Empty Bottles
Craft Gin Club is a premium spirits subscription service specialising in curated gin and rum experiences for discerning enthusiasts. They faced challenges with abandoned subscription baskets and declining engagement from customers across multiple lapse periods, from recent drop-offs to those inactive for nearly two years. Their digital-only remarketing strategies weren’t effectively recovering these high-value subscription opportunities, particularly as their sophisticated customer base became increasingly selective about digital communications, leaving substantial lifetime value unrealised.
Crafting the Mix
Paperplanes implemented a comprehensive multi-segment direct mail strategy targeting abandoned subscription baskets for both gin and rum products (triggered 25 hours post-abandonment) and multiple winback cohorts spanning 1 to 21 months of inactivity. Each campaign was carefully crafted to reflect Craft Gin Club’s premium positioning whilst providing compelling reasons to return, with messaging tailored to recency of last engagement. The strategy recognised that different customer segments required different approaches, from urgent abandoned basket recovery to carefully considered reactivation messaging for long-lapsed premium spirit enthusiasts.
Top Shelf Results
The campaign delivered impressive results across all customer segments, with mailed customers converting at a 13.04% higher rate overall and returning to the website at a 29.92% higher rate. Rum subscription recoveries were particularly strong, with mailed customers converting at a 44.44% higher rate and returning to site at a 105.36% higher rate than controls. The winback campaigns demonstrated direct mail’s power with long-lapsed customers, achieving a remarkable 600% higher conversion rate for the 18-month segment alongside basket value improvements of up to 33.33% for recent lapse cohorts, proving the effectiveness of physical touchpoints across the entire customer lifecycle.
