By Anne von Loebbecke / April 2023
MARKETING MISTAKES TO AVOID
WHEN BUILDING YOUR DTC BRAND
Starting a new DTC (Direct to Consumer) brand is an exciting yet challenging experience & journey. When you decide to found a new business, you will be faced daily with countless decisions that will impact your the success of your brand & overall business.
A true critical area for a DTC brand to focus from the very beginning is marketing.
in the following, we will look at some common mistakes & biases that founder can tap into when starting a new company, although they are easily avoidable. The outlined should help you to develop your brand faster & better based on others learnings.
#1 Launching your website only once your product is 100% ready
There are multiple reasons why you shouldn’t wait to launch your website until you feel your product is ready for the world to be discovered & seen.
If you launch your website well in advance the product launch, you can start collecting critical data about your products, your potential consumers before even having them ready to be sold. Through analytic tools such as google analytics & insight platforms like Hotjar, comscore, mixpanel you can learn how potential consumers browse your website, how they interacted & engaged with content and which product is most relevant for them.
Even if you don’t have any product inventory yet, you can offer your consumer a pre-order possibility with additional values consumers would care about. The initial consumer data can & will be enormously helpful to drive better decision making processes for your product development team which products to focus on & your marketing team on how to best engage & interact with your consumer alongside the consumer journey to build the best possible experience.
If you don’t be shy to launch your website in a beta version, you are able to collect consumer data such as emails, phone numbers, age & gender even before the official product launch. Those data will help you to start a personal conversation with your consumer - keep them informed about your roadmap, provide engaging content & help them to find their right product once it goes live. Furthermore, everyone who provides you with his or her data, is an early adopter & a first hour community member of your brand.
The earlier you are willing to go live with your website, the sooner analytic platforms are able to crawl your website, essential for your SEO (search engine optimization). the sooner you are able to build your SEO the better, than it takes time for your website to rank on search engines. Most founders believe, once the website & product is launched, everyone will chase it, but reality is different, it seldom happens that way.
#2 Throwing a large launch event
In general a launch event is great when you have a big budget to spend. Even though, a launch event doesn’t guarantee any major success or sales for your brand. An event mostly helps you to drive brand awareness & enables community & consumer rewards.
All the resources you will drain just in one moment in time, could be applied more directly towards expenses & activations that help you find your first loyal consumers. For example you could host targeted product launch events for a new product once you have established an interested brand community base.
The launch of your brand is a great moment to learn. It usually goes less smoothly than you think and challenges come your way, you haven’t thought about ever before and you know what, it’s ok as it’s part of launching a new brand!
For every launch, there are adjustments that must be be bade on the go as you won’t be able to anticipate every single possible scenario.
Often founders are keen on hosting a launch party, because it makes you feel good & creates a feeling of satisfaction & recognition for the hard work that has gone into the brand set up, but putting those resources into a consumer first & consumer centric proposition will add more value to you & your brand in the long run.
#3 Chasing brand perfection from the start
I’m a big believer of brand perfection as it’s the foundation for everything you do - how you express your values, how you use tone, voice & imagery, how to engage with your consumers & how to leave a signature mark.
As a new brand or company, don’t spend too much time on getting your branding perfect from the start, as it’s something that will develop & grow further with you. it’s like a little child that <ou grow, try to shape & influence in a certain way. In the beginning it’s important to have a solid foundation laid out, that gives you enough space to move fast & allows you to start build credibility around your brand. You can & will cont continually improve your branding (to perfection) later. it’s more important to focus o the large items & easy to improve tickets rather than getting lost in the details of perfectionism.
“If you’re not embarrassed by your start up, you launched too late”
Paul Graham, Cofounder of Y Combinator
Rather focus on developing a product market fit & traction first. As long as you have an appealing brand while knowing what you stand for, you’re fine to launch. In the long term, you want to perfect your brand.
Lastly, brand perfection often leads to procrastination. Don’t overthink; just start. Your first consumers will forgive you.
#4 Launching without a target consumer mind
One of the most common mistakes first-time founders make is to state that everyone is is their target audience & everyone needs their products. Just because everyone could use the product doesn’t mean they are your target audience. Riches are in the niches, you need to understand who your audience really is - what drives them, what is their motivation, what do they expect, what’s important, what’s not, which other products they have access to, which products do they use… if you gather as many insights as possible and understand your consumer, it will be a lot easier to communicate, engage & interact with your audience, provide value to them and build relationships.
Often, when starting a brand or business, founders believe they are the target audience when they are not! Just because you & your fellow team members like what you do, it doesn’t mean your consumer will like it too! You need to separate yourself from your consumer, but you need to understand the behaviour of your consumer - that’s what a great marketer does!
A great marketer puts his- or herself always in the shoes of the consumer, constantly wants to engage & learn from the consumer to create the best possible experience & product that serves consumer needs & demand. But don’t believe, that consumers don’t develop further, they are also learning every days, so you need to be agile & flexible to adapt yourself to the consumers to keep up with them. It doesn’t imply that you need to change your brand’s vision, strategy, it means you need to be always willing to learn and get better in serving the consumer & that you reevaluate your target consumer.
#5 Overspending on social media
Most founders assume that social media is the key to success & therefore they spend a disproportionate amount of time on their social media channels. While trying hard to cut through the noise, they struggle to come up with engaging & even more important consumer relevant content every day! Even if you spend most of your time on social, and you might get some instant feedback & reactions, it doesn’t mean you are growing your business. It might feel flattering & rewarding, but your main goal should be to generate sales through your credible product offer, and not only collect likes & shares.
Don’t assign too much of your time on social media, if it doesn’t result in product purchases & growth for your brand. There are many more important marketing channels to focus on, such as SEO, emails, ambassador programs…. that can help you to hit your targets. depending on your target consumer, your product offer & your ultimate goal, the channel mix & choice differs as well as it differs during different periods of year.
Consider your social media as your resume when you launch. A sort of showcase where consumer can discover your product & can check out more if you are relevant for them. leverage the first 6 to 9 images (Instagram) to highlight your USP & product benefits for the consumer as more than 54% (GWI) use social media for product research purposes. Make sure when consumer engage & interact with you, you deliver the best possible experience, journey & content.
SUMMARY
Launching a new business is an exciting process & journey, and yes there not the one size fits all formula. But there are some critical foundational elements that will allow you start your brand or business in a solid way. The beginning will be a phase of trial & error, but you will learn a lot for the future.
Let’s connect, collaborate & create your business & brand together!