Growth is hard. Here’s how to do it anyway.

Growing a DTC eCommerce brand has become hard.

Advertising costs are going up. Attribution is messy. Supply chains are chaotic. Consumer behaviors are changing.

Everyone’s margins are getting squeezed.

Some brands are still growing, but not as quickly or as profitably as planned. A few are having record years (these are the ones we read about).

But many, if not most, DTC brands are struggling.

Goodbye good times

Long gone are the days when you could publish any Facebook ad and watch the sales flood in. Easy is over.

This is a tough pill for the industry to swallow. This is why there’s a huge demand for and interest in new things. TikTok, artificial intelligence, attribution software, SMS marketing, to name a few.

The issue is not that these new things will fail. It’s that they don’t address the root problem: we live in a new reality.

Actually, it’s an old reality.

You see, marketing is supposed to be competitive. Growth is supposed to be hard. If it was easy to spend 1€ and make 3€, everyone would do it.

Performance marketing is dead

The past few years have been kind to us digital marketers. Powerful algorithms, cheap advertising inventory, and generous attribution have made us look like geniuses.

Now the old tricks don’t work anymore. What to do?

To start, we need to change our thinking from performance to growth. In other words:

Optimizing for maximum profit, not maximum ROAS.

Prioritizing demand generation over demand capture.

Focusing on the entire funnel, not just the ad account.

Understanding your financials, especially CAC and LTV. If you don’t, you will be priced out of the market.

We don’t need new tools or strategies. We need to change how we think about marketing.

Promises, promises

The good times also created an illusion of control.

Marketing was all that mattered. Increasing ROAS was just a matter of making a few changes inside the ad accounts.

Now reality is finally starting to catch up.

Product matters more than marketing. Marketing is everything but certain and risk-free. Very few brands can grow fast and be profitable at the same time. Few brands can even grow fast at all.

As marketers, we can’t guarantee outcomes. Instead, we can guarantee processes, frameworks, and tools that have been tested and validated.

Processes beat promises, every time.

Winners and losers

We’re experiencing a major transition in the DTC landscape right now. And as in all transitions, there will be winners and losers.

We’re helping clients ranging from bootstrapped startups to 100m€ brands succeed in this new reality. Can we help you?

Maybe.

Not every brand is ready for growth. Not every brand is able to grow.

It’s why we always start with an audit of your business, assessing your strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities.

If you run a DTC brand and are serious about growth – fill out the form at the bottom of the page and let’s have a chat!

Who are we?

• Full-service growth agency
• Founder-lead team of 120+ experts
• Over 100m€ in client revenue generated
• Active in 20+ markets around the world