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Case Study Spotlight: How We Generated Over $1.15M for an Outdoor Brand

Case Study Spotlight: How We Generated Over $1.15M for an Outdoor Brand

Mark Daming Mei
October 01, 2024

Welcome back to The DTC Insights newsletter. It’s Mark there from Dahaus Digital.

Happy Tuesday!

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In today’s newsletter, we are going over a $1.15M email marketing case study without relying on heavy discounts or extra ad spend.

Shower Thought of the Week:

"Email marketing is like dating—if you text too much, they’ll ghost you; if you don’t text enough, they’ll forget you exist. But hit that sweet spot, and suddenly you’re going to brunch every Sunday."

The Insights

The Background

This outdoor brand came to us with significant challenges: high customer acquisition costs, low customer lifetime value, and difficulty in building brand trust. Their email marketing was almost non-existent, with only a barebones welcome flow and a poorly optimized abandoned checkout flow.

Problem Recap:

The brand was only attributing around 3% of its revenue to email marketing.
The email campaigns they ran were mostly sales-focused, which meant they were missing out on brand-building and customer loyalty.
The price point of their products was high (ranging from $1000 to $10000), so they needed a strategic approach to convert potential buyers.

The Strategy

By overhauling their email and SMS marketing, we implemented a robust system that was designed to engage subscribers, drive sales, and build long-term customer relationships. Here’s how we did it:

Part 1: List Growth

High-Converting Email Forms: We designed sign-up forms with strong value propositions (e.g., exclusive offers and early product access) to convert visitors. Using visually engaging forms and strategic placements across the site, these forms converted between 4-10% of visitors into subscribers.
SMS Forms & Cross-Promotion: Along with email, we introduced SMS sign-up forms, offering exclusive deals to encourage phone number subscriptions. We also cross-promoted between email and SMS to maximize reach.
Gamified Popups with Amped.IO: By using gamified popups, we grew the email list quickly, capturing up to 11.11% of visitors—a conversion rate that's hard to achieve with any other platform.
Retention.com for Anonymous Visitors: To capture potential leads who browsed the site but didn’t sign up, we used Retention.com to identify and convert anonymous visitors into subscribers.

Part 2: Flows (Automated Funnels)

We built out a comprehensive flow system, comprising 11 email funnels, tailored to different customer touchpoints:

Welcome Series
Checkout Abandonment Flow
Cart Abandonment Flow
Browse Abandonment
Site Abandonment
Email Abandonment
Post-Purchase Series for nurturing customer loyalty
Win-Back & VIP Flows for re-engaging high-value customers
Sunset Flow to manage unengaged subscribers

Result: This flow system drove continuous engagement, converting new and returning visitors into loyal customers.

Part 3: Campaigns

The monthly campaign strategy balanced promotional offers, product launches, and educational content. Here's the breakdown:

Product-Focused Campaigns: Announcements and reminders for new launches.
Value-Driven Content: Educational emails, industry insights, and company updates.
Promotional Engagement: Flash sales and exclusive offers that maintained the brand’s premium image.

SMS Campaigns: Limited to about 4 messages per month, SMS updates were concise and focused on time-sensitive promotions, product launches, and reminders.

Part 4: Deliverability

To ensure emails landed in the primary inbox and not spam:

Branded Sending Domain: We set up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC to authenticate the domain.
Clean List & Segmentation: Regular cleaning of inactive subscribers, using sunset flows to remove unengaged contacts.
Optimized Email Designs: A balanced text-to-image ratio (60:40) and lightweight image files improved load times and accessibility.
Engaged Sending: Emails were primarily sent to highly engaged segments to maintain a high sender reputation.

Result: Improved deliverability rates by 60-90%, healthier list engagement, and higher open/click rates.

The Results: Before vs. After

Before: Email marketing revenue contributed to only about 3% of overall sales, with low engagement and lackluster campaign performance.

After: Within 57 days, email marketing revenue grew to over $200K/month, with consistent campaign success and improved customer lifecycle flows.

Key Takeaways for Your Brand

Strategic List Growth: Capturing both email and SMS subscribers with engaging, value-driven forms can exponentially grow your audience.
Automated Flows: Implementing the right flows (welcome series, abandonment, win-back) keeps your email marketing machine working on autopilot.
Campaign Balance: Mix promotional content with educational and brand storytelling to drive both sales and long-term loyalty.
Deliverability Matters: Clean lists, segmented sending, and branded domains ensure your emails are seen by the right people at the right time.

Want to Transform Your Email Marketing?

If you'd like to see similar results for your brand, let’s chat. Book a free strategy call here.

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