It’s Saturday, which means it’s time for science!
And more Brand Breakdowns, of course. Today we’re inspecting science kit subscription brand KiwiCo’s emails. 🔎
Read on to get killer design inspo and learn why you should always be your own guinea pig when it comes to testing your emails.
In this newsletter, you’ll find: 👇
📦 Brand Breakdown Part 2: KiwiCo (Email)
📦 Making your subscription app seamless with Yotpo
📦 Leverage Cross-Store Selling to power your product catalog with Carro
Read till the end to access exclusive DTC swag. 😎
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*The following emails are in chronological order of how we received them after purchasing.
Email opt-in
KiwiCo’s email pop-up on their homepage is super effective for a number of reasons:
They also have banner and footer opt-ins for the same discount, so we can tell they’re really focused on this welcome offer. As long as it converts, that’s a neat strategy!
Welcome email #1
Our first email from KiwiCo came immediately after opt-in, and we must say, it looks 👌. The offer is front and center, the design is bold and eye-catching, and the use of visuals is really well-done.
We also love the strategy here of allowing users to self-select what product lines they’re interested in (they even have a footer designed for segmentation, too). This allows the brand to gather first-party data and, further segment email contacts into separate funnels based on what line was clicked on. Adding a “How It Works” section is also really smart to address questions up-front and make sure shoppers know what they’re getting.
Note as you’re reading that since we signed up for KiwiCo emails, the discount offer has changed from 30% to 25%.
💡 Pro tips from Pilothouse :
Welcome email #2
The next email is less about conversion and more focused on the brand and delivering value, with the main CTA driving shoppers to a blog post.
💡 Pro tips from Pilothouse :
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Campaign #1
This email looks like a seasonal campaign sprinkled into the welcome series. KiwiCo is leading with educational content here again, and following up with products/offers below the fold.
💡 Pro tips from Pilothouse :
Welcome email #3
The next email focuses on social proof, an excellent strategy to build trust and drive conversions. We also love the repetition of the 30% offer in each email, which will increase the chances of shoppers remembering it and acting on it the next time they think about their kids.
💡 Pro tips from Pilothouse :
Welcome email #4
This “last chance” email is simple and to the point, but we spy a few areas for improvement… 👀
💡 Pro tips from Pilothouse :
Welcome email #5
Wait a second… If the previous email was our last chance for the discount, why is it here again in the next email? 🤔 Curious.
💡 Pro tips from Pilothouse :
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Welcome email #6
Focusing on the engineering aspect of their products is a cool angle. We’d love to see the click data on that video above the fold!
💡 Pro tips from Pilothouse :
✅ Order confirmation
After placing an order with KiwiCo, you receive their order confirmation email, which is pretty basic but gets the job done. They provide the order information needed, ways to modify your subscription, and a number of links back to their site.
💡 Pro tips from Pilothouse :
Welcome email #7 (maybe?)
We received what looks to be like another Welcome Email or potentially a separate campaign after making our purchase. This is a really solid email that moves potential shoppers down the funnel, offers an alternative for subscriptions
💡 Pro tips from Pilothouse :
Further observations and suggestions
From a design perspective, KiwiCo’s emails crush it. They’re cohesive, on-brand, tactful, and make excellent use of UGC and imagery to showcase the awesomeness of their products. 🔥
Logistically, however, we found a few areas of improvement that could take their emails to the next level:
👉 We got a few emails twice in the flow. They may want to run through their flows to find and correct potential glitches.
👉 We’d love to see better use of first-party data gathering to send segmented emails. Between their opt-in and distinct product categories, there’s plenty of room here to send segmented emails based on what a user has self-selected, which will improve conversions.
👉 If this series isn’t performing as well as they’d like, consider more emphasis on conversions up-front. Make the discount more prominent, include conversion-focused emails earlier in the flow, and brand and educational emails later.
👉 We also didn’t receive a delivery notification email or a full post-purchase flow, which is a big missed opportunity for upsells, cross-sells, gathering reviews, and building brand loyalty.
That’s all for today, email nerds! 👋
See ya next Saturday for Part 3 of our breakdown on KiwiCo — SEO/SEM!
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DTC Newsletter is written by Rebecca Knight, Jordan Gillis, and Kelsey Hess. Edited by Claire Beveridge and Eric Dyck.
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