Montana Knife Company’s powers 100x growth and long-term VIP relationships with CRM
89%
YoY growth in annual ecommerce revenue in last 12 months
75%
of ecommerce revenue from Klaviyo in last 12 months
11x
SMS ROI in last 12 months
Montana Knife Company specializes in working knives for working people, made in America. Co-founded by master bladesmith Josh Smith and CMO Brandon Horoho, the DTC brand has grown exponentially in less than a decade, with revenue up 100x over 5 years. Today, they sell an array of hand-crafted hunting, camping, and culinary knives, as well as apparel and knife accessories—and they drive the majority of their revenue with Klaviyo.
Learn how Montana Knife Company’s Klaviyo text messaging strategy ensures loyalists see small-batch product drops
Challenge: Small-batch knives that sell out before VIPs can buy
In their early days, Montana Knife Company faced an interesting CRM challenge: their email list was too big for their product supply.
They made their knives in small batches and released new drops weekly. But they sold out so fast, passionate subscribers often missed out and complained.
It wasn’t sustainable. Even more than most brands, Montana Knife Company needed to create a stellar CRM experience. Their CRM is the foundation of their business, because their product gets sporadically banned from social media.
“We’ve always taken our owned data extremely seriously, because any moment, our socials could vanish off the face of the earth,” says Nick James, marketing manager at Montana Knife Company. “If that were to happen, we know we could run this brand on Klaviyo.”
But for Klaviyo to work as the foundation of their business, their messaging needed to reach their biggest fans reliably. It couldn’t get lost in noisy email inboxes.
Solution: Text message drop alerts that keep loyalists up to date
Montana Knife Company added Klaviyo text messaging to their stack. The more intimate channel attracts their most passionate customers — and now the brand can let them know about product drops, right on their lock screen.
"People use their phones as lifelines, so it only made sense for us to use SMS to alert customers when products are going live, or even ahead of time,” says Mike Gilliland, ecommerce director at Montana Knife Company.
The team finds that text messaging cuts through digital noise immediately, ensuring loyalists don’t miss out. "We send out a text message, and there will be thousands of people on the website in under a minute,” Gilliland says.
We send out a text message, and there will be thousands of people on the website in under a minute.
More broadly, centralizing email, text messaging, and customer data in Klaviyo B2C CRM has helped them scale their lifecycle strategy with their business, while giving high-value customers priority treatment.
“Klaviyo is absolutely vital for us,” says James. “The tools it gives us for tailoring communications and customizing flows have been huge.”
Strategy: Scalable, omnichannel messaging around accelerating drops
Montana Knife Company has grown exponentially over the last 5 years, and Klaviyo supports that throughout the funnel, enhancing everything from customer acquisition strategy to special superfan offers. The marketing team uses Klaviyo to:
- Evaluate customer acquisition tactics. For example, does participating in giveaways to drive list growth work? Klaviyo helped answer that question. When Montana Knife Company partnered with major brands like Chevy and Yeti on a truck giveaway, they captured sign-ups with Klaviyo Forms and stored those subscribers in a dedicated segment so they could track long-term engagement from the new leads. “That was our highest-performing segment for a long time,” Gilliland says.
- Send omnichannel product drop messaging. Before a product drops, Montana Knife Company sends 3 emails to let customers know what’s coming. These emails have no purchase CTA or opportunity to convert, but they build excitement without spiking unsubscribes. When the product finally arrives, the team sends an email and a text, and “it’s the highest conversion rate you’ve ever seen,” James says. In the last 12 months, campaign revenue has jumped 2x YoY, and their unsubscribe rate has dropped 7%.
- Target offers for superfans. A group of more than 10,000 Montana Knife Company superfans has grown organically on Facebook, and the brand has given them a dedicated email and text message sign-up form. When they subscribe, they join a segment that receives special rewards and flash sales, early access to drops, and more. “They’re such a huge part of our brand, so we give them really cool opportunities,” says Gilliland.
It all comes together into a sturdy pipeline of leads, excitement, and hidden loyalist rewards. And it’s all powered by Klaviyo.
“Without a doubt, Klaviyo is our No. 1 channel for everything,” says Gilliland. “It’s the key driver of web traffic and conversions.”
Without a doubt, Klaviyo is our No. 1 channel for everything. It’s the key driver of web traffic and conversions.
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