Email marketing · Klaviyo · Six months
3sixteen
From ignored
to $541K.
- $541K
- Email revenue, six months
- 24%
- Of total sales
- 14K
- VIP members from zero
3sixteen makes raw denim in New York and has the fabric woven in Okayama. The email list held 290,000 names and almost none of it was working. Six months later, email was carrying 24% of sales.
- Client
- 3sixteen
- Category
- Menswear, raw denim
- Discipline
- Lifecycle email
- Platform
- Klaviyo
What arrived
A list of 290,000 names, and about 40,000 of them were real
3sixteen had already done the hard part. The denim is woven at Kuroki, a family mill in Japan, and the shop sells it to people who can tell the difference across a room. The product was never the problem.
The Klaviyo account was. There were 290,000 contacts on the list, the automations were running, and campaigns went out on a schedule, so on paper it read as a healthy programme. In practice about 40,000 of those subscribers were active, and the newsletter went to all 290,000 anyway.
Every send to a dead address cost the sender reputation a little more, and the reputation is what decides whether the next send reaches an inbox at all. Campaigns carried about 20% of the revenue email produced and the automations carried the rest, where a healthy account splits that closer to even. We had six months to move it.
What we rebuilt
Three repairs, in the order they had to happen
Delivery first, because nothing downstream matters while the mail lands in junk. Then who gets it. Then what it looks like when it opens.
- 01
Mail the people who answer
The largest single gain came from writing down what active means and then sending only there. Clicks outrank opens in every rule we wrote, because someone who opens thirty emails and never clicks is not a quiet buyer waiting for the right moment, they are a habit.
The rest of the list was not deleted. It got one more chance through the winback flow, and when that failed it was suppressed, since protecting delivery for the people who read is worth more than a bigger number on a dashboard.
Active subscriber, as defined in the account
- 01Person is not suppressed
- 02Opened email at least once in last 90 days
- 03Placed order zero times in last 7 days
- 04Clicked email at least once in last 90 days
- 05or active on site in last 90 days
- 06or placed order in last 180 days
- 07Email bounced fewer than 5 times, all time
Bounce rate
5%<1%
Bounced and inactive contacts suppressed
Open rate
<20%40%+
Active segment, and subject lines tested against it
Click rate
<1%4%+
One clear call to action, designed for a phone
- 02
Build a tier worth belonging to
Seven thousand invitations went out to customers with three or more orders. Three thousand of them joined inside the first three days, and the tier reached 14,000 members by July on referrals and giveaways. Members see every drop a day early, which costs the brand nothing and is the one thing they ask for again and again.
Cadence moved with it, from an occasional newsletter to two campaigns a week: one to the VIP tier and one to the wider engaged segment. The VIP send goes to fewer people and does most of the work.
1 × VIP-only campaign70% of campaign revenue
1 × general engaged segment30% of campaign revenue
- 03
Rebuild every template for a phone
Around 85% of opens happen on a phone, so the phone is the design rather than the fallback, and every template was rebuilt from nothing on that assumption. Black and white body, one bright button, the first call to action above the fold, and no header menu eating the top of the screen.
Nothing was called until a test had run to more than 10,000 recipients, which is what settled the longest argument in the account. A percent discount beat free shipping, loyalty points and bundles on placed orders, and it did not win by a hair.
- Subject linesUrgency, with an emoji as the first character
- TemplateBlack and white body, one bright button
- OfferPercent discount, over shipping, points and bundles
- LayoutNo header menu, smaller logo, first CTA above the fold
- PersonalisationVIP exclusivity and early access framing
Each row is the winner of a live test, not a preference.
Six months, in the account's own numbers
Campaign attribution moved from 20% to 50%
Email revenue reached $541K in six months, and the channel settled at 24% of everything the company sold. The strongest campaign of the period was the VIP launch, which opened at 67%.
Automations were never the weakness here. They were carrying four fifths of the channel on their own, which is what a healthy account looks like right up until you notice the other half is missing.
Before
After
A healthy account splits campaign and automation revenue close to evenly. Neither half should be carrying the channel alone.
