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.

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.
Also for ecommerce and D2C brands
- Buyer personas for D2C brands
- SEO for ecommerce and D2C brands
- PPC for ecommerce and D2C brands
- Lead generation for ecommerce and D2C brands
- Reputation management for ecommerce and D2C brands
- Local SEO for ecommerce and D2C brands
- Branding for ecommerce and D2C brands
- Social media marketing for ecommerce and D2C brands
Sales and marketing for ecommerce and D2C brands, the overview.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
FAQ
Questions owners ask before they call.
Not here? More answers, or ask on WhatsApp.
How much should go to retention rather than acquisition?
Should we test TikTok Shop?
Should we run the ads in house or hire an agency?
The ad platform says it made sales but our bank balance disagrees. Which do we believe?
How long is the contract?
How soon will we see results?
Who will actually do the work?
What do you need from us?
What if we are not happy with the work?
From the blog
Further reading for ecommerce and D2C brands.
6 min read · 10 Oct 2026How ecommerce businesses can encourage repeat purchasesThe first order is the start. Post-purchase messages, reorder reminders, honest review requests and a clear returns policy bring customers back, and a cohort sheet tells you if it works.
7 min read · 21 Sept 2026How to advertise to Gen ZThey are not a taste or a personality. What they share is a way of finding things: search inside the app, check the comments, screenshot it to a friend, and never make a phone call.
7 min read · 23 Sept 2025How to promote a new productThree jobs in order: awareness among people who already buy the category, a cheap way to try it once, and the shelf where they look actually having stock. Launch small enough to learn.
More for ecommerce and D2C brands
Everything else we would do for you.
Closest to this: strategy and research
Also for ecommerce and D2C brands
Or start from the overview: sales and marketing for ecommerce and D2C brands.
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.