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Ecommerce and D2C brands · Digital marketing

Decide the channel mix on what a customer is worth by day ninety.

Digital marketing for a D2C brand is the plan that puts money against acquisition, retention and the marketplace in proportions your margin can carry. GullySales writes that plan from your own cohort numbers, repairs the owned channels before adding spend, and reports what each one left behind.

Scope, fee, reporting and term are agreed in writing after we have read your brief and spoken to you.

Realistic editorial illustration of ecommerce and d2c brands at work in the United States

What digital marketing means

Digital marketing is the combined work of search, social media, advertising and website channels running together rather than as separate projects with separate people. GullySales runs these as one connected system so a change in one channel, such as a new offer, is reflected everywhere at once.

Last updated 5 Oct 2026.

For ecommerce and D2C brands

Where it usually goes wrong, and what we would do.

  • “Two businesses, two sets of economics”

    Your own store and the marketplace have different costs, different customers and different risks. Planned as one, the weaker quietly lives off the stronger.

  • “Creative supply is the real budget ceiling”

    You can raise the spend on any channel in an afternoon. You cannot raise the number of videos one founder can shoot in a week.

  • “Retention looks dull on a plan and pays first”

    The flows you have not built cost nothing in media. They are also the only place a customer bought at a loss turns a profit.

  • “Peak is planned from the stock backwards”

    What you can ship decides what you can sell. A campaign written before the inventory plan sells out the wrong line on the first weekend.

What we do

What we deliver for ecommerce and D2C brands.

Every deliverable, what it covers for you, and the result it is there to produce. Nothing here is an extra.

  1. A cohort view of what a customer is worth

    Orders grouped by the month the customer was acquired, with goods, shipping, fees and returns taken off, read out to ninety days and beyond.

    Result: The budget conversation starts from a real number.

  2. A budget split written down per channel

    What goes to prospecting, brand search, retention and the marketplace, with the reason for each share and the point at which you would change it.

    Result: Nobody has to guess where next month's money goes.

  3. Owned channels repaired before more spend

    The flows, the product page and the capture form put right first, because none of them need media money before they start earning.

    Result: The traffic you are already buying converts better.

  4. A creative production rhythm

    A batch briefed from reviews, support tickets and objections, with shooting, editing and approval slots booked in advance rather than squeezed in.

    Result: The plan is not limited by one person's free evening.

  5. A marketplace plan with its own numbers

    Listings, sponsored spend and fees kept as a separate line with a target of their own, testing one platform at a time rather than three at once.

    Result: Marketplace volume stops being mistaken for brand growth.

  6. A read of the whole picture

    Platform-reported figures and your own bank numbers shown side by side, with repeat rate, flow revenue and wholesale orders next to them.

    Result: Two versions of the truth stop being argued about.

How the result is measured

  • Enquiries across channels
  • Cost per enquiry overall
  • Channel mix by contribution

Recorded as a baseline before work starts, so every later report has an honest comparison.

Where to start for a brand

Count what a customer is worth by the second order, then place the spend.

A cohort sheet from your order export
Group customers by the month of their first order and note who ordered again and when. Do this before any channel decision, because every later budget depends on it.
Abandoned checkout and post-purchase messages
Set up the cart reminder and the order-confirmation follow-up on email and WhatsApp, with consent captured at checkout. Record how many carts return and what they buy.
Brand search on Google
Make sure your own brand name search shows your store, your reviews and your sitelinks, and that nobody else bids on it cheaply. Record the orders that begin there.
Meta ads with a creative queue
Start with a few clear product videos and one offer, then replace what tires. Tag each ad in the order notes so the cohort sheet can tell which creative brought a repeat buyer.
Marketplace listings
Treat Amazon or Flipkart as its own account with its own margin, returns and fees. Record the net per order there and do not mix it with the store's numbers.
What to leave until later
New platforms, influencer seeding at scale and heavy discounting. Wait until the repeat rate is known, because a cheap first order only helps if the second one follows.

Who it is for

This is written for these ecommerce and D2C brands.

