Here to help you deliver value, so much so that your customers want to pay you for it.

A brand director and head of growth walked into a bar. They needed a drink!

We got burned out by the performance marketing frenzy of recent years and frustrated with the short-sightedness of many startups.

Great businesses that solve real problems for the world deserve to exist — and thrive. But we’ve seen too many fail. And this is often down to big promises of profitability metrics that don’t materialise.

Heck — I even raised £millions in funding for one (with an unbelievable email campaign 😉) and it still crashed.

One thing stands out as the culprit.

Startups struggle to keep customers after the initial buzz. They struggle to build long-term relationships and offer enough value that their customers come back again and again, even through tough times.

Adding value after the purchase and product arrival really matters. Here's the Ogilvy Vice Chairman, Rory Sutherland:

“When you create perceptual value, you are creating value. Value can be created in the mind every bit as much as it can be created in the factory.”

The pandemic made this obvious — some companies thrived while others were tossed out and left by the wayside.

The best hotels in the world have permanent residents

5-star hotels deliver exceptional value over and over again — and they’re there for customers when they need them.

Today, e-commerce businesses can do the same at a far lower cost.

Here’s how it’s done:

• exquisite customer experiences after purchase
• smart marketing to increase repeat purchase rates
• storytelling that engages and fuels word of mouth

After seeing startups burn millions of dollars acquiring new customers only for the rug to be pulled from under them, we started Wild Side to help businesses become more resilient and become the next big success story.

Don’t leave it until the last minute.

Poor retention strangles your company. Marketing teams can’t do their thing. You can’t invest in product. And customer numbers don’t organically grow. It’s a downward spiral.

The end result? Poor cash flow and lost investors.

While building out email, SMS and Direct Mail campaigns has been our bread and butter, we know the real difference comes from the strategy and customer insight to send the right message at exactly the right time — in a stand out memorable way.

So we combine creative strategy AND growth performance in equal measures.

Retention drives growth

And this is tried and tested.

D2C contact lenses is a competitive space. You can win customers with a free trial but it’s the ongoing experience that matters.

It wasn’t until we realised the importance of the subscription ‘Upcoming Renewal Email’, and all of the communications prior to that which seeded goodwill and brand engagement, that growth really took off.

Faster payback of Customer Acquisition Costs led to faster acquisition and 10X subscriber growth in 9 months.

Meal delivery is another. Cost Per Acquisition rates on Facebook are high with lots of competition. To win you must outbid the others. And that requires better retention to cover the acquisition cost.

The insight found? Customers like tasting different meals and they churn less if there are more meals to try. We created a habit loop by:

1. Capturing reviews after every meal by sending an email with a dynamic link to a ratings form personalised to their previous meal choices. This data also fed in to New Product Development.
2. Massively broaden the product range so there’s always another meal to try.
3. Email a personalised meal recommendation based on popularity and their previous choices.

Solid retention rates led to record-breaking investment rounds and the ability to expand operations ahead of scaling.

Confidence in retention rates means acquisition can go all guns blazing. 🚀

Hire Wild Side today for the VIP Suite in Lifecycle & Retention Marketing. It’s a must for ambitious e-commerce and subscription businesses that want to grow profitably.