The Biker Company is for motorcyclists who want to ride in style.
Specifically, it’s for bikers who appreciate locally-owned businesses that care about quality over quantity. In 2022, The Biker Company broke away from their franchise parent company to rebrand as an independent motorcycle product retailer. They credited this move to a difference in business values.
Owner and founder Steve Tucker brought the business’s new brand to the online market, and, alongside Josh Evans, the website manager, began building an e-commerce presence. During this reentry, they were faced with the challenge of finding the right email marketing partner. This search took them from Klaviyo, to Brevo, and finally, to Mailchimp.
“With Klaviyo, we didn't really understand the platform or have any control,” says Josh. “We switched to Brevo, which was really featureless. Once we got on board with Mailchimp’s Premium plan we were assigned to a Senior Account Manager. He helped us build a re-engagement strategy.”
"The reason for switching to Mailchimp was because we wanted to lower our budget and find a platform where we could have control."
The challenge: Re-engaging a lapsed audience and building new brand awareness
The Biker Company needed to re-engage their existing email subscribers. Their mailing list, collected over many years, had inactive contacts who were unfamiliar with their new brand.
Before they could produce a killer campaign, they needed the right email marketing platform. They left Klaviyo for Brevo in an attempt to lower their budget and find more control with an easier-to-understand platform. Brevo did not have the features or integrations they needed, which led them to Mailchimp’s open arms. "The reason for switching to Mailchimp was because it was a household name that we knew of," explains Josh. "We wanted to lower our budget and find a platform where we could have control."
Once The Biker Company signed up with Mailchimp, they met their Senior Account Manager, who helped them build a strategy and find the tools they needed to succeed.
“The service from [Mailchimp’s Senior Account Manager] was really, really good,” states Steve. “The relationships where we're getting to meet [the people at Mailchimp] and having a conversation shows us Mailchimp is interested in our business and how they can help us. That's very rare.”
The tools: Automations, integration, and popup forms
To start, The Biker Company used the Customer Journey Builder to drive their re-engagement campaign. This strategy featured a call-to-action button directing lapsed customers to a Mailchimp landing page. Those who reconfirmed their subscription received a discount code.
The Biker Company’s next step was to build brand awareness and improve customer loyalty. They created an automated welcome series and monthly newsletters. The newsletters are designed to engage their audience regularly by promoting product spotlights and upcoming community events. And, it acts as a place where they can flex their distinct brand voice.
“[Our welcome email is] nice and friendly and fun, and we've customized it to match our language,” says Josh. “We like to use quite a lot of humor and sarcasm here. And we have a laugh with our customers. We're able to customize the email template and make it our sort of identity."
Josh has also employed the abandoned cart automation. “I read one of Mailchimp's blog posts which talks about how 20% of consumers that receive [abandoned cart] emails will buy,” Josh states. “And if you look at the data of that workflow on our Mailchimp account, it’s 20% of people that are buying. So it's true.”
To gather more email subscribers, The Biker Company used Mailchimp’s popup forms and conducted A/B testing to determine the most effective size, full-screen vs a center popup. “It's so simple to have this popup discount,” says Josh. “It's just that final incentive for customers to finish their purchase.”
One of the reasons The Biker Company chose Mailchimp was the seamless Shopify integration capabilities. Josh reports that this integration provides valuable insights into sales and customer behavior. "We can see when sales can be credited to Mailchimp. There are so many data channels, and it's great that everything connects," Josh says. "The biggest thing is that there are no issues. It's not complicated at all. The data just connects and optimizes, making it very easy to use. It just works.”
Josh also speaks to how easy it is to access data from the Mailchimp marketing reports. “I’m able to sit in our sales meeting and say, ‘Last month's newsletter, here's the open rate, here's the click-through rate, here's how much money can be credited to the email.’ And pretty much every month, the sales we generate from just one monthly newsletter pay for our monthly [Mailchimp] subscription.”
"The popup form has been a huge success for us, with a 25% growth in sales last month against last year alone."
The results: CTR and open rates surpass industry benchmarks
The Biker Company consistently outperforms industry benchmarks in open and click-through rates (CTR). While the e-commerce industry averages a 29.81% open rate and a 1.74% CTR, and retail averages a 35.05% open rate and a 2.08% CTR, The Biker Company’s results are notably higher.
The Biker Company reported:
- The January 2025 newsletter (with 20,000+ subscribers) saw a 48% open rate and a 3.6% CTR.
- The 2024 Black Friday campaign (with 20,000+ subscribers) saw a 40% open rate and a 4.2% CTR.
“One of my favorite features is that I can see the revenue that can be credited to Mailchimp,” says Josh. “On every single newsletter or email we send out… We're able to cover our Mailchimp plan cost, just from that one email.” Besides the numbers, The Biker Company also has other milestones they’ve achieved, like being listed in a large competitor’s ‘price-match’ email. This is a significant sign of brand awareness growth within their local market.
“Most of the companies we deal with just want to take. They ask, ‘How much can we spend with them?’” says Steve. “We get more of a warm feeling from Mailchimp in that you genuinely want to build.” The Biker Company will continue to build with Mailchimp to foster a loyal audience and reach their brand awareness goals.
Learn how the Customer Journey Builder can engage your audience.
- Thanks for reading our customer stories. We hope they give you the insights and inspiration needed to take your marketing to the next level. That being said, our lawyers asked us to also tell you that the views, information, or opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the individuals involved and do not represent those of Intuit Mailchimp or any of its cornerstone brands or employees. So yeah, there you go.
- Features and functionality vary by plan.