India is one of the biggest markets for retail manufacturers. The market is expected to grow to US $1.7 trillion in the next 2 to 3 years.
Consumers expect brands to woo them with their offerings and services. In an era where having an app or website no longer guarantees a steady online business, D2C, i.e., Direct to Consumer brands, need help to keep their brands afloat due to the cutthroat competition in the retail sector.
D2C brands must rely heavily on marketing strategies to manage their business effectively. Increased brand visibility translates to higher organic traffic and increased sales and profit. However, brand visibility cannot be achieved in one post or day.
It requires a strong presence on social media channels and other marketing tactics that increase brand awareness and promote direct-to-consumer products.
D2C startups have to compete with e-commerce websites that are highly popular among the masses and well-known D2C brands that have the advantage of loyal customers. Due to the heavy influx of brands in direct sales, there is stiff competition in the market. Therefore, it is no longer easy to attract customer attention.
Most D2C brands are shifting from traditional marketing to newer strategies focusing on providing end users with quality content and insights.
Brands focusing on increasing their engagement rate can enhance their revenue through upsell and cross-sell strategies.
A recent study on customer engagement conducted by Ray Wang of Constellation Research has shown that brands that increase their engagement rate have enhanced their cross-sell and up-sell revenue by 22% and 38%, respectively. Similarly, improved engagement has helped them to enhance their order size by 80%.
Influencer marketing can play a pivotal role in improving the engagement rate. D2C brands without a massive reach can collaborate with influencers with more significant social media followings.
Startups can achieve breakthrough success in this industry by connecting with the right influencers with access to their target audience.
Some tips to D2C brands that can improve their brand visibility
D2C brands have relied on traditional SEO methods to improve their brand visibility. While SEO is important, it is only some things for a D2C business. D2C companies have to employ other strategies to enhance brand visibility after identifying the right customers for their products, using the latest technologies and sophisticated tools. Here are some tips that D2C brands can employ to make their brands visible:
1. Use influencer marketing be used to increase brand visibility
Influencer marketing is when a brand tries to promote its products/services through social media influencers. Influencers are mainly of two types, i.e., mega-influencers and micro-influencers. Mega-influencers are celebrities and social media influencers with a massive following on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and other social media channels. Micro-influencers have a small following, but they have a specific audience that listens to their recommendations and suggestions.
Browsing different types of influencers beneficial to certain types of D2C businesses is possible via an influencer marketing platform.
There are influencers in different categories in the market, such as food and travel, fashion, cosmetics, health, sports, fitness, and many other niches. Brands can build their online presence by collaborating with influencers that produce content related to their offerings.
They can search for influencers connected with the audience of specific age groups and interests. Here are the other benefits of engaging with influencers:
2. Gaining credibility
People trust recommendations from someone not linked directly to the brand they are advocating. Influencers thoroughly try and review products after experiencing their benefits and features.
Their reviews are relatable to an audience. Therefore, direct-to-consumer brands can collaborate with influencers and improve their credibility. The influencers can promote the products/services without pitching them directly. It also improves brand awareness and recognition.
For example, suppose social media users revere an influencer for their knowledge of technology. In that case, D2C brands that sell digital tools and equipment can tie up with him to promote their offerings.
It will not only develop a higher recognition for that brand but may also lead to improved organic traffic and conversion rate.
3. Wide acceptability of social media reviews
Many people research a particular product on YouTube or Instagram before purchasing. It helps them understand their features and specifications better. Most of them turn towards the content generated by well-known social media influencers.
Therefore, D2C brands in India look forward to working with the top influencers on these channels to build brand visibility and boost sales.
4. Engaging content to attract the audience
Providing engaging content to the audience is one way of diverting their attention from the competitors. D2C brands can’t curate and publish content 24/7 through their website, social media pages, and blogs.
They also need support from external agencies to fine-tune their content marketing strategies. Apart from traditional SEO and marketing tactics, they can also subscribe to an influencer marketing platform to provide engaging and informative content to their audiences.
5. Leveraging data and technology
D2C businesses are capable of delivering a personalized experience to customers. They can focus on leveraging data and technology to build customer awareness. For example, social analytical tools can be utilized to find the exact requirements of a specific audience niche. While implementing the marketing strategies, the D2C brands can focus on these requirements and try to win over the audience.
Upon discovering the customer expectations and needs through social listening tools, the brands can utilize the reach and hold of influencers over their audiences to promote their offerings.
6. Employing email marketing
To sustain brand visibility, companies can utilize email marketing to maintain the interest level of their subscribers. For example, a simple email with information about a brand’s latest offerings can help businesses bring their existing customers back to their websites.
Bulk emails can also be sent from the influencer’s end to convey details of their influencer marketing campaigns or content to their respective audience.
7. Focusing on growth enablers
D2C brands need to focus on some key growth enablers that can improve their brand visibility. For instance, CLV (Customer Lifetime Value) is the customer-generated value throughout their lifetime.
It is a growth enabler that needs to be analyzed for retaining old customers and returning them for future purchases. Email marketing, promotional campaigns, and influencer marketing can help brands to generate a higher CLV from each customer.
CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) is another indicator showing how much a brand has spent acquiring new customers. It enables D2C companies to determine the profits they need to earn to sustain the business long-term. Influencer marketing is one of the easiest ways of finding new customers without investing much. D2C businesses can spend less time researching influencers as they can be easily found via an influencer marketing platform. Influencer marketing also helps companies to improve their organic reach.
8. Investing in SEO Smartly
Many users search for a product on the internet before making a purchase. Therefore, ranking high on search engines is crucial for maintaining brand visibility. The website’s ranking can be improved by optimizing the meta description, title, and excerpt with relevant keywords.
The website can be polished to make it function smoothly and look sleeker. The website must be responsive on both web and mobile browsers to maintain search engine rankings. By infusing primary and secondary keywords, D2C brands can make their direct-to-consumer products climb higher on related keyword searches.
Influencers who specialize in blogs can be contacted to help brands redefine their marketing strategies. The brands can place their website links in the blogs, videos, and other content that rank higher in the Google search engine results.
Conclusion
Every marketing strategy should be data-centric to make a D2C business thrive. Social listening and analytical tools can help companies to shape their marketing and business decisions.
However, to sustain visibility and bring organic traffic to the website, the brands need to adopt more brilliant tactics like influencer marketing. An influencer marketing platform that provides access to thousands of influencers in real-time, along with the options required to connect and collaborate with them, is the need of the hour.
A powerful influencer platform not only helps D2C brands to reach out to the influencers but also helps them create fantastic content strategies. Moreover, the brands should be able to monitor the performance of the campaigns and develop a connected influencer ecosystem to thrive in the D2C market.
Finally, the brands should focus on building credibility by providing informative and valuable content through blogs and social media influencers. This will help them sustain the brand visibility while reaching out to newer audiences.
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