Schuler Shoes
A staple of Minneapolis-Saint Paul and D2C footwear, Schuler Shoes has set trends for 134 years. The company called on MarketSmiths’ copywriting for content and branding strategy, starting with well-timed email campaigns. In 6 months, our email copy generated a 63% increase in clicks—and helped Schuler surpass an email revenue milestone for an ROI of over 6,500% on our work. Now, our growing partnership encompasses video and web copy, with more initiatives on the horizon.
Client
“I wanted Schuler’s voice to be distinct—not just another variation on standard retail.”
Since 1889, Schuler Shoes has outfitted Twin Cities residents with comfortable, stylish footwear. As a thoughtful brand that’s willing to evolve with the times, the independent retailer has served families across four generations, blossoming into a regional D2C brand with nationwide reach.
In 2022, Creative Director Kari Palmer came to a pivotal realization: to drive sustainable growth, she needed a humanized brand voice—one that could turn heads and propel rapid action.
For Kari, the initiative was personal. “I’m the daughter of an English teacher, so words matter to me,” she explains. “I wanted Schuler’s voice to be distinct—not just another variation on standard retail.”
“MarketSmiths is very good at taking feedback. They don’t cling too tightly to the original idea—they’re open-minded, very open to the idea of who the customer is.”
— Kari Palmer, Creative Director, Schuler Shoes
Challenge
“MarketSmiths ultimately won me over with their quality of work.”
Prior to partnering with MarketSmiths, Schuler had worked with other content partners to develop large-platform creative copy. While pleased with the results, Kari knew that Schuler’s upcoming initiative—emotionally driven email campaigns targeting in-store and online sales—entailed specialized B2C copywriting expertise.
“It was a very different challenge,” she says. “Some [writing partners] are more talented than others when it comes to the particulars.
“We needed things to be high-level, intentionally worded, and consistent with other campaigns,” she continues. “What would make our customers open an email?”
Initially hesitant to work with a copy agency outside its key geographic market, Schuler decided to give MarketSmiths—and our fresh perspective—a shot.
“MarketSmiths ultimately won me over with the quality of work I saw,” she says. “That, and the team’s willingness to collaborate. I sensed that from the beginning.” This is especially high praise, given that Kari has experienced a variety of agency collaboration styles. With us, she has repeatedly called it an ideal fit.
Shared Success
“While giving us a new and innovative edge, MarketSmiths made sure to hang onto our [original] brand tenets and voice.”
The decision paid off in stunning time. In 6 months, MarketSmiths generated a 63% increase in clicks, helping Schuler surpass a new revenue milestone and achieve a head-turning 6,500% ROI on our work.
“With MarketSmiths, we’re landing at about a 3.8% CTR—with some emails exceeding a 4% CTR,” Kari says. That’s a nearly 72% improvement over the previous average of 2.33%.
The wins don’t end there: Schuler’s March 2023 Spring Event campaign achieved a 3.9% CTR and drove $50,427 in revenue.
Since kicking off our partnership in 2022 with a poignant holiday email series, Schuler has scaled up to a monthly cadence of 10–15 emails.
One key ingredient? Our unique ability to tell the story right—on brand and with intention, as if written just for you. To get there, MarketSmiths made sure to evoke the brand’s underlying ethos: Schuler isn’t just about shoes. It’s about the spirit of adventure, the promise that the right footwear can take you anywhere—up summits, down coastlines, and through city streets.
Our messaging—which reshaped Schuler into a storied and inspiring lifestyle brand—has yielded outsized payoffs. Through clever and playful headlines like “Take a hike,” “One for the boots,” and “Your holiday head(to toe)quarters,” Schuler got to debut its new, irresistibly fun side—and customers couldn’t get enough.
Excited to see where else MarketSmiths could take the brand, Schuler expanded the original scope of our partnership by tapping us for web copy and video scripts to promote its fall 2023 ad campaign.
“The content channels Schuler’s brand voice without ever feeling stagnant or repetitive,” Kari raves. “MarketSmiths has taken the emotion of these brand ads and trickled them down into everyday emails and web copy. While giving us a new and innovative edge, MarketSmiths made sure to hang onto our [original] brand tenets and voice.”
Kari also cites our flexibility and meticulousness as crucial success factors.
“I can tell that MarketSmiths is reading the additional material I’m giving them, whether it’s a brand script or something else,” she says. “They continue to go back to the playbook to make sure we’re right where we’re supposed to be.
“MarketSmiths is also very good at taking feedback,” she continues. “They don’t cling too tightly to the original idea; they’re open-minded, very open to the idea of who the customer is.”
As for the road ahead, Schuler is optimistic.
“We look forward to getting work from MarketSmiths every single time,” Kari shares. “I know it’ll be spot-on and take such a huge load off my shoulders.”
She quickly cites another memorable success—a campaign we wrote promoting Schuler’s travel event, which usually coincides with the company’s lowest-earning month of the year.
“There were two feet of snow on the ground,” Kari recalls. “Yet total revenue that day exceeded $36,600—all associated with that email.
“Everyone on our team is on the same page about MarketSmiths,” she adds. “We’re excited to continue working with you.”
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