A brand refresh, Shopify redesign, and email program that turned a cold list into a warm, reliably-delivered audience.
Email that never reached the inbox
Cold sends were landing in spam at a 0.9% rate right out of the gate, high enough to put the whole list at risk and undermine every other part of the email program before it started. The instinct for most brands is to make cold emails more visual and more sales-forward to drive engagement. For Pawstries, that was exactly the wrong move, and proving it took careful testing, not guesswork.
Testing one variable at a time, trusting the data over instinct
We ran controlled A/B tests on the cold list, changing only one variable per batch to isolate what actually moved the spam rate. A plain opt-in email with no images and no marketing copy came in at a 36% open rate and 0% spam; batches with photos averaged a 2% spam rate instead, a clear signal that minimal, on-platform-feeling copy outperformed anything designed. We moved all future cold sends to that plain format and brought the spam rate down from 0.9% to 0.51%, then to 0.18% after a brand story send to the hot list. A re-engagement campaign to the full 624-person hot list, segmented and timed by provider, landed at 0% spam across both sends. Alongside the email work, we refreshed the brand identity and redesigned the Shopify site, including a new ingredient-focused section with an AAFCO compliance callout to build trust with pet owners reading labels closely.
