How to Build an Omnichannel Marketing Strategy for Your D2C Brand 
Previous title: Turn First-Time D2C Customers into Loyal Advocates with Omnichannel Marketing Strategies (Blog)

(Pura Vida / Tory Burch)

KEYWORDS: omnichannel marketing, D2C brand

KEY TAKEAWAY: No matter the touchpoint, your customer should always feel like they’re interacting with the same brand. All communications should maintain a similar look, feel, voice, and tone so that customers know what to expect and so they enjoy hearing from your brand, too.

BLOG CONTENT: 

While the world was already shifting to online shopping before the pandemic, the D2C space exploded when going to the store was no longer a norm. Without the need for brick and mortar spaces, D2C brands bet big on their ability to boost revenue by funneling the money they save on overhead costs into slick branding and targeted marketing strategies. 

As customers become more particular about the brands they shop and competitors seem to crop up daily, D2C companies are investing in omnichannel marketing strategies that center around their unique journeys to retain them. 

What is an Omnichannel Marketing Strategy?


An omnichannel marketing strategy centers around a brand, ensuring that all communications, regardless of the channel, consistently deliver a quality customer experience designed to build relationships. Unlike multichannel strategies that hyperfocus on the channels at hand, the brand experience takes precedence in omnichannel. 

How to Create an Omnichannel Marketing Strategy that Engages D2C Buyers


An omnichannel strategy brings in deeper considerations than multichannel, but the results are worth the investment. Customers increasingly want to personally identify with the brands they support, so delivering that made-for-me experience is crucial to the growth of D2C companies in the coming year. And because just 18 percent of marketers are extremely confident in their personalization strategy, getting ahead of the pack early can give your brand an advantage.

Analyze Your First-Time Buyer Data


When it comes to creating a memorable brand experience, D2C brands have a unique advantage because they can lean on a goldmine of first-party data. When using a Customer Data Platform (CDP) to link data sources across channels, brands can develop omnichannel personalization that equips marketers to create hyper-relevant touchpoints for each customer. 

Data sources can include:

  • The content a prospect/customer consumes
  • Orders and purchases 
  • Campaign engagement (Email opens, ad click-throughs, etc.)

When you use a CDP, you’ll learn all about your prospects’ and customers’ preferences and goals without ever asking them to take a single survey. 

Map Out Your Customer Journey 


Once you gain an inside look at the products, promotions, and messaging your customers respond to, you can design a customer journey that complements how they engage with your brand. In addition to matching product recommendations with the right individuals, you can segment your database into customer groups that enable you to send more relevant communications to people who follow your brand. 

For example, when you create an email campaign announcing a new product, you can target specific customer groups and tailor messaging accordingly, rather than blasting it out to your entire database with a more generic message. This drives more engagement and sales from those you target and leaves room to send more relevant communications to the groups that weren’t the right fit for that particular message. 

To get started on your customer journey:

  1. Analyze your data and identify patterns and similarities.
  1. Develop three to five customer personas that embody the most common patterns/similarities you see.
  1. Create persona profiles that enable everyone from marketers to product managers to customer success specialists to “see” who they’re speaking to/building for/assisting.
  1. Develop touchpoints across channels that mirror how each persona engages with your brand. Optimize each touchpoint to encourage a specific action, such as:

  • Reading a piece of content