Skincare & Beauty | Joshua Foo

A pioneer in hair, body, and skincare, this brand is not your typical clean beauty company. They explore global beauty trends, uncover rare ingredients, and blend health, sustainability, and performance to create truly unique products.

The brand partnered with Chronos Agency in December 2019 for email marketing services. Over time, we not only grew their email revenue but also expanded our support to include SMS marketing.

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Key Observation: A Fun Challenge

The brand frequently launches new products and collections, alongside major online events such as seasonal sales, influencer collaborations, and celebrity partnerships. However, their marketing approach has shifted multiple times between two primary strategies:

Messaging-Driven Approach
- Focused on brand loyalty, storytelling, and retention.
- Leveraged influencer collaborations to enhance brand recognition.
- Highlighted product benefits, features, and aesthetics—crucial in the beauty industry.
Discount & Promotion-Driven Approach
- Delivered rapid revenue boosts and high conversion rates.
- Over-reliance on discounts led to deal fatigue, making promotions less exciting over time.

Each approach had its advantages, but relying too heavily on either messaging or discounts created challenges in maintaining long-term engagement and customer value.

The Solution: A Balanced, Adaptive Strategy

To align with the brand’s evolving direction while maintaining a high-quality subscriber base, we continuously pivoted our marketing strategies, ensuring a balance between:

Compelling brand storytelling to build loyalty and differentiate the brand.
Strategic promotions that drive revenue without diminishing brand value.
Targeted segmentation to deliver the right message to the right audience.

By staying agile and data-driven, we successfully optimized the brand’s email and SMS marketing, driving sustainable growth without sacrificing subscriber quality.

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The Strategy: A Data Driven
Multi-Layered Approach

Our strategy for Truly Beauty centered on continuous optimization, segmentation, and a balance between messaging and promotions. Key initiatives included:

Ongoing A/B Testing & Flow Optimization – Monthly testing and refinement of email flows to align with Truly Beauty’s audience preferences.
Lifecycle Targeting – A robust email program designed to engage subscribers at key milestones.
Event-Driven Campaign Planning – Tailored strategies for new product launches, influencer collaborations, and seasonal promotions.
Precision SMS Targeting – Unique, segmented SMS campaigns covering acquisition, replenishment, and retention.
Fresh, Engaging Monthly Content – Keeping customers excited with new, relevant messaging.
Deliverability & Spam Prevention – Regular Litmus testing to maintain high inbox placement.
Sustained Subscriber Growth – Acquisition through enticing incentives and effective retargeting.
Advanced Segmentation & List Utilization – Expanding email reach with dynamic cohorts.
Bi-Weekly Client Syncs – Ensuring alignment on product launches, special offers, and key marketing events.

Balancing Messaging & Promotions

Messaging-Focused Campaigns
- Emphasized educational content, showcasing key ingredients, problem-solving solutions, and skincare remedies.
- Leveraged teasers and hype-building strategies for product launches and celebrity collaborations.
- Post-launch nurturing to maintain momentum and engagement beyond the initial buzz.
Sales & Promotional Campaigns
- Adopted an aggressive sales approach while protecting email deliverability and avoiding over-messaging.
- Refined exclusion lists to ensure the right subscribers received the right promotions.
Phasing Out Discount Reliance
- Gradually reduced discount-based automations to shift customer expectations.
- Reintroduced targeted, value-driven messaging to specific segments for higher engagement.

RESULTS

22,322%

increase in email revenue

25%

of total brand generated from email

7%

of total brand revenue geenrated from SMS

50%

average open rates

3%

average click rates

60%+

list utilization rate, and after list cleaning

28%

increase in AOV

800%

increase in monthly campaign performance

191%

increase in SMS opt-ins

333%

increase in SMS revenue

45%

total attributed revenue

12k%

combines ROI from email & SMS

Next Steps: Scaling Beyond The Basics

Advanced Flows
- Loyalty Flows – Introduced point and cashback systems, encouraging subscribers to redeem their rewards and stay engaged with the brand.
- Subscription Flows – Promoted auto-delivery subscriptions to boost customer lifetime value (CLV) and ensure repeat purchases.

Content Planning
- Thematic Content Strategy – Each month, content was centered around a specific theme, product, or collection to establish consistency and deepen brand storytelling.
- Advanced Segmentation for Relevance – Identified high-intent segments that would resonate with the month’s theme while excluding segments that wouldn’t benefit.
- Example: Subscribers interested in oily skin solutions were excluded from campaigns promoting dry skin products to ensure better targeting and engagement.