From Viral Launch to Acquisition - Making a retention strategy attractive for  acquirers

Tabs is a sexual wellness brand selling aphrodisiac chocolates with a proprietary blend of herbs that has repeatedly gone viral on TikTok. They sought to break down the taboos in a society where it felt “weird” to talk about sex, and wanted to create a retention strategy that educated users about our product, broke down the barriers with some light-hearted fun and sexual innuendos while selling luxury experience through our content strategy. They had rapid growth and high design demands, and wanting to capitalize on the massive influx of website visitors, we set together a plan to:

1. Create a culture of optimization, where every month, we bring to the table new optimizations, flows, and campaigns to increase incremental revenue
2. Redo and elevate their flows to reflect the luxury branding aesthetic
3. Create a customer journey exudes luxury, intimate partner relationships, and taboo-breaking creative content to elevate and inspire while lightly selling this genuinely titillating experience

Redesigning their flows

What is “luxury”? It starts with good brand assets.

Our methods of conversion included engaging customers through infographics, social proof, ingredient breakdowns, humor, and encouraging intimate connection. Balancing humor and luxury undertones created a balance of light-hearted fun to break the taboo of a sexual wellness product while selling the experiential aspect as a once-in-a-lifetime experience to drive the tabs messaging home.

The welcome sequence incorporated design components to create a truly luxurious feel, from the use of arched transitions, gold, white, and chocolate color palettes, GIFs, the careful positioning of brand assets and models, gradient fades, and light touches on copy that sought to bring customers on a “sensually intimate journey for two.”

The abandoned checkout needed a light touch; we wanted to be insistent without being annoying. The use of light-hearted, “small company” rhetoric, social proof, and increasingly intensive discounts led to this flow, and the welcome series brought in the majority of revenue on the flow side.

Our window shopper flow ended up being a surprise winner. It doesn’t always perform, depending on the brand, but for Tabs, it was a giant hit. Our window shopper flow is triggered when customers abandon checkout/view product/abandon cart multiple times in the last 60 days without purchasing (ever). They are effectively window shopping and stuck in the middle of the funnel (MOF). MOF tactics on flows tend to work best for accessories/apparel and high-ticket products where the consideration is greater or the product needs to be worn on the consumer for the decisin to be made. The use of gentle nudging and reminders in this timely triggered email absolutely crushed for Tabs.,

Optimizations

For the 12 months we worked together, we decided on very high lever, effective optimizations that would actually improve incremental revenue.

1.Adding new flows
2. Split testing pop-up
3. Sending more campaigns
4. Sending targeted campaigns to high-value segments to increase campaign volume while maintaining deliverability/email health

Tabs had incredibly high margins and encouraged the use of discounting selectively to drive sales to targeted segments who to push high AOV orders or convert those who were either on the fence, or would not have purchased otherwise. 

Incentivizing VIP’s, Those that have never purchased, BOF would-be buyers, and other audiences proved very fruitful.

We split-tested relentlessly on the pop-up to optimize the mobile experience. For a viral brand that is prohibited from running ads, TikTok and organic socials are the lifeblood of their traffic. Thus, 99% of traffic was coming from mobile. Even a .2% lift on the pop-up could be significant. From testing multi-step questions to colors, CTA style, wording, cashback vs. % off, and adjusting the flows to reflect the offer, we edged close to a 10% opt-in rate, a feat difficult to achieve for a Gen-Z, ADHD audience who are quick to click out of anything involving asking for personal info or with slow load time!

The results? Consistent ~20% attributed revenue, and millions earned from the retention channel that continues to go strong to this day.

As Tabs scaled, they became attractive for acquisition and started talking to buyers. Part of that process was interviewing all agencies for their insight as they transitioned owners. We broke down our process for engaging customers, optimizations, campaign cadence, and general strategy on retention. Upon transition, the acquirers kept us an agency and we still work together to this day!