Sava
As the Bay Area’s only women-, LGBTQ-, Latina-led cannabis e-commerce marketplaces, Sava rigorously vets the vast world of cannabis and curates the highest quality products for delivery to your door.
My Work
- Lifecycle marketing, brand marketing, content marketing
- Grow & manage email, SMS, affiliate, and social media channels
- Grew affiliate program from ground up
- Manage Refer-A-Friend program and Sava Insider’s Club loyalty programs
- Overhauled the brand book & style guidelines
- Graphic and web design
- SEO content writing
- Manage Magento product catalog
My Role
Marketing & Brand Manager
Project Type
Marketing
Brand Design
Web Design
Graphic Design
Brand Marketing
I overhauled and expanded our previous style guide, freshening up visual elements such as colors and typography styles as well as developing new elements such as brand positioning and voice, and improved accessibility.
Digital Brand Guide
To supplement the new brand book, I created a digital media library and brand guide aimed at our external partners.
Site Management
I managed the day-to-day experience of our DTC website.
- Designed new landing pages and refreshed existing pages
- Managed product catalog, including adding new products
- Managed coupon and promotional offer strategy
- Optimized site navigation with flyouts, popups, and homepage content
Built using: WordPress, Divi, Contentful, and Magento
Lifecycle Marketing
Email & SMS
Email was one of our strongest marketing channels, and I oversaw every aspect of it, signficantly increasing our open and conversion rates. This was driven by:
- The power of segmentation, personalization, and targeted messaging
- Careful list management and deliverability best practices
- Redesign of email templates to improve accessibility and readability
Segment dimensions:
- Purchase frequency over a given period
- Favorite product categories and brands
- How frequently they’ve engaged with our emails
- Where they first heard about us
- How long they’ve been a customer
- Demographics, such as age
Lifecycle email flows:
- Welcome
- Browse abandonment
- Abandoned cart
- Checkout completed
- Post-purchase
- Winback
- Birthday offer
Lifecycle Marketing
Customer Journey
Below are key aspects I managed along our customer lifecycle to attract new customers and build loyalty.
Awareness
- SEO: Target specific search queries
- Lead magnets: Offer discounts in exchange for email or SMS sign-ups
- OOH, guerilla postings, and direct mailers
- Social media
- Partnerships with other brands
Consideration
- Welcome series: Introduces the brand story, our values, and tailored product recommendations
- Abandoned cart sequence
- Product quiz: Helped customers find the right products while generating leads and collecting data
Conversion
- Website offers: Used flyouts, banners, and limited-time promotions to encourage purchases
- Back in stock notifications
- Post-purchase flow
Loyalty
- Referral program
- Affiliate program
- Sava Insiders Club loyalty program
- Birthday rewards offer
Retention
- Winback flow
- Behavioral segmentation: Sent emails based on customer interests, purchase history, and engagement
- Customer surveys: Gathered feedback to improve the customer experience
Content & Campaigns
Developed campaigns around key holidays across email, SMS, OOH, and website channels, often in collaboration with our partner brands. I produced all relevant assets, including copy and graphics.
Pride Campaign
As a queer-owned brand, Sava goes big during Pride Month. I interviewed our queer-owned cannabis brands, spotlighted their product, developed the promotional content strategy across our blog, email, and social media.
An excerpt from the blog:
Cannabis and the queer community share an important but often overlooked history. While both communities experienced a long history of ostracization from mainstream culture, the two became intertwined during the 1980s AIDS crisis, when activists such as Harvey Milk rallied for medical cannabis to bring relief to those suffering from HIV/AIDS. The voices of queer advocates were instrumental in the eventual legalization and ongoing destigmization of the cannabis industry.
In recognition of this history, we sat down with the founders of our queer-owned brands to discuss being queer in the cannabis industry, the interconnectivity of queer history and cannabis, and their brands’ plans for Pride Month.
Shop Local Campaign
As the cannabis industry struggled to adjust to legalization, with companies relying on steep discounts and competing on price, Sava took a different approach to our positioning: quality products at a fair price that support the local community that built the industry.
An excerpt from the blog:
It’s no secret that steep taxes and complex regulations are harming cannabis cultivators and businesses. Small farms were integral in the fight for legalization, but many are struggling due to heavy fees and competition from multi-acre mega-farms that can afford to sell low-quality flower for bargain-basement prices. Despite producing some of our favorite craft cannabis, these small farms just can’t compete.
You may be seeing deal after deal—$5 eighths and other steep discounts—crop up everywhere for Black Friday. We know that consumers like you are also feeling the weight of taxes, and it’s tempting to jump on these deals. By purchasing an artisan product from craft brands, you’re choosing to support a fair and equitable industry that offers high-quality, sustainably grown products.
Join us by using your dollars to vote for the progressive and equitable industry that you want to see thrive.
Seven Days of Plant Appreciation Campaign
To showcase seven popular ways to use and consume cannabis, this campaign featured custom graphic art designed by me, featured product spotlights, Instagram lives, and more.
An excerpt from the blog:
Looking for the therapeutic effects of marijuana without the high? Topicals are cannabis-infused lotions, balms, and salves that offer localized relief on your body, making them a popular choice for treating muscle soreness, menstrual cramps, and joint pain. The cannabinoids can’t reach the bloodstream with most* topicals, so you get all of the therapeutic benefits without a psychoactive experience. Topicals are great for the wellness-inclined cannabis and CBD users. Application couldn’t be easier—just apply it gently to your skin and you’re good to go. Your post-workout recovery will never be the same!
*We say most because there are a handful of topicals designed for – and clearly labeled – as transdermal, which means they do pass that barrier.
New Product Launch
As a member of the marketing team, I played a crucial role in our GTM strategy for several new product releases.
Pre-Launch Phase
Product Development: Work alongside product team, including packaging design and ensuring compliance with industry regulations
Assets & Copy: Create launch assets and copy bank for email, social media, website, and OOH channels, including product photography as needed
Soft Launch: Provide early access gifts to core audience, including our brand affiliates and influencers
Launch Phase
Communication: Ensure operations, customer service, and public relations teams have all necessary information for launch
Activation: Deploy launch campaigns, publish press releases, and activate all content and social media assets across digital channels
Engagement: Track audience enagement with product across social media
Monitoring: Track website and sales analytics to assess performance
Post-Launch Phase
Feedback: Capture feedback to refine positioning and potentially reach a new audience
Iteration: Reposition product as needed for new occasions
Below are a few product launch highlights:
Durban Biscotti Pre-Rolls
Sava’s first white label product, this holiday release was part of the “Single Origin by Sava” line. I designed the packaging, in compliance with industry regulations.
Lime Basil Beverage
Released in collaboration with Cann and actress Ruby Rose. Available exclusively at Sava, this social tonic went on to become our best-selling SKU.
Engraved Pax
Available exclusively at Sava, this limited edition vaporizer was designed and photographed by me.
Social Media
Telling Sava’s brand story was always top-of-mind when developing content for our social channels.
My graphics and copy all return to the same North Star: quality, values and sustainability.
To the right are series of story highlights I created for our Instagram, driven by our value proposition.
“Be Gay and Smoke Weed” Stickers
I designed these stickers in recognition of Sava’s queer leadership.
Part of an effort to build brand loyalty, we released several seasonal variations, which we offered as a freebie in each order. These ended up being a popular addition, and I loved seeing our customers tag us in photos.
