Retention campaign for a medical nutritional supplements brand

An Apple A Day developed a retention strategy for a medical nutritional supplements brand: from strategy and content for each phase of the customer journey to the technical setup of an automated system.

The challenge

Winning a new customer costs more than keeping an existing one. Yet the focus often lies on acquisition, while retention holds significant value. For a medical nutritional supplements brand, the challenge was to keep existing customers engaged and stimulate repeat purchases. Some customers stopped ordering after a while, presenting a clear opportunity. The task: re‑activate those customers and strengthen the relationship with the brand within the strict rules that apply to these products.

The approach

We started with strategy. Where do customers drop off, which moments in the customer journey are decisive, and how do you maintain engagement after the first purchase? Based on that analysis, we designed a retention approach that follows the full journey from first introduction to returning customer.

Each phase received content tailored to the customer’s position at that moment: a newsletter around a brand milestone, targeted reminders for customers who hadn’t ordered for a while, and a survey to uncover the reasons behind disengagement.

In medical nutritional supplements, this is where the greatest complexity lies. Regulations for health claims are strict: only approved claims may be used literally, and references to preventing or curing disease are not allowed. This requires careful guidance on messaging. We advised on which claims are permissible and structured the content so that customers with specific information needs follow a logical path toward allowed, substantiated information. Where a direct claim is not permitted, a thoughtful content structure provides a compliant alternative that still leads the customer to the right information.

Execution ran on an automated system. We set up the technology so the right message reaches the right customer at the right moment, automatically, based on behaviour and journey phase. Because the brand operates across multiple language regions, both content and flows were built multilingual. Retention now runs largely automated, with room for personal contact where it adds value.

The result

A retention campaign that re‑activated existing customers and strengthened engagement with the brand. The targeted content led to high open and click‑through rates, increased online activity, and demonstrable additional revenue from customers who previously stopped ordering. Because the system runs automatically, the approach remains valuable in the long term.