Want to grow your D2C brand? Here is the playbook that can help you build and accelerate your revenues online.

1. BS CONSULT
DTC
BRAND
PLAYBOOK
DirecttoConsumer

2. Before we set out to
acquire customers and
add scale to our marketing
efforts, here are a bunch
of things that we must
ensure having in place.
DirecttoConsumer
FIRST - GET
THINGS IN
ORDER

3. DirecttoConsumer
01
BRAND
STRATEGY
It is important to get your brand strategy in place.
This is the bedrock of how your products are going
to resonate with your customers and eventually
drive sales.
This will lead to extremely good ROAS in the due
course of time. If you are able to generate
awareness and consideration through tectical
messaging then it is only going to add on to your
overall ROI metrics.

4. DirecttoConsumer
02
PRODUCT
PAGE
This is where all the action happens.
Get the "buy now" and "add to cart" buttons on top
of the fold. Indicate price advantages clearly.
Indicate loyalty pts. cash backs whereever possible.
How is the mobile experience? Are the buttons big
enough to be clicked by thumb? Is the product
shareable? Many people share the product link
before they buy things - make sure the headers and
titles are perfect when someone shares over
Whatsapp + social channels. Do the product pages
have reviews, ratings, testimonials?

5. DirecttoConsumer
03
CUSTOMER
SERVICE
People will always have queries during their
purchase journey, especially when you are a new
D2C brand. Make it easy for them to ask for help.
Deploy a live chat bot - Tidio, Verloop, Haptik etc.
works well. Make sure the FAQs section is updated.
Invest in a WhatsApp business account infra.
Please mention working hours so customers can
reach in times when they can have a quick
redressal.

6. DirecttoConsumer
04
COD
PRODUCTS
This is a very debatable point. But remove COD for
your lower order products just for the fact that is
works well. Incentivise customers to pay upfront by
giving something. A simple way could be sending
email to a customer who has just placed a COD
order and offer a discount if they prepay that order
before it is dispatched. This discount will be offset
by lower RTO (return to origin) costs.

7. 05
AVERAGE
ORDER
VALUE
DirecttoConsumer
Focus on increasing your AOV (average order
value) through product bumdles, combo value
packs and subscription packs. Increasing AOV
means increasing ROI. The cohort delivering higher
AOV can then be used to cross-sell your lower
order products.

8. DirecttoConsumer
06
DROP
OFFS
In order to increase conversions find points of
friction, mostly where the customer drops out of
the buying journey. Check heatmaps to find the
pages where these drop offs happen between
homepage till the checkout. Use abandoned cart
automation to get back customers who have exited
at the last point before making a purchase.

9. DirecttoConsumer
07
RETENTION
BASE
1 out of your 4 customers coming back M-O-M is a
far better strategy rather then acquiring 20% new
customers every month. Optimize your retention
marketing efforts to cross-sell, up-sell and figure
out the campaign that are giving you the best
ROAS. Check the cohorts that are converting every
month and see where you can optimize.

10. Once you have things
pretty much in order and
have started on your D2C
journey here are some
optimization basics to
start uplifting the
experience of your
customers
DirecttoConsumer
OPTIMIZATION
BASICS

11. PAGE/ APP
LOAD TIME
DirecttoCustomer
01
You will need to optimize your images, server and cache. Make sure
your site is optimized specifically for mobile + tablet views - as most
of the traffic will be from mobile devices. Use AMP (accelerated
mobile pages) if required as this will also help in your paid search
campaigns. 57% of people leave a page that takes longer
than three seconds to load, you have an enormous opportunity to
increase website traffic just by increasing site speed. People are
impatient, and with the rise of micro-moments, they want
everything INSTANTLY.

12. BUTTONS &
CTAs
DirecttoCustomer
02
This is critical. Check for all the action buttons. Make sure CTAs are
above the fold. Ensure that buttons are buttons and not lost in
translation especially on the mobile. Also optimize the design for
dark mode. Use social button forms which people are already used
to on Facebook and Instagram. This adds a lot of familiarity to the
customer and it ends up improving your CTRs and ROAS.

13. ABOVE THE
FOLD
DirecttoConsumer
03
Make sure that all the significant buttons and content are there
above the fold. All of DTC brands get it horribly wrong more times
than you think. Here is how it should be:
Title > Description (bullets)> Price Cut (Discount)> Rating (in
stars)> Units> Add to Cart + Buy Now
Depending on the journey that you envisage for your consumer you
can make one button prominent than the other here.

14. CHECKOUT
PROCESS
DirecttoConsumer
04
Make it tough for any consumer to rationalize a buying decision,
which means taking their mind off the price, features & benefits, etc.
The opportunity is in not enabling the brain to rationalize beyond a
point and push enough stimulus that it just rides through pure
emotion. Suggest a set of offer coupons, fast-checkout prompts,
FOMO tickers and cash-back + pay later options to make the deal
sweet. Also a timer for checkout that gives people an extra discount
if they checkout in 20 seconds is a feature worth trying. Ensure that
applying coupons + redemption of loyalty points etc. is easy to do.
Single sign on (SSO) logins also help the cause immensely.

15. KEYWORD
RELEVANCE
DirecttoConsumer
05
While designing the content in landing pages keep in mind that you
will be using paid media and organic media and drive prospective
consumers here. Keyword relevance means that what you say about
your products on your landing pages need to be relevant to your
ads. The better the relevance is the lower is your cost of acquisition
and higher ROAS. Do not use clickbait content, as this will never
take your D2C brand anywhere.

