Let’s face it, in the direct-to-consumer business world, you need your customers to stick around and stay engaged. Direct to consumer sales has become exponentially critical for brands to remain relevant and profitable.

Once on your site via savvy marketing and/or ads, what’s going to keep them there and clicking on links that take them deeper in to what you’re selling?

Enhanced Brand Content, also known as A+ Content on Amazon—or ‘A+ product description’—and it’s a vital component to hone when preparing to launch new DTC businesses.

We’re essentially talking about how you present your wares in writing on your website to your direct to consumer shoppers. Bear in mind, Amazon has pretty much inundated this particular topic with massive SEO efforts to drive you to their website, categories or products, but we’ll try to pare it all down into relatable sections so that you can get the most out of your own efforts.

Driving Brand Identity for Direct to Consumer Sales

You know your brand, and you know the message you’re trying to convey through your marketing.

So firstly, you have to ask, is what we’re about to post for sale in line with our brand identity? It may seem tertiary, but never, ever forget to ensure that everything you sell represents your company and brand when considered individually.

That kind of consistency in branding is what builds branding to become the powerful tool it can be in helping your company gain profits.

If you’re selling a commodity, be mindful of the labeling and assets you plan to use. If your company’s name is “Widget” and you’re about to introduce to market a new line of toothpaste, be sure that toothpaste screams “Widget” at first glance. From there, it’s all about how the commodity is presented in its product description.

If you’re selling a service, however, this is where your A+ product description is really going to need to be polished and prepared. Services are much more easily aligned with a company’s branding, but what your customers learn about it as they shop will be the game-maker, or the game-breaker. Voice and branding will need to go hand-in-hand to ensure that service is properly representing your brand identity.

Common Customer Questions: The secrets to increasing direct to consumer sales

Once you’ve considered brand identity, now comes an even more no-brainer consideration: common customer questions. This goes beyond having a few brainstorming sessions with coworkers to figure out what your potential customers might be curious about. This is about involving your most loyal customers and actively seeking their opinions.

Hopefully, like most organizations, you have a metrics document listing the who’s-who of those who appreciate your brand the most. If you’re just starting out, then data-mining for metrics will be needed so you can identify the potential who’s-who of those who could be your biggest clients.

Once you have your list, let the outreaching begin and hopefully the insight they provide will help you ensure your product description will assuage any doubt they might have.

You can never be too sure you’ve nailed your product descriptions until you’ve actually considered what your customers will likely ask. As you embrace those questions, now is when you begin to imbue your branding into how you plan to describe your product. Through savvy wordsmithing that’s thoroughly seasoned with brand identity, you’re on your way to answering common customer questions.

Data Driven Organization

As we mentioned above, data-mining is crazy important. You must be obsessed with data. And if you haven’t figured this out yet, please make it your latest obsession within your organization! Trust us, you’ll thank us later.

From social media metrics and trends, to actual data collected either in house or via a third-party metrics organization.

Expert tip: As of this article, 3rd party cookies will become less important in the very, very, very near future. It’s so close, you can smell it (bad cookie joke!)

Knowing the where, when, how, and what regarding what you’re about to put sell on your ecommerce website is just as important as knowing brand identity, and what questions your customers may have.

Let’s be super general about data: Say you plan to sell a super thick and toasty wool sweater on July 15. Unless you live below the equator, we’d recommend going with a super sleek and stylish tank-top instead. 

“OK, this sounds like common sense!” Is it? You would be surprised, and we’re not pointing fingers — how many ecommerce businesses are tone-deaf to mapping direct to consumer sales strategy to consumer behavior and trends.

Data will show fewer people are looking to nab a new sweater in the middle of the summer than those looking to get a break from the heat. Of course, that’s in reference to the US markets specifically.

One quick Google search for “consumer data” or “customer data” will get you going pretty quickly regardless of what you’re planning to sell. There’s a plethora of information for “light reading material” ?

Even if you’re just starting out and can’t afford the big-boy data, you can certainly gain ground on gathering your data even if it just means skimming through hashtagged posts on social media, diving into your Google Analytics, and current CRM data.

Knowing your potential demographics and what’s important to them will absolutely help craft great product descriptions that will improve direct to consumer sales.

Using Social Media Support to Enhance A+ Product Descriptions

Coming full circle regarding data, we now arrive at using social media in order to help build your A+ product descriptions.

For one, taking advantage of these free platforms saves you a lot of money on marketing especially if you can generate highly engaging content (maybe it could even go viral!).

Secondly, social media platforms provide a steady stream of information and data, which can then be leveraged in order to ensure your product descriptions reflect your brand and answer customer questions. Every brand should listen to their socials streams — learning in real-time what consumers want to drive high direct to consumer sales. 

Another thing to consider with regard to social media support is having the opportunity to pare down product descriptions (while maintaining their essence) when you’re ready to launch a product, and have coordinated social posts to go with it. When it comes to product descriptions, the more nonrepetitive detail you can provide the better. When it comes to social media posts, less is absolutely more.

Social media support is a constant, valuable two-way flow of information that costs you zero advertising dollars. You can engage your audience while they engage with you, all while gathering copious amounts of free data about what your engaged audiences want, need, feel, or question. For a direct to consumer business, social media usage is win-win!

Personalized Experience

Finally, given that the vast majority of online shoppers want a personalized experience, we’re closing with this recommendation.

While this may go a bit beyond A+ product descriptions, it’s still part of the overall description “experience”, and thus just as important as the other recommendations. After all, the main objective of any brand is to increase its direct to consumer sales, right?

Once you’ve considered everything above, start making efforts to personalize the shopping experience for each potential customer.

What does this look like? That can be complicated depending on what you intend to sell through your DTC business. Educational content and assets, a virtual fitting process, product recommendations for registered and returning customers, tasteful and helpful reviews, and everything in between should be considered.

The goal here is to make sure every single individual who lands on your product’s page feels like they are personally welcome to be there.

Do some research into personalizing your shopper’s experience, prepare your site behind-the-scenes in order to recognize everyone possible who lands on it, and then watch as loyalty to your brand grows.

Your ecommerce business won’t exist without your customers, so make sure they know it and feel it every time they shop with you.

Wrapping it up

Your direct to consumer strategy should, well, focus on the consumer. Is your brand ready to grow your direct to consumer sales? 

At FMDM, we are constantly working with our client partners to increase brand visibility, respond effectively to evolving industry trends, and building more strategies to elevate direct to consumer sales.

What are some ways your business is using A+ product descriptions to increase direct to consumer sales?