3 case studies of marketers that made a positive change in customers’ lives (while getting results for their business)

This article was originally published in the MarketingSherpa email newsletter.

I don’t know about you, but when I wake up in the morning and look in the mirror I want to like what I see.

And no, I’m not just talking about that devilishly handsome visage staring back at me.

I mean the underlying human being in that shell. Have I made the world a better place with my actions yesterday? Last month?

And since my job takes up most of my waking hours, the activities I do on the clock have a huge impact on the answer to that question.

If you’re thinking: “Look man, I just need to eat, pay the mortgage, buy the Porsche – I ain’t got time for your soul-searching conundrums. I’m trying to make money.” Well, I hear you. We will show you marketing campaigns that drove results for the business in this article.

But they did more than that. They brought a positive change (albeit maybe just a small positive change) into the lives of the customers they served.

Look I can’t make the case that the work I do is as profound as the cardiologist that saved the young mother’s life, the teacher who helped the overlooked student achieve a breakthrough, or the journalist that doesn’t let the possibility of deadly retribution stop her from exposing corruption.

But I do know this – each day, with each decision we make in our working lives we have a choice to tip the scales of humanity every-so-slightly to better or worse.

We can choose better. And we can get results while doing it.

That’s one of the reasons why marketing can be a powerful way to invest your life and a meaningful way to change your world, as we discuss in this podcast excerpt.

And in this article, we bring you three stories of marketers who achieves results while bringing a small but meaningful change into the world.

First, a cupcake maker who optimized the post-purchase customer experience. Then, an ecommerce bridal site that reached out from the computer screen into brides’ homes to help them choose the perfect dress for that big day. And lastly, an online service that helped people get government IDs without exposing themselves to Covid-19.

Quick Case Study #1: Cupcake maker optimizes post-purchase customer experience, increases triggered email revenue 70%

The company that takes your money and then ghosts you. They are… the worst.

I’ve been shopping for windows and doors lately, and the internet is filled with customers complaining about companies that took their money and then went silent for months.

Now, this doesn’t mean they aren’t working diligently for you. They just aren’t communicating clearly with the customer. Because of pandemic-induced delays and shortages, these products can just take more time to produce and deliver. So, there may be a high-quality door being expertly crafted for a customer at the very moment they are worried and complaining – but they just don’t know it.

This causes unnecessary stress and concern in the customer’s life, and really an unpleasant experience all the way around. For this reason, meaningful marketing shouldn’t stop when the customer makes a purchase. Here’s an example.

Baked By Melissa (BBM) is a cupcake maker founded by former assistant media planner Melissa Ben-Ishay. The company was taking tons of orders online, and the team realized it’s post-purchase customer experience and delivery notification strategy was lacking. 

“While we were so focused on optimizing the user's purchase journey, Baked by Melissa didn't spend enough time on the post-purchase experience for their customers. Once their order shipped, it was left up to the customer to look up and track their orders themselves,” said Rafael De La Rosa, Senior Ecommerce Product Manager, Baked By Melissa.

So, the team decided to combine a post-purchase tracking platform with its email marketing platform to improve its flows and post-purchase marketing approach. By combining order tracking with tailored email flows, the team was able to create more personalized customer experiences.

“Because BBM sells a consumable product and wanted to optimize their Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), they have a strong incentive to optimize their post-purchase flow,” said Jon Palmer, Product Marketing Manager, Klaviyo (BBM’s email marketing platform).

BBM was already running several triggered email campaigns. However, they were not using triggered emails for customers’ post-purchase shipping updates. This new initiative allowed BBM to add a new custom triggered email campaign for their customers’ orders’ shipping journey.

“For example, Baked by Melissa sends customers an email update when their order has left the bakery, when it's in their region, when it's out for delivery, and if there are any delays. After very little post-purchase contact in the past, there's no more guessing when our orders will arrive. This keeps customers in the loop from the order stage until their treats hit the doorstep,” De La Rosa said.

Creative Sample #1: Received delivery email

Creative Sample #2: Order in transit email

Creative Sample #3: Order out for delivery email

“Customers can see every step of a package’s journey via email once an order is placed. From the time the package leaves the retailer to the time it arrives at the customer's door, customers will know where their package is at all times. The entire system is designed to keep customers completely in the loop so they never have to wonder where their orders are,” said Andrew Chan, CPO and cofounder, AfterShip (BBM’s post-purchase and shipment tracking platform).

