The Full-Funnel Strategy That Scaled a DTC Brand from $20K to $1M Without Hiring a Single SDR

One DTC brand managed to achieve remarkable success without hiring any outbound sales team members by creating and executing a full funnel marketing strategy that scaled from $20,000 in monthly revenue to over $1 million in annual revenue without ever hiring an SDR (Sales Development Representative).

This story goes beyond paid ads or social media hacks - it shows how an effective, measurable, customer-focused full funnel marketing strategy can transform an unassuming startup into a booming brand. Here, we'll examine exactly how they did it step-by-step so you can apply this blueprint yourself.

What Is a Full Funnel Marketing Strategy? 

A full funnel marketing strategy encompasses every stage of customer journey--from first touch through repeat purchase. It coordinates marketing activities at every step in the funnel: first contact, initial purchase and repeat purchases.

• Top of Funnel (TOFU): Create awareness and build audience support

• Middle of Funnel (MOFU): Engagement and education

• Bottom of Funnel (BOFU): Conversion and sales activities

• Post Purchase: Retention and Referrals

This approach's strength lies in its ability to meet potential buyers where they are: mentally, emotionally and behaviorally.

Simply stated, full funnel marketing strategies ensure no lead is missed and no customer forgotten after making their purchase.

How a Full Funnel Marketing Strategy Generated $1M Without SDRs

Let's look at how one DTC brand used a full funnel marketing strategy to generate $1 Million without resorting to cold calls, email blasts, or outbound sales reps.

1. Top of Funnel: Building Awareness & Trust

The initial phase in their full funnel marketing strategy focused on audience growth. Instead of throwing money at unstructured ads, the brand focused on:

• Target top-of-funnel search queries with educational blog content aimed at targeting them.

• Organic social posts with an established brand identity

• Collaborations of influencers for credibility and reach.

They invested heavily in SEO and storytelling to ensure their brand was visible where its target customers congregated - well before anyone even considered buying.

TOFU's cost-effective and sustainable marketing approach enabled their full funnel strategy. Each piece of TOFU content served two roles simultaneously - drawing attention and subtly qualifying leads.

2. Middle of Funnel: Nurturing and Educating Prospects

Next came nurturing: an essential element of any full funnel marketing strategy is what happens once someone clicks or follows your link.

Here is what they deployed:

• Email sequences tailored to visitor interest can also be sent automatically.

• Retargeting ads relevant to content consumed.

• Webinars and video explainers that showcase product benefits are also available for viewing online.

• Customer Reviews and Case Studies Shared across Touchpoints

Mid-funnel education was instrumental in increasing product familiarity and trustworthiness for their target customer group; thus their conversion rate significantly outshone industry benchmarks even without SDRs performing direct qualification of leads.

By automating follow-ups, segmenting their lists, and serving content mapped to buyer intent, this brand converted browsers to believers quickly. Their full funnel marketing strategy made sales feel like more of an engaging dialogue than an impersonal pitch.

3. Bottom of Funnel: Closing Without Pushback

To successfully close their sales cycle without hard-selling tactics, their full funnel marketing strategy included creating an e-commerce experience with high conversion rates. At this stage, their full funnel marketing plan consisted of:

• Exclusive limited-time offers based on user behavior are now available.

• Cart abandonment emails highlighting urgency and testimonials will also be sent.

• Live chat support to address last-minute objections

• Exit-intent popups with micro-discounts for fence-sitters.

All of this was accomplished via marketing automation and intelligent design--without needing SDRs to facilitate. Conversion-centric tweaks proved fruitful, leading to an astounding 38% improvement in checkout completion rate.

Even here, the full funnel marketing strategy avoided hard selling by reducing friction and making buying seem effortless.

4. Post-Purchase Retention and Repeat Revenue

One of the most often ignored aspects of any full funnel marketing strategy is what occurs after purchase.

This direct-to-consumer (DTC) brand didn't make that mistake, opting for post purchase marketing that included:

• Onboarding emails containing product care tips.

• Loyalty programs recognizing repeat buyers.

• Referring customers who become advocates is the key to building customer loyalty and making customers advocates.

• Feedback loops provide an effective method of gathering product reviews and insights.

Retention-focused layers in their full funnel marketing strategy helped increase customer lifetime value (CLTV) while decreasing reliance on new customer acquisition.

They leveraged past purchase behavior to inform future marketing initiatives - feeding back into the top of the funnel with smarter targeting and messaging strategies.

Lessons from the Frontlines

Here are three takeaways from this brand's journey that you can apply to your own full funnel marketing strategy:

1. Offer Value - Each piece of content should provide some kind of benefit for readers; giving first helps build trust that eventually converts.

2. Automate Smartly Use automation intelligently - use it to guide, not nag. Behavior-triggered flows outperformed generic blasts by 2.5x.

3. Design is Essential - Conversion optimization was built into every stage of our funnel process from mobile UX design to CTA placement - design provided support at every point along the path to conversion.

4. Understand Your Metrics - A true full funnel marketing strategy must always be driven by data. Following instinct can be fun, but numbers keep us honest!

5. Make Your Customer Experience Part of Your SDR From websites and content creation, packaging design, and phone support - every touchpoint that interacts with your brand serves as part of your sales team. Make every touchpoint an integral component of achieving success for you and your company.

Final Thoughts: The Funnel Is the Future

This case study illustrates one key takeaway from its discussions of full funnel marketing strategy: it doesn't take an army to grow big. With the right full funnel strategy in place, your brand can attract, convert and retain customers automatically and organically.

Success won't happen instantly, but with persistence, creativity, and customer-first practices, you will create an exponential funnel of customers that compounds.

As soon as your budget allows it, take the first step today in mapping and filling gaps along your customer journey, aligning content, ads, and automation processes, and developing your own full funnel marketing strategy to work around-the-clock for you.

FAQs-

Q1. What Is Full Funnel Marketing Strategy

Yes, It takes an omni-channel approach, from awareness to loyalty - rather than solely on acquisition or one-off campaigns.

Q2: Does this approach apply to B2B brands as well as DTC ones?

Absolutely - full funnel marketing strategies provide the framework necessary for sustainable, scalable growth for any type of organization, whether DTC or B2B.

Q3: Will Implementing a Full Funnel Marketing Strategy Be Expensive?

Not necessarily. A successful full funnel marketing strategy requires investing in systems and strategy versus spending directly. Starting off small can allow you to expand over time, especially through automation tools.

Q4: What are some of the key blunders brands make when it comes to marketing strategies?

Overly focusing on just one area of their funnel. A great full funnel marketing plan takes into account education, engagement and sales strategies simultaneously.