Case Study: How Emails Brought a Sex Shop 20% of Its Revenue

Results: We achieved a conversion to purchase of 3.11% and ROMI of 221.69%.

The Client

Over a 10 year period, the store had collected a database of 7000 email addresses. However, not one email was sent out. The founder of the project, Anton Morozuk had been cooperating with Netpeak in other projects. In 2020, the agency introduced a new email marketing service and the client then decided to try an additional sales channel. 

The Challenge

The main challenge we faced was to establish a profitable email channel in a difficult niche with only a small 'cold' base (which did not subscribe to emails) and working from a new domain.

We had the following goals:

1. Test a new source of traffic.
2. Increase sales via email channel.
3. Raise LTV of regular customers.

Note: In the adult ("18+") niche, you need to be as careful as possible when creating emails. If the content of the email is found to correspond to a category on the restriction list of the mail service, there is a risk of the mail being blocked and even the sender's account could be affected.

The Solution

1. Subscription forms with a lead magnet in the form of a discount were placed on the website, and we started collecting a base of followers. Meanwhile, we set up DOI so that only valid contacts with interest in emails were added. To gain more attention, we created an animated widget and unusual pop up subscription form.
2. We then set up basic triggers such as welcome-series, abandoned cart, and browse.
3. With the help of abandoned cart and browse, we brought back clients that left the website without making a purchase.
4. Welcome series were launched for new followers. In the first email of the series, a promotional code for a subscription discount was added (email template). Then, the benefits of the store were explained in order to increase the trust and loyalty of readers (email template).
5. Promo mailing was launched, and we regularly added unique offers with discounts and campaigns exclusively for suscribers. It was necessary to extend lifecycle of contacts and increase the number of purchases with the help of unique offers.
6. We also added interesting ideas to the email, such as how to get more pleasure from sex. We strived to ensure that, in addition to discounts, the information in the emails remained useful for subscribers. In the long run, such an approach without aggressive "buy-buy" helped to increase the loyalty of a cold audience; therefore, the number of purchases increased.

The Results

1. ROMI (return on marketing investment) increased from 53% to 221.69%.
2. Share of email channel from the beginning of August 2020 to the end of November 2020 was 16.52%.
3. CR (conversion rate) of 3.11% throughout the channel, of which 6.61% were from triggers.
4. Deliverability of higher than 99%.
5. Openability of 6-9%.
6. Clicks to the website from emails ranged from 16% to 22%.
7. Despite a small base, consisting mainly of customers who had never received emails from the brand, we were able to make this audience engaged and interested in buying.
8. Thanks to our efforts, from the second month of emails, the income from the email channel began to contribute 10% to 20% of the total income. For comparison, the standard percentage is about 5-6%. With such a small base, this is an amazing result.
9. The welcome series allowed the generation of income from new subscribers, not just from customers. The better the forms were configured, the more people subscribed, which meant more income from the welcome series.
10. As a result of the 'abandoned cart' emails, up to 10% of customers who viewed products but never placed an order returned to the website.

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