Email,SMS,Copywriting,etc
6 months, Ongoing
Brewing a Premium Matcha Experience
Nekohama sells premium, ceremonial grade Matcha sourced from Kyoto, Japan, and is known for producing higher quality than most, if not all, on the market. With a subscription service designed to build long-term customer habits, Nekohama faced the challenges of being a young brand with a premium product: inconsistent campaign cadence, no automated flows, creative that didn’t reflect its premium positioning, ineffective communication of subscription benefits, and unoptimized popup forms despite strong organic site traffic. Dispatch began working with Nekohama over ten months ago, providing email and SMS strategy consulting, design, copywriting, and retention marketing consulting across Klaviyo, Shopify, Priv, and Okendo.
The Numbers Tell the Story
From September 2022 through December 2023, Glamsquad achieved the following performance improvements:
Where We Started
An initial audit highlighted several areas needing immediate attention. Nekohama had an engaged list but was not sending campaigns consistently, which meant missed revenue opportunities. The absence of automated flows left major gaps in the customer journey, with no nurture for new subscribers or educational touchpoints post-purchase. Creative design failed to reflect the premium quality of the product, leaving campaigns misaligned with the brand. The subscription program’s benefits were not being clearly communicated, resulting in lower-than-expected uptake. Popup forms also underperformed, with site visitors going uncaptured despite strong traffic.
The key objectives identified were to establish a consistent campaign cadence, create new automated flows from scratch, elevate creative to match Nekohama’s premium brand, communicate subscription benefits through segmentation and dynamic content, and achieve a conversion rate upwards of 10% on signup forms.
“Through a great onboarding process, we were able to integrate Dispatch into what felt like our own in-house marketing team.”
Max, Founder at Nekohama
A Consistent Campaign Engine
Dispatch built a campaign calendar strategy that ensured Nekohama’s highly engaged list was receiving consistent, weekly campaigns. The content strategy was rooted in evergreen educational angles, combining thoughtful merchandising with value-driven storytelling. Campaigns framed Nekohama matcha as the solution to customer pain points such as lack of focus, anxiety from coffee, the desire for longer-lasting energy without a crash, and overall health benefits. Recipe content, which data revealed to be the most engaging and highest-converting, became a recurring feature to both delight and convert.
Automated Flows That Educate and Convert
All core flows were built from scratch, including Welcome Series, Abandoned Checkout, Post Purchase, and Sunset flows. Each was tailored to meet customers at different stages of the journey, with segmentation branching flows for prospects versus existing customers, and first-time versus repeat purchasers. A critical early learning was that new subscribers responded more strongly to education about matcha’s benefits compared to coffee than they did to direct comparisons between Nekohama and other matcha brands. This insight shaped the flow messaging to first sell the value of matcha itself, and then position Nekohama as the superior choice. Abandonment flows addressed objections unique to each segment, while post-purchase flows emphasized habit-building to maximize LTV. Creative was elevated to align with the brand’s premium positioning, ensuring every touchpoint reinforced the product’s quality.
Subscription Growth Through Segmentation and Popup Optimization
Dispatch overhauled segmentation, focusing on sending to engaged subscribers to maintain high deliverability. Core segments were created for Prospects, One-Time Purchasers, and Subscription Customers, providing clearer visibility into engagement and conversion data. Dynamic content blocks were introduced to tailor offers, such as welcome banners for prospects and subscribe-and-save promotions for repeat buyers. Popup forms were rebuilt with a tiered offer structure to incentivize both email and SMS signups, meeting the brand’s margin requirements while driving list growth. Testing strategies included leveraging images of the brand’s influencer founders in different contexts to build trust and improve opt-ins. This testing, combined with form design and offer optimization, achieved a sustainable conversion rate above 10% and more than doubled site visitor capture.
