From a $300k crowdfunding campaign in 2020 to +$80M in sales last year, Gel Blaster is an omnichannel juggernaut.
The brand spans Amazon, major retail distribution, a direct-to-consumer website, and even limited-edition, Walmart-exclusive drops with the likes of YouTube superstar David Dobrik.
Founded by lifelong product developer, Colin Guinn, its first prototype emerged peak pandemic when Guinn’s 13-year-old son got swept up into Fortnite, a first-person-shooter video game. Wanting to keep his son active, the two began paintballing and quickly fell in love with the game.
But, there was a painful problem.
For Guinn’s younger son, paintballing was simply too intense. Worse, it required a hefty upfront payment and had to be played in dedicated arenas.
“I looked around,” recalls Guinn, “and was surprised to find a gap in the market between pre-teen NERF darts and being old enough for paintball. Airsoft BB guns weren’t a good alternative either. Even though you can play with them anywhere, they’re still painful, and cleaning up thousands of plastic BBs from a backyard is impossible.”
To address that gap, Gel Blasters was created. A technology-driven, active-lifestyle brand with the goal of getting both kids and their families outside to “have a blast.”
Unlike paintball or airsoft, Gel Blasters shoot non-toxic, eco-friendly Gellets®, offer a range of affordable products and are just painful enough to make playing suspenseful.
Of course, a just-painful-enough product is one thing. A painful, low-performing channel is another matter entirely.
A Platform Change for Success
Gel Blaster wasn’t new to SMS, but it was new to SMS success.
“We had an SMS provider,” says Jon Gilmartin, Director of Ecommerce at Gel Blaster, “but the day-to-day was too time-consuming for the return that we were getting.”
Without a dedicated team member to handle its text strategy and implementation, the channel flopped.
Jon Gilmartin
Director of Ecommerce, Gel Blaster
We needed a solution that would automate signups, get results from the welcome series immediately, and offer personalized support.
Level Unlocked: Three Tactics Achieved
To match Gel Blaster’s needs — and alleviate its SMS pain — the strategy focused on three levers with three goals:
- Popups: Grow the brand’s SMS list
- Welcome Flow: Convert subscribers into customers
- Campaign support: Engage customers with commerce then content
The Popups
Every so often a brand finds a hook that changes the sign-up game. Gel Blaster did exactly that with its opt-in offer.
In just 90 days, it went from 0 subscribers to 22.5k.
In general, a percentage-off incentive is a good strategy to test first, but this brand knows its audience better than that.
Every product in the Gel Blaster range require Gellets. While new orders come with them, they run out fast. This made for the perfect offer …
Alone, the mobile two-tap popup version was responsible for 16.2k of the total 22.5k subscribers and saw a 3.8% conversion rate.
Even better, Gel Blaster was able to generate massive list growth without sacrificing profitability. Gellets are one of its highest-margin products. Plus, they require purchasing a blaster and lead naturally into recurring orders.
Welcome Flow
When you’ve got rapid list growth, your welcome sequence becomes your money maker.
Gel Blaster uses a five-text automation to encourage subscribers to claim their free gellets. It also employs conditional checks throughout to ensure only subscribers who have not purchased and do not have items in their cart, receive further texts.
While the opening text accounted for 90% of revenue, the remaining flow still generated $40k in sales.
To optimize and drive even better results, two A/B tests were performed.
First, text-only SMS (low cost) versus a longer MMS with in-action visual (higher cost). Second, deeper into the flow, a short offer-only SMS versus the same offer with an opening line highlighting product benefits.
In both tests, the simple, straightforward, and lower-cost message performed better. With +29% revenue for test one and +380% for test two.
In total, the flow was exactly the kind of money maker Gel Blaster needed it to be: 17.1% CTR and $411k in sales.
This triumphant kick-off all began by combining the easiest opt-in mechanism (mobile two-tap) with a powerhouse incentive: 10,000 free Gellets.
Campaign Support
Don’t let the phenomenal automation results distract you from Gel Blaster’s SMS campaigns. Starting with 0 subscribers, the text sends weren’t big in recipient numbers but they were big in results.
From November to December, it averaged one to two campaigns each week — five around Black Friday and six more before New Year’s Eve.
Five campaigns that went above and beyond:
- Black Friday Kickoff
- Holiday Kickoff
- Holiday Follow Up
- Year End Sale
- Flash Sale (Items in Cart)
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Overall, Gel Blaster has sent over 100,00 texts and made $76,400 from SMS campaigns — a not-too-shabby average ROI of 25X.
Quick Results with Long-Term Benefits
Having such an engaged subscriber list opens the door to more testing with text. The power duo of popups and a Welcome Flow are just the beginning for the brand.
Jon Gilmartin
Director of Ecommerce, Gel Blaster
“Recart and our customer success manager, Jordan, in particular, have done such a great job. He sends me the ideas and campaigns already set up, if needed I tweak them, then he just runs with it.
“He also ensures we follow SMS best practices while getting the best bang for our buck. He suggests follow-up campaigns, graphics to use, etc. And if we have a sale coming up, all I need to do is let him know and he’ll send me a draft to approve.”
After phenomenal end-of-year success, Gel Blaster is already implementing a strategy to bolster spring and summer months. Applied to SMS marketing, it’s testing content-related campaigns — like this recent YouTube video that pitted a Gellet … against a Tesla.
Yes, it’s as cool as it sounds! You should take a look.
The business is also planning a “Go Play Day” event in March. Hoping to partner with local influencers, get more kids playing outside, and get them battling with Blasters.
Jon Gilmartin
Director of Ecommerce, Gel Blaster
“During the holidays, our texts were basically promotional and transactional. Now we’re testing some video content and focusing on the idea of going outside and playing.
“It doesn’t even have to be with a Gel Blaster. We just want to get people outdoors, get grass stains on their pants, and have some fun.”
Three Months Results Summed Up
Between October and December 2022, Gel Blaster achieved:
- 21k total new subscribers at 3.8% SMS conversion rate
- $411k from its Welcome Flow; $293k in December
- $545k in click-only SMS attributed revenue
- 78.8X ROI from $6,917 in costs
