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PlantYou.com: +2000 Pre-Orders, +10,000 Orders & Top Of Amazon + New York Times Bestseller Lists

Discover how we used email marketing to launch this influencer’s book to the top of Amazon & New York Times bestseller lists.

rocket

Industry

Plant-Based Food

Tools Used

Email Marketing
ConvertKit
LeadPages

Region

Based in the U.S.A, with a target market of The U.S.A & Canada

Results

We hit these bestseller lists within 2 days!

Then we went on to get steady sales after that crazy first few days.

# 4
#4 On The New York Times Bestseller List
PlantYou Top Of New York Times Bestseller List
Look at Carleigh's book, right up there with Tony Robbins and Brené Brown!
# 1
#1 Bestselling Cookbook on Amazon in Canada
# 2
#2 Bestselling Book on Amazon in Canada
# 2
#2 Bestselling Cookbook on Amazon in The U.S
Top 100
Bestselling Book on Amazon in The U.S
PlantYou Amazon Bestseller
PlantYou - The #1 Bestselling Cookbook on Amazon
"We’ve pre-sold thousands, which is amazing for pre-orders. So grateful. Thank you for all of your help Rocket team"
Carleigh Bodrug
Founder - PlantYou.com

Here Is What You’re Going to Learn In This Case Study

Funnel

Why building anticipation for a product launch is so important.

World-Class Creative Team

What it takes to get +2000 pre-orders and become a bestselling author using email marketing.

Email Marketing Team

Why prioritizing email marketing, content generation & audience building is so important for your bottom line.

""Ended up going #1 for cookbooks in Canada, and the #2 book sold in the country, then #2 for all cookbooks in the US, and cracked the top 100 books sold. Wowww. Huge part of this were the emails and landing page. I had so many replies to the emails. Thank you so much!"
Carleigh Bodrug
Founder - PlantYou.com

Background

Carleigh Bodrug, the plant-based food influencer behind the PlantYou brand, started her business out of a passion for helping people live a whole-food, plant-based, oil-free lifestyle.

Carleigh built a huge following across her social channels, organically. 

She did this by simply replacing the meat in her favourite childhood recipes with plants, and sharing her journey with wonderful content & recipes on her social channels.

Carleigh decided to write a book because she wanted to help as many people as possible. From a marketing perspective, becoming a bestselling author would have a massive impact on her credibility, positioning and brand.

When we first started talking, the PlantYou team did not have a plan in place around how to sell the book, so we helped strategize and build the funnel using custom landing pages and email pre-order campaigns.

Read on to see how it all played out…

During our initial conversations, we asked the PlantYou team what problems they wanted us to solve for them. Here’s what they said:

We loved having the opportunity to work with an established influencer, a brand that already had a loyal following, and on a book project that would help a lot of people become healthier. 

We agreed to create a strategy to get PlantYou to the top of the Amazon bestseller’s list, and then get everything set-up from scratch.

Rocket would then manage the system, and help PlantYou reach their milestones as quickly as possible. 

Of course, this was not going to be easy.

Goals

Create the funnel strategy.

Develop & execute the content, landing page & email flows.

Achieve +1000 pre-orders to get to the top of the bestseller list.

"Hopefully can keep the momentum going, but I am floored by the service you provide and the results"
Carleigh Bodrug
Founder - PlantYou.com

Challenges

Challenge 1

PlantYou’s main challenge was getting their audience to pre-order the new book. We had to communicate the value in a way that would help people quickly decide to support the brand and pre-order the book, even though it wouldn’t be released for a few months.

Challenge 2

The PlantYou.com website was slow, not conversion optimized, and we knew that fast page load speed and a mobile first landing page design would be crucial to the success of the prelaunch, as her audience would primarily come from emails, Facebook & Instagram.

Challenge 3

Due to some rules enforced by the publisher, we were not allowed to announce the book before the pre-order launch date. We had to build hype with the audience not knowing what was being released, and then get them to buy something that wasn’t going to be available for months!

The takeaway so far is…… having an engaged community that you grow through organic methods & nurture with great content is one of the best ways to validate a business, & set your business up for long term success, and have them support whatever your business does.

