How a Food & Drink Brand Conquered Email Marketing

Artisan food brands are uniquely positioned for email marketing. They have stories to tell — provenance, craft, seasonality, the people behind the product. Yet this Yorkshire-based food and drink brand was sending a single newsletter once a month with no flows, no segmentation, and no clear strategy. Email was generating 4% of their revenue when it should have been generating 30%.

Strategy Before Execution

We started by defining the content pillars that would form the backbone of the email programme: product stories, seasonal recipes, behind-the-scenes production content, and customer spotlights. For a food brand, email is as much about building a community as it is about driving transactions. The commercial results follow when the content genuinely engages.

The Flow Architecture

• Welcome series: four emails over 10 days introducing the founders, the farm, and bestsellers.
• Post-purchase: recipe email sent 3 days after delivery for relevant product categories.
• Abandoned cart: two-step sequence featuring product story content alongside the commercial prompt.
• Seasonal campaigns: pre-built templates for Christmas, Valentine's Day, Easter, and summer gifting.
• Win-back: triggered at 120 days inactivity with a 'What we've been making' content email.

The Recipe Emails

The post-purchase recipe email — sent three days after delivery, matched to the specific products ordered — became the best-performing automated email in the programme. Open rates of 52% and click rates of 18% were consistently above industry benchmarks. Customers replied with their own photos and variations. The brand was building a genuine community, not just a mailing list.

“Our recipe emails get more replies than anything else we send. Customers share them with friends. It's the best marketing we've ever done.”

Results After Five Months

• Email revenue grew from 4% to 34% of total sales.
• Average open rate across all sends improved from 16% to 38%.
• Automated flows generate 45% of all email revenue.
• Email list grew 28% through a content-driven opt-in strategy.
• Customer lifetime value increased 42% for subscribers versus non-subscribers.