Business:
Game Bibs
GAME BIBS
Email Keeps Morale and Interest High during a Time of Uncertainty & Panic
Highly empathetic user research leads to lifestyle and product email strategy that keeps users engaged through economic instability
+387% 
Increase in Email Revenue Percentage
*Email revenue as a percentage of all revenue
+25.02%
Increase Site Users via Email
+34.77%
Increase in New Users via Email
Brief:
Game Bibs is a highly niche apparel retailer that sells a huge selection of game day overalls, each variety featuring the colors of the customer’s preferred team.
This apparel is loud, it’s proud, and Game Bibs’ customers can’t get enough of it. Game Bibs has been growing steadily since its inception in 2003. Thanks to its cheeky brand voice and enthusiastic target audience, the business now has a devoted following of fans and repeat customers.
Services Provided:
- Transactional Email Optimization
- Audience Research
- Audience Development
- Email Design
- A/B Testing
- Email Strategy + Implementation
Introduction
Game Bibs has seen a huge amount of success since 2003, and was expecting to see one of their best years yet in the summer/fall of 2020. External factors influenced by COVID-19 laid a wrench in those plans, however, as sports across the country were shut down for the indefinite future. Few things were certain, and our customer’s daily reality had changed seemingly overnight. A highly empathetic approach was needed to ensure that we were able to deliver joy, stability and excitement to our customer’s inbox.
“2020 was another year Game Bibs anticipating continued growth but then the COVID-19 pandemic struck the world and turned things upside down for many segments of business. Unfortunately for Game Bibs, the sports segment was greatly affected and we needed a new strategy.”
Joshua Coenen
Co-Founder
As was the case with most businesses during this time, we were challenged with the task of how to stay relevant and afloat while remaining empathetic to the uncertainty and anxiety in our customers' lives.
A general rule of thumb in the new age of marketing is that the content we produce and distribute should be created with the customer’s needs/wants in mind first and foremost. The Game Bibs email marketing team saw a unique opportunity to take this philosophy to the next level, with the goal of providing comfort to our customers while keeping revenue at a steady, sustainable level.
The Challenge
Our Approach
The initial stages of our strategy focused on building out our automations and drip campaigns, working behind the scenes to enhance our customer’s pre-purchase journey and giving our customers time to focus on family, mental health, and other important personal aspects that were put under stress during the early stages of COVID-19. Customers interested in engaging with our brand during this time were met with a series of light-hearted, uplifting emails. During this time, we implemented/revamped the following emails:
arrow_forwardOptimized “Order Confirmed” email: Branded email with call-to-action at the end to subscribe to email list
arrow_forward Created high-quality content for pillar category pages to increase topical authority, target more keywords, and answer customer questions
arrow_forwardOptimized “Order Shipped” email: Branded email with call-to-action to subscribe and added a testimonial on fast shipping at the end of the email
arrow_forwardSecond “Welcome” email triggered to send to all who opened the first welcome email one week after receiving the initial email: Brand-building/post-purchase journey optimization email with different examples on styling your Game Bibs
arrow_forwardSecond “Welcome” email triggered to send one week after first email, sent to all who did not open first welcome email: Pre-purchase journey optimization encouraging customers to purchase if they haven’t already
“Their amazing team went into immediate action and came up with a very creative strategy to change our marketing strategy from a sports focus to the fun that customers have wearing their Game Bibs in day to day activities.”
Joshua Coenen
Co-Founder
Our team was closely monitoring sentiment trends within the Game Bibs audience segment to determine when our customers had settled into this new way of life, and were ready to indulge in optimistic activities that would help them temporarily escape from isolation.
Once we noticed this transition occurring, we pivoted our strategy from background work and optimization to “isolation enhancement” and proactive engagement. During this stage, the email marketing team was collaborating heavily with both Social and SEO specialists to create content and experiences that could be shared across several different mediums. Our initial focus in these emails was solely to lift our audience up and make their lives better. At this point, our main goal was to introduce our audience to who our brand could be when sports weren’t in the equation, working to build that strengthened trust that may have wavered when uncertainty was at an all-time high. Included in this stage of emails were:
arrow_forwardBest Game of the Decade Streaming on Youtube (with links)
arrow_forwardVirtual Tailgate/Collaboration with Jump Around Wisconsin
arrow_forwardCongrats to Graduating High School Seniors!
arrow_forwardCoolers by U and Game Bibs Giveaway
arrow_forwardIn-active User Re-engagement: Are you still interested?
After having reestablished the Game Bibs brand as “more than just stadium-wear sellers”, we were better positioned to promote the sale of Game Bibs in other scenarios. We had moved into the stage where we could confidently place a higher emphasis on sales within our email marketing strategy, and it paid off. We saw a 45% increase in transactions and 35.66% increase in revenue from email marketing in July + August compared to the previous period, while traffic from emails remained roughly the same. Note that of the emails below, all were included in the above time frame with the exception of the “cut offs” promotion.
arrow_forwardHow to turn your Game Bibs into “Cut-offs”
arrow_forwardAmerican Themed Game Bibs for 4th of July
arrow_forward“Best Selling Colors” feature
arrow_forwardGame Bibs for Greek Life
“I would recommend Grow with Studio for any business who is looking to rely on a team to help support the digital marketing growth of their business. Dedication, support, creativity and passion are only a few words that I can honestly say set them apart from the competition.”
Joshua Coenen
Co-Founder
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