So, You Wanna Grow?
Ecommerce brands are exploding in growth. Not only is it more convenient for customers to shop online, brands are also finding it much easier to serve larger amounts of products and have them delivered directly to customers without the need of wholesalers or retailers. The category direct-to-consumer is not only here to stay, but it might be required for brands to survive.
Sustaining growth as a DTC brand requires precision and creativity. Leveraging different tools and insights living across data is the key. To help you navigate the overwhelming waters, we’ve compiled popular growth tactics used by some of our fastest-growing clients to share with you.
Here’s your list of 25 essential DTC grow hacks:
DTC Growth Hack #1
Figure out which products are purchased together, then target the people who have only purchased one promoting the second with a discount.
DTC Growth Hack #2
Segment customers based on their behavior and speak to them directly with only relevant information such as product pages that compliment pages they’ve visited.
DTC Growth Hack #3
Optimize Facebook ads at the campaign level and make sure you exclude audiences you’re targeting in other ad sets to avoid bidding against yourself.
DTC Growth Hack #4
Create campaigns that promote your most popular blog posts to look alike audiences who haven’t visited your website, then retarget that traffic with more content and product CTAs.
DTC Growth Hack #5
Use UTMs to segment retargeting performance from prospecting. Add “rt” for retargeting or “pr” for prospecting in your UTMs.
DTC Growth Hack #6
Use Auto Tagging in Google Ads and Bing Ads as well as dynamic UTMs on Facebook. Just remember to properly name your campaigns, ad sets, and ads to analyze later.
DTC Growth Hack #7
Invest in platforms like Klaviyo or Heap that enable you to understand customer behavior better than just GA.
DTC Growth Hack #8
Take the time to properly set up, test, and configure your Tag Manager and Analytics platforms.
DTC Growth Hack #9
Tripple check that your conversions fire correctly. Utilize Google Tag Manager to troubleshoot or hire the right person to set this up.
DTC Growth Hack #10
Despite having advertising success in platforms like Google Ads or Facebook Ads, take 10-20% of your budget and run tests on other platforms like TikTok, Reddit, or Pinterest.
DTC Growth Hack #11
Pay close attention to the performance of media types. Video might perform better than Images which will make the investment in new video content worth it.
DTC Growth Hack #12
Go to your competitor’s Facebook pages and see which ads they are running to get inspired. You can also use tools like Ahrefs or SimilarWeb to see paid search or display ads they run.
DTC Growth Hack #13
Don’t follow the guidance from Facebook or Google account managers blindly. Trust your guts and your data.
DTC Growth Hack #14
Some of the best insights and growth hacks you’ll find come from communities. Get involved and share notes with others.
DTC Growth Hack #15
The more specific and relevant your message is, the better it will perform. Pair that with solving a specific pain point and AB test how they perform.
DTC Growth Hack #16
Collaborations and influencers are a lot of work but well worth the investment if you put the time into these mediums.
DTC Growth Hack #17
Figure out how you want to measure “Attention” at all stages of your sales funnel. Map which metrics you associate with “attention” all the way through loyalty.
DTC Growth Hack #18
Set up a measurement strategy. Learn how to prioritize metrics and how there are leading indicators of success to any KPI.
DTC Growth Hack #19
Remember that not every medium or source is equal. Display ads may not convert as well as Search ads but that doesn’t mean they can’t play a role in your marketing mix.
DTC Growth Hack #20
Create checklists to make sure every campaign you set up is properly done and researched.
DTC Growth Hack #21
When learning new platforms, watch recent YouTube tutorials. Platform documentations have to be thorough and therefore aren’t always practical ways to learn.
DTC Growth Hack #22
Creative makes the difference. Simple and memorable images work better than complex ones, even if they are better designed.
DTC Growth Hack #23
Measure ad engagement and website behavior such as Session Duration or Bounce Rate from specific ads to make sure that the traffic you drive is relevant.
DTC Growth Hack #24
Invest in creating page or product-specific pop-ups to increase email collection rate.
DTC Growth Hack #25
Utilize micro and macro conversions to measure success, e.g., the number of people who use your chatbot (micro) vs. the number of people who complete a purchase (macro).
