The D2C space has the biggest advantage when it comes to its market presence, which is their direct to consumer identity. These brands, unlike traditional retail, are always ready to innovate practices and operations to make their conversation with customers more focused. Marketing, especially digital marketing in this case plays a huge role.
According to the Indian e-commerce industry report, D2C brands currently are using different techniques to acquire customers by using techniques such as social media commerce, search engine shopping, and search PPC advertising. According to a report, 93% of brands say that acquisition is their biggest priority. Out of the customers, 34.6% of customers said that they first discover brands using social media, and nearly 25% say that they find brands using some search engines.
Akanksha Gupta, Lead- Marketing, Beco stated, “We definitely agree with it and the brands are operating their D2C website as a sales channel today, and it’s working tremendously well because it allows them to deep dive into each customer by helping them to understand their likes, interests and purchase behaviour which in turn facilitates a brand to build a more focused strategy for advertising.”
“However, the scalability of the business also depends on the category it operates in, so it’s paramount for a brand to weigh in its category and habits customers hold for their category and eventually cater to them in a way that resonates with them,” she added further.
D2C brands riding high on Influencer Marketing
Under the D2C model, the brands directly connect with the customers as there are no middlemen involved. Thus, brands need to focus on their large database and have a strong relationship with the customers. As the buying power has shifted to millennials and Gen Z, who are heavily influenced by social media platforms. In that case, micro and Nano influencers play a dominant role in creating brand awareness of the D2C brand. According to GlobalWeb Index, 54% of social media browsing is done for product-related brand research and it also helps to gather the data analytics of the customers.
Aakash Anand, Founder & CEO, IDAM House Of Brands, an FMCG brand started in 2015 highlighted a different lens and added “The influencer marketing industry values at 900 crores for a reason. Influencers don’t have followers, they have fans. They become idols & mentors. People treat their word as the gospel truth. It’s important to understand that it’s not just the number of followers that you have to consider when you’re thinking of collaborating with an influencer- you have to consider how authentic their content is, and how their followers engage with them – among other things.”
Paid vs Organic Media Campaign: Creating a Hybrid Model
Social media marketing has evolved over the past few years. The brands are creating different strategies to create engagement and bring more customers. To acquire customers, brands are using a combination of organic and paid social media campaigns. An organic Social campaign is doing any social activity without using any paid promotion whereas paid social media campaign that’s influenced by dollars by using social media posts, CPC (Cost-Per-Click) is the most common way of charging for the type of paid campaign.
“Organic campaigns & engagements are the more sustainable form of social media marketing. Any brand which has been using social media at the core of their marketing plan knows that the followers you get organically are the ones who are going to stay and eventually turn into paid customers,” said Anand emphasizing the brand strategies.
The two cornerstones of digital marketing are paid and organic content. Around 70 percent of most brands’ website traffic is generated by sponsored and organic efforts combined: Organic marketing accounts for 55 percent of our website traffic, while paid marketing accounts for 15 percent. D2C segment holds a very big place within the total e-commerce market in India and it is growing strongly piggybacking on the rising customer consciousness.
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