Within months, the revamped strategy increased total triggered email revenue 70% YoY (year over year). BBM also increased its open rate to 56-60% (outperforming its other triggered emails at 40%) and increased click-through rate (CTR) to 30-35% (outperforming its previous 29% CTR). BBM sent 700,000+ triggered emails in less than a year. These triggered emails (both campaigns and flows) generate around 23% of Baked By Melissa’s total revenue, with flows making up 15% of that.

“This not only increased sales, but perfectly aligned with their brand image and reflected their joyful product designs,” Palmer said.

“By building a centralized hub and a single platform for all their customer journey touchpoints, BBM could better leverage their detailed customer data and deliver their messages in a way that wasn’t possible with their previous system. This centralization was critical for turning a scattered post-purchase experience into streamlined customer-focused touchpoints.”

Quick Case Study #2: Bridal shop observes 30% more sales after getting a 360-degree view of their target customer

Better understanding customers allows us to better serve customers. And better serving customers can create a meaningful change in their lives…for example, helping to make one of the biggest and most important days of their lives turn out exactly how they want it to be.

Cocomelody is a bridal brand offering affordable haute couture for bridal and wedding parties. It caters to brides and bridesmaids across the U.S., Europe, and Asia. Cocomelody designs and sources everything in-house and offers custom alterations at its retail locations. This model cuts out unnecessary middlemen and keeps prices reasonable. It’s e-commerce website showcases 1,500 on-trend wedding dress styles and more than 200 bridesmaid dresses in over 80 colors.

The target customer for Cocomelody is a younger adult, and the most common way for this demographic to shop is on an ecommerce website. Cocomelody offers the ability for customers to build an online showroom so they can invite friends, family members and bridal parties to view, vote and comment on gown choices.

Cocomelody observed steep user drop-offs by previously interested customers. These are high-intent shoppers who would spend a great deal of time on the ecommerce site, and then disengage. Cocomelody also noticed that their ad conversion rates were not growing, which impacted their return on ad spend.

To help them understand where the drop-off was happening, the marketing team at Cocomelody used a data-driven customer engagement platform to segment users based on the purchase funnel and look at different stages of the buyer journey, such as product views, items added to a showroom but never shared, abandoned carts, and more.

“What they learned during this phase was that the most common drop-off happened after customers chose the gowns they admired, but never took an action to buy,” said Meagan White, Head of North American Marketing, MoEngage (Cocomelody’s data-driven customer engagement platform).

Armed with this knowledge, the team started a new program allowing brides to try on gowns at home. For $25, brides can have the option to try on a gown that is shipped to their home, or to have fabric swatches shipped to them before making their decision. Cocomelody created personalized messages across multiple channels to engage with customers and inform them about the new “Try at Home” program.

“The bridal industry is unique. Conversion time lag is very long, usually about six months. One advantage of this long lead time is that we had the ability to conduct multiple A/B tests on our Try at Home offering to understand whether our customers found it valuable. We were able to create different messages for customers who were in different phases of the buyer journey and help push them along to take an action. These channels included SMS/text messaging, emails, push notifications and Facebook retargeting ads. We were able to see just how powerful personalization is when it’s done right,” said James Chen, Operations Director, Cocomelody.

This new program resulted in a 27% increase in repurchase rate, 69% boost in return on online ad spend, and 5% higher cost-value reconciliation. The online bridal shop earned 30% more sales under the “Try at Home” category.

Quick Case Study #3: Online photo ID service helps people apply for government ID cards online, gets 1,050 people to try its service

Almost every company delivers some value to customers…or it won’t exist long. When new or emerging challenges line up with the value a company can deliver, marketers can help make a positive change in customers’ lives.

Many of these opportunities have surfaced due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

For example, due to a policy change, the 2nd of August was the last day to apply online for Polish ID cards. However, many people prefer online services because of pandemic reasons or to save time. The situation pushed them to apply before the change.

With that in mind, the team at PhotoAiD wanted to make the process slightly easier for everybody. The team at the online ID photo service felt they had the perfect skillset to help.

In the last month of online application (July 2^nd to August 2^nd), the team ran a “Free ID Photos Creator - apply the policy changes” campaign. The goal was to provide a free app for taking ID photos online for a month.

As a result, 1,050 people used the service. Brand awareness increased as well, with 2,400 people visiting the landing page. “Thus, I see there both a marketing result and a genuine help we could give to others,” said Natalia Brzezińska, Marketing & Outreach Manager, PhotoAiD.

Related Resources

8 Mini Case Studies of Using Marketing as a Force for Positive Change in Our World While Getting Results for Your Company and Clients

The Data Pattern Analysis: 3 ways to turn info into insight

Mini Marketing Case Studies: 8 lessons for effective branding