How Pet Supplies Empire Grew Email Engagement by 230% with Chronos Agency
230%
Growth in Engaged Subscribers
November 2024 to March 2025
62
Open Rates
-61%
Bounce rates dropped
The Story
In September 2024, Pet Supplies Empire (PSE) teamed up with us to build and enhance their email marketing strategy from the ground up. At the time, they had recently adopted Klaviyo but were working with a very basic setup, no active campaigns, no automated flows, and limited engagement infrastructure. While they did have an existing customer list gathered through past popup signups and manual uploads, a significant portion of those contacts lacked proper email consent. This presented a key challenge: a limited audience that could be legally and effectively targeted through email marketing.
The Problem
When PSE partnered with us in September 2024, their email marketing was practically non-existent. They had:
- Just onboarded Klaviyo, but had no live flows or campaigns.
- A partially consented email list, limiting reach.
- Poor email deliverability due to using Klaviyo’s shared sending domain.
Their emails were landing in spam folders, open rates were dismal, and engagement was virtually zero. Without proper segmentation, authentication, or a warm-up strategy, the brand faced serious challenges in building customer relationships through email.
The Solution and the Approach
We implemented a multi-phased approach to tackle the deliverability and engagement challenges head-on.
Fix Deliverability Issues
- Set up a Dedicated Sending Domain (DSD) to pass DMARC and authenticate emails.
- Enabled Google Postmaster Tools for deliverability diagnostics.
- Launched Key Automation Flows (Welcome, Abandoned Cart, Browse, and Post-Purchase).
- Used text-based emails to avoid spam filters during the early stages.
- Implemented Dedicated Click Tracking (DCT) to boost inbox placement.
Campaign Strategy
- Rolled out text-based campaigns 1–2x per week to “force” inbox activity and improve sender reputation.
- Gradually shifted to rich HTML campaigns once engagement metrics improved.
- Focused on sending only to recently active subscribers and incrementally expanded the send list.
List Cleaning & Re-engagement
- Segmented users based on last engagement (active in 2024 vs. inactive since 2023).
- Sent re-engagement campaigns prompting inactive users to open or unsubscribe.
- Achieved a 34% reduction in disengaged subscribers and significant list quality improvement.
The Results
230% Growth in Engaged Subscribers
From November 2024 to March 2025:
- Engaged profiles (last 120 days) grew from 3,325 to 10,966
- Final campaign achieved:
- 61.57% Open Rate
- 0.81% Click Rate
- 35% List Utilization Rate (LUR) (up from 9% in January)
- 61.57% Open Rate
- Bounce rates dropped by up to 61%
- Spam and unsubscribe rates remained within healthy ranges
These improvements reflect a dramatic turnaround in email performance, showcasing the power of foundational deliverability work paired with smart segmentation and re-engagement strategies
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- Other Pets
The Results
230%
Growth in Engaged Subscribers
November 2024 to March 2025
62%
Open Rates
-61%
Bounce rates dropped
Summary
Pet Supplies Empire initially had a basic Klaviyo setup with no live campaigns and major email deliverability issues due to an unauthenticated sending domain. We stepped in to implement foundational email marketing strategies, beginning with setting up a Dedicated Sending Domain and launching automation flows using text-based emails to build sender reputation.
By introducing targeted segmentation, re-engagement campaigns, and transitioning to Rich HTML emails once performance stabilized, we significantly improved open and click rates across all flows. This structured approach led to a 230% growth in engaged profiles and a jump in List Utilization Rate from 9% to 35%, paving the way for long-term, sustainable email marketing success.
Key Takeaways
- Establish foundational deliverability practices. Implemented a Dedicated Sending Domain (DSD) and used Google Postmaster Tools to monitor sender reputation, improving inbox placement and reducing bounce rates
- Use text-based emails to warm up the sender reputation. Launched initial flows and campaigns using simplified, low-image emails to bypass spam filters and gradually build credibility with email providers.
- Target segmented re-engagement campaigns. Created customized segments based on recent engagement data, sending personalized reactivation messages that led to a 230% increase in engaged subscribers.
-
Gradually scale campaigns based on performance data. Transitioned from text-based to Rich HTML emails, progressively expanded sending lists, and improved the List Utilization Rate to 35% while maintaining high open and click rates.
