Email Marketing Case Study
Specialty Optical Systems (SOS) was founded in 1981, initially focusing on distributing microscopes, optical systems, and technical lighting. Over time, SOS expanded its product offerings, becoming a leading distributor of over 4,500 parts, including those for the semiconductor, medical, and industrial sectors.
In 2006, SOS launched SOSCleanroom.com to provide specialized cleanroom products, supporting pharmaceuticals, healthcare, and education industries. SOS is a certified Woman-Owned Small Business (WOSB) and holds multiple certifications, enhancing its role as a reliable partner for government agencies and educational institutions.
Challenges
The challenge with SOS’s email marketing strategy stemmed from pricing competition with manufacturers offering direct order or drop-ship discounts. These manufacturers often undercut SOS’s pricing, attracting customers with lower costs. However, customers who chose these options typically had to order from multiple suppliers to meet all their needs, leading to potential back-order issues and longer fulfillment times.
SOS, on the other hand, offered bulk purchasing options, the ability to order products from multiple manufacturers in one place, and a subscription service for recurring orders. Additionally, SOS stocked much of its inventory in-house, providing a reliable alternative when other suppliers faced stock shortages or fulfillment delays. This competitive edge was key, but it had to be communicated effectively to clients through email marketing.
Objectives
Increase Customer Retention and Conversion by Highlighting SOS’s Competitive Advantages
Our approach focused on leveraging SOS’s unique selling points to retain current customers and convert new ones while encouraging orders via subscriptions.
The Email Marketing strategy centered on a few key items:
- Emphasizing Reliability: Communicate the benefits of SOS’s in-stock inventory and bulk order options, highlighting how customers can avoid the frustrations of dealing with back-orders and multiple suppliers.
- Subscription Option Promotion
We promoted the recurring order subscription option, making it clear that customers can set up a reliable and hassle-free system for regular product delivery at their preferred quantities and schedules. - Highlighting Multi-Manufacturer Convenience
We showcased how customers can order products from various manufacturers in one place, offering a simplified and more efficient ordering process than competitors, saving the orderer time and money. - Pricing vs. Value
While we knew we were up against acknowledging the lower pricing options from direct order and drop-ship suppliers, we focused on the added value of reliability, convenience, and customer service that SOS provides, justifying the cost difference. - Tailored Offers: Use segmentation to send personalized offers based on purchase history, highlighting specific products or categories relevant to each customer. I did this by sending specialized offers or targeted marketing to those who had previously lapsed subscriptions, or for groups of subscribers who previously expressed interest in bulk items, and also for items that were out of stock at one point but are now back in stock.
I needed to communicate the added value of SOS’s offerings to our email subscribers, positioning the brand as the more reliable and efficient choice for customers’ cleanroom supply needs.
Approach and Strategy
- Target Audience
The emails target personnel who regularly order cleanroom products like gloves, gowns, and other essential items. These individuals are likely in roles that require regular ordering of supplies, such as facility managers, purchasing agents, or operations staff. - Approach
The campaigns and automated email flows emphasize SOS’s reliability and address pain points like stock issues, back-orders, and multi-supplier ordering. The emails are clear, concise, and personable, highlighting SOS’s bulk ordering, multi-manufacturer options, and subscription services as solutions while using segmentation and dynamic fields to personalize content for each recipient. - We’ve focused on offering more than just product promotions in our emails. While it’s important to highlight products, we’ve prioritized providing valuable, helpful content that benefits our readers in these industries. This approach has strengthened our credibility with email service providers (ESPs) and demonstrates how consistent, thoughtful efforts lead to steady progress. By regularly sending both plain text and designed emails on optimal days, we are starting to see the positive results of this strategy.
- Tools/Platforms Used
The campaign will be executed using an email marketing platform of the client’s choosing. Mailchimp and Klaviyo were both used and were already established email marketing platforms used for campaigns and automated emails for this client. BigCommerce, X, and Facebook were integrations in place to manage customer segments effectively. These tools helped target specific groups based on behavior, company position, and purchasing patterns and frequency, allowing for personalized and relevant messaging that resonates with the audience’s pain points to offer them a solution.
RESULTS
- As we made adjustments, you can see below that it reflected in: positive-improvement click-rate analytics, attributed revenue from automated flow emails, and in the improved placed-order rates (statistics gathered from Mailchimp’s Beta Analytics platform and Klaviyo’s analytics reporting).
- We saw consistent numbers in our flow email performance from Klaviyo, as shown below:
- Our click rates improved over time, with periodic spikes in performance.
- ⏬The below image displays how list maintenance also played a considerable role in the email marketing services we provided for SOS, and you can see its effects below in the consistently lowered bounce rate resulting in successfully delivered email campaigns to subscribers.
Shown Below ⏬
We saw a 31% increase from the previous year whilst using automated email flows to capture abandoned cart sales, as well as up-sale options and options positioning subscription orders to solve supply issues and keep the essential items on hand for our customers.
QUANTITATIVE RESULTS
- The Klaviyo attributed conversions were up +31.71% relating to all flow-related email efforts at $209,124.69 for the 2024 year.
- The Mailchimp open rate improved incrementally over the year, as shown below (with January 2025 results not being shown/calculated/complete yet).
- Our clicks per unique email open also improved, showing 12.1%.
- Our flow email performance improved by 15.29% collectively.
- Our subscriber list maintenance garnered lowered bounce rates from our highest of 2.8% bounce rate when we started making efforts to clean our subscriber lists, to a much-improved .62% bounce rate.
- Our delivery rates have also remained consistent at over 99%.
Client Testimonial
“Our company, SOSCleanroom.com, is having a great experience with Imprint Digital. Dustin and his team responded to all my inquiries in a timely manner and are very professional. The pricing was affordable, and the service quality was excellent. I highly recommend Imprint Digital to anyone looking for effective digital marketing solutions.”