But, data acquisition and conversion optimization is vital for understanding customer behaviour and is so valuable to making it easier for your audience to support you. If PlantYou had conversion optimized their email marketing, website and entire digital set up from the start, they would have acquired so much more data, and almost certainly would have seen even more awesome returns from their launch.

The other thing is, they didn’t have a great website, or slick digital marketing set up. 

They prioritized great content, an authentic brand, and a desire to engage with their audience. This all got them to an amazing place. 

It just goes to show the importance of creating great content, and distributing it consistently. Unfortunately, this is a long-term approach, and most businesses want immediate gratification, so they never get to the point of having a loyal following like PlantYou.

Solutions

Solution 1

Initial Audit & Strategy

This is all about the fundamentals. Understanding what the status quo is, then developing a strategic approach to getting the message out to her audience, building hype, and achieving our pre-order goal in a structured way. We used our proven conversion optimization processes to design the funnel, the messaging / content, and the timing / triggers for our messaging. 

This structured approach is key to achieving great results, repeatedly!

Solution 2

Landing Page Design, Development, Implementation & Testing

The website was too slow and building the pages there would have led to higher bounce rates and lower conversions. We were pressed for time so we decided to build using LeadPages, a top quality landing page software tool. 

This would give us a fast page load speed and mobile first layout.

 

Solution 3

Building Hype & The Right Messaging

We got creative in building anticipation by announcing “big news” coming soon via posts on her social pages, and in newsletter-style emails to her list.

We focused on getting people engaged by asking people what they thought the big news might be. This got us an overwhelming amount of engagement in our emails and on her social pages. 

We knew many of her loyal fans would support her by pre-ordering, so our creatives focused heavily on the book cover, headline, CTA button, and pre-order incentive above the fold. We wanted to make it as easy as possible for our audience to convert. 

Solution 4

Attention Grabbing, Mouth Watering Creatives

We gave the audience a preview inside the book, showing the pages having lots of imagery of recipes and wonderfully presented food. We did this to highlight the features her audiences already loved her for.

These mouthwatering images also helped evoke emotions like desire, which in turn helped us to drive the audience to take action.

Solution 5

Emotional Connection & Social Proof

Carleigh’s story is deeply personal, so we made the whole funnel very personal (personal stories, videos etc.)

 We worked with the close connection Carleigh had built with her audience already, and shared more insights into her personal story at every step. This helped people feel like they related to her, and made it easy for them to support her journey.

For social proof, she’s an influencer, so she already had a lot. We decided to get testimonials from other trusted authors, because our research showed it’s a crucial element for successful book launches. We put the foreword by a famous doctor friend of Carleigh’s – Dr. Will Bulsiewicz – in much of our messaging.

Best Performing Email

Below is the best performing email, measured by open rate, click rate, and responses.

If you’d like to learn more about how we can get you more conversions from your email marketing, feel free to check out our plans & pricing below.

Best Performing Email - ConvertKit Analytics
"You guys delivered way above my expectations. I really am so grateful."
Carleigh Bodrug
Founder - PlantYou.com

Takeaways

Takeaway 1

One of the keys to becoming a sustainable, highly profitable business of any type, who’s customers will purchase pretty much anything you release, is to build an audience. 

If you already have a following, focus on growing your email list so you have multiple channels to reach people. 

If you don’t have an audience yet, work with influencers, thought leaders, go on podcasts, write guest posts/ blogs and build authority by associating yourself with those who already have an audience in your niche.

Takeaway 2

For product launches, start planning early and focus on building anticipation. 

Your existing audience is already interested in your products, so the more you can engage them, and create desire before any new offer/product/service launch, the better your launch results will be. 

Takeaway 3

When dropping any new offer, product, or service, come up with a list of great pre-order incentives. 

It’s challenging to sell a product that’s not released yet. People can’t know if it’s any good, and you won’t have any reviews to help with this. But pre-orders are crucial for measuring viability of any type of new offer, so it’s worth doing the work.

Takeaway 4

From lead magnets to giveaways, there are lots of ways to move your audience from your social to your email list. 

Diversify your channels so you don’t become reliant on any single channel, and to cost effectively reach your audience when you want to.

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