Client: DTC brand in the outdoor industry
Timeline: Program designed and launched in 4 weeks; results measured over 8 months post-launch
Team: 3 people
The Challenge
The brand wasn’t short on traffic. Paid search (SEA) was driving a steady stream of visitors, but a large share of that traffic left without converting — and once someone landed on the site without buying, there was no structured way to bring them back.
The brand also wasn’t operationally “agile” — no sprint culture, no fast decision cycles. That meant the real challenge wasn’t just designing a membership program, it was getting a non-agile organization to move at the speed a fast-moving digital project needs.
The Membership Program Framework We Used
1. Strategy first, execution second Before touching any tooling, the groundwork was mapped out: what would make someone want to join, what would keep them coming back, and how the program would tie into existing revenue channels — particularly recovering value from paid traffic that wasn’t converting on the first visit.
2. Audit what’s already there Rather than introducing new tools, the existing stack (including the email platform) was assessed for what it could already do. This kept the build lean and avoided unnecessary complexity or vendor sprawl — critical for hitting a one-month timeline.
One example: instead of building a separate messaging environment inside Shopify itself, we used a newer capability within the existing email platform (Klaviyo’s Customer Hub) to create a dedicated space for membership messaging — without touching or reconfiguring the standard Shopify setup. That kept the technical footprint minimal and avoided the risk and dev time that comes with modifying a live storefront.
3. Borrow agile mechanics inside a non-agile org Since the brand didn’t run on sprints, we introduced short, focused hackathon-style working sessions — time-boxed sprints where the small team could design, build, and test in tight loops, without needing to overhaul how the wider organization worked. This let the team move at startup speed inside a traditional structure.
4. Incentivize the first step A 10% signup incentive was used to convert on-site visitors — especially those arriving via paid campaigns without purchasing — into a channel the brand could own and re-engage: email. A signup pop-up converted at a 3% rate.
The Results: 10,000 New Email Signups and +371% Email Revenue
- Launched in 4 weeks, from strategy to live program
- 10,000 new email subscribers in Klaviyo within 8 months of launch
- +371% revenue attributed to the email channel, compared to the previous period
- A newly owned audience that could be re-engaged directly — reducing reliance on paid acquisition alone
Why It Worked
The strongest paid campaigns still lose most visitors on the first visit. Without a way to recapture that traffic, that spend is largely one-shot. By turning anonymous, paid-driven visits into an owned channel — and building the operational speed to launch it in weeks, not quarters — the program turned a leaky top of funnel into a compounding asset: every new subscriber became someone the brand could sell to again, and again, without paying for the click twice.
Curious whether a membership program could work for your brand? Get in touch!
