Scaling with Google, Facebook, and email marketing
About
Waiakea is a premier sustainable Hawaiian volcanic water brand on a mission to contribute to and promote clean water access, conservation, and education for those in need in Hawaii and throughout the world.
In accordance with the Hawaiian practice and notion of “malama i ka ‘aina” (to respect and care for the land), Waiakea is proud to be the first American premium bottled water and beverage to be certified CarbonNeutral. They’ve achieved this through a variety of eco-initiatives, including using 100% RPET packaging, sustainable sourcing, and regional reforestation projects.
MuteSix has been a leader in the performance marketing space for eight years, scaling some of the world’s fastest growing ecommerce brands. Their team of 300+ includes a dedicated 65-person creative department bringing data-backed, results-driven value to clients.
Waiakea first came to MuteSix with ambitious goals to scale their DTC ecommerce business. The initial goal was to increase brand awareness with trackable sales increases — something MuteSix was more than capable of assisting with. Additionally, the decision was made to bring in Recharge to create recurring revenue by converting one-time purchasers into lifetime subscribers.
“Working with MuteSix and Recharge has been incredible for our online business. Now that we efficiently target subscription acquisition in our ad programs, we have turned a traditionally seasonal product into a consistent growth machine.”
Daniel Kleinkopf
VP of Marketing, Waiakea
Challenge
To grow Waiakea’s business and increase lifetime value in the hyper saturated food and beverage vertical, the focus needed to be on education. To compete with hundreds if not thousands of water brands on the market in the golden age of ecommerce, consumers needed to know what set Waiakea apart from the rest. Data shows that customers are more likely to purchase and subscribe if they’re first educated on the benefits of the product.
With that in mind, initial marketing campaigns were focusing on simply getting the first bottle of Waiakea into customers’ hands. Prospective customers in the food and beverage vertical rarely subscribe to products without first testing them out. With this strategy in mind, the MuteSix team needed to determine which platforms to leverage for promotional education content centered around Waiakea and their superior quality (and carbon neutral) water.
Solution
MuteSix decided on Google, Facebook, and email to promote Waiakea’s educational content. They varied the communication on each platform, knowing that customers who regularly see the same campaign messaging end up tuning it out.
On Google, the goal was to drive awareness and tangible in-store purchases. Because Waiakea was looking to increase brand awareness in specific areas, the power of Google extensions was utilized to increase store sales in those locations.
Results
By rebuilding Waiakea’s shopping campaigns from the ground up with vibrant imagery and optimized fields, they were able to decrease CPAs by 30%. Additional landing pages were designed for acquisition audiences that subtly promoted the benefits of subscribing without aggressively pushing subscription.
On Facebook, ads were run highlighting the product along with Waiakea’s multiple value props. The creatives varied from comparison ads to ads showcasing Waiakea’s giveback and sustainability initiatives.
Breaking out messaging by funnel ensured viewers were not overwhelmed with too much educational information in one ad. Through extensive customer research and testing, creative and copy were tailored to specific personas and targets, which limited inefficient spending to hone in on higher valued customers.
Dedicated email blasts were used to speak to the benefits and perks of becoming a subscriber. Additionally, customers received post-purchase upsell emails with options to join the subscription program. Finally, if a customer decided to cancel, they would be placed in the winback series to grow retention.
The combination of a subscription program and an experienced marketing agency like MuteSix led to a 172% increase in new subscriptions and a 178% increase in overall revenue.
If you’re looking for a free audit of your business or are interested in working with MuteSix, reach out to their team today.
“Once we were able to attribute subscription purchases to paid channels [with Recharge], our ads became more efficient and the value of each purchase multiplied 5X, allowing us to exceed revenue goals MoM.”
Timothy Peou
Director of Paid Social, MuteSix
