While fishing can be a solitary pursuit, anglers are a dedicated community. A chance encounter with another angler may quickly turn the conversation to stories of your best catches and most successful techniques.
Ardent Outdoors, based in Macon, Missouri, sells high-quality reels, rods, and other equipment used by both recreational and professional anglers.
Thanks to a fresh investment in their email marketing, Ardent knows the value of engaging their most loyal customers more than ever.
The Challenge
Freshwater fishing brand Ardent Outdoors has a Pro Staff Loyalty Program that gives members deep discounts on Ardent’s entire product line. For example, JT Kenney, a professional angler and host of Major League Fishing — a television show revolving around the professional bass fishing league — is a Pro Staff member and Ardent brand ambassador.
But Ardent suspected they weren’t leveraging the Pro Staff Loyalty Program to their best ability. They engaged eAccountable in July 2021 to come up with new ideas to keep customers hooked.
Our Solution
We partnered with Ardent initially on their Amazon channel and soon after added on email marketing.
When the right strategies are implemented, email marketing can have a large return, with ROI averaging up to $40 for every $1 spent.
Here’s how we reinvigorated Ardent’s revenue from email:
- Implement small tweaks that increase opportunities to shop
- Increase the overall number of sends to Ardent’s email list
- Focus specifically on engaging the loyal Pro Staff list
Using Email to Reel in More Revenue
When it came to Ardent’s email marketing strategy, we found that a few important tweaks made a big splash.
First, we wanted to make it as easy as possible for Ardent’s audience to navigate through to their products. We revisited Ardent’s email template and added evergreen elements like a “Shop by Category” section:
While Ardent has a good-sized email list, they weren’t sending emails very frequently. We saw this as an opportunity to experiment: Increasing relevant email sends gives customers more opportunities to interact with your brand. But would they take the bait?
As it turns out, yes! From 2021 to 2022, the eAccountable team was able to increase Ardent’s year over year email revenue to their general email list by +97.84%.
We also increased revenue from Ardent’s Pro Staff Loyalty Program segment by a whopping +863% year over year.
Strategies that Work — Hook, Line & Sinker
There’s a good reason to focus on loyal faces: Research shows that repeat customers spend 67 percent more than new customers.
This was true in Ardent’s case as well. Our email focus on Pro Staff members paid off, both for Ardent and their loyal customers.
Ardent’s business from repeat customers accounted for more than 85% of their total revenue for the year we’ve worked with them.
Meanwhile, their customers get to build their relationship with a brand that serves them great deals.
Need Help Building Your Email Strategy?
Our email marketing experts have helped customers improve their email marketing in a way that pays dividends for revenue growth, even building email strategy from the ground up. Contact us today for a free chat about your email goals—and how the team at eAccountable can make them a reality.