Direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands have shaken up the retail landscape—offering fresh experiences, building community-first models, and bypassing traditional retail gatekeepers. While getting initial traction online is exciting, sustaining growth and scaling requires a strategic evolution and a deep understanding of social media, paid media, retail media, disruptive content, funnel strategy and more!
As a CPG marketing agency with deep experience helping DTC brands scale, we know the path from a venture or startup to a standout brand making waves requires more than just a killer product and good margins. Here's how your brand can grow intentionally and expand beyond the DTC bubble.
One of the biggest mistakes we see: brands jumping into wholesale or retail too soon. Instead, building a following, getting your manufacturing and distribution nailed down, and working out the kinks of operations are themost important steps, BEFORE selling and pouring gas into your marketing.
Here are a few reminders to check yourself before you fully engage your audience.
💡 Tip: Do your homework on other industry brands OR hire a marketing agency to put together a Go To Market Strategy to help advise you on price, placement, and customer expectations.
Retailers want to see momentum and growth. If you show up to talk to a major retailer and don't have proof of success, you're basically asking them to help you win the lottery. Gaining some traction through various DTC channels and accomplishing some good analytics and data can help you make your case for retail when you're ready.
Adopt a phased channel strategy:
💡 Tip: Use geo-targeted data from DTC sales to show potential retail buyers where demand already exists.
With privacy changes and cookie deprecation, owning your customer data is more important than ever. You need to have a clear picture from paid media and customer data to know who is buying your product, why they are motivated to purchase, and what other products they could potentially have in their basket.
💬 “The DTC brands winning in 2025 are the ones treating their data like gold, not just a byproduct of transactions.”
Products can be copied. Brand experiences cannot. Connection to your audience is priceless as it will build brand loyalty. The most successful DTC brands lead with emotional resonance:
🎯 Ask yourself: If your product disappeared tomorrow, would your customers miss your brand—or just your price point? Also, if you're truly building a brand, you will be able to swing into other products your customers need with ease!
Before scaling into traditional retail, test the waters. You can do this through a variety of ways. Do a product tour through various cities. Attend some conferences. Give away the product for feedback and reviews. And if possible, seek out retailers who may let you do some parking lot events:
Plus, these initiatives create limited-time buzz that often fuels online growth too.
Your performance marketing strategy lives or dies by creative. Period. There's not a cheap way to do quality content, even if the camera quality and crew size is small. Good content requires strategy, pre-production planning, and strong execution.
📈 We’ve seen ROAS lift 3–5x when brands implement consistent UGC testing frameworks. Loyal audiences also respond better to fresh content.
At a certain stage, chasing growth at all costs no longer makes sense. Shift your KPIs to focus on:
This pivot usually aligns with expanding into new markets or channels, where operational efficiency and pricing strategy start to matter more.
🚦 Growth without profit is vanity. Be smart about your scaling timeline. But also remember, brand value is just as important as margins. Growing the longterm vision
Scaling doesn’t always mean more marketing spend—it can mean more ways for your existing customers to buy.
Just make sure new SKUs still align with your core brand promise and audience needs.
Growing a DTC brand in 2025 means thinking like a CPG strategist, not just a startup founder. It’s about building layered growth: direct + retail, brand + performance, data + community, frequency + quality content.
At Revival, we specialize in helping ambitious DTC brands scale smart, not just fast. If you're ready to take your brand from digital darling to household name, we'd love to serve you!
Need help building a growth strategy that sticks?
👉 Contact us for a free brand audit or check out our case studies to see how we’ve helped brands like yours win across various channels!
