LTV LAB: We Bought from Bailey's CBD (Featuring CMO, Aaron Argueta)
Discover the full customer journey from site visit to unboxing with Bailey's CBD, and what can be improved to drive higher customer LTV in the future.
Brand Overview
Bailey's CBD is a pet-focused wellness company specializing in CBD products for dogs, cats, and horses. Founded in 2017 by Aaron Argueta and Jay O'Keefe, the brand has grown from kitchen-made batches to a seven-figure annual business. Named after Jay's rescue pug Bailey, the brand prioritizes education and authenticity in a market that was initially highly stigmatized, differentiating themselves through warm, pet-industry-aligned branding rather than medicinal pharmaceutical aesthetics.
Customer Demo
Pet owners (primarily dog and cat) seeking natural wellness solutions for their pets' anxiety, joint pain, skin issues, and overall health concerns.
How Bailey's Currently Looks at the Role Email & SMS Marketing Play to Fuel the Brand's Growth
Email is essential for Bailey's acquisition and retention strategy, managed through Klaviyo with agency support. Due to 10 DLC restrictions on hemp CBD products, they've pivoted to mobile apps (App Brew) and Novel Wallet Pass for push notifications as their primary retention communication channel outside of email.
The On-Site Shopping Experience
Bailey's website is smooth, featuring a good amount of educational content and product information. The brand offers subscriptions on many products, but the one-time purchase option on product pages must be preselected due to CBD merchant processing restrictions.
Email & SMS Marketing
Bailey's post-purchase flow reveals a critical disconnect between their exceptional educational content and how it's delivered. The brand has invested heavily in education - publishing books, partnering with renowned veterinarian Dr. Robert J. Silver, and creating comprehensive dosage guides, but this valuable information is buried in text-heavy emails that customers skip.
Their welcome and post-purchase series contains multiple emails exceeding 300+ words of copy with minimal imagery, which caused immediate bounce-off for us as customers/subscribers. Critical information like dosage calculators, consistency requirements, and benefit timelines gets lost in walls of text. The brand sends an impressive thank-you series with a lot of emails, but many haven't been updated since 2019-2020.
Review request emails begin before product delivery and continue even for gift card orders, creating friction. Zero-party data gaps mean cat owners receive dog-focused imagery throughout campaigns and flows, immediately alienating half their audience. The mobile app download, crucial for their retention strategy given SMS limitations, appears only at the bottom of lengthy emails where it goes largely unnoticed.
Post-purchase incentives like $25 gift cards for surveys and 20% off for product photos are strong offers but get buried in transactional Shopify emails or text-heavy messages. Subscribe-and-save represents 40% of revenue but isn't prominently promoted post-purchase, with one-time discount codes offered instead.
Unboxing & Product Experience
Products ship with Dr. Robert Silver's three-tiered dosage guide and educational inserts. The brand offers a 24/7 hotline (844-PET-CBD) and maintains a Costa Mesa storefront for in-person consultations, demonstrating their commitment to customer support and education beyond digital channels.
What Bailey's is Doing Well
Exceptional brand voice and copy - playful, warm, and pet-industry aligned rather than medicinal
Comprehensive educational resources including published books, veterinarian partnerships, and detailed dosage guides
Strong post-purchase incentivization ($25 gift cards, 20% off for product photos)
Multi-channel retention strategy with mobile app and Novel Wallet Pass to overcome SMS restrictions
Active field marketing with weekend events, in-store trainings, and face-to-face education
Opportunities to Drive Higher LTV
Collect zero-party data at popup stage: Knowing if someone has a cat, dog, or horse enables every downstream email to feel personalized. Test micro-commitment popup strategies that achieve 10-15% conversion rates while capturing pet type on step one.
Break dense educational content into digestible, dedicated emails: One text-heavy email with everything gets skipped. Multiple focused emails with single clear CTAs and supporting imagery drive higher engagement and ensure critical information lands.
Give spotlight moments to high-value features: If it matters (mobile app, dosage calculator, subscription benefits), it deserves a dedicated email with minimal distractions. Don't bury important CTAs at the bottom of long emails.
Build product consumption habits proactively: Don't assume customers will figure out daily usage. Send specific routine cues ("add CBD to morning feeding" or "evening wind-down"), usage reminders, and habit-formation messaging in the first 30 days.
Set clear expectations around product effectiveness timelines: Tell customers what reduced anxiety looks like at 1 week, 4 weeks, and 3 months of consistent use. This builds confidence and prevents premature churn when benefits aren't immediately obvious.
Segment all flows and campaigns by pet type: Cat owners tuning out dog imagery represents massive missed revenue. Use dynamic content blocks or separate flows so every visual and message resonates with each subscriber's specific pet.
Redesign for visual hierarchy over text volume: Test cleaner, image-forward designs with punchy copy. Most customers won't read 300+ word emails—make your point in under 100 words with strong contrast and clear CTAs.
Time review requests after delivery confirmation: Sending review requests before the product arrives creates friction. Use order fulfillment triggers to ensure customers have received and tried products first.
Promote subscription at key conversion moments: If 40% of revenue comes from subscriptions, promote subscribe-and-save aggressively post-purchase (not just one-time discount codes). Clearly communicate cancellation flexibility to overcome objections.
Cross-sell into complementary product categories: Customers buying for anxiety may not know you solve hip/joint, skin/coat, or gut health issues. Use post-purchase flows to educate on your full solution set and identify additional pet needs.
