From near-closure to healthy growth. Conversion rate up 31%.
A founder-led brand reconnected with the audience that already believed in it.
UNDR Industries is a paintball apparel brand founded by a world-class player and Marine Corps veteran. Despite a loyal following and strong reputation, the business had stalled. The founder was considering shutting down. We developed a strategy that reconnected the brand with its audience and rebuilt momentum from the ground up.
Where They Were
UNDR Industries had the raw ingredients of a strong brand: quality products, a respected founder, and a community built through years of face-to-face connection at events. But the business had hit a wall.
Marketing efforts were misaligned with what made the brand work. Social media was inconsistent. Memes and jokes drove engagement but not sales. Product-focused posts lacked the personality that fans responded to in person. The founder’s reputation and authenticity, the brand’s greatest assets, weren’t translating online.
Email marketing had been neglected entirely. A sizable subscriber list sat unused for so long that many recipients had likely forgotten they signed up. That cut off a major channel for repeat purchases and relationship building.
The deeper problem was a lack of strategic direction. There was no system to tell the brand’s story, nurture the audience, or guide them toward a purchase. The founder was managing everything alone without a clear roadmap. Frustrated and overwhelmed, he was considering shutting the business down.
What We Found
We started by examining the brand’s core asset: the founder himself. His reputation and authenticity were UNDR’s primary differentiators, but neither was visible online.
In person, he connected effortlessly with fans. He was approachable, respected, and well known in the paintball world. Online, that presence was missing. The brand’s digital footprint didn’t reflect the person behind it. Most posts were product shots or generic content that could have come from any apparel company.
The strategic opportunity was clear: bring his in-person energy to digital channels. If the audience could see more of him, his story, his process, his perspective, they would feel more connected to the brand and more likely to support it.
We audited the existing marketing infrastructure. Social media lacked consistency and strategic direction. Email was essentially abandoned. There was no system connecting content to conversion. Each channel operated in isolation, and none were optimized to drive revenue.
The founder was a one-person operation with limited time and budget. Any strategy we developed needed to be simple enough to execute without a team and sustainable over the long term. We designed around his strengths rather than asking him to build capabilities he didn’t have.
The founder was the brand’s strongest asset. The strategy had to make that visible online.
What We Did
Founder-First Content Strategy
We repositioned the brand’s content around the founder’s personality and story. Behind-the-scenes footage, product development updates, day-to-day insights, and candid videos that reflected his authentic voice. The goal was to make the digital experience feel like the in-person connection that fans valued.
Email Marketing Rebuild
We rebuilt email from scratch. Cleaned and reactivated the dormant list. Built automated flows and segmented campaigns based on purchase behavior, loyalty, and engagement. Messaging focused on relevance and relationship building rather than discounts and promotions.
Consistent Storytelling
We established a consistent posting cadence across Facebook and Instagram. Content was designed to build trust, stay top of mind, and strengthen community ties. The brand shifted from a gear shop that occasionally posted to a personality-driven business with a recognizable voice.
Strategic Planning Support
We provided regular planning sessions for product launches, partnerships, and promotional moments. This gave the founder a roadmap for key initiatives rather than reactive, last-minute execution.
Key Results
Conversion rate increased 31%, from 1.82% to 2.38%.
New customer acquisition nearly doubled, from 17.8% to 34.9% of total customers.
Add-to-cart conversion improved from 17.1% to 18.4%.
Shopping engagement held steady at 56% despite reduced traffic.
The business went from near-closure to sustainable growth.
Why the Numbers Tell a Bigger Story
Traffic actually declined year over year, and that was intentional. We moved away from engagement-driven content that attracted visitors who never bought. The result was a leaner, more efficient funnel: fewer visits, but more of them turning into customers.
The shift in customer mix is particularly significant. In 2024, the business relied heavily on repeat purchasers, with new customers representing less than 18% of orders. By 2025, new customers accounted for nearly 35% of all orders. The brand is successfully reaching new audiences rather than extracting diminishing value from an existing base.
What This Means for You
UNDR had the audience. UNDR had the product. What was missing was a way to translate the founder’s in-person reputation into something that worked online.
We built that bridge. Simple content strategy, rebuilt email, consistent storytelling. Nothing fancy. Just a system that matched the brand’s real-world strengths to its digital channels in a way the founder could actually maintain on his own.
If your brand has a loyal following but struggles to convert that attention into revenue, the issue is often strategic, not tactical. The right system can turn existing strengths into consistent growth.
Ready to turn a loyal audience into sustainable growth?
Take the Marketing Diagnostic if you need help identifying the constraint. Schedule a strategy call if you already know the business needs senior leadership and execution.