Marketing funnel for DTC brands: the seven-touch template

#What belongs in a marketing funnel for DTC brands?

A usable DTC funnel connects the promise that brought someone in with the help they need to choose, buy and use the product.

Seven touches are a planning checklist, not a required sequence for every shopper. Someone can buy straight from a product page. Another person may return through search, read reviews and ask about delivery. Keep a direct route to purchase available.

Use the table to audit coverage. Its metrics are diagnostic suggestions, not industry targets.

A touch can contain several assets. Assign an owner even when an outside partner supplies them. The owner checks whether the next step works, including the links and events used to measure it.

#How do you fill in the DTC funnel template?

Fill the template for a specific product and traffic source before mapping the rest of the store.

Copy these rows into a shared sheet. Replace brackets with actual names and links. For each metric, record the baseline dates and the denominator, meaning the group you divide by. Keep the proposed change in the final column until you have checked the evidence.

An observation belongs before a proposed fix. For Mint & Moss, “the ad links to a collection” is observable. “Customers need a discount” remains a hypothesis.

Choose a reporting period and keep device and traffic source visible. Comparing mobile paid traffic with returning desktop shoppers can hide the actual problem. If the counts are small, record them as inconclusive rather than declaring a winner from a percentage alone.

#Why am I getting clicks but no sales?

Clicks but no sales can mean the wrong visitors, a broken buying path or missing purchase tracking. Check each possibility before spending more.

Start by matching completed orders in your store to recorded purchase events. Then walk the same route as a shopper on a phone, beginning with the actual ad link.

• Check the offer. Does the page show the advertised product, price and availability? Can someone explain who it suits after reading the opening screen?
• Test page speed and usability. On a mobile connection, can you see the product and use the purchase button while images load? Check that pop-ups do not block it.
• Look for trust gaps. Show real product details, genuine reviews when available, delivery information and an accessible returns policy. Never invent proof to fill an empty page.
• Complete checkout. Test the intended delivery region and a supported payment method. Record unexpected charges, forced account creation, error messages and unavailable stock.
• Inspect follow-up. If an eligible shopper asks a question or leaves checkout, who handles the next step? Check whether the reply or reminder arrives and its link works.

Baymard's abandonment research identifies extra costs, delivery, trust and checkout problems among reported reasons for leaving. That makes them useful checks; it does not diagnose your store.

Repair the earliest confirmed failure before testing downstream persuasion. A coupon cannot repair a broken payment step. If the full route works, review whether the ad attracts people who want this product at this price.

#When does a product quiz earn its place?

A quiz earns its place when a shopper's answers change the recommendation or explain how to choose.

For Mint & Moss, room size and scent preference could lead to different products. Show why each result fits, include a direct product link and let a shopper browse without completing the quiz. If every answer leads to the same candle, a short buying guide may do the job better.

Measure the whole route. Quiz completion can improve while purchases per visitor fall because you added work before checkout. Compare the quiz route with a direct product-page route using comparable traffic.

Collect only information you will use to help the shopper. Explain what an email signup includes and keep marketing permission clear. A quiz result should not require someone to agree to unrelated messages.

#What should cart recovery and post-purchase follow-up do?

Cart recovery should help an eligible shopper finish a purchase; post-purchase follow-up should help a customer use what arrived.

#Before the purchase

Separate product browsing, adding to cart and starting checkout. These events show different actions, and contact details or permission may be missing. Confirm which event your tool actually records before building a reminder around it.

Use the product context, answer a relevant question and include a tested checkout link. Suppress reminders after purchase or opt-out. Pause promotional follow-up when someone raises a support problem, and give the reply to a person.

A reported recovered checkout does not prove the email caused the purchase. Shopify's legacy recovery documentation explicitly includes customers who complete checkout on their own after the email was sent. Where feasible, compare an eligible group receiving the reminder with a comparable group held out of it.

#After delivery

Send product-use advice when it becomes useful. Mint & Moss could provide candle-care instructions and a way to report a damaged delivery. A reorder reminder belongs near the likely replacement point, informed by actual purchase patterns rather than an arbitrary calendar date.

Measure repeat buying by cohort: customers grouped by their first purchase date. Give each cohort the same observation period. Otherwise, older customers have had more opportunity to reorder. Track refunds and unresolved support cases alongside repeat purchases.

#How can StackBooster help with this work?

StackBooster is an AI growth team that plans, builds, launches, measures, learns and changes the work each week.

For a DTC founder using this worksheet, the useful starting point is a named product, its current buying path and the evidence behind the suspected leak. That gives the next review a concrete question to answer, such as whether a matching product page helps more visitors reach checkout.

Nothing goes out until you approve it. StackBooster works for one flat monthly fee, never a percentage of ad spend. Bring the completed worksheet when you apply so the conversation starts with the part of the funnel that needs attention.

#What should you check this week?

Use this checklist to turn a suspected leak into a test with an owner and a result you can interpret.

1. Choose a product and the traffic source you want to investigate.
2. Fill every template row with an asset and an accountable person. Mark optional touches as skipped where appropriate.
3. Verify purchase tracking against store orders before interpreting conversion rates.
4. Walk the mobile buying path and capture the first failure with a screenshot or test order.
5. Check follow-up eligibility, purchase suppression and who receives support replies.
6. Write a test hypothesis that names the change, the metric and the baseline period. Set a review date before launch.
7. Review purchase completion alongside refunds and repeat buying where enough time has passed. Log an inconclusive result when the evidence is too thin.

For Mint & Moss, the first test is the ad's destination. Keep the creative and offer unchanged, send comparable traffic to the matching candle page, and inspect add-to-cart sessions and completed purchases. Put the result in the worksheet before ordering another ad.