Popl: Email + SMS From <20% to 50-60% of Total Revenue Over 21 Months
21-month engagement · Jan 2022 · 21 months (through Sep 2023)
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/ Results at a glance
RESULT.01
50-60%
Revenue from email & SMS (was <20%)
RESULT.02
95%+
Inbox placement by month two
RESULT.03
B2B + B2C
Separate customer journeys built
RESULT.04
21 months
Full engagement duration
Trusted by
800+ brands
01 / The challenge
What Popl was up against.
Popl had material email deliverability issues and were generating less than 20% of total revenue from email and SMS. As a Y-Combinator backed company with $2.2M raised and backers including Twitch co-founder Justin Kan, the stakes were high. The brand was running both B2B (corporate orders for branded business cards) and B2C (individual NFC product purchases), but their email infrastructure was treating both audiences identically, with predictable underperformance on both fronts. Deliverability was the most urgent problem: emails were landing in spam more often than not, and engagement metrics didn't reflect the actual interest in the brand.
- Brand
- Popl
- Website
- popl.co
- Category
- NFC Technology · B2B + B2C
- Region
- United States
- Engagement
- 21-month engagement
- Started
- Jan 2022
- Length
- 21 months (through Sep 2023)
- Platform
- Klaviyo
02 / What we changed
What we changed.
Deliverability came first, because nothing else earns from the spam folder. With inbox placement stable, the work shifted to architecture: separate B2B and B2C customer journeys, each with its own flow logic, segmentation and content calendar. After 21 months of compounding work, the foundation was solid enough that Popl chose to bring the program in-house with a dedicated team.
- 01
Deliverability triage
A full authentication review (DKIM, SPF and DMARC at the right policy levels), sender reputation analysis and list hygiene. Subscribers who hadn't opened in 90+ days were suppressed, which shrank the active list at first but improved sender reputation almost immediately.
- 02
A 30-day warm-up
A deliberate 30-day warm-up on the existing sending domain rebuilt reputation with the major mailbox providers. By month two, inbox placement was at 95%+, and it stayed there.
- 03
Two audiences, two architectures
B2B and B2C were rebuilt as different products with different sales cycles: separate flow trees, separate segmentation and separate campaign calendars, sharing brand identity only at the template level. Segmentation logic routed each subscriber into the right journey.
- 04
B2C flows, configured properly
Welcome, abandoned cart, post-purchase, replenishment for accessories and win-back, set up properly for the first time.
- 05
B2B journeys for long cycles
Long-cycle nurture for prospects, decision-maker-aware messaging, post-purchase onboarding and bulk-order handling for corporate orders, and account-based campaigns for accounts running multi-quarter engagements. B2C buyers who might bring Popl into their workplace were routed deliberately, not blasted.
- 06
Calendars built with operations
Daily, weekly and monthly content and promotion calendars, coordinated with Popl's VP of Operations.
03 / Results
What moved.
Inbox placement reached 95%+ by month two and stayed there. Once deliverability was stable, the revenue work moved fast.
After 21 months of compounding, email and SMS were contributing 50-60% of Popl's total revenue, up from under 20% at the start.
The handoff to the in-house team was clean because the architecture was documented and the segmentation logic was something the team could maintain and extend.
04 / Timeline
How long it took.
-
Jan 2022
Engagement starts with deliverability triage: authentication audit, sender reputation analysis, list hygiene and a 30-day warm-up on the existing sending domain.
-
Month 2
Inbox placement reaches 95%+ and stays there.
-
Then
With deliverability stable, the architecture rebuild: separate B2B and B2C journeys, segmentation routing, and daily, weekly and monthly calendars with the VP of Operations.
-
Sep 2023
After 21 months, email and SMS are contributing 50-60% of total revenue. Popl brings the program in-house with a dedicated team.
The lesson
How a dual-audience Klaviyo account should actually work
Most agencies running a B2B + B2C account treat them as one list with different tags. That works at small scale and breaks down quickly. Popl's account was rebuilt around the principle that B2B and B2C are different products with different sales cycles, and the Klaviyo architecture should reflect that: separate flow trees, separate segmentation, separate campaign calendars, and only some shared brand identity at the template level.
Deliverability had been the choke point. The fix was straightforward in process but disciplined in execution, and it came before any revenue work, because a better flow sent to the spam folder earns nothing.
What to take from it
Apply it to your account.
The same method runs on every account we take on as an ecommerce email marketing agency: diagnose first, remove what costs you, then build. Three lessons from the Popl engagement:
TAKEAWAY.01
Fix deliverability before revenue work
Flows and campaigns cannot earn from the spam folder. Authentication, suppression and a warm-up come first.
Email deliverability →
TAKEAWAY.02
Give each audience its own architecture
If B2B and B2C buyers sit on one list with different tags, both get the wrong email at the wrong time.
Customer segmentation guide →
TAKEAWAY.03
Build it so someone else can run it
Documented architecture and segment logic a team can maintain are what made Popl's in-house handoff clean.
Flow automation →
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Get your free Klaviyo audit
Drop your store URL and email. We'll review your email program and send a written 90-day revenue roadmap within 24 hours. No obligation.