16. POST
PURCHASE
This can make or break a relationship with your customer who has
just placed an order with you on your website rather than a
marketplace. Your order processing backend and logistics provider
have to pass the baton every-time seamlessly without dropping it.
Timely notifications with order tracking delivers real customer
delight and also lowers your RTOs. Make sure your after sales
communication is buzzing, even it comes close to too many
notifications.
DirecttoConsumer
06

17. ORGANIC
EFFORTS
DirecttoConsumer
07
Look beyond your own site for optimization. Of course, get your on-
page sorted, images tags, alt. + meta tags in place, internal links in
order and ensure that you have enough blogs that are indexed - but
super important to also focus on getting videos on YouTube and
articles across the internet through off-page optimization - these
get super well indexed and lead to organic traffic via backlinks if
done well. This increases your domain authority and gives a steady
stream of highly converting consumers consistently.

18. While you are on your way
to using paid media and
driving more acquisitions
and sales, here are bunch
of growth hacks and tools
that will make it easier and
faster.
DirecttoConsumer
GROWTH
HACKING -
MEDIA

19. Before you start your campaigns here are some integration
that will have to be done.
- Integrate google shopping through merchant centre
integration and catalog syncing
- Facebook and Instagram shop through catalog linking
Pixels on your website to run and track ads
- Getting an ad account running on Facebook and Google
linked to a credit card, to begin with, and then moving to a
credit model with a good history
- Get photography and content made that is commerce
friendly
01
SETUP
DirecttoConsumer

20. 02
TARGETING
Sharpen your audience cohorts by using interest, time of
day, geography, gender, engagement, behaviour and usage
of other ecosystems of apps. In-market audiences and
affinity audiences are a great mechanism to reach out to
people who will resonate with your products more than
others. Keep optimizing these combinations to find the best
converting cohorts and those delivering highest ROAS. Also
be mindful that campaign algorithms take time to learn and
you give ample time to every change you make to
understand the effects.
DirecttoConsumer

21. PIXEL AND
CONVERSION
DATA
03
This is one of the most ignored aspect that is missed out by
brand marketers. Pixel and conversion data can be used on
an open audience to find out the next most converting
buyer. You will be surprised by the results that can be
delivered as the platform algorithms learn from the pixel
and conversion data and find out more customers with out
any sharpened targeting. This contradicts our earlier point
but every brand works in a different way and this worth
giving a shot within your growth hacking strategy.
DirecttoConsumer

22. 04
COMMUNICATION
& MESSAGING
Have different messaging for different cohorts. A/B Test
with multivariate ad groups. Try varying combinations of
language + CTA + order of lines. Split audience comms by
gender, time of day etc.
Ads are also a part of your brand identity. Try to experiment
within a certain tone and style, this subsconciously embeds
into your consumer's mind over time. Innovate with the
form and style. Use videos and gifs as they are better
performing format than static banner ads.
DirecttoConsumer

23. 05
NEW PLATFORMS
Always keep a small budget to test and learn. These should
ideally be used to try out new platforms. There are some
really good performing platforms that are new and has less
competition there. Some of them are Tik-Tok, Smytten,
Meesho, Bulbul, Pinterest, etc. Try these out to increase
your reach and ROAS.
DirecttoConsumer

24. 06
CUSTOMER DATA
Slice your customer data into sharper audiences. It doesn't
work with small data sets / redundant (read, old and
abused) cohorts, but if you run an awareness campaign and
get traffic through that - use it to churn LALs (lookalikes)
and remarket it judiciously. Stick to a frequency of 3-4 that
is an ideal repeat number from a frequency<>recency
aspect. Check attributions over 28 days.
DirecttoConsumer

25. 07
EMAIL POWER
Emphasize on growing your subscriber list. This is virtually
a gold mine that will deliver for you time and again. Don't
bulk email your entire audience list. Split it into smaller
subgroups using tags, and send the email in tranches. Most
importantly, don't load it with images and graphics.
Optimise for the mobile screen. Make sure you have your
domain authority sorted before you start doing this
exercise. And yes, do not spam your audience and keep
good intervals across email campaigns.
DirecttoConsumer

26. 08
AUTOMATE
nce you have mapped the user journey, make sure your
communication triggers are in-place and automate emails,
push-notifications and SMS through platforms like
WebEngage, Clevertap etc. This also helps with the
conversion + retention + upsell funnel. However wait for
your brand presence to mature a bit before you start doing
this as this will demand time, effort and money.
DirecttoConsumer

27. WIN THE GAME
DirecttoConsumer
UNIT
ECONOMICS
Net profit per unit
sold
PRICING
Discounts, Combo,
Subscriptions
SPEED
of execution, NPD,
GTM, Logistics, etc.
CUSTOMER
DELIGHT
Enables repeat
buyers
DATA FOCUS
Segment and
custom messaging
CONTENT
Long-term organic,
High ROAS

28. DirecttoConsumer
TECH STACK
SHOPIFY Plug and play ecommerce engine
SHIPROCKET Logistics as a servive
VAMASHIP
MAILCHIMP Emailing & Retention Marketing
KLAVIO
FRESHDESK Customer service
WHATSAPP Live Chat integration, plenty other options on Shopify
Then there are a host of apps for COD (Cash of Delivery) verification, order
verification, SMS updates, Push Notifications etc. that are available as plug
and play services.

29. BS CONSULT
D2C GROWTH AGENCY
www.bsconsult.in
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