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How We Revived Email Revenue for Grainfree Co. by Fixing Deliverability Issues

  • Writer: Judith Prugger
    Judith Prugger
  • Jun 3
  • 2 min read

Updated: Jun 5

Industry: Low-Carb, Keto-Friendly Snacks

Company Size: 25+

Location: Boulder, CO

Year Founded: 2018


About the Brand

Grainfree Co. is a keto-friendly snack company based in Boulder, Colorado. Known for its clean-label, low-carb bars, the brand quickly gained traction in specialty retailers and built a loyal DTC following.

But while demand for the product held strong, their email channel was stalling. Campaigns underperformed, revenue declined, and internal testing failed to spark improvement.


The Challenge

Grainfree Co. brought us in after observing declining email metrics with no clear root cause. A full audit revealed the real issue: foundational gaps in both strategy and infrastructure were quietly eroding performance.

Here’s what we uncovered:

  • Engaged subscribers had gone quiet, especially on Gmail—where Postmaster tools confirmed inboxing issues.

  • Authentication protocols (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) were misconfigured, meaning inbox providers couldn’t verify the sender’s legitimacy. (Misconfigured = incorrect or missing DNS records, reducing deliverability trust.)

  • Warming protocols were skipped during a past ESP migration, damaging sender reputation with ISPs.

  • Segmentation was outdated, missing key exclusions and filtering out valid subscribers.

  • No re-engagement plan was in place to warm up cold subscribers or guide them back to the brand.

Despite regular sends, a significant portion of their list wasn’t seeing emails at all.


Our Approach

We developed a recovery plan focused on reestablishing trust with inbox providers, refreshing strategy, and driving stronger subscriber engagement. This included:

  • Fixing DNS authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) across all sending domains

  • Cleaning the list of invalid, bounced, or risky addresses

  • Rebuilding core segments using engagement recency, not just opens

  • Creating suppression segments for bounces, spam complaints, and inactives

  • Gradually warming cold subscribers with low-friction, value-based content

  • A/B testing templates and CTAs with high-intent audiences

  • Rebuilding automations (welcome, post-purchase, winback) with refined logic and triggers


The Results (From Q2 to Q3)

  • +132% Campaign Revenue: A revitalized sending strategy and improved inboxing returned email to a top revenue channel.

  • +48% Gmail Inbox Placement: Authentication fixes and warming protocols significantly boosted visibility on Gmail.

  • +61% Open Rate: Better segmentation and improved sender reputation got emails back in primary tabs.

  • +44% Click Rate: Refreshed content and clearer CTAs drove more engagement from the right audiences.

  • –36% Bounce Rate: List cleanup and segmentation hygiene cut down delivery failures.

  • +2.4% Spam Complaint Rate: A minor increase from reintroducing cold leads—still well within industry benchmarks.


The Outcome

By identifying and resolving the hidden gaps that were quietly undermining performance, we helped Grainfree Co. transform a stagnant email program into a high-performing, revenue-driving channel. Their emails now reach more subscribers, convert more consistently, and serve as a key growth lever across both campaigns and automations.


Details have been adapted from real client engagements to preserve confidentiality while illustrating performance-driven results.

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