  • Single-product and founder-led D2C brands
  • Apparel, footwear and accessories brands
  • Beauty, skincare and personal care brands
  • Supplements, food and beverage brands
  • Home goods, furniture and higher-value considered purchases
  • Subscription and replenishment brands
  • Brands selling on Amazon and their own Shopify store
  • Wholesale-first brands building a direct channel
  • Brands past their first million with no in-house marketing team

Not for

It is not the right fit if.

  • You cannot match an order in the store to the ad account that claimed it, so a channel mix could not be judged on real sales
  • You sell one product with no repeat order, so a plan built around customer value past the first order has nothing to work with

How it works

How the digital marketing work runs

The work itself, in order. How an engagement starts, from your brief to a written scope, is set out on our method page.

  1. 1

    Agree the one aim

    We settle what the campaign must achieve, such as enquiries for a launch or footfall for an event, and the date it must be live.

  2. 2

    Check what is ready

    We list the channels you already run, who runs them, and what each can produce in the time available. Anything that cannot be done properly is left out.

  3. 3

    Write the idea and the message sheet

    We draft the one-sentence idea, test it against each planned format, and fix the wording that all channels will copy.

  4. 4

    Brief every channel from the same sheet

    Your agency, freelancer or in-house person receives the message sheet and calendar. Their work is checked against the sheet before it goes out.

  5. 5

    Run on the shared calendar

    Channels go live together. If the offer changes, every channel is changed on the same day from the same sheet.

  6. 6

    Measure as one campaign

    Enquiries and orders are read against the baseline. The reporting schedule is agreed in writing with the scope.

Where this fits

Three pieces of sales work, in this order.

This work sits inside sales process design, at stage 0, foundation. The audit comes before it, and sales management keeps it running.

  1. Step 1

    Sales audit

    Find where deals are being lost and what to fix first.

    Start here if you cannot say where orders are lost.

  2. Step 2 · you are here

    Sales process design

    One written way to sell, from first enquiry to repeat order.

    Start here if every salesperson sells differently.

  3. Step 3

    Sales management

    A target, a review routine and someone who owns the number.

    Start here if the team has targets and no routine.

Tell us what you need Your brief is read before we call. Scope, fee and term in writing.

FAQ

Questions owners ask before they call.

Not here? More answers, or ask on WhatsApp.

How much should go to retention rather than acquisition?
It turns on whether your product has a second purchase at all. A mattress brand and a coffee brand should not have the same split. We work the number out from your own repeat rate and write it down.
Should we test TikTok Shop?
After the flows are built and the product page is fixed, not before. A new channel adds work to a team already short of creative. When you do test it, price in the fact that the platform keeps the customer relationship.
Should we run the ads in house or hire an agency?
Keep the creative and the customer data close, because only you know the product and the returns. Hire outside help for account set-up or a specific skill. Whoever runs the account, you should own the ad account, the pixel and the customer list.
The ad platform says it made sales but our bank balance disagrees. Which do we believe?
Believe the bank and the order export. Platforms count views and clicks that a customer might have made anyway. Compare each week's platform claim with the orders and returns in your own sheet, and judge channels on what the cohort did after the first order.
How long is the contract?
The term is agreed in writing after we have spoken, along with the fee and the reporting. It is never a default twelve months, and renewal is decided on the numbers against the baseline recorded at the start.
How soon will we see results?
It depends on the trade, the channel and what is already in place. After we have read your brief and spoken to you, we say what we would expect to move first and how it will be measured against the baseline. Nothing here is guaranteed.
Who will actually do the work?
The person you speak to before anything starts. We work from one office in Nagarbhavi, Bengaluru, with no account managers in between.
What do you need from us?
Your brief, and a conversation. After that, access to whatever this work touches, such as your website, your accounts or your enquiry record, and time with the people who handle your enquiries.
What if we are not happy with the work?
Tell us and the plan changes. Everything is reported against the baseline, so a number that is not moving is visible to both sides. The term is in your written scope, and the refund and cancellation policy sets out the rest.

Your next practical step

Tell us what you are trying to grow, and we will read it before we call.

Eight short steps, mostly taps. Skip anything you would rather answer on the call.