Top 7 Ways D2C Brands Can Engage with Customers

Introduction

The source of customer loyalty lies in immaculate customer engagement, wouldn’t you agree? Customer engagement is creating ways for online shoppers to keep interacting with brands beyond the instant of a transaction.

So far, brands like Warby Parker and Glossier have shown just how much customers appreciate direct-to-customer (D2C) engagement. Taking lessons from the maestros, this article brings together a toolkit for novice D2C retailers. 

You can channel our article into creating your customized customer engagement plan. So, without further ado, let’s start with the D2C formula for customer engagement. 

The D2C Form of Customer Engagement

A direct-to-consumer (D2C) brand is a business model fulfilling the tenets of self-sufficiency in manufacturing, distribution, and sales. Simply put, a D2C brand sells its products directly to customers, forgoing the channels of wholesalers and retailers. While some brands prefer to be on eCommerce marketplaces, D2C brands remain the original source for selling their products.

A well-known feature of D2C brands differentiating them from traditional businesses is their ability to engage with customers directly. They forge a strong emotional bond with shoppers by incorporating proactiveness, repeated communication, and hyper-focused content.

D2C brands are most directly involved with customers, transforming them from shoppers to active members of their brands.  Hence, they focus on reaching out to customers tirelessly, getting their feedback, responding to comments, and taking customer privacy seriously.

7 Effective Ways D2C Brands Can Engage with Customers

1) Define Your Brand’s Golden Circle

Have you ever wondered what prompts any person looking for a product to choose one from hundreds of D2C brands? Well, according to Simon Sinek, a pathbreaking marketeer and author, the answer is story-telling. Or, more precisely, the golden circle of the company, focusing on the ‘why, how, and what’ aspects.

The unique selling point of any brand is often announced in the form of its story. Sinek considers this as the focal point of customer engagement, starting with creating a compelling story about ‘why’ they should consider a brand. The cause is often the purpose of the brand, the ‘wow’ factor that customers look for, one that can leave a lasting impression in their minds. 

Take the story of Away Luggage which posits itself as a travel company. And rightfully so. Its founders, Jen Rubio, and Steph Korey, didn’t want to position their brand as another luggage-selling company. Instead, they launched it with the purpose of prompting people to travel with suave minimalist luggage. 

They have created their brand voice after successfully planning ‘how’ to do so- by setting up their editorial calendar around travel. And ‘what’ they offer to their new customers is a community centered around fun-loving, minimalist-preferring travelers. Its magazine garners around 800k views each month, attesting to the right way of engaging customers. 

2) Build on Your Uniqueness or Niche 

If there is one thing that wholly captures a customer’s attention, sometimes even overtaking storytelling, it is brand uniqueness or niche specialty. Finding an eCommerce niche is often tied together with knowing your buyers. And in knowing customer needs or their impetus to buy something, you can forge the strategy to engage them.

The Indian D2C coffee brand Rage Coffee is a good example. In a market saturated with big and small competitors, Rage Coffee built a sub-niche of instant coffee infused with health. The brand promises a healthy gut cycle, rich aromas, and a multivariate ingredient list. With the usual hazelnut and dark chocolate flavors, customers also get quirky options like orange and chai. 

If brands can deliver on their promise of fulfilling the specific needs of their customers, they can inadvertently get a strong customer engagement score. After all, customer engagement starts with interaction from the likes and toward-of-mouth advertising. As such, the principles of niche marketing can come in handy here. 

Start with doing a bit of psychoanalysis. Get to know your customer's preferences, shopping habits, triggers, and happiness quotient after purchase. After understanding these focal points, try to address them. Say, by including a return policy or payment options that adhere to your shoppers’ preferences. 

3) Personalize Pre-Purchase Engagement 

One of the best ways to have a contented customer is to generously incorporate personalization into your pre- and post-purchase strategy. Personalization is the hallmark of a customer-centric eCommerce strategy that beckons to a customer’s individuation and, hence their attention. 

Having records of your shopper’s behavioral data can give you the necessary insights needed to make tailored solutions for them. And there are many ways to do so. Here are some of them-

Start with personalized product recommendations. You can decipher individual shoppers’ preferences from their purchase history. One good spot to implement this is in the new arrivals section.

Relevant search results also add another layer to personalized customer engagement. Adhering to customer data such as gender or color preferences will make their search more relevant. 

Another way to personalize customer experience is to enable ‘just for you’ prompts. Showing products that you know your customers will fancy for not only adding to their individual shopping experience but also giving you a generous raise in CTRs. 

4) Engrave Your Presence with Effective Communication

Communication is the key element in customer engagement. With proper communication, brands can mobilize customers to turn into brand loyalists. With the bombardment of marketing and advertisements taking over customer consciousness, your strategy should strive to cancel the noise and add value to your customers. 

Again start with analyzing customer data to understand their basic requirements. This involves apprehending if your buyers are looking for live chat options, chatbots, or IVRS. Your customers will be willing to listen to you if you approach them in their preferred channels. 

Another way of effective communication for direct-to-consumer brands is to have an omnichannel communication approach. D2C marketing majorly relies on multiple touchpoints, be it social media, email marketing, or SEO marketing.  

Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok are all good places to leverage brand storytelling and market products. Viral videos and influencer validation are game changers in the D2C communication stream. Take the examples of Indian D2C brands like boAT or Vadham that enhanced their trust factor thanks to celebrity endorsements. 

5) Excel in Social Media Brand Positioning 

Some say the lifeblood of D2C customer engagement runs in their respective social media as the most conspicuous channels of communication. Moving beyond the moment of a transaction, TikTok is the viewer’s favorite source to find and interact with small and medium D2C companies. It embraces every D2C retailer’s niche, from homemade jewelry and paintings to donuts and candles. 

Social media space is ever-expanding, enfolding newer trends. The recent trend includes shoppable ads such as the Shop Now buttons on YouTube and Instagram. This allows customers to shop from the brand without the necessity of sign-ups or redirects. Other trends include viral video marketing and live shopping. 

Excelling in social media marketing has much to do with putting out trusted content. D2C brands known to have enamored customers on social media tend to become the voice of a community. Brands driven with a purpose tend to have better brand positioning. The case of Allbirds and Neemans is on point. 

Both these D2C companies position themselves as sustainable shoe-wear brands roping in natural fibers or recycling plastic. They deliver on the promise of comfort, odor-eliminating agents and foster a social cause. 

6) Strive to Achieve Success in Marketing Campaigns 

Many of the marketing campaigns for well-known D2C brands are centered on authentic customer experiences, stunning visuals, and innovation. Vineeta Singh, CEO of unicorn business SUGAR Cosmetics, once revealed that the success of D2C marketing campaigns relies on making the right connection with consumers. 

To achieve this, she emphasizes on sharpening performance marketing with a heavy focus on bottom-of-the-funnel content. She also highlighted studying the value of different social media platforms, bringing in rich visuals and videos, and targeting specific audiences. All of these factors can contribute to increasing conversion rates and driving high-quality traffic. 

Another way to unlock marketing success was to center campaigns around winning back churned customers. The D2C brand e-scooter company Bird has demonstrated ways to conduct successful re-engagement campaigns. Bird focused on win-back campaigns by taking recourse with emotive language, personalization, and discounts. With this, Bird has increased their customer’s lifetime value.

7) Be Resourceful with Customer Reviews and Criticism

User-generated content such as customer reviews, feedback, and even negative comments can be the gold mine in D2C customer engagement. How? For starters, you can be resourceful with them to achieve referrals and generate customer trust. 

Research suggests that almost 9 out of ten customers look for customer reviews online before making a purchase. This means that you have the chance to highlight customer testimonials to evoke their trust and pique their interest. You can strategically place hashtags like ‘TikTokMadeMeBuyIt’ to highlight TikTokers who made the purchase and validate their source. 

Another way to involve user-generated content is to share them on your social media like Aldi, the savvy and cost-effective grocery store, does on its  Instagram. Their ‘#new to shelves’ posts generate attention from 26k followers. 

Another similar option is to tag customers who post ‘unboxing’ videos on their social media. Unboxing videos are the best statement of heightened customer engagement. In doing so, the customer helps their peers get a glimpse of their product and the value it brings to them. Rewarding them can also bring in more testimonials and feedback. 

Valuable Lessons from Success Stories 

1) Understand Your Customer’s Pain Points (like Warby Parker)

Getting a pair of opticals is more than just a medical necessity now. Finding the right colors, shapes, fit, style, and price makes the process more complicated and even painful. This is where the D2C eyewear brand Warby Parker saw the opportunity to alleviate customer pain points. 

Their ‘Home Try On’ program allows their prospective customers the ability to try on glasses from their homes, understand the fit and even get their loved one’s opinion. By arranging comfort and convenience, Warby Parker not only made their consumers feel better but also raised their brand value. This then translated into better revenue gains. 

2) Go beyond the ‘One Size Fits All’ Myth (like Glossier)

No two customers are the same, so why should you club them in a one-size-fits-all paradigm? Glossier shows that segmenting customers based on their unique attributes in designing products can get them more than simply customer engagement. 

Their ‘You Look Good” campaign highlighted real individuals with different face shapes, skin tones, and other features to engage with multiple customers on a deep level. In embracing diversity, they got tons of positive responses and massive brand recognition. The deep customer engagement fostered allowed them to market over 500,000 products each month.

3) Craft Compelling Reasons for Consumers to Engage (like Allbirds)

Many customers seek to be with D2C brands that give them more than a shopping experience. This is because they tenaciously adhere to bettering the world with a social cause. Take the case of Allbirds.

Allbird’s “Meet Your Shoes” campaign educated their customers about sustainability and the environmental impact of footwear manufacturing. They rafted it as a virtual experience enabling customers to ‘engage’ in the production simulation and explore different materials. 

Conclusion

Customer engagement is a fundamental aspect of D2C brands. Getting the right tools for engaging customers and strategizing to uplift their experiences is the best way for any D2C brand to thrive. We hope with this article, you will get valuable insights into the right way to engage customers. 

FAQs

1) What is the best way to promote a D2C brand?

Social media remains the best way to promote a D2C brand. This includes crafting valuable content, incorporating stunning videos, roping in influencers, and actively reaching out to customers.

2) What is a personalized customer experience? 

Personalized customer experience means creating tailored solutions for specific customers. This can include product recommendations specific to individuals, presenting context-based messaging, and branded order notifications, amongst others.