In recent years, DTC (Direct-to-Consumer) has gradually become a popular business model in the field of e-commerce. Compared with traditional brands, DTC brands do not need to rely excessively on third-party platforms or intermediate channels such as wholesale retailers to reach the market, but use self-built channels to communicate directly with consumers, conduct marketing operations and facilitate direct marketing as an independent identity. purchases, etc.
In this model, DTC brands can obtain first-hand data through interaction with consumers, respond quickly to consumer needs, speed up product updates and iterations, and win the favor and trust of more consumers.
DTC brand features
The characteristics of the DTC brand determine that such companies pay more attention to social media marketing.
First, DTC brands need to build their own social media matrix. Taking the TikTok platform as an example, a large number of consumers will buy branded products by watching videos. Some consumers will also leave a message on the social media account of the DTC brand after shopping to share their shopping experience. At the same time, DTC brands can build private domain traffic pools by establishing follower groups, and carry out marketing activities such as new product releases and old customer benefits, so as to achieve the purpose of customer acquisition and repurchase.
To achieve the conversion from public domain traffic to private domain traffic to sales, the premise is that enough traffic must be accumulated. For DTC brands, it is undoubtedly a good choice to reasonably use influencers to expand their influence and gain traffic.
So what kind of influencer is more suitable to choose?
Influencers can be roughly divided into three levels: Mega, Macro, and Micro according to the number of followers.
Mega is a top influencer with 1M+ Followers, and the traffic is very large. It is the object that most DTC brands want to cooperate with, but the high price has also deterred many brands.
Macro refers to the 10W-100W mid-waist influencer with a large amount of traffic, and generally needs to be charged. The price is lower than the Mega influencer, and it pays more attention to the quality of the content, and the degree of cooperation is also high.
The number of Micro followers is between 1000-2W, and the traffic is small, but these influencers are more willing to spend time interacting with followers, the ROI will be higher, and the price is naturally lower, even close to free.
The three different levels of influencers have their own advantages. When the budget is sufficient, using the Mega influencer to lead the way and leading the Macro and Micro influencers to link together will achieve a very good promotion effect. In the case of a slight lack of budget, it is necessary to rationally use medium and long-tail influencers with lower fees to build momentum for the brand.
Advantages of Macro influencers
Recently, influencer marketing expert KIMEKO MCCOY published an article saying that more and more DTC brands have discovered the unique marketing value of macro influencers, and are developing marketing strategies around such influencers.
According to most of the DTC brand feedback, in practice, the use of macro influencers is more cost-effective. Since its establishment in 2016, DTC brand Spotlight Oral Care has been collaborating with macro influencers. “We’ve found that macro influencers are better suited for actual conversions and long-term partnerships,” its co-founder Creaven said in an email.
The macro influencers who make DTC brands more and more popular mainly have the following characteristics:
01 Reach the consumer circle in vertical fields
Mega influencers have a huge number of followers and are widely distributed, and the audience concentration of a single field of interest is diluted to a certain extent. In contrast, the content of medium and long-tail influencers is more targeted in the vertical field and has the influence of reaching the circle.
02 The conversion rate is relatively good
Compared with mega influencers, the conversion rate of macro influencers is relatively good. Although their followers are small, they are vertical and accurate, and the delivery effect is more prominent.
03 Active follower interaction
In terms of reading traffic, the mega influencers have come out on top. Due to the excessive number of followers leaving messages, it is easy to take care of one thing and lose another, resulting in insufficient interaction. Macro influencers with less traffic are more focused on maintaining follower relationships. In the process of interacting with followers, they export their brand concepts to allow audiences to recognize them, thereby generating interaction and resonance.
04 Content is highly relevant
The number of followers of mega influencers even exceeds that of some influencers, and most of them have distinct personal characteristics. Followers will pay attention to the influencers themselves more than the products in the comments. And the followers of the macro influencers pay more attention to the product itself, which is exactly the communication effect that the DTC brand wants to achieve.
05 Concentration of product publicity
Mega influencer have higher coverage volume. In contrast, although the macro influencers are not as vocal as the mega influencers, some of them cherish the hard-won business orders, and their emotional guidance ability is outstanding, which makes users have a strong purchase intention, so as to achieve the product The purpose of promotion and sales conversion.
06 Cost-effective delivery
From the point of view of the order price, the high price is determined by the large follower base and appeal of the top influencers. The order price of macro influencers is much lower than that of mega influencers, and the prices of each platform are relatively stable, and the trial and error cost of brand owners is lower. The conversion rate of macro influencers is outstanding, and it is the best choice for cost-effective delivery.
07 High cooperation satisfaction
From the perspective of merchants, cooperation with influencers mainly considers two dimensions: execution rate and cooperation effect. In the cooperation of macro influencers, the degree of cooperation is higher, the operation is more flexible, and the effect performance is also more prominent.
DTC brand cooperates with macro influencers to achieve a win-win situation
The new crown epidemic has led to more and more people working from home, people have more time to use social media, and it has also produced many macro influencers. Greg Manago, president of Mindshare Content+, said these mid- and long-tail influencers are particularly attractive to DTC brands seeking healthy brand growth.
01 The trend is obvious
In recent years, DTC brand advertisers have entered the short video KOL marketing dominated by TikTok, and KOL has become the standard for brand social media marketing. At the same time, there are three marketing trends: from single platform delivery to refined multi-platform combination delivery; from a single individual In the influencer matrix, the delivery model tends to be integrated marketing; from the pursuit of mega influencers to the launch of macro influencers, a new battlefield for marketing has been opened.
02 Tonality fit
DTC brands generally follow the route of fewer and more refined SKUs, focusing on segmented audiences. On the basis of the high quality and low price of branded products, the brand is easy to gain the trust of consumers. This coincides with the fact that macro influencers are deeply cultivating vertical subdivisions and attaching importance to follower interaction to gain the trust of followers.
03 Diversification of indicators to measure
Brandon Billinger is a macro influencer with less than 1W followers and has worked with brands such as Charbroil and Dove for Men. He said that while brands are still looking at conventional metrics such as followers, they no longer use followers as the only measure.
From the perspective of DTC brands, the reason why we attach importance to macro influencers with low marketing conversion is because even if they cannot bring direct sales, they can still discuss from SNS, Google search index, store followers, designated SKU purchases, Indicators such as collections can also reflect the value of macro influencers.