How Rumored Grew Its Customer Base by 250% Using Mailshake
Contents
Cold email outreach averages reply rates between 1% and 5% in B2B, with most wholesale brands struggling to get noticed in crowded inboxes. Rumored was no exception.
Before Mailshake, outreach meant Gmail threads, Mailtrack, and little visibility into what worked or why. Campaigns were manual, results were inconsistent, and leads slipped through the cracks.
That changed when Rumored adopted Mailshake. Within 18 months, the brand grew its customer base by 250%, added 120 new wholesale accounts, and started landing in the primary inbox instead of spam. Now, many of their deals close after just one or two touchpoints.
We spoke with Rumored’s sales team to figure out how they made this change and what other brands can learn from their playbook. In this case study, you’ll see:
- Why Rumored chose Mailshake over other tools like Salesloft and Apollo.io
- The exact ways Rumored uses Mailshake for wholesale prospecting, launches, and client communication
- The features that drove Rumored’s outreach success
Introducing Rumored
Rumored is a clothing brand that takes inspiration from vintage aesthetics and reimagines them for the modern day. Instead of selling directly to consumers, Rumored’s growth depends on wholesale partnerships with boutiques across the country.
Each new boutique is a new market for the brand’s collections, so effective outreach is important to get the message to the right people. But outreach was where the company hit a roadblock.
Rumored had no structured prospecting process, no way to track engagement in real time, and no clear visibility into when a prospect was ready to buy. Instead, the team relied on manual Gmail sends paired with Mailtrack to see who opened an email.
That meant hours of effort for very few insights. It also meant promising leads slipped away, inbox placement was inconsistent, and scaling outreach felt almost impossible.
Why Rumored Chose Mailshake
When Rumored set out to find a prospecting platform, the team wanted something simple enough for junior reps to adopt quickly. But they also wanted a tool powerful enough for experienced sales managers to run data-driven campaigns.
Mailshake had everything they needed. The platform’s clean interface made onboarding easy, while its advanced features gave senior team members the visibility and control they didn’t have and sorely needed before.
Plus, compared to platforms like Salesloft or Apollo.io, Mailshake provided the functionality Rumored needed without the heavy price tag. That made it easier to invest in effective outreach without going above their budget.
Mailshake also made it easy to hit the ground running. Rumored’s team uploaded their first prospect list, set up campaign rules, and launched a customized sequence within minutes of signing up.
How Does Rumored Use Mailshake?
When Rumored first adopted Mailshake, it was for cold outreach. But over time, the platform has become much more to their process. Here’s a look at the different ways Rumored puts Mailshake to work:
1. Wholesale Prospecting to Boutiques
Rumored’s growth depends on connecting with boutique buyers across the U.S. and abroad. That means they need to constantly find, upload, and contact new prospects. Before Mailshake, this process was slow and all over the place.
With Mailshake, prospecting finally got a repeatable system.
The team began to upload boutique buyer lists in bulk, set up structured campaigns, and segment by region or buyer type. This reduced the hours of preparation time to a few minutes, which means Rumored can get messaging out faster and connect with more boutiques.
2. Consistent Inbox Placement
You can write the world’s best email, but it means nothing if it never reaches your buyer’s inbox. Before Mailshake, Rumored struggled with messages landing in promotions or spam, where they were easily ignored.
With Mailshake’s deliverability tools like custom email warm-up and built-in spam checks, Rumored could make sure their emails would reliably land in the primary inbox.
Better placement meant higher open rates and fewer wasted efforts. Over time, this compounding effect turned into more conversations, more responses, and more opportunities.
3. Massive Customer Base Expansion
In just a year and a half after implementing Mailshake, Rumored’s customer base grew by 250%, and they added 120 new accounts. What surprised the team most was how many deals closed after only one or two email exchanges.
This was made possible by consistent inbox placement and rep accountability. Managers could see exactly how many prospects were touched each week and adjust underperforming cadences on the fly.
4. Improved Internal Visibility
Before Mailshake, Rumored’s team had little visibility into how each outreach happened across reps, especially with remote staff spread across regions. Tracking performance meant digging through spreadsheets and inboxes, which made accountability harder.
