, let’s think about direct-to-consumer marketing.

In this use case scenario … ACME Corporation sells direct-to-consumer (DTC) products via an eCommerce and retail store.

As the new CMO, you inherited an eCommerce store that was built 5-years ago. And a brick-and-mortar retail store located in a high traffic area in downtown Atlanta, Georgia.

ACME’s eCommerce store is responsive to mobile, tablet, and desktop screen sizes … but the user interface (UI) is clunky. The UI needs to be re-designed with modern web frameworks so it can compete with the emerging competition.

Also, their eCommerce store does not do a good job of lifecycle marketing … attracting, engaging, converting, and retaining customers.

Financially, their retail store breaks-even each year. But you believe there is a great opportunity for ACME to increase in-store revenue with better up-sell and cross-sell marketing.

Their eCommerce store is profitable. It generates over a million dollars in NET revenue each year. Yet, online sales have decreased over the past couple of years.

… as the new CMO at ACME, one of your priorities is to create an actionable plan to rebuild their eCommerce store.

Your plan should also include a DTC marketing strategy to increase online and in-store revenue.

Since you have decades of eCommerce and DTC experience, you’re excited to get started.

How to Approach a DTC Marketing Plan:

, before we begin, let’s outline the objectives for ACME’s DTC marketing plan.

First, your plan needs to scope out the requirements to build a modern eCommerce store and user experience (UX).

Second, your plan needs to include a marketing strategy to attract, engage, convert, and retain customers.

Last but not least, your plan needs to have a lifecycle marketing strategy to scale and grow revenue for years to come.

Are those objectives clear ?

Okay, good. Let’s keep going.

In order for you to lead a team of project managers, designers, and developers to rebuild ACME’s eCommerce store … let’s discuss the objectives and problems that need to be solved further.

Objective #1:

ACME’s eCommerce store is “clunky”.

When we say clunky … we mean ACME’s web site does not load fast, the user interface (UI) design is outdated, the user experience (UX) has friction, and the site’s codebase is heavy.

It’s 2020.

If ACME does not solve these problems this year, it will negatively affect revenue onward. This problem poses a real threat, but it’s also a great opportunity.

Here are some key phrases that you’ll need to include in your plan and communication to your team:

• Remember the KISS Principle (Keep it Simple, Stupid);
• Wireframe the new UI/UX and iterate (before you design it);
• The new UI/UX should be mobile-first (focus on mobile experience);
• Use personalization and marketing automation to improve the user and customer experience;
• And, make the site very intuitive, easy to navigate, and simple to search (optimize for voice search).

Objective #2:

ACME needs to attract, engage, convert and retain more customers.

This is a big objective and problem to solve.

The short answer to this problem is to be better at branding, marketing and advertising.

But that’s not so simple. Is it?

… as you know, everything starts with marketing research. Pulling and analyzing data.

That’s where you start to improve ACME’s branding, marketing, and advertising campaigns.

You can start by conducting a comprehensive marketing audit of ACME’s past campaigns. Consider hiring an outside consultant to help you with this audit. It’s a good idea to have a fresh pair of eyes to help you diagnose marketing problems and ideate solutions.

Remember , this is a big problem to solve … so this is important work.

Your pragmatic approach to this marketing audit could be the difference in success or failure.

Success could generate tens of millions of dollars in revenue for ACME. Failure could cost you your job.

Here are 10 key questions that you’ll need to uncover during your marketing audit:

1. What is the conversion rate on ACME’s eCommerce site?
2. Which referral websites drove the most traffic to the eCommerce store?
3. Which paid marketing campaigns drove the most traffic?
4. Does the site use marketing automation (if so, which software)?
5. Besides the homepage, what are the most visited web pages?
6. When was the last time you surveyed your users and customers (what does the survey data tell you)?
7. Which special offers drove the most revenue?
8. Which email campaigns drove the most engagement and revenue?
9. How does your competitor sites stack-up against ACME’s site (SWOT Analysis)?
10. Do you optimize the site to improve conversion rates?

There you have it … the questions above will get you started on your marketing audit.

But you will also need to conduct a deep dive into your marketing analytics data to look for trends, patterns, insights, and hidden gems that will enable you to accomplish objective #2.

Objective #3:

ACME needs a lifecycle marketing strategy to scale and grow revenue for the next several years.

The most successful eCommerce and retail companies use an omnichannel marketing strategy to scale and grow revenue.

An omnichannel strategy is an approach to retail sales and marketing that provides customers with a fully-integrated shopping experience.

Omnichannel marketing is customer-centric.

It provides a seamless multi-channel user experience from online to brick-and-mortar. It delivers the right message, at the right time, no matter the marketing channel.

… I can write about omnichannel marketing ad nauseam, but for the sake of brevity, I won’t.

You’ll find extensive information about the benefits of omnichannel marketing by researching it online.

Know this … if you’re an eCommerce and retail store, you’ll need an omnichannel marketing approach to scale and grow your revenue into the future.

How to Get Started:

• 1. Use a tool like
  2. Use software like
  3. Use software like

Next Steps:

• 1. Analyze the data
  2. Present your
  3. Meet with