The system
This is what it sends
Five flows, drawn at the size they are read, built with 3sixteen's own photography and written the way the brand writes. The trigger, the timing and the intent under each one are what runs in the account. The subject lines and the body copy are written for this page.
Welcome
The one moment a subscriber is certain to be paying attention is the one right after they sign up, so the offer goes first and the reason to care goes second.
- Trigger
- Joins the list, no order yet
- Timing
- Immediately, day two, day five
- Intent
- Earn the first order, not the first click
Start with the denim.
Ten percent off your first order. Before you spend it, a few things worth knowing about how the fabric is made.
Shop denim
Where it comes from.
Our denim comes off looms at Kuroki, a family mill in Okayama. The yarn is rope-dyed and the looms run slow. That is the whole reason a pair fades the way it does.
Read the fabric notes
Four fits, one of them yours.
The CT-100x is slim and straight. The ST-100x tapers below the knee. The SL-100x sits relaxed through the thigh. Between two sizes, take the smaller and let it give.
Find your fitBack in stock
A restock notice is the rarest thing in email, a message the person has already asked you to send, so it goes once and it goes fast.
- Trigger
- Size restocked on a fit they viewed or waitlisted
- Timing
- Within the hour
- Intent
- One send, no follow-up
Back on the shelf.
The size you asked about came in today. We cut these in small runs, so this note goes out the hour the boxes land.
See itThe first month
Raw denim gets better with wear, so the post-purchase flow teaches instead of selling, and the second order arrives anyway.
- Trigger
- Order marked delivered
- Timing
- Day three, then day thirty
- Intent
- Teach first, cross-sell second
The first month.
Wear them often and wash them late. Most people go six months before the first wash. The creases you set now are the ones you keep.
Read the care notes
What goes over them.
The knees will have started by now. Everything we make is cut to sit next to a pair of raw denim, so the list is short: an overshirt, a knit, a plain tee.
See the restThe VIP tier
Fourteen thousand people joined this tier for a day of early access, which costs the brand nothing to give and is the only thing they consistently ask for.
- Trigger
- Third order ships
- Timing
- Same day, then ahead of every drop
- Intent
- Access, not discount
You're on the list.
Three orders in, so here is the door. Members see every release a day early and hear about collaborations before they are announced.
Join the list
Before anyone else.
The collaboration goes up publicly tomorrow morning. Today it is yours. Sizes are limited to what the run produced.
Shop early accessThe one that stops
The last flow in the account exists to make the list smaller, and it is the reason the other four land where they are meant to.
- Trigger
- 120 days with no open and no click
- Timing
- One send, then suppression
- Intent
- Ask once, then let go
One last note.
You have not opened us in four months, which is fine. Click once and we will keep sending. Do nothing and we will stop, and the list gets better for everyone still on it.
Keep me on the listIllustrations of the flows, rebuilt in markup so the type stays sharp. Not screenshots of live sends, and no figures inside them: every number on this page belongs to the programme and sits in the band above.
What it taught us
A click is worth more than an open
An open is curiosity and a click is intent, so we weight clicks above opens in segments, in flow filters, and in how a campaign gets judged after it lands. It is the single rule that changed the most on this account.
A tier grows fastest where it grows worst
The VIP tier filled quickest through giveaways and referrals, which is also how it collected its weakest members, because a giveaway hunter is not a buyer with a slow start. Build the tier on purchase history and let it grow at the speed that produces.
A list is not an asset until someone edits it
Deciding who belongs on the list is unglamorous, it costs you a number you used to quote in board meetings, and it is the reason this account works now. The winback flow gets one attempt; after that, suppression.
A channel the brand owns outright
Nothing in this programme depends on an auction. The flows send whether or not a bid clears, the tier grows on its own referrals, and the revenue arrives at a cost the brand sets rather than one a platform sets for it.
Six months is enough time to fix delivery, decide who belongs on a list, and give a brand something worth opening. It is not enough time to build the list twice, so the order matters more than the effort.
Results Disclosure: Results described in this case study are specific to this client engagement and are not guaranteed. Individual results will vary based on budget, industry, competitive landscape, market conditions, execution, and other factors. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Machina makes no representation that any client will achieve similar outcomes.