Picture your eCommerce site as a physical store. Now, imagine your wholesale retail buyers as the businesses next door. Sure your products get sold either way, but you still want to make the sale yourself, right?
Small and medium-sized D2C brands often depend on third-party retailers for exposure to larger audiences. However, the risks include not only loss of revenue, but the opportunity to capture the first-party data needed for future sales & growth.
This is not to say that it’s a bad thing to sell your products through a larger retailer, that’s great!
However, when high-intent users directly search for your brand, you should rank higher than your retailer.
In fact, you lose big time when you don’t.
The right media strategy puts you in a position to make the sale and capture the first-party data you need to succeed in today’s digital landscape. The wrong media strategy surrenders sales opportunities to retailers that bid for on brand terms.
Here are a few things to think about when balancing your DTC & B2B strategies.
What’s at Stake
A few things happen when a retailer ranks higher than you on your terms. For one, they have a better chance than you to win sales. With that sale comes the opportunity to collect the customer’s first-party data, which means you won’t be able to directly engage your most likely buyers via social media, email, ads, and more. This doesn’t just affect prospect customers. First-party data can help drive brand loyalty & future sales, and you’d lose out on that too.
Going forward it’s going to be incredibly important to build authentic relationships with your customers, and it will be harder to do if you’re not appearing in direct searches.
Stop competing against yourself.
It’s entirely possible to balance your B2B relationships while owning & growing your own customer base.
At Mason Interactive, we have 13 years of experience working with DTC brands that also have a physical retail presence. We can help optimize your media strategy so you can capture your most high-intent prospects. Set a meeting with us today to learn more.