The Metrics
- 24x ROI on email marketing investment
- 3x email revenue in just 2 months
- 2.7x increase in total orders over 6 months
- 2.86x increase in email revenue over 6 months
- 1.5x per-recipient revenue from flows
- Flow revenue doubled in 4 weeks, then tripled in 2 months
Before: A 10/10 Brand With a 3/10 Email Program
If It Barks makes handmade dog collars and leashes. Real craftsmanship — personalized sizing, adjustable designs, materials that actually last. Over 2,000 five-star reviews from pet parents who don't just like the brand. They love it.
And the email marketing was doing absolutely nothing with that love.
Here's what we walked into: templates that looked like they were built in 2016. Zero segmentation — every subscriber got the same email whether they'd bought three times or signed up yesterday. The welcome flow was a single discount code and a "thanks for subscribing." That was the welcome. One email. One coupon. Goodbye.
The frustrating part wasn't the missing strategy. It was what was sitting right there, unused.
Pet parents don't just buy dog collars. They buy them because they love their dog. That's an emotional purchase. That's repeat-purchase gold. And If It Barks had 2,000+ reviews of people posting photos of their dogs wearing these collars, writing paragraphs about the quality, tagging their friends, calling the brand "the only collars we'll ever buy again."
All that social proof. All that loyalty. And the email channel was just... sitting there. Generic blasts going out to a list that was slowly tuning out.
Products: 10. Brand voice: 10. Email strategy: 3.
That gap was the entire opportunity.
After: 24x ROI and the Single Most Profitable Channel in the Business
Four weeks in, flow revenue doubled. By month two, total email revenue had tripled. 24x ROI on what they spent with us.
But the number that tells the real story? Over six months, total orders grew 2.7x. Not just opens. Not just clicks. Actual orders. Pet parents pulling out their credit cards because an email made them feel something.
Email revenue grew 2.86x in that window. Per-recipient flow revenue jumped 1.5x — meaning every subscriber on the list was now worth 50% more than before. Same list. More money per person.
Email went from afterthought to the most profitable marketing channel in the business. Not paid ads. Not social. Email.
What We Actually Did
We didn't start with discounts or flash sales. We started with the dogs.
1. The welcome flow was the whole game
Most brands send a welcome email with 10% off and call it a day. We built a sequence that told a story:
- Email 1 — why handmade matters, what makes these collars different from the mass-produced stuff on Amazon
- Email 2 — how to measure your dog for the perfect fit (actually useful content that builds trust before it sells anything)
- Email 3 — the materials, the craftsmanship, the people behind the product
- Email 4 — social proof: real dogs, real photos, real reviews from pet parents who couldn't stop raving
By the time the first promotional email landed, subscribers already knew and trusted the brand. They weren't being sold to. They were being welcomed into a community.
2. We put social proof everywhere
This was the unfair advantage. If It Barks had thousands of customer photos and reviews — real dogs wearing real collars, looking ridiculous and adorable. We pulled them into every email. Flow emails. Campaigns. Transactional emails too.
When a subscriber sees a golden retriever named Cooper wearing a collar that looks great, with a five-star review underneath from Cooper's owner, that's not marketing copy. That's a purchase decision already made.
3. We rebuilt every template from scratch
Mobile-first. Clean. High-quality product photography front and center. Warm colors that matched the brand. CTAs you didn't have to hunt for. The old templates looked like they were designed by someone who'd never bought anything from an email. The new ones made you want to buy a collar even if you didn't have a dog.
4. Segmentation by pet-parent behavior
We split the list by purchase history, dog size preference (small dog collars vs. large breed), product category browsing, and engagement level. A first-time visitor browsing small dog collars got a completely different journey than a repeat buyer shopping the seasonal collection. Because those are two completely different people with two completely different needs.
5. Every automated flow got rebuilt
Browse abandonment that reminded you of the exact collar you'd looked at — with a review from someone who bought it. Cart abandonment that didn't just say "you forgot something" but showed what other customers thought of the product in your cart. Post-purchase that didn't confirm the order, it got you excited for it to arrive. Win-back for lapsed customers featuring new arrivals in their preferred size.
Every flow. Every email. Built around one idea: these products are made by hand for people who love their dogs.
That's it. That's the whole email and SMS strategy.
The Takeaway
Pet parents buy with their hearts. When your email meets them there — with real stories, real dogs, real reviews, and real craftsmanship — the numbers take care of themselves.
If It Barks had the product. They had the reviews. They had the loyal customers. We just gave the email channel the same soul the brand already had.
Doubled in four weeks. Tripled in two months. 24x ROI over the engagement.
Related Case Studies
- The Phoenix: $15.8M in Email Revenue Over 31 Months — Our most complete email case study. The explosive growth, the near-disaster, and the recovery.
- Tactical Traps: 59.3% Revenue Increase — Another brand where storytelling and craftsmanship replaced discount-first email.
- RealGreek.com: 220% YoY Revenue Growth — Email strategy mapped to a community's cultural calendar tripled attributed revenue.
Want Results Like This?
If your brand has a great product and a loyal following but the email revenue doesn't reflect it — we should talk. We'll dig into your Klaviyo account, show you where the gaps are, and map out exactly what we'd fix first. No jargon. No slide decks. Just a straight conversation about what's working and what isn't.