A robust email marketing program is critical for a fast growing brand. When Pura Vida Bracelets was overhauling their email ecosystem, they knew they’d need more than a basic vendor—they wanted an expert partner who could get to know the company’s unique customer base and business model to drive results.
Background
Pura Vida Bracelets, a fast-growth retailer of hand-crafted bracelets from Costa Rica, launched in 2005 when founders Griffin Thall and Paul Goodman crossed paths with Jorge and Joaquin, two bracelet peddlers, while traveling in Costa Rica.
Griffin and Paul loved the bracelets and felt that they exemplified their philosophy of living life to the fullest. Griffin and Paul asked Jorge and Joaquin to make 400 bracelets to take home with them, which they would bring to boutiques in their hometown of San Diego. The bracelets were immensely popular, and soon Griffin and Paul formalized their partnership with Jorge and Joaquin, and began selling the bracelets online. Fast-forward to 2016 and Pura Vida is a powerhouse brand with over 4,000 retail partners, a loyal customer following, and global recognition with both Griffin and Paul making the coveted Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2015.
Griffin Thall and Paul Goodman, bringing pura vida to a global customer base.
In order to build Pura Vida Bracelets, Griffin and Paul prioritized a robust email marketing program that could build brand awareness, improve the overall customer experience, increase revenue, and bring “pura vida,” which means “pure life” in Spanish, to more people around the world.
An Ideal Partnership
It’s this need that led Pura Vida to Elite SEM to build an email program from the ground up. Griffin, Paul, and their team knew that they needed a vendor that was equal parts creative and analytical. Revenue, inbox deliverability, and list growth were top of mind.
As Pura Vida Bracelets grew, it became apparent that email was one of the company’s most successful marketing channels. The company wasn’t ready to put their marketing program’s fate into the hands of just any vendor.
Elite SEM offered strong, tested end-to-end processes, and was willing to step in and adapt to Pura Vida’s needs. Griffin saw that the company was great at achieving results, and could highlight specific stats and ROI from their work with other customers. Griffin wasn’t looking for an email marketing solution—he wanted a partner who would invest deeply in the relationship and adapt to Pura Vida’s needs. Elite SEM fit the bill.
“Elite SEM is a very strong firm—they’re very quick, and they’re experts at email,” said Griffin. “They’ve been excellent at responding to us and they’re able to expand on our team to make sure everything is done right.”
Elite SEM heads up all of Pura Vida’s email messaging, and that works well for Griffin and his team. “They’ve set up a real email marketing program, and put processes in place,” he said. “They’ve been able to collaborate with our design team to create emails that customers love.”
Pura Vida has effectively outsourced their email marketing efforts to Elite SEM, and the results for the brand have been stellar.
Results that Build on Themselves
Right off the bat, Pura Vida handed their email marketing reigns to Elite SEM.
“When we first started working with Elite, we mostly wanted them to take over control,” said Griffin. Quickly, it became much more than that, as Elite SEM dove deep into planning long-term growth.
“Before we worked with them, we would take one email and send it to our entire list, but now we’re able to target customers with messages that resonate most with them.”
The results speak for themselves. Since Pura Vida partnered with Elite SEM, they’ve seen a 4x lift in revenue from email, as well as rapid subscriber list growth with a 350% increase in list size.
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