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Playbook: How This Brand Scaled From $500 to $1m in a Year
Ecom Flywheel, Meta Ads, Landing Pages and Email Flows

Hey guys,
Welcome back!
Found this really awesome e-com brand who are turning over $1m+ per month.
The interesting thing is that these guys started as a dropshipping store with only a $500 budget.
Zero Waste Cartel is a small independent company founded in 2018 that sells over 100 hand-selected products designed to help consumers reduce waste and enrich their homes.
After looking at their strategy, I realised they haven’t done anything revolutionary.
They’ve just been consistently serving their customers, doubled down on what’s worked for them and put effort into details like a copy.
In this newsletter, I’ll focus on how they built and maintained their customer base. I’ll cover:
Flywheel system that brings them consistent sales
How they use Meta ads and landing pages together
Key email flows that have made them $1.25m in the last six months
Hope you enjoy today’s case study 🤙
FLYWHEEL MODEL
Sticking to Proven Strategies, Avoid Trends.

Zero Waste Cartel have simplified their approach into a proven flywheel model. It’s effective and easy to understand.
It’s built on the principle that each component of the flywheel complements and amplifies the effects of others.
When executed well, this brings in new customers and increases repeat purchases.
For Zero Waste Cartel, their flywheel looks something like this:
Meta ads (for you this could be any paid traffic that works)
Email (both specific flows + tactical campaigns)
Customer experience ( Product + Customer Service)
Social media presence
An important thing to note is that they identify and lead with the customer.
Example: If they were creating social content, they would continually ask “Would the customer stop scrolling and engage with this?”.
The conversation goes away from all the fancy structure in the backend to what the ideal customer cares about.
So, spending time and refining your customer avatar will help you figure out your flywheel. Or bring back clarity.
META ADS STRATEGY
Sell the Click, Then the Product
Staying with simplification — they’ve applied this to their Meta ads strategy.
They’ve found a formula that works for them and aligns well with current best practices and algorithms.
Their key goal is to maintain the cost per acquisition around $20 by implementing the following principles:
Simplified ad account
They utilise campaign budget optimisation and only run a single campaign.
Use three ad sets with a broad target which only includes flexible creatives.
By doing this they are letting Meta’s algorithm not limit targeting customers. They are relying on Meta’s algo to pick up patterns from the conversions their creatives would bring.
If Zero Waste Cartel’s ideal customers start buying from their ads, Meta is smart enough to find more people who have similar online behaviours.
The days of strict targeting are well behind us.
Still important in some respects but it definitely limits volume and keeps you in a smaller pool that typically comes with its own challenges like high CPMs.

Here’s a beautiful doodle from my notebook showcasing this structure
Focus on one product and one customer avatar
Instead of advertising multiple products, they focus on one product that generates the most lifetime value.
They create a thorough understanding of the customer avatar, including their desires, frustrations and values to craft relevant ad messages.
This is something new and I like this approach, especially for brands who have a strict budget.
Ad creative strategy
The goal of the ad is to sell the click. Not the product. This is a proven direct-response principle that most marketers still stray away from.
Zero Waste Cartel focus on making the ad feel like native content rather than an ad to drive up engagement which results in lower CPMs and higher click-throughs to their landing page (where the product will be sold).
In terms of their ad structure and execution, this is what they focus on:
The beginning of the ad is solely focused on attention and interest (aka ‘the hook’). Get this right and you’ll immediately see an uplift in engagement.
Focus on generating desire before listing product features. Address before and after the state of using the product.
For example:Before - “Do you feel frustrated and old because knee pain is stopping you from doing what you love?
After - “Imaging running up and down the court effortlessly, jumping for the basket, and landing without pain”
The example above appeals emotionally and creates a desired dream outcome for the customer.
Landing page strategy
This is crucial for ad results and determining high ROAS and lower CPAs.
A good landing page builds immediate trust and presents a compelling offer.
They ensure that the landing page content is directly relevant to the ad so the user that you spent money getting from the ad has high levels of trust and interest.

However, this is easier said than done.
Zero Waste Carter has iterated about 35 landing pages before finding a landing page playbook that consistently converted at a profit.
To find the best landing page, they stuck with their “rule of one” — the landing page needs to focus on one product and one customer to avoid complexity and maintain clarity through the whole buying journey.
EMAIL STRATEGY
The Most Important Asset for an E-com Brand
Zero Waste Cartel swears by its email strategy because it makes up 50% of their total revenue.
They’ve mastered the art of sending emails without annoying customers and getting sales from it.
How they grow their email list
They suggest using enticing popup offers like free accessory products to drive sign-ups. For them, this outperforms their standard discount offer.
The second way they grow is by offering free downloadable guides and ebooks in their "Sustainable Library”.

Principles used to nurture their list
Not all brands like ZWC can achieve transparency. They are open about business challenges and mistakes.
If they mess up address it quickly by letting their customers know. If they are struggling, they share this with their customers as well as the wins.They keep things casual, playful and simple. Their emails are focused on reader experience and messaging.
It doesn’t include dramatic visuals to garner engagement and interest. Instead, they prioritise copy and messaging paired with tone.Each email is viewed as an opportunity to connect with subscribers to foster loyalty.
It’s not a box-ticking exercise to maintain frequency with the hope of making extra sales on a given day.
Email copy techniques they use
Within the email, sentences need to be adjusted for mobile readability to avoid blocks of text that feel like work to read. Try 2-3 sentences per point.
Use consistent white space and short sentences to improve readability across all devices.
They suggest using bullet points to get to the point and relay the benefits in 3-4 words.
Setting up for the next email with ‘open loops’. It creates curiosity by starting a story or idea but not finishing it.
For example, at the end of each email, you can build anticipation for the next email by letting customers know what to expect. This creates a habit of being aware of opening the Zero Waste Cartel Emails.Use simple sentences in offers so people can make decisions easily. The goal is to quickly read, process and decide on the offer.

How they use email flows to drive sales
In one of their videos, Zero Waste Cartel mentioned that they made $1.25 million in the last six months using email flows.
Email content is subjective to the brand so its important to lead with core principles like:
Consumer psychology is at the core of their flow strategy. Their emails consider what people want, why they want it and their journey stage.
By segmenting consumers based on their behaviour they can deliver tailored emails that resonate.
For example, if a consumer interacts with an ad or a pop-up, their buyer intent is very different to someone who has visited the website 6-7 times, therefore they will be served a completely different tone and offer.Identify and address barriers stopping customers from making the purchase. It shows a lack of confidence and clarity in your emails.
They do this by ‘sequencing the information’. The information presented to the customer helps to slowly remove concerns.
For example, their sequence starts with benefits and desires before providing details like refund policies.Differentiating tones between prospecting and retention emails is important.
For prospects, they focus on creating value and connecting.
For existing customers, they focus on reinforcing their decision and making them feel like the hero of the story.
FINAL WORDS
Bringing It Home
Zero Waste Cartel is a great playbook for all small to medium-sized e-commerce brands.
Their strategy is clear and effective. It’s focused on the customers, which helps them to build customer loyalty right from the beginning of the buying cycle.
I binge-watched their YouTube channel while researching their approach. It’s a must-follow/ watch if you want to improve your copywriting and get fresh ideas for your e-commerce brand.
That’s all for today! Thanks for tuning in 🙂
Poll: What did you think of today's edition?Polls are anonymous so let me know :) |
Dev✌️
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