Fishwife drives 67x Klaviyo ROI with email, SMS, + A/B testing

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Fishwife is a seafood brand founded by Becca Millstein and Caroline Goldfarb in 2020 to bring responsibly-sourced tinned fish—from anchovies to smoked salmon—to America.

Since then, Fishwife has grown into a multi-million dollar omnichannel brand. Today, their fish retails in 4,000+ brick-and-mortar stores nationwide, and the brand runs a thriving ecommerce shop. To power smarter digital relationships with customers, they use Klaviyo for email and SMS.

Learn how Fishwife matured from a brand new startup to Shark Tank alum with Klaviyo

Challenge

In her early days as a founder, Fishwife CEO Becca Millstein didn’t know which marketing platform to use.

“I was calling every single entrepreneur I knew to get their opinion on how to put together our tech stack in the most optimized way possible,” she recalls.

I was calling every single entrepreneur I knew to get their opinion on how to put together our tech stack in the most optimized way possible.

She only knew which platform she didn’t want to rely on: the best-known player in email marketing in the 2010s. She was familiar with it from her earlier marketing career in the music industry, and it had been rigid and hard to use.

“I wanted to start carte blanche and find something new,” Millstein says.

Solution

Millstein’s advisors and fellow founders almost unanimously recommended Klaviyo. She couldn’t ignore them.

When Fishwife first started with the platform, the team was small enough that Millstein managed email herself. She had some experience, but nothing extensive—and that was no problem.

“In Klaviyo, it was really easy to design emails, create audiences, segment them, and do simple email sends,” she says. “What I love most about Klaviyo is that it’s equally usable for a complete novice and an expert.”

In Klaviyo, it was really easy to design emails, create audiences, segment them, and do simple email sends. What I love most about Klaviyo is that it’s equally usable for a complete novice and an expert.

As Fishwife’s audience grew and Millstein planned a January 2024 appearance on Shark Tank, she decided to bring a marketing expert on board: consultant Patrick Butcher.

Now, “we’re able to do so much more than I even knew was possible,” marvels Millstein—like preparing their email funnel for an influx of Shark Tank subscribers, ramping up A/B testing, and continuing to grow their revenue from email and SMS.

In 2024, their Klaviyo revenue is up 41% YoY YTD. In January, the month Fishwife’s Shark Tank episode aired, Klaviyo revenue was up 110% YoY.

Strategy

This year, the Fishwife team has built out a more robust, optimized email and SMS funnel. For example, they’ve worked together to:

• Refresh the welcome flow to convert a broad audience: Shark Tank catapulted Fishwife into the mainstream—and drove an influx of diverse new subscribers. Butcher helped refresh the Fishwife welcome flow to include a plain-text note from Millstein, who viewers knew from TV; product education for category newbies; and last-chance messaging around their welcome discount. In 2024 so far, revenue from flows has jumped 35% YoY.
• Ramp up A/B testing: Fishwife frequently A/B tests email campaign layouts, experimenting with different lengths, images, and button placements. “A specific format in an email can drive thousands more dollars,” Butcher says. One key insight so far: product launch emails perform best when they’re short, and in-depth details live on the product page.
• Roll out a multi-channel holiday product launch playbook: Every year, Fishwife launches a new limited-edition product or two around BFCM. (This year’s include caviar and a holiday tin.) The team has started taking a “surround sound” approach to these launches, using both email and SMS: first, to drive list growth, they sent an email inviting customers to sign up for SMS to get an exclusive discount or early access; then, they announce the new product on both channels.

As a fast-growing brand, Fishwife has a lot of news to share—and Klaviyo helps their lean team keep subscribers up to date in an efficient, compelling way.

“We do so much with DTC,” says Millstein. “We launch our new products on DTC. We launch collaborations on DTC. We’re constantly changing and iterating on our ecommerce site, and Klaviyo allows us to share all our messaging points with our customers without overwhelming them.”

We do so much with DTC. We launch our new products on DTC. We launch collaborations on DTC. We’re constantly changing and iterating on our ecommerce site, and Klaviyo allows us to share all our messaging points with our customers without overwhelming them.