Lifecycle Marketing · Brand GrowthSeventh & Oak
24%
Revenue growth
year-over-year
Orders fulfilled,
majority repeat customers
2000+
50%
Total revenue
driven by email
Seventh & Oak was a hand-poured coconut soy candle brand built during the pandemic: small batch, sustainably made, and priced at $38 CAD per candle. No ad budget. No PR agency. Just a founder, a product worth talking about, and a marketing strategy built to make every customer come back.
THE CHALLENGE
Two problems. One strategy.
Scaling a handmade product brand means solving acquisition and retention at the same time. With a small email list and no budget for paid media, every marketing decision had to work harder and smarter than the competition.
The goal wasn't to reach everyone. It was to turn the right people into loyal customers who bought again, bought more, and brought others with them.
THE STRATEGY
Retention first. Always
A mini sample set was introduced to lower the barrier for first-time buyers - an affordable way to experience the full collection before committing to a full-size candle. It worked exactly as intended. Customers who bought the minis came back for full sizes, often purchasing three or four candles at a time.
Email was the engine behind all of it. A full lifecycle program was built from scratch: list growth, segmentation, automated sequences mapped to every stage of the customer journey, and ongoing campaigns. A/B testing was run consistently across emails and landing pages. Bundling strategies were layered in to increase average order value.
The result was a customer base that didn't just buy once. They came back, they bought more, and they told people.
"I bought the mini sets to smell which candles I wanted to purchase the full size version... ALL OF THEM."
— Verified Customer
THE RESULTS
50%
Revenue from email
15%
Increase in average order value
24%
Revenue growth YoY
2x
Email signup rate (4% → 8%)
2000+
Orders, majority repeat buyers
20%
Increase in conversion rate
AS SEEN IN
Elle · Glamour
Earned press. Zero PR budget.
-
"You can really tell these are handmade with love and care. The 2oz tins make perfect gifts."
— Verified Customer
-
"I'm more than halfway through the jar and I'm waiting on the restock email to get a new one."
— Verified Customer
-
"The entire Wellness collection has been well thought-out from materials to scents to packaging. I burn it in a small room, walk in from time to time, inhale deeply and feel the peace and calm wash over me."
— Verified Customer
THE TAKEAWAY
Revenue didn't grow because of more traffic.
It grew because the right retention system was in place - one that turned curious first-time buyers into loyal customers and kept them coming back. That's the Harlowe approach: build the infrastructure that makes growth compound.