+132% campaign revenue, +15% repeat AOV, and a product insight that changed their entire growth strategy
The Challenge
Salt Grooming had built something rare in men's grooming: a genuinely premium brand that customers loved.
The products worked. The aesthetic was sharp. Reviews were strong. They'd carved out a loyal following in a crowded market dominated by cheap, mass-market options.
But the growth model had a problem hiding in plain sight.
The business was feeding on new customer acquisition. Paid media brought in buyers, they'd purchase once, maybe twice, and then fade away. The retention infrastructure wasn't doing enough to bring them back, expand their basket, or turn a single purchase into a long-term relationship.
Here's what we found when we looked under the hood:
The email program was underperforming relative to its potential. Deliverability had slipped to 59, and spam placement was running at nearly 21%, meaning roughly one in five emails was landing in junk folders. Campaigns were focused almost exclusively on styling products, despite a catalogue that addressed much broader hair concerns. And the flows were generic: same message to prospects and customers, no personalisation based on what someone had bought or what they were trying to achieve.
The segmentation was basic. The promo strategy was undifferentiated. And perhaps most critically, the team didn't have visibility into which products actually drove long-term customer value.
The real question wasn't "how do we get more customers?" It was "how do we make the customers we have worth more, and learn what actually drives retention?"
Everboost have been instrumental in our brand's recent growth and I've consistently been impressed by their outputs. Their proactivity, conscientiousness, and just overall quality of work has been on point. I implicitly recommend Everboost and look forward to our continued partnership.
The Turning Point
We started with the fundamentals: where are customers falling out of the journey, what's preventing repeat purchases, and what does the data actually tell us about product-level performance?
The diagnosis pointed to five priority areas:
What We Did
The existing popup was functional but generic. It captured an email and offered a discount. That was it.
We rebuilt it to collect zero-party data on the customer's goal - what were they actually trying to achieve with their hair? This simple question unlocked two things: the ability to personalise the welcome flow, and visibility into which customer cohorts converted at the highest rates. We fed that insight back to the paid media team so they could focus acquisition spend on the segments most likely to become valuable customers.
We also introduced signup forms on high-traffic blog pages - content that was already drawing visitors but not capturing them. Each form offered a relevant, high-value PDF guide related to hair care. For orders, we encouraged free product offers above certain thresholds: low cost to the brand, high perceived value to the customer, and a way to get more products into hands and encourage catalogue exploration.
Deliverability was bleeding performance. A score of 59 and 21% spam placement meant a significant portion of their email program was invisible to customers.
Through disciplined segmentation - engagement windows, mutually exclusive audiences, and careful volume management - we improved the deliverability score from 59 to 80 at peak. Spam placement dropped from 20.8% to 8.9%.
This wasn't glamorous work. But it meant emails actually reached inboxes. Every percentage point of improvement translates directly to revenue.
The welcome flow now branches based on the customer's stated goal. Someone focused on styling sees different content than someone dealing with thinning hair.
The abandoned cart flow shifted from purely transactional ("You left something behind") to objection-handling. Salt is a premium brand - price is naturally a consideration. The new flow addressed that directly: why the products are worth it, what results to expect, and social proof from customers who'd made the same decision.
Post-purchase emails stopped being just order confirmations and started being onboarding. The goal: eliminate buyer's remorse, educate on correct usage (critical for premium products where results depend on technique), and set expectations.
We introduced cross-sell flows based on data, not guesswork. Using Hiro Analytics, we identified the logical product paths: what do customers typically buy next, and which sequences correlate with higher LTV? Those insights shaped the cross-sell timing and product recommendations.
The replenishment flow became a testing ground. We ran manual time delays against AI-based triggers to identify the optimal setup, meeting customers at the moment they're ready to reorder, not before.
We stopped treating everyone the same. The core segmentation: prospects vs. customers, with engagement windows creating mutually exclusive segments so we could measure incremental lift from broader sends.
The promo strategy differentiated by segment: active customers get free gifts above higher order values to drive up repeat AOV - no discounting that cheapens the brand. Prospects get percentage off first order and free shipping to reduce friction.
This approach let us increase total send volume by 179% while growing total unique clicks by 55%. More emails, to smarter segments, with better engagement.
For BFCM, we tested direct mail targeting unsubscribed and unengaged profiles - the customers email couldn't reach. Results: 25.16% conversion rate, 13.68x ROAS.
This is where the work got interesting.
Salt Grooming's marketing had historically centred on styling products. That's what the brand was known for. But when we dug into the data and built out customer empathy maps, a different picture emerged.
Hair loss and thinning was a massive, underserved angle.
Customers weren't just looking for style - many were dealing with hair concerns they didn't talk about openly. The brand had products that addressed this, but they weren't being pushed.
We also discovered through cohort analysis that their thickening shampoo set had significantly higher LTV and repeat rates than other products. We pitched the idea of pushing it harder in paid media. The result: that set grew sales by 62% year-over-year.
This insight shaped product strategy. Salt eventually launched a world-class hair loss solution, supported by the customer demand we'd uncovered through retention data.
Email engagement naturally decays over time. To mitigate that, we launched WhatsApp as an additional channel, another touchpoint to stay connected with customers beyond the inbox.
This increased the likelihood of repurchases by meeting customers where they already were, with a channel that feels more immediate and personal than email.
Retention work doesn't just extract value. Done right, it surfaces insights that change how the whole business operates.
A Look Inside
From data-capturing popups to lifecycle-segmented email campaigns - every touchpoint was redesigned with intent.
The Results
Where they were: Over-reliant on new customer acquisition, underperforming email program, no visibility into which products drove long-term value, and nearly 21% of emails landing in spam.
Where they are now:
Salt Grooming's retention engine is working. The customers they acquire are worth more, buy more often, and spend more when they do.
The LTV gains might look modest month-to-month. But that's the nature of retention work, it compounds.
Every new customer acquired now generates more revenue over their lifetime than before. Multiply that across thousands of new customers each month, across twelve months, and the cumulative impact is substantial. As acquisition scales, the effect only grows.
More importantly, Salt now has clarity. They know which products drive long-term value. They know which customer segments convert best. They have a hair loss angle that's opening an entirely new market.
What This Means for Similar Brands
If you're running a premium DTC brand with repeat-purchase potential, here's what transfers:
If 20% of your emails are landing in spam, you're invisible to a fifth of your list. Fix it first.
When price is a natural objection, your abandoned cart flow should justify the investment, not undercut it with coupons.
Customer goals at signup enable personalisation and, critically, show you which segments convert best so paid media can target smarter.
Cohort analysis is more than a retention exercise. It can reveal which SKUs drive LTV, which cross-sell paths work, and which products deserve more marketing investment.
The hair loss angle didn't come from a focus group, but from listening to customer behaviour. Your retention data can tell you what customers want but aren't saying.
Email decays. WhatsApp, SMS, and direct mail extend your reach and increase repurchase likelihood.
Unsubscribed and unengaged profiles still have mailboxes. A well-timed physical piece during peak periods can unlock revenue you can't reach digitally.
Ready to Talk?
If you're a £2M-£50M CPG brand and retention feels like it's underperforming, book a discovery call.
If it sounds like a fit, we'll offer a comprehensive audit where we walk through your current setup, identify the biggest leaks, and show you what a 6-month roadmap could look like.