D2C brands have tremendous growth potential because they have a perfect growth environment – an ecosystem thriving on the ever-evolving ecommerce market and innovative marketing technologies.
In 2020, sales of direct-to-consumer ecommerce (D2C) were worth $111.54 billion, witnessing a growth of 45.5%. According to eMarketer, the D2C sales are expected to reach $174.98 billion by 2023.
If you want to be a part of this D2C boom, you need to have a robust data-driven D2C influencer marketing strategy. In this article, we’ve listed a few strategies that you need to adopt to be on top of the game:
1. Audience segmentation
It’s important that you use the information on your customers’ interests, values, and shopping behavior to segment the audience. Customer segmentation helps you to reach new customers and new audiences. It also ensures that the right message reaches the right group of audience.
Moreover, it’s important for D2C brands to create content that aligns with customer values to create meaningful relationships. Moreover, strategic segmentation of the audience ensures marketing messages are customized to each audience’s needs and preferences.
This results in higher engagements and closer relationships.
2. Partner with organic influencers
Partnering with organic influencers for reviews and recommendations should be a part of your influencer marketing strategy.
Organic influencers are your greatest brand ambassadors for influencer marketing. They have genuinely used your products, and they have stories to tell their followers on what’s best about your products and why they should buy them.
3. Personalize the customer experience
61% of consumers will willingly share more information with brands if it helps them to have a better customer experience.
D2C businesses rely heavily on digital channels to build relationships with their customers and to capture customer data. This data can help you personalize their experience, thus cementing the relationship and building loyalty.
4. Choose the right influencer marketing channel
It’s tempting to see your brand on every social media platform. But it may not be a wise strategy to invest in influencer marketing on every channel.
That’s because each social media channel is different, having its own unique features and user demographics. You cannot make the mistake of running your campaign on every platform; you’ll end up wasting your money and time.
Before you run an influencer marketing campaign on any social media channel, first learn about the platform’s features. Focus only on the channels that can connect with your audience and generate qualified leads.
Here are a few things worth considering when choosing the best social platform for your influencer marketing campaign:
- Is the social channel’s audience demographics align with your target audience?
- Is the price range within your influencer marketing budget?
- Does the content format demonstrate your brand and product effectively?
5. Avoid making costly influencer investment mistakes
It’s very common to get entangled with the wrong influencers for your influencer marketing campaigns. If you lack a data-driven influencer marketing strategy, you are more likely to make these common investment mistakes:
Misaligned Investment-
Choosing an influencer who is not aligned with your brand’s goals. Common examples of misaligned investment are:
- poor audience quality
- mismatched audience demographics, and
- below-average engagement.
Poor Audience Quality-
Investing in an influencer with fake followers.
Brand Safety Risks-
Partner with an influencer who can potentially harm your brand and create customer backlash.
Misaligned Audience Demographics-
Choosing an influencer whose audience doesn’t align with your buyer’s demographics.
Under Investing in an Influencer-
Underpaying an influencer who can be an over performer for your brand.
Over Investing in an Influencer-
Overcompensating an influencer without looking at the impact the influencer drives for your brand.
Technology can help you make the right influencer marketing decisions. With the help of a data-driven influencer marketing platform, you can choose the right influencers, take control of your influencer marketing spend, understand the performance of your investments, optimize your returns and create a successful influencer marketing campaign.
AUTHOR BIO:
Rachel Smith is a communication executive who works with the content marketing team at Affable, an influencer marketing company that provides AI-driven solutions that allows you to plan and execute your influencer campaigns strategically. She develops content around social media and marketing topics that can help her readers understand how to pick the right influencers, measure their impact, and run effective influencer campaigns. In her free time, she loves meeting new people and attending workshops on communication and psychology.