With Mailshake, every campaign became transparent. Managers could see which reps were hitting targets, which templates performed best, and where follow-ups were needed.
The results speak for themselves: since onboarding Mailshake, Rumored’s sales team has exceeded its monthly send goals every quarter.
5. Client Communication
Rumored uses Mailshake to share announcements, product launches, and new linesheets. This keeps clients engaged and aware of brand news, which means stronger relationships.
This way, Mailshake helps Rumored turn outbound outreach into a two-way tunnel: one side closes new deals and the other keeps current clients happy with the communication quality.
What Results Did Rumored See After Using Mailshake?
Since onboarding Mailshake, Rumored’s growth has been both quick and measurable. Here are some numbers that tell the story:
- 250% increase in customer base
- 120 new accounts in just 18 months
- Many wholesale deals closed after just one or two touchpoints
- Repeated positive feedback from active accounts on “great communication”
Mailshake Features That Drove Rumored’s Outreach Success
Here are the three Mailshake features that made boutiques reach out to Rumored:
1. Campaign Send Data
Before Mailshake, Rumored’s team was running campaigns on gut (and Gmail) instinct. Now, every email sequence comes with detailed send and engagement data, which means they can see what is actually working.
For instance, the team started finding patterns in subject lines that consistently pulled higher open rates and learned which parts of their sequence caused prospects to drop off.
2. Datafinder for Fresh Prospects
Before Mailshake, Rumored used slow manual research to build prospect lists. With Datafinder, they upload hundreds of boutique buyers in one go. This steady pipeline helps them run more campaigns at once and reach new geographic markets without stretching their team thin.
3. AI-Assisted Copy Editing
Even the best ideas can fall flat if the messaging doesn’t land. Rumored uses Mailshake’s AI tools to polish their outreach copy and generate multiple variations of a pitch for A/B testing.
This helps the team write copy from multiple angles, run tests to find out which messaging works better, and double down on what generates replies.
Rumored’s Rules for Outbound Email Success
Rumored follows a clear set of rules to make every campaign start real conversations. Here are the team’s non-negotiable three:
1. Start With the Right Tool
Most brands make the mistake of blasting as many emails as possible and hoping something sticks. The problem with this is that without tracking, you can’t tell which subject lines worked, why sequences stalled, or why messages never even reached the inbox.
Rumored went the opposite route. They run every send through Mailshake so they always know what’s working.
2. Keep It Short, Clear, and Valuable
One of the fastest ways to kill a cold email is to make it sound like homework. Long intros, paragraphs about your company history, and vague “let’s connect” pitches overwhelm busy buyers. Nobody wants to dig through a wall of text just to figure out what you’re asking.
Rumored’s rule is simple: if a buyer can’t understand the value of an email, it doesn’t get sent. Their best-performing notes talk about a single offer (like a new lookbook or seasonal line) and prompt readers to strike up a conversation. This is what has helped them close wholesale deals after just one or two email exchanges.
3. Personalize Every Message
Generic templates that swap in a first name don’t convince anyone you understand their business.
Rumored avoids that trap because they make every message feel tailored. Instead of saying “Hey, we love boutiques like yours,” they reference store types, local markets, or a prospect’s recent collection launch to show that they actually care.
The result is that outreach feels one-to-one, even at scale. This has turned quick “not right now” replies into long-term accounts more than once.
Final Thoughts
Growth rarely comes from doing more of the same. It comes from finding tools that let you work smarter. Rumored’s turning point was stepping away from scattered Gmail outreach and moving to Mailshake.
With Mailshake, campaigns gained structure, performance became measurable, and every reply fit into a system instead of getting lost in an inbox. The payoff was clear: 120 new customers, 250% growth, and a repeatable outreach process that keeps the pipeline moving.
If your team is still juggling spreadsheets and inboxes, Rumored’s story shows that a better path is possible. The question is how much stronger your outreach could become with Mailshake behind it. Take a demo to find out.
Continue reading
Social
