How an email marketing funnel turned first-time buyers into loyal snack fans — Stripo.email

What happens when a brand with an incredible product relies too heavily on discounts to drive sales? For one healthy snack company, this meant shrinking profit margins and unintentionally training customers to never buy at full price. Even with a high repeat purchase rate, the brand was stuck in a non-sustainable discount cycle.

In this case study, email strategist Samar Owais shares how she helped the brand break free from constant promotions by redesigning its welcome flow and building a simple, smart funnel. The result? First-time buyers turned into loyal snack fans, and the company saw a significant increase in revenue without leaning on discounts.

Expert

Email conversion strategist for SaaS and eCommerce businesses and founder of Emails Done Right

Meet the expert

Samar Owais is a leading email conversion strategist for SaaS and eCommerce businesses — the go-to problem solver for companies including HubSpot, Pinterest, Drip, and Workamajig. As the founder of Emails Done Right, she helps businesses turn their email programs into high-performing conversion channels while sharing her expertise with the wider marketing community.

Through her Emails Done Right newsletter, Samar challenges industry norms and sparks conversations that push the email marketing world forward. Known for her sharp insights and unapologetic approach (“one email fight at a time,” as she puts it), she has become a trusted voice for marketers and copywriters looking to rethink their email strategies.

The problem: A snack brand stuck in the discount trap

Every customer journey starts with a welcome flow. It’s the very first interaction with a brand and the perfect opportunity to build a relationship on the right foot – from the very beginning.

One of my clients was a popular snack brand with an incredible product that routinely went out of stock — in fact, so incredible that numerous customers returned for repeat purchases.

Indeed, there was a big issue. When auditing their emails, I found that the brand was heavily reliant on discounts to drive sales. Precisely, they offered a discount in their opt-in offer, promoted it in the welcome flow as well, and ran monthly promotions. This led to customers getting used to buying only when there was a discount (because they knew a discount offer was always around the corner); they weren’t willing to buy at full price anymore. Those constant discounts were eating into the business’s profit margins.

Discounts can be a great offer, but they’re not always right for every brand. Specific to this case, the brand did not have to rely on discounts to drive sales. With a product this good, all it needed was to adopt a smarter email marketing approach that would train customers to shop not only when there’s a sale.

The solution: An opt-in offer and welcome flow that highlighted the product instead of the discount

The first step was to optimize the opt-in offer and welcome flow. We pulled the discount completely and replaced it with something that made much more sense for the brand: a “taster pack.” The taster pack included all the flavors they offered in smaller quantities.

This strategy allowed the brand to market all its flavors at once and gave customers the option to find their favorite flavor at a fraction of the cost. It worked beautifully!

But the best part yet? The brand already had a taster pack, so it wasn’t additional work for them. It was just a matter of positioning and choosing the right offer.

Customers could try everything without feeling like it was a waste if they didn’t like one of the flavors. And the ones they did like? They ran out of them fast, which naturally left them wanting more.

I also wasn’t worried about removing the discount in the welcome flow. Since this flow is only for new subscribers, they had no idea how heavily the brand had been discounting before. That gave us the space to reset expectations and introduce the brand on stronger terms.

Next, we focused on reshaping the emails themselves. Instead of pushing discounts, we used the welcome flow to build an emotional connection. We sent emails that:

• showed who the snacks were for — kids and adults alike. Mums could pack them for school lunches, and adults could bring them to parties or picnics as a healthy gift;
• gave a behind-the-scenes look at how the snacks were made (and why they sold out so quickly);
• told the founder’s story, which was deeply rooted in childhood and instantly relatable;
• leaned into the health aspects — non-GMO, keto-friendly, and more; and
• used word association to stick in the customers’ minds. The copy had a simple tagline: “Like X but sooooo much better.” We backed that claim with health benefits, superior taste, and customer reviews.

By the end, the welcome flow wasn’t just an entry point — it became a powerful storytelling tool that turned new subscribers into curious, excited buyers.

(Source: Email by Samar Owais)

Email funnels help you build relationships with your subscribers. When done right, they walk people through the entire customer journey — from the first hello to post-purchase and beyond. That’s how you build brand loyalty strong enough to weather a pandemic or any other big challenges.

And the biggest advantage of a funnel? You’re sending the right email to the right person at exactly the right time.

For this snack brand, we created a simple but powerful funnel:

• within a week of a customer ordering the taster pack, we send a follow-up email to inquire about their favorite flavor or the one they liked the best and nudge them to place an order before the stock runs out;
• after a customer buys the snacks at full price, we “reward” them with a discount on their next order; 
• to help them save while never running out of their favorite flavor, we recommended the “Subscribe & Save” option.

Together, these emails took people from subscriber → first-time customer → repeat buyer → loyal customer. Once everything was in place, the brand saw a significant increase in email revenue.

The results: Higher margins and healthier revenue

It is worth mentioning that when we launched the new welcome flow, sales did dip at first, which was expected. After all, we had just taken away the discount. However, that didn’t hurt the brand’s revenue because, with the discount gone, their profit margin per sale had only grown. It also didn’t take long for sales to climb back up to where they had been before.

On the surface, it might have looked like nothing had really changed. Sales numbers were about the same. But when we looked at revenue, the difference was clear. Because we weren’t giving away discounts anymore, every sale brought in more profit.

And once the full funnel was in place, the impact was even stronger. The taster pack encouraged first-time purchases, the follow-up emails then turned those into full-price sales, and the rewards and subscription option built loyalty. Together, these strategies not only protected profit margins but also drove a significant increase in email revenue over time.

In other words, by shifting focus from discounts to a smart funnel, we proved that the product could stand on its own and build a healthier, more profitable foundation for the brand.

Recommendations for email marketers

There’s only one way to know if your emails need optimization — track and analyze your key performance metrics. If your emails aren’t performing the way you want, it’s time to peek under the hood and see what’s going on.

A few simple things to check right away:

1. Email copy: Is it all about “me, me, me — the brand”? Or, is it about “you, the customer”? If you want conversions, you need to be talking directly to your subscribers.
2. Email topic: Ask yourself, do your subscribers actually care about this email? Are you sending it just to stick to a schedule, or is there a reason behind it? Even if it’s a basic marketing email, find the angle that makes it relevant to your customer. Why should they care? Why should they buy?
3. White space: Use it generously. Nobody enjoys reading a cluttered email.
4. Sentence structure: Avoid walls of text. Keep paragraphs to three sentences max, and vary sentence length, so your email feels natural and easy to read.
5. Subject lines: Make them conversational. Use sentence case so they read like something a friend might send, not a robot.

Wrapping up

This case shows that effective email marketing isn’t about chasing quick wins with discounts or gimmicks. It’s about building real connections with your subscribers and giving them reasons to trust — and buy from — your brand.

For my snack brand client, removing discounts from the welcome flow could have felt risky. But by reshaping the emails to tell their story, highlight the product, and connect emotionally with their audience, we built a stronger foundation. The result wasn’t just steady sales — it was higher revenue and a healthier brand.

The takeaway for you as an email marketer? Don’t be afraid to rethink the “standard” way of doing things. Test, measure, and look for places where you can shift focus from discounts to storytelling, from pushing products to talking to your customers. That’s how you create campaigns that last — and actually grow your business.