5 Tips for Increasing Your Outdoor Brand’s DTC Revenue in 2021

After all, beyond cutting out the retail middleman — and thereby reducing sales expenses while boosting revenues — DTC sales offer brands a wealth of added benefits such as:

• a broader reach/marketplace via the internet
• reduced reliance on brick-and-mortar retailers
• more control of their brand image and messaging
• increased ownership of consumer data
• a wealth of opportunities for additional consumer engagement
• and more.

Ready to ramp up your DTC sales in 2021? Consider these five tried-and-true tips from TBA Outdoors for increasing your DTC revenue — and building your online brand:

1. Leverage all the DTC platforms you can — and use them well.

If you’re like most outdoor brands, your company website or e-store will represent the front lines of your DTC sales efforts. But to reach as wide an audience as possible, it’s also important to tap into some of the top online storefronts that consumers already know well and use regularly, especially since many consumers will start their solution searches here.
Make the efforts needed to get your brand’s products listed on Amazon, Walmart Marketplace, Wayfair, etc. — anywhere that makes sense for your brand and your target market. Once there, employ strategies like keyword optimization and feedback-building tactics that will support your success with these leading online sales outlets.

2. Employ full-funnel media tactics.

Professional marketers know that advertising isn’t a one-size-fits-all endeavor — to maximize success, it’s vital to deliver the right messaging to the right consumers at the right time. For example, when targeting kayaking enthusiasts in northern climates, the winter season is not the ideal time to serve up an increase conversion ad, as few consumers are actively buying kayaks up north in the winter. Rather, this would be a better time to deliver advertising meant to increase brand awareness, as these consumers may well be dreaming of/planning out their warmer-season pursuits.

At TBA Outdoors, we use the Paid Media Path-to-Conversion Funnel to guide our messaging efforts and successfully lead consumers from the Awareness Stage to the Consideration Stage and, finally, to the Conversion Stage — all the while carefully considering which tactics are likely to have the strongest influences on the targeted consumer group at a given time.

And, once the strategic decisions are made regarding which ads will target which consumers at what time, we optimize our advertising settings daily to ensure maximum effectiveness.

3. Optimize the path to purchase on your website.

Once you’ve sparked a consumer’s interest and lured him or her to your website, you’ve won half the battle! Now, it’s important to capitalize on the passion and excitement you’ve created in your potential buyer by ensuring a smooth and seamless path to purchase.

Be sure to conduct extensive user-experience testing on your website and e-commerce platform to identify and eliminate any barriers to purchase that may exist. Further, employ tracking tools to identify any pages on your website where visitors may be departing regularly, as these assets may need additional focus and rework.

4. Keep all of your brand assets consistent.

Across all of your brand’s assets, platforms, messaging and content, it’s important to convey a consistent look and feel to boost brand recognition and build your brand’s identity. Further, all of your brand’s communications and assets should purposefully reflect and support your brand’s established values and mission.

On occasion, take time to carefully review all of your brand’s assets and platforms to ensure that they all maintain a consistent and up-to-date brand image and message, and make sure that any newly created assets stick to carefully established brand guidelines and norms. When consistent messaging and assets are correctly employed over time, consumers will begin to identify with your brand and internalize its message and meaning — making consumers more likely to become customers, and customers more likely to become brand ambassadors.

5. Keep it simple.

In all of your new efforts to increase your brand’s DTC sales, don’t forget the tried-and-true basics of successful marketing. Leverage promotions to boost consumer interest. Employ strong calls to action that clearly tell consumers what you’d like for them to do. Make you’re your messaging reaches the right consumers and leads them to their next step down the path to purchase. Working together, all of these efforts can build the momentum needed to increase consumer interest and boost revenues for the brand.

Could your outdoor brand and its DTC sales efforts benefit from the guidance of a team of highly experienced marketing professionals? At TBA Outdoors, our fully integrated marketing firm boasts a team of seasoned specialists (and outdoors fanatics) who can cover DTC sales, brand strategy, social media, e-commerce and much more — all in one place. And as certified brand strategists, we can also help you with the big-picture adjustments sometimes needed put your outdoor brand on a course to long-term success.

To get started with professional guidance ranging from a simple web-store analysis to a comprehensive strategy tailored to boost your outdoor brand’s overall performance and identity, contact us today.