is mirrored online.
In order to achieve this effect, the customer journey should be precisely tailored to an automatically recognized target group, allow a personal approach and offer tangible benefits. Faster shipping, exclusive discounts and easy-to-use customer accounts are part of this preferential treatment.
D2C initially means that customers buy directly from the company that produces the desired item or distributes it at the first sales level. This can be done via subscriptions, online stores or ads with a direct purchase option. On the one hand, this type of distribution increases the profit margin for manufacturers, while on the other hand it creates a personal level. In return, customers expect personalized offers and direct customer service, which they do not receive via platforms and resellers.
The use of affiliate programs, social media and cookie trackers is essential for the development of direct sales channels.
The most important lesson for companies that want to build on D2C sales is that customers don't come to you. Marketing and product must come to the target group and in real time. The first step is therefore to know who is interested in your products and where this target group is located. Where traditional market research used to be necessary to limit wastage, today ad campaigns, for example via the market leader Google, achieve precise results.
To address the right target group with your campaigns, you can place contextualized ads or strengthen your SEA profile. Both methods, whether via Facebook, Google or other advertising networks, generate statistics. From the results, you can see, for example, which interests your customers associate with your product. For example, someone who is interested in gardening may also be interested in building accessories, green energy technology, pets, books and travel.
In order to conduct personalized marketing and adapt the customer journey to individual customers in real time, it is not you as the decision-maker, but the respective algorithm of the advertising platform that needs to know the customers. When selecting advertising platforms, however, it makes sense to create customer personas from the statistics collected, which outline a profile of the typical customer. For example, do they tend to respond to young, direct campaigns or do they want to be addressed as well-informed and serious? Should the product be presented as new and innovative or rather sustainable and environmentally friendly?
After deciding on a platform and a basic marketing direction, you can rely on the algorithms. On Instagram, for example, they recognize what kind of photos and videos users like to look at and which ads they scroll through more quickly. Your commercial on YouTube will only be shown to customers who have already shown an interest in topics similar to those you have specified.
On Google, you can define and exclude search terms, which are then used to position the ads.
The D2C method requires a more comprehensive concept for the actual digital sales advice than traditional sales via various channels. Once customers have heard about your offers, they want to be addressed via informative content, podcasts, active social media profiles and mailings. The goal is strong customer loyalty that creates trust in your brand and binds customers to a product in the long term. This also allows you to generate personal recommendations and reach.
The customer journey therefore begins with exact targeting via the target group, interests and similar content and leads to lasting customer loyalty via an initial sale. This requires the right approach, interactions, product selection, quality and price. With subscription offers, such as those for razor blades, coffee, tea, confectionery, underwear or food, delivery management is also crucial. Your customers must enjoy the good feeling of being able to decide for themselves at any time whether they want to continue purchasing the product.
Your product can also be linked to an advertising partner. For example, many manufacturers have been working closely with influencers for years, who generate the majority of sales as affiliate partners or via direct ads. As there is no need for additional distribution, the influencer becomes a kind of face of the brand, a position that used to be expensively filled for individual campaigns. Customers trust the influencer and therefore also the company.
At Thorit, we specialize in target group-oriented marketing that reaches your customers where they really are. Rely on dynamic marketing channels and content that really convinces.
We will be happy to advise you on your options and work with your team to develop a marketing strategy for personalized D2C marketing.