How To Use Email To Get More Trials, Convert More Customers & Cross-Sell Products

Dr. Harvey’s is a DTC e-commerce brand who is a pioneer in the pet industry, being the first producer of ultra-natural and all-natural pet food. Since 1984, Dr. Harvey’s has dedicated themselves to following the principles of a fresh, organic, holistic, natural, and top-quality nutrition for pets. Their products contain no added chemicals, preservatives, synthetic additives or coloring agents.

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One of the challenges that Dr. Harvey’s face is common to brands developing cutting edge products: educating customers. Pet owners had to be educated on why the kibble they had been feeding their pets was the equivalent to “fast food” for humans, and why they should switch to Dr. Harvey’s fresh foods.

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Dr. Harvey’s began working with Longplay in November 2021 with the goals to generate more revenue through email primarily by:

1. Getting more customers to convert to buying a trial pack
2. Increasing the conversion rate of trial customers to a full bag purchase
3. Increasing customer awareness to other product lines such as supplements, oils & treats

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The primary focus for the first 3-4 months of the working relationship with Dr. Harvey’s was on flows. Based on the goals outlined by the Dr. Harvey’s team during onboarding above, we decided the critical areas of the customer journey to focus on were:

1. Customers who hadn’t bought a Trial Pack
2. Customers who purchased a Trial Pack but had not purchased a Full Bag 
3. Customers who purchased a Full Bag 

1.Customers who had not bought a trial 

Trial Abandoned Cart 

The Longplay team first focused on optimizing the Trial Abandoned Cart. This flow targeted customers who had shown buyer intent by adding a trial pack to cart but did not complete checkout, so they were the warmest leads to convert into buying a trial. 

The team developed a few hypotheses around why these customers, who had clearly shown interest in Dr. Harvey’s and a trial pack, were not converting: 

1. Customers may have felt intimidated by how to prepare the new food, since it was different from the kibble they were used to and required a few extra steps. The emails had to sell not just the trial, but why customers should want to try fresh food for their dogs and how easy it was to make.
   
2. While price was likely not the objection (since the trial was free and customers only had to pay $3.95 for shipping), customers may not have been sure about the quantity of the trial pack (ie. Was it for a single meal or multiple days?) 

Based on these hypotheses, the team included a few key strategic elements in the emails:

• Promoting the quality of Dr. Harvey’s customer service team who could answer any questions about fresh foods
• Educating customers on the size of the sample
• Including messaging around how easy it was to prepare and clear instructions that were personalized to the specific type of trial pack they had shown interest in

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Campaigns 

The second segment of non-purchasers that the Longplay team focused on was people who had not shown any interest in starting a trial and therefore would not receive the Trial Abandoned Cart emails.

The team developed two hypotheses on why these leads weren’t showing interest in a trial pack:

1. The lead wasn’t aware that Dr. Havey’s had free trial packs
2. These leads were aware of the trial packs but had choice fatigue in trying to decide which of the types of food they should select  

The Longplay team tested the hypothesis by developing a series of campaigns specifically highlighting the trial pack offer to non-purchasers and helping them choose which trial pack to start with.

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Results: In comparing the number of trial bag purchasers over a 6-month period before and after working with Longplay, there was an increase of 30.66% in trial purchasers over a 6 month period. Many of the campaigns also became some of the top campaigns in revenue generated for non-promotional emails.

‍2.Customers who bought a trial 

One of the most critical customer segments that the Dr. Harvey’s team wanted to focus on were customers who had bought a trial and getting them to convert to purchasing a full bag since these were customers with an opportunity for high lifetime value.  

The Longlay team built the Trial Post-Purchase Nurture flows which targeted customers after they had purchased a trial pack, with it segmented depending on the type of trial pack that the customer purchased. 

In building this flow, the Longplay team mapped out the customer journey and mindset of a trial pack purchaser with the goals of:

1. Ensuring customers actually ended up using the trial pack they purchased immediately
2. Educating customers on how to transition their dog from kibble to Dr. Harvey’s fresh food
3. Educating customers on how to prepare Dr. Harvey’s fresh food and making it less intimidating 
4. Personalizing their education on the long-term benefits of fresh food based on the trial pack they purchased & their dog’s pain points 
5. Providing an incentive to purchase a full bag within 14 days of receiving their trial 

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‍Results: In comparing the number of trial bag purchasers over a 6-month period before and after working with Longplay, there was an increase of 33.28% more trial customers who converted to buying a full bag and a 404.84% increase in revenue from trial post-purchase nurture flows.

3.Customers who bought a full bag

The last goal of the Dr. Harvey’s team was to generate more product awareness for their different product lines outside of just dog food: their treats, supplements and oils. The Longplay team targeted customers who already bought a full bag of dog food since they were clearly sold on Dr. Harvey’s commitment to fresh and experienced the quality of Dr. Harvey’s products. 

In building these flow, the Longplay team mapped out the customer journey and mindset of a customer who had just purchased a full bag with the goals off:

1. Ensuring they used the food & knew how to prepare it
2. Cross-selling them to other categories of products that were relevant based on the type of dog food they purchased
3. Encouraging them to join the Dr. Harvey’s Autoship program to never have to re-order again
4. Encouraging them to reorder their full bag or try something new if they did not upgrade to an Autoship plan

Additional personalization was added for a seamless customer experience - for example, customers who had purchased a trial pack prior to purchasing a full bag were excluded from receiving instructions on how to prepare the food since they had already received this information. 

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‍Results: Prior to Longplay, Dr. Harvey’s did not have any email strategy targeting customers who had bought a full bag. After Longplay launched the Full Bag Post-Purchase Nurture and Autoship Post-Purchase Nurture flows, these flows were generating revenue that added an additional 4.6% in revenue to their overall business. 

‍Campaigns 

The Longplay team also developed a series of campaigns that were extremely successful in engagement and revenue generated to achieve these goals as well:

1. Spring Tips From Dr. Harvey’s: A new campaign concept based on the hypothesis that customers trusted Dr. Harvey’s because of his veterinarian background and looked to Dr. Harvey’s for content. 

2. Grooming Collection Highlight: A new campaign concept to generate more awareness for Dr. Harvey’s collection of grooming products. 

3. Multi-vitamin & Mineral Supplement Highlight: A new campaign concept to spotlight a single product based on the hypothesis that customers were having choice fatigue in knowing which supplement to select for their dog. 

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