Fernwood Outdoor newsletter and social

Challenge

Fernwood Outdoor sells tents, packs and stoves. Its owner wrote a newsletter when there was time, and the social accounts posted when someone remembered. The list had 1,100 people on it, and most of them never opened the emails.

The shop needed a rhythm the team could keep, with content that sounded like the people who work in the store.

Approach

We set one weekly email and five short social posts. The email has three parts: one trail or camp story, one product from the shelf and one tip from a staff member. Every issue takes about two hours to write, including photos.

We interviewed the staff first. They knew which questions customers asked at the counter, such as how to pack for wet weather or which stove burns cleanest. Those questions became the tips. The customers liked hearing from real people, so we used their names and photos.

We also cleaned the list. We removed people who had not opened an email in a year and asked the rest to choose how often they wanted to hear from the shop.

Result

The average open rate rose from 19 percent to 38 percent. The list grew by 3,200 subscribers in the first year, most of them from in-store sign-up cards and the trail guides.

Fernwood now runs a monthly customer photo contest. The entries feed the social posts and cost the team almost nothing to produce.

The shop also tracks which product each email features. Sales of those items rose after each feature, which helps the team choose the next stove or tent to spotlight. The team keeps the same three-part format, because customers now expect it.