Flood the Zone to Win at DTC
Whether your product is a sweat-blocking deodorant, a male fertility supplement or high-quality dog food, you’ve got a problem. Even with the greatest potential product-market fit, you’ve still got a problem. And it’s the same one everyone else has in the direct-to-consumer (DTC) space. Namely, how do you get consumers in front of your brand…so they can learn, experience your offer, and love it?
Too many people, including some of the most sophisticated and experienced founders and brand leaders, still believe a combination of paid META / Google campaigns and influencer endorsements will do the trick. It won’t.
On the one hand, the consumer is bored, tuned out and doesn’t automatically buy — even if the influencer or endorser is an athlete or performer they truly love. One millions followers may translate it into one percent or fewer purchases on a given post.
On the other hand, META and Google only have limited cost-effective reach. Search volume around key words constrains Google. While META costs rise disproportionately as you move beyond the easiest-to-reach consumers, often turning once profitable ratios of Lifetime Value (LTV) to Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) upside down. In other words, you’re losing money as far as the eye can see.
So what can you do if neither influencer nor paid channels present a clear path to growth.
While there’s no simple solution, some of the smartest founders and marketers have reorganized their marketing around two premises:
Don’t Wait for the Algorithms — One of the biggest truisms of performance and digital marketing is that you need to give the algorithms time to optimize. The question is how much time…and there is no clear answer. The algorithms are a black box. Instead, set clear timelines for when you will pull the trigger, either adding to specific ad units or cutting them.
Creative Counts Most — A corollary to “don’t wait” is that creative is once again what matters most. The algorithms are used by everyone. What counts is what you put into these pipes. Whether video, infographic, display, or a post, only the best creative is worth running.
These two premises lead to a number of potential strategies, and one that several growing consumer brands have used successfully focuses on producing and testing creative at scale.
FLOOD THE ZONE
Here’s how it works:
— Test Spend to CAC: Establish how much you are willing to invest in each Meta, TikTok or other creative-driven ad unit before adding spend or pulling the creative execution. One reasonable guideline is to spend no more than 10x your acquisition cost. If that ad isn’t showing progress at that point, how likely is it that the algorithm can find just the right consumers to make it effective?
— Commit to Content: Form a team that will be fully dedicated to developing strategies, identifying audiences, and producing creative. It can be an in-house team, outsourced or a mix of the two. Of course, use Generative AI for ideas and efficiencies. What’s important is that you put the necessary resources against the task. It just cannot be done otherwise.
— Create @ Scale: Flood the Zone, producing far more ads than you’ve imagined possible. A minimum of 500 new videos, posts, stills and other executions per year. A successful brand our team knows confessed they created 10,000 ads over a two-year period! It worked; they grew big-time! Why? Because when you produce that much creative, you’ll find the dozen or so ads that will drive 80% of your results!
As mentioned, there are other strategies to drive awareness and customer acquisition in a world where you can’t afford to wait for the algorithms and creative counts most. Such as bigger brand and product-driven concepts, e.g., Liquid Death. It’s an approach that’s out-of-reach for most due to the costs and difficulty of breaking out with buzz alone.
Instead, by establishing clear metrics (test spend to CAC) and producing tons of creative to truly figure out what works, you will have the best shot at sustainable success. That’s more than just growing sales. It means a positive ratio of Lifetime Value (LTV) to CAC, and what comes with it. Profitability!
Now’s the time to make the commitment to see if your product truly has what it takes to scale. Get out there and Flood the Zone!
