The Story

Raw Dog Brands is a manufacturer of organic, locally-sourced raw food for dogs.

After Raw Dog founder Gary Novosel moved to O’ahu with his wife, he was unable to find raw dog food for his Chow-Sharpei mix Bear, pictured below. This led him to combine his love of food with dogs.

Raw Dog Hawai’i launched in September 2012.

Even though Gary’s background was in IT where he worked as a Chief Technology Officer for Canada’s largest system integrator, he had never run his own business.

He started small by grinding raw dog food in his home kitchen for his beloved dog, Bear.

After perfecting his recipes and a successful six-month food trial, Gary found the perfect mixture of protein, fats, amino acids and other nutrients dogs require.

Aggressiveness subsided, mange disappeared, infections were healed, coats became healthier and the list of noticeable improvements goes on.

He started selling his raw dog food locally. In his first month, he sold 75 pounds of raw dog food. He doubled it his second month. Then he outgrew his kitchen.

Today, Gary is selling over 16,000 pounds of food a month through his website, farmers’ markets and retail stores.

What sets Gary apart is his attention to sustainability and quality ingredients. Raw Dog products are shipped in recycled boxes from a pharmaceutical company nearby.

The chicken, beef and meats used in Raw Dog products come from farms adhering to the highest quality and humane standards.

It’s human food that’s made for dogs.

The Results

Gary’s devotion to detail with the ingredients in his dog food is reflected in his relationships with customers.

He is obsessed with feedback.

Using Remarkety, Gary sends out automatic emails to customers requesting their feedback after an order. He even includes his cell phone number in the email.

Not only is he hearing from his customers; he is driving sales by showing he cares about what his customers think.

Raw Dog’s customer feedback emails boast an impressive 11% purchase rate and generates nearly an average of $19 revenue per email.

The order follow up campaign, sent three days after an order is complete, has even better numbers.

A 14% purchase rate and an average revenue per email of nearly $20 makes for a high performing email campaign Gary can count on.

After switching over from Magento to Shopify, the first app Gary installed was Remarkety.

He knows he can not only recover 50% of abandoned carts with Remarkety, but he wouldn’t have been able to capture so many additional sales without the app.

Personalization is key, Gary says. While he isn’t a marketing or sales expert, Gary knows a personal touch can go a long way with his customers.

Moreover, this approach to sales has been a golden opportunity.

By mentioning a customer’s name and what they bought in a previous order, a coupon isn’t even necessary to drive additional orders.

With 62% of customers placing repeat orders, Raw Dog Hawaii outperforms the average eCommerce site by leaps and bounds.

And without Remarkety, Gary says, he wouldn’t have this kind of loyalty.

Selling the highest quality, nutrient-rich products that give dogs more energy, controlled allergies and a higher quality of life probably doesn’t hurt either.

Aside from Remarkety, Raw Dog doesn’t do much in the way of marketing, advertising or PR and that’s what makes this small company out of Hawaii all the more impressive.

For Gary, when it comes to marketing, automatic emails sent by Remarkety are a “no brainer” and he says that he will “always use Remarkety.”