Mailchimp success story · Fitness accessories e-commerce brand

How a fitness accessories brand earned 142x ROI on its first SMS campaign by putting email and text in one place.

Name: Overtop Media Digital Marketing
Address: 933 Louise Ave Suite 101-18, Charlotte, NC, 28204, US
Telephone: (704) 237-0707
Price range: $$

Gymwrap ran email on Mailchimp and SMS somewhere else, so it could not see which customers preferred which channel. Moving text messages onto Mailchimp, tested head to head with the old provider, settled the question.

Business: Gymwrap
Market: California, United States
Goal: Prove SMS adds revenue on top of email

The results.

Revenue per recipient was $0.587 on Mailchimp SMS against $0.119 with the previous provider, using identical creative.

142xROI on its first full SMS campaign
5xhigher revenue per message than its previous SMS provider
30%of total attributed revenue from Mailchimp

Head-to-head test from Black Friday through Cyber Monday; both lists were people who had shown interest in the brand. Figures as reported in the story; Mailchimp does not publish how they were measured.

The challenge.

Gymwrap makes headbands that stay put during workouts. Its year is decided in January, February and March, when New Year’s resolutions drive the biggest sales, and a lean team manages more than 139,000 subscribers.

Email lived on Mailchimp and SMS lived with another provider. With the data split, the team could not tell whether a customer who ignored email would answer a text, or whether SMS was adding revenue or just splitting it with email.

Run a fair testSame creative, two SMS providers, Black Friday to Cyber Monday.
ConsolidateEmail and SMS on one platform with Shopify data.
Rebuild the flowsCart, welcome and re-engagement on live store data.
Reach the right channelEmail for some customers, text for others.

What they did.

SMS marketing · Email · Shopify integration · Automation flows

A fair test first: From Black Friday through Cyber Monday, identical creative ran through Mailchimp SMS and the existing provider, to see which one actually earned more.
Email and SMS together: After the test, SMS moved to Mailchimp, connected with email and the Shopify integration for one view of every customer.
Flows on live store data: Abandoned cart, welcome and re-engagement flows were rebuilt to run on real-time Shopify data.
Customers reached where they respond: Instead of archiving people who stopped opening emails, the team could see who preferred text and reach them there.

Why it worked.

Our read on the decisions behind the numbers, and what any business can take from them.

Test before you switch: Running the same creative through both providers at the same time proved the difference came from the platform, not the offer.
One view of the customer: With email, SMS and store data together, an inactive email subscriber became an active SMS buyer instead of a lost customer.
Automation runs at peak season: Flows kept selling during the busiest three months without adding campaign work for a small team.
Fewer tools, less waste: Consolidating removed $100 a month in duplicate fees, and more importantly gave the team one source of truth.

How we would run this play for your business.

You do not need a national budget to use the same ideas. This is how Overtop Media Digital Marketing puts them to work in our mailchimp email marketing.

Prove incrementality: We test SMS against email-only before scaling it, so you know text is adding revenue, not moving it around.
Plan your peak season: Whether your rush is January or December, the flows, offers and send calendar are ready weeks ahead.
Respect the channel: Text is personal. We keep SMS for moments that matter, with clear consent and easy opt-out.
Fill the top of the funnel: Meta ads and Google Shopping ads bring new shoppers in; email and SMS turn them into repeat buyers.