Cases / Dirks
Dirks
When CRM became part of the acquisition model
- Marketing strategy
- CRM
- Paid growth
- Ecommerce
- Creative
Dirks is a Danish jewellery company where, through my work at Checkmate, I worked across marketing strategy, acquisition, CRM, campaigns, brand communication and the webshop.
The most important change was not a new ad or a new flow. It was a change in the way we thought about the customer journey itself.
Instead of only paying to reach customers close to purchase, we began building the relationship earlier and using CRM to move potential customers further along the customer journey.
My role: Strategy and hands-on execution. As Head of Marketing at Checkmate, I worked across marketing strategy, acquisition and paid media, CRM and email marketing, marketing automation, campaign development, audience strategy, copywriting, creative direction, photoshoots, brand communication and project management of the webshop. I worked on the overall direction and personally carried out a significant share of the marketing work.
The results should be read as the outcome of the overall marketing effort, not as the effect of any single channel or automation.
Four disciplines within one case
Acquisition and CRM as parts of the same economics, assessed on customer value rather than the first purchase.
02Paid & lead generationMeta Lead Ads as the way into CRM. Black Friday and Christmas as concrete proof.
03CRM & marketing automationWelcome, nurture, abandoned cart, product view, newsletters and campaign reminders.
04Brand, creative & webshopLifestyle imagery, campaign worlds and a new webshop that continued the experience after the ad.
01Strategy & acquisitionWe stopped optimising only for the first purchase.
The conventional ecommerce model was relatively simple: a customer sees an ad, visits the webshop and buys, or does not. The problem is that jewellery is not necessarily an impulse purchase.
If the whole acquisition model is optimised for the immediate purchase, you risk paying a high price to communicate only with the part of the market that is ready to convert right now.
DecisionWe began to see acquisition and CRM as parts of the same economics. Instead of only asking what does a purchase cost?, we also asked: what does it cost to create a potential customer we can then develop a relationship with? That led to a greater emphasis on lead generation.
Customer value and marketing economicsThe shift required marketing to be assessed on more than the immediate platform conversion. We worked with the relationship between:
- Lead cost
- Acquisition cost
- Conversion
- Order economics
- Customer value
- Repeat purchases
- Paid media
- CRM
This made it possible to assess lead generation on its role in the overall customer journey rather than only on whether the lead bought immediately after signing up. I do not publish the exact internal CLV and purchase-frequency figures, but they were part of the commercial assessment of the acquisition model.
As Head of Marketing at Checkmate, I worked both on the overall acquisition direction and on connecting paid, CRM and the webshop into one model.
Evidence / result
02Paid & lead generationThe ad did not have to close the sale.
If the ad has to close the sale, you pay to reach customers close to purchase, and only them.
Decision and executionMeta Lead Ads were used, among other things, to build email permissions through campaign offers. On Black Friday, for example, customers could sign up and get access to a better offer.
This made it possible to continue the conversation even when the customer was not ready to buy at the first ad exposure. Direct conversion and remarketing activity could be used closer to purchase, while CRM handled a larger share of the relationship between first interest and purchase.
Paid and CRM were not treated as separate channels. They became different steps in the same customer journey.
Lead generation as an alternative to expensive direct conversion. Compared with the previous year:
What was interesting was not only higher revenue, but the combination of more revenue and significantly lower marketing spend.
Evidence: ChristmasThis strengthened the hypothesis that the improvement was not just about one strong Black Friday campaign, but about a better connection between acquisition, CRM and the customer journey.
03CRM & marketing automationThe lead only had value once the relationship was used.
Lead generation alone was not the strategy. It was connected to automated and ongoing CRM communication.
Execution- Welcome & nurture: new leads were introduced to Dirks, the products and relevant offers rather than receiving a single discount code and then disappearing.
- Abandoned cart: customers with clear purchase intent could be followed up if the purchase was not completed.
- Product view: product interest could be used as a signal for follow-up communication.
- Newsletters: newsletters made CRM an ongoing relationship rather than just a series of automated flows.
- Campaigns and reminders: Black Friday, Christmas and other commercial periods were supported by planned email communication.
CRM worked as nurture, as conversion support and as a way of keeping in touch with potential customers between campaigns.
Nurture email with discount code.
04Brand, creative & webshopThe jewellery had to be sold as more than products in a feed.
The commercial change was supported by a change in the creative communication. The goal was to create a clearer and more attractive context around the jewellery rather than only showing individual products as catalogue items.
Lifestyle imagery and campaign worlds made it possible to communicate the product, the occasion and the identity the jewellery could be part of. It also provided more differentiated creative material for acquisition, remarketing and CRM.
Execution- Audience segmentation
- Campaign concepts
- Creative direction
- Lifestyle photography
- Photoshoots
- Paid social assets
- Newsletter design
- Copywriting
- Product communication
The marketing experience had to continue after the ad. The work included a new webshop, not just as a visual redesign, but to create a connection between:
At the same time, the webshop had to present Dirks’ jewellery in a way that better supported the desired positioning. I worked on the project from the marketing side and helped connect the customer journey, communication, creative and webshop experience.
Ads and video ads with lifestyle and product, newsletters and the webshop in the same visual world.
What the case shows
CRM was used as part of the commercial model, not just as a channel for newsletters.
Paid media was assessed together with lead generation, CRM, conversion and customer value.
The customer journey was extended from the first ad and immediate conversion to a longer relationship before purchase.
Lead Ads, conversion campaigns and remarketing were used differently depending on the customer’s position in the journey.
Audience thinking, lifestyle photography, campaign concepts and content supported both acquisition and brand positioning.
Strategic marketing responsibility combined with significant hands-on execution across CRM, paid, copy and creative.
CRM did not just change the communication. It changed the acquisition model.
The most important lesson from Dirks was not that email could generate revenue, or that lead ads could generate cheaper leads. It was that acquisition and CRM worked better when they were planned as one system.
Instead of only paying to find customers ready to buy immediately, we could build the relationship earlier, use CRM to develop it and let paid media play different roles throughout the customer journey.
For me, that is what the case proves above all: CRM can be part of the growth model itself, not just a channel after acquisition.
Working on the same challenge?
If paid acquisition is getting more expensive, CRM is mainly used for campaign emails, or acquisition and retention are treated as two separate disciplines, you are welcome to get in touch.
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