There is a big fight right now about attribution in the growth side of DTC.

I am not here to jump in the fire because in-platform metrics are out of my league.

I will say that direct response is not the only part of building a brand.

Even though I love ads that convert just as much as you do, I want to bring this conversation away from direct response and talk about how you can use photos and videos to build brand.

Ah brand - that lovely vague word.

Brand is the emotional connection to a company.

Brand is hard to measure because you can't attribute the influence of emotions.

Since correlation is hard to track - most people forget about it or discount it in their marketing decisions.

I am not saying attribution and exact data are wrong but don't forget that there have always been and will always be intangibles in the buying process that will not be detected.

What does this have to do with content?

Funny enough, I don't say this whole preamble to discuss paid ads.

I want to talk about your website.

If you are a DTC brand, your website is your brand's hub.

Social media platforms are rented spaces that you are leasing out, but websites, you own.

Websites should be the place where you can express your brand, your mission, and your personality the most because you have the most control.

A lot of DTC sites I see lack personality because they are focused on conversion and it is so clear they care more about the $$$ than the person.

But is that beneficial in the long term?

Does a highly optimized page build loyalty?

I think sometimes the desire to get numbers up makes us lose sight of the humanity of our customers and our brand.

Customers are people, not numbers, and yet, decisions are made usually by numbers versus thinking about the human on the other side.

How can we bring personality to the site?

Your content.

Recently I have been obsessed of the websites from Graza and Athletic Greens.

They have a video that plays at the top of the header.

Before you are pushed to any action you get the personality of the brand and see the product in use.

This is a video that has no callouts and no direct response.

Media buyers are screaming as I describe the video because they love data and attribution.

Again, remember that your customers are humans and they are buying into YOUR story.

If you want to build brand value, you need to answer these questions:

What do you want them to feel when they have your product?What type of person do you want to attract to your community?How do you want some to talk about your product and company

A video at the top website can tell your story without having to directly sell.

The funny thing is that this video does sell.

It just sells the intangible emotional connection that we call brand.

BuT mAtT - wHaT aBoUt CoNvErSiOn RaTe?!

Yes, page speed might lower a little, but I believe a video like this for your site will actually create a higher lifetime value because the customer is connected to who you are as a brand versus having the fastest route to checkout.

You have the ability to give customers an experience they can't get elsewhere because you have CONTROL on your website.

Use the control to your advantage and make something memorable.

Even if you don't do a header video because I know it is not the preference of everyone, the question you need to ask is:

How do I give people a unique look into my brand on my website?

If not a header video, you can still have videos elsewhere that aren't just showing product features.

You can have product images to show the lifestyle of your brand versus just having callouts.

Not everything has to have a direct response and attribution.

If you were opening a cool store for your DTC brand, you would probably make the space an incredible experience not just optimized for buying.

You would want to keep people in the store for longer and also get people excited to come to the store.

Why not have that same in real life experience but on your website.

Bring character to the content you have on your site.

I am by NO means the person to talk about CRO or Website Design, but I know that we can't forget storytelling within all of the optimization talk.