Huckberry's Head of Marketing, Ben O'Meara, reveals how their email newsletter, reaching over 1 million subscribers three times a week, drives significant sales and engagement by prioritizing authentic storytelling and lifestyle content over direct product pushes. Ecommerce operators can learn to transform their email strategy into a major profit center by testing products rigorously and crafting compelling narratives around them. This approach builds trust and creates a loyal community eager to read and purchase.
Key takeaways
Develop an email content strategy that balances product promotion with engaging storytelling and lifestyle content; Huckberry uses travel, music, and journal entries to capture attention.
Authentically test products and integrate those experiences into your marketing narratives, like Huckberry's '72-Hour Tee' experiment, to build credibility and trust with your audience.
Prioritize building a loyal email subscriber base and focus on high-quality, non-promotional content that adds value, as email can become your most profitable marketing channel.
Leverage compelling narratives around product features (e.g., merino wool's anti-microbial properties) to make products more desirable and memorable.
Integrate editorial content with product merchandising in emails to create a seamless experience that encourages browsing and purchasing.
This week's guest on the Glossy Podcast is Ben O’Meara, the head of marketing at Huckberry. Sure, it's a men's retailer, but Huckberry isn't just trying to sell stuff. It also wants to tell stories, including one about a merino T-shirt that can be worn for 72 hours without smelling all that bad by the end of it.
"It's anti-microbial, you don't have to wash it, it doesn't stink... you can wear it for multiple days on end," O'Meara said. "So let's call it the 72-Hour Tee [we decided]. But if we're going to put that stamp on this product we better sure as hell make sure that we stand behind it. And if we're going to tell you you can wear it for three days -- [let's make sure] we've actually done that before." Ahead of an international flight, O'Meara threw on a shirt, before later stopping a stranger in Iceland to ask, "Can you smell my shirt?"
Huckberry turns its travels and product tests into content for its email newsletter, which goes out to more than 1 million readers three times a week, O'Meara said. Some 20% to 30% of them open it to browse through its journal entries, music recommendations and product promotions, and Huckberry sees a spike in sales as that happens. "It's definitely our most profitable channel," O'Meara said.
On this week's Glossy Podcast, O'Meara spoke about Huckberry's origin story, its email and video strategy, and its balance of owned and partner brands.
Develop an email content strategy that balances product promotion with engaging storytelling and lifestyle content; Huckberry uses travel, music, and journal entries to capture attention.
What does this episode say about brand & content?
Authentically test products and integrate those experiences into your marketing narratives, like Huckberry's '72-Hour Tee' experiment, to build credibility and trust with your audience.
What does this episode say about dtc strategy?
Prioritize building a loyal email subscriber base and focus on high-quality, non-promotional content that adds value, as email can become your most profitable marketing channel.
What does this episode say about email & sms?
Leverage compelling narratives around product features (e.g., merino wool's anti-microbial properties) to make products more desirable and memorable.
What does this episode say about email & sms?
Integrate editorial content with product merchandising in emails to create a seamless experience that encourages browsing and purchasing.
