The best way to grow sales in 2023
Take control and own your audience
2022 has seen many changes for DTC brands, one is every marketer’s nightmare.
Apple’s iOS updates.
Most brands 2-3x their CAC overnight. With very few users opting in, scaling campaigns on FB and IG is now much more complicated, shifting budgets to retargeting. TikTok, SEO, affiliates, and other channels have now lower CPCs and are taking the role of top-of-funnel generation.
Unfortunately, conversion suffers, and total reach is lower than it used to be with FB.
Why?
You do not own your audience.
Email + WhatsApp marketing are the #1 way to take control
If you want to grow in 2023, direct marketing will help you claim ownership of your audience and give you control over your growth:
It is cheap and fast to operate
It improves your targeting and promotes personalization
It helps you iterate fast, A/B test and measure the results of your actions
It gives you full control over your promotion, your distribution channel, and your audience
I’m going to share the roadmap to implement it. The best part, you are probably 50% there already.
Here's how, step by step:
Step 1: Get the right toolkit
Just like you cannot breathe without lungs, you cannot make money via Email or WhatsApp without the right tools.
Make yourself a favor and invest in your growth. Pay for the right toolset and stop wasting money in channels that do not convert, or time in efforts that go nowhere.
Feel free to do your research. There are cheaper options if you are on a tight budget, but if you are serious about your growth here is my recommendation:
Price combined: from ~400€ / month
Step 2: Setup your CTAs and grow your list
If you are reading this, you already have traffic coming to your site. This is what we call opportunity.
You do not need more traffic, you need to capture it into leads so you can communicate with them better and drive sales.
2 questions you should be asking yourself:
What’s my subscription rate?
What’s my lead conversion rate?
A good pop-up should convert at least 5% of all leads that opt-in.
Keep iterating your CTAs until you get to 10%.
Step 3: Design a customer journey that makes sense
After people opt in, when they click on your WhatsApp message, after they buy… you need to take them somewhere.
You need a Customer Journey.
Imagine asking your boss for a raise right after she hires you, or after 12 months of hard work. You communicate the same, but only after those months she is ready to reciprocate.
Subscribers are the same.
As a brand, you want to communicate. But what your subscribers want from you depends on where they are in their journey.
Be empathetic.
Take this simple diagram as starting point, and modify it for your brand.
What do you want to communicate?
When do you need to communicate it?
Step 4: Prepare your first flows and sequences
Good flows will make your direct marketing generate 30% of your online revenue while you sleep. For free.
10 simple and effective flows you can create on Klaviyo and charles:
Welcome Series
Abandoned Cart
Welcome to our VIP
Referral Scheme flow
Browse Abandonment
You Might Also Like flow
1st Purchase Anniversary
Back in Stock Notification
Customer Birthday Automation
Product Feedback / Review flow
The important thing is to keep in mind where the lead is is in the customer journey you just defined.
What do they need + what problem are you solving for them?
Step 5: Define your customer segments
All customers are not equal, so do not treat them the same.
Segmentation will help you build a more coherent customer journey to activate your leads at the right time, with the right content.
4 segments that everyone should have:
VIP Segment → They buy often, with high AOVs
Activation Segment → Active on site but haven’t bought
X and Up-Selling Segment → Bought within the last 30 days
Over the Edge Segment → Open and click emails but haven’t bought
Segmentation is the key to increasing your conversion, and improving deliverability.
In the case of WhatsApp, it will save you money too.
Step 6: Send good campaigns
Campaigns are the way you keep customers engaged, and extend their LTV. In average, expect a to increase it by 2.5x or more.
Most eCommerce brands are lazy. They send “15% off …” and “Special XX Offer …” over and over. This will work 1 time, but will not get you far.
3 questions you should ask yourself:
Who am I sending the campaign to?
What’s the offer that will make them buy?
How does that offer relate to my strategy?
Get these right, and you will be ahead of 90% of your competitors.
Step 7: Measure, test and iterate
What doesn’t get measured, doesn’t get managed.
Even if you do everything explained before, do not expect long-lasting results unless you are testing, iterating and improving every single part of your strategy. If you are here for the long haul, you need to put in the work.
The good thing is that tools like charles and klaviyo make it very easy.
Use it and see your revenue grow.
Whenever you're ready to grow your DTC brand:
→ Book your 1:1 Strategy Call: We’ll explore your brand needs, and I’ll help you come up with a plan to generate 20-30% of your revenue via Direct Marketing.
Thank you for this very interesting article! Just one question: would you then advise preparing one different Customer Journey for each of the 4 segments you mentioned?