The Direct-to-customer (DTC) Checklist for Manufacturers

Do you run a direct-to-customer (DTC) sales pattern in your eCommerce business? Have you considered the various points to be looked into before spending your money on customer acquisition? Make sure you are ready to face all issues that may arise. Here is a D2C consumer checklist you can go through before involving in a business.

Direct-to-customer (DTC) business- The Do’s

1. Marketing Collateral

For keeping Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) under control continuously test new ad copy and all the visuals. Test the user-generated content. What about appealing to a certain lifestyle category? Always try new campaigns with a different brand language and color variations.

2. SEO and SEM

For a new or upcoming business, customer trust is of high importance. Coming in the top ranking list in various search engines will help this purpose. The content should be relatable for them. SEO and SEM are the magic that does the trick. Read more.

3. Utilize Influencers

Influencers are of different kinds. They will have different numbers of followers and cost and credibility. There are influencers who are ready to come for free for a barter system for your product. This can be low cost for you. Their social media post can be shared on your pages too for more customers. Influencers can come as a great help when you are at the initial stage of your business. Customers always depend on reviews from reliable sources. Customers tend to trust the influencers they follow or admire.

4. Contact on Facebook

Once you start spending get connected to ad sales organizations. These are usually available on platforms like Facebook and Google.

5. A Step ahead

You need to move a step ahead of the usual social media marketing after a point. You will have to look for paid strategies. Diversification of marketing is always a required step. You can go for paid podcasts, TV or radio ads, email marketing, brand partnership, etc.

6. Discounts and free trials

Are you giving a large number of discounts and free trials at your initial stage of business? All these will be useful in the very early stage for conversions. But if you do this at a high scale it is going to affect your margin. You will find it difficult to reach the break-even point.

7. Customer service investment

Customer service is a very important stage for all businesses. It would be best if you can invest in your customer service team for a quick response to customer queries. They can also convert negative feedbacks to positive ones by working on it which will help in the long run.

Direct-to-customer (DTC) business – The Don’ts

1. Returned products

Returned products are usual in online business. Always have a strategy to improve customer-centric experiences on the website. You should plan on what you will be doing with the returned products without affecting your sales. You need to decide if it can be resold, reused, or sell at a lower price without keeping customers in a shade.

2. Unhappy Customer

Have you thought about what you will do with an unhappy customer? Always have a pre-plan for such a situation, which is unavoidable in an online business. Your customer service team should be well-trained since you sell directly to the customer. You may approach your unhappy customer with a special discount or an extra product so that you don’t lose your customer.

3. Gifting Program

Most of the direct-to-consumer (DTC) comes from friends of your regular customers or through referrals. Try keeping a gifting program so that your customers can use it for gifting purposes to their friends and family.

4. International Shipping

Most direct-to-consumer (DTC) businesses avoid international sales to avoid the extra shipping expense incurred. But do not hesitate to go for it as it can increase your sales area and income.