Are you marketing handbags using Instagram, Facebook and SnapChat, but struggling to convert those fans to sales? Do those fans visit your site but leave without ever buying? In this case study, we’ll discover how Urban Southern used a single popup to build a list of 9,000 engaged fans that they own themselves and can promote their handbag line to, without relying on social media.

Marketing Handbags with Urban Southern

Urban Southern crafts timeless leather bags that fit the everyday lifestyles of women from all walks of life. They are only three years old, but have seen huge growth in both their email list and sales during that time. Meg Delagrange from Urban Southern sat down with us to talk about how marketing handbags with OptinMonster grew their sales 400%.

Before using OptinMonster, Urban Southern had just over 400 subscribers, mostly from promoting their leather bags and handmade leather goods with giveaways at events and on Facebook. Despite a huge following on social media channels, they struggled to convert those fans to sales. In the first year and a half of sales, they sold only 45 handbags.

In the fall of 2016, they launched a new website and implemented OptinMonster popups with a goal of growing their email marketing list.

Marketing Handbags with Popup Coupons

​Urban Southern’s success using OptinMonster is directly related to the success of their blog.

A blog gives you an opportunity to write content optimized for lead generation. According to Hubspot, companies that published 16+ blog posts per month got almost 3.5X more traffic than companies that published 0-4 monthly posts.

Urban Southern discovered this principle for marketing handbags when they published 60+ blog posts in 2017. They gained more than 6,000 social shares. The more they blogged, the more their content was shared, and traffic increased as a result.

Would you like to increase your blogging frequency, but aren’t sure what to write about? Here are 103 blog ideas you can get started on today.

Urban Southern took advantage of the increased traffic to grow their email list. They added a single lightbox optin to their website, using the pre-designed Coupon template. The optin appears on every page after the visitor has been on the site for more than four seconds.

Urban Southern also makes good use of the success message subscribers see immediately after entering their email address. They deliver the promised coupon code, but also included a personal note directing subscribers to confirm their subscription.

This type of instruction is important when requiring a double optin. The double optin requires users to confirm their desire to be added to your list by clicking a link sent in an email. The process ensures everyone who registers for your list definitely wants to receive your emails.

The success themes OptinMonster provides are a great place for you to give your newly engaged subscriber a next step. Here are seven examples of how you can better leverage success themes to increase engagement.

This email converts 5.19% of visitors.

Meg Delagrange had this piece of advice for other companies marketing handbags,

“Don’t try to be so clever with the language on your optin that you confuse people. Make the benefit of signing up very clear to them. The first popup that we created had some clever talk on it about joining a community. It was meaningful, but it didn’t clearly communicate a benefit to signing up.

In March 2017, I updated the language of our opt-in pop-up to include the mention of the 10% off coupon. We saw a jump in signups, but also a steady rise in SALES from that point on. Sales in September 2017 were up 400% from our sales in March.”

Results

Using a single lightbox optin, Urban Southern added thousands of visitors to their sales funnel and saw a huge lift in sales as a result.

• Urban Southern grew email subscriptions 2150% using OptinMonster.
• Urban Southern added 8600 subscribers to their email list.
• Urban Southern increased sales 400% since adding OptinMonster.

Summary

Urban Southern discovered that marketing handbags with consistent blogging leads to increased traffic. They converted those visitors to subscribers using a popup coupon offer, growing their list 2150% in just over a year.

OptinMonster has been a key tool to create incredible traction for Urban Southern. OptinMonster helped Urban Southern convert over 8600 subscribers, bringing each one into a friendly atmosphere with a great welcome email series. We’ve connected with so many women to make a positive impact with our message and gained enough traction in sales to definitely keep doing what we’re doing.
Meg Delagrange, Urban Southern