Mpro 
10 Apr 2025 
7 min read 
Brands are fed up with paying retailers and suppliers extra dollars to sell their products. Because what’s the point of paying commission to retailers and suppliers and being unable to strike a personal relationship with customers?
Most of the time, brand messages get lost in the translation, and that’s the case for businesses when they rely on the middlemen. But what if you have a marketing strategy that talks directly to consumers, and forges meaningful connections without causing any friction whatsoever – all of that is possible with Direct To Consumer (DTC) marketing.
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Read ahead to see the interesting insights on DTC marketing and how it helps brands take their growth into their own hands.
What is Direct-to-Consumer Marketing?
Direct-to-consumer (DTC) marketing means brands can stop relying on traditional distribution channels and can sell directly to customers. This way, brands don’t need to rely on third parties and can deal with customers directly regarding marketing, distribution, and everything.
With today’s marketing world and digital media, brands can simply ditch the middleman and target and advertise their brand directly to their customers. DTC has become a common norm for consumer packaged goods (CMG) brands.
Challenges In Working With Retailers
Back then, brands used to sell their products via retailers, which was considered the only feasible solution. Although it wasn’t only a viable solution, past circumstances made it inevitable for brands to partner with middlemen. This method poses several challenges for brands as discussed below:
Not able to provide better discount rates to consumers. In traditional retail distribution, brands are already worn out by paying retailers marked-up prices. This makes it impossible for them to offer any extra discounts to their consumers which makes it difficult for brands to stand out among competitors. Small and new businesses usually struggle to bring discount offers to the table.
Longer production timeframes. Consumer packaged goods take a considerable amount of time to manufacture, and on top of that, businesses have to convince different retailers to buy from them. In this back-and-forth process, brand products take a lot of time to find their due spot at the right places and miss many opportunities.
Limited control over the marketing mix and branding. Working with retailers and middlemen means having partial control or little to no control over brand narratives. Most of the time, brands are unfamiliar with how retailers market their products.
5 Effective DTC Marketing Strategies
Selling direct to consumers is probably easy for today’s businesses, especially in today’s internet marketing world. However, it comes with careful planning and strategizing of different aspects to create an emotional and meaningful connection with consumers.
Here are five of the best digital marketing strategies used in the DTC space:
Social Media Marketing
Social media platforms are among the best ways to build a DTC brand. Its presence has the power to catch the eyeballs and turn them into brand attraction and conversion. Many brands have become internet sensations using the right social media marketing strategies. Through social media, brands can become viral in a night; tiktok reels and Instagram reels are evidence of this claim. Social platforms are not only there for brand awareness instead, they now play an active role in the entire marketing channel, nurturing awareness to building conversions.
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With tiktok stores and Instagram stores, social platforms are not only for spreading glamour. but also providing an instant way for customers to shop directly from social platforms. DTC brands no longer need to rely on middlemen and can break the chains of traditional distribution.
Email Marketing
DTC in marketing is all about being at the right time and at the right place for the customer. Email marketing is another valuable channel that targets potential customers and turns them into long-term brand advocates.
How? Well, a carefully planned email marketing campaign has the power to target prospects with a series of emails. Let’s say a customer visits your social store and browses different products. Marketers can target the same subscribed customers through targeted emails, catching the customer’s attention by showcasing the discounts and irresistible offers on their interested products.
Email marketing is a great way to be the top choice for potential and existing customers, as it has the ability to remind customers of the brand’s presence.
Influencer Marketing
The global influencer marketing market value stood at 21.1 billion U.S. dollars as of 2023. This makes it essential for DTC brands to leverage the impact of influencers and partner with famous celebrities to endorse their products.
It is a norm in the marketing world that the more marketing channels, the better the opportunity for targeting and closing customers, but it is only possible with the right execution and planning. Influencer marketing is another essential marketing channel that can be integrated into an omnichannel marketing approach to provide customers with a convincing brand experience. The rise of influencers has changed the trajectory of marketing, and now they are considered one of the influential ways to grasp the audience’s attention and trust.
Personalization
Consumers demand personalization based on how brands understand their concerns, needs, and desires. In today’s marketing world, only those brands that actually care for customers and back their claims with real demonstrations sustain and thrive.
Many brands use email marketing to record the behaviors and purchase history of each customer and send product recommendations to ensure they are personalized for each subscriber. At the same time, showing personalized and relatable products at stores to customers is a common way of personalizing relations with customers.
SMS Marketing
53% of marketers stated open rates as the primary reason for using SMS as a channel. SMS marketing is considered a valuable marketing channel through which customers demonstrate their loyalty towards a brand. Nowadays, users appreciate brands’ text messages as the source of communication between the brand and the customer.
SMS messages are not considered a useful tool for brand communication, but they also play a crucial role in the bottom line as they are an essential player in bringing massive open rates for brands. Surprisingly, SMS is bringing better opening rates than email because email’s inbox clutter often fogs the visibility and communication between brand and customer.
Examples of DTC Marketing
Peach & Lily
Peach and Lily, a K-beauty brand, used educational strategies to achieve steady and substantial growth by selling skincare products directly from their website. They focused on educating customers about the need for organic skincare products by communicating directly with customers through their social and website channels.
Fabletics
Fabletics is another example of a women’s and men’s sportswear brand that leverages DTC marketing strategies to reach its ideal customers. The fabletics uses a membership model to hone its revenue stream and, in return, provides a personalized shopping experience to customers by analyzing their purchase history, preferences, and activity directly through their owned channels without relying on middlemen or third parties.
Quip
Quip is an oral care brand that sells directly to customers via its ecommerce store. It offers easy subscription models directly to customers, focusing on providing a sleek and affordable experience at their stores.
Conclusion: Overcoming Reliance on Third-Party Obligations
It’s high time for brands to stop paying middlemen and relying on their grace to earn a stable revenue stream. Many brands have seized the opportunity to create their own ecommerce stores, and start selling their products directly to customers without even relying on third parties for marketing and advertising concerns. With DTC marketing, brands can provide a personalized shopping experience to customers by directly analyzing their purchase behaviors, preferences, and activity. DTC stores’ organic marketing, search engine marketing, and advertising strategies become a dynamic marketing mix based on their users’ viewpoints and feedback.
Market Pro has a knack for creating personalized content and is a marketing force for businesses that rely on creating thoughtful and long-lasting customer relations. Join us today to give your ecommerce store its new, fresh and profitable start!
