When a family wants to enjoy the waves, soak up the sun, or build sandcastles together, they turn to Surfside Realty. But how do they find Surfside? It’s all thanks to their marketing agency, ICND. Founder Brandon Sauls started the business in 1999 as a website design service, but when he and his wife, Whitney, who spent her career booking vacation rentals, went to a business conference, they realized there were no companies taking bookings online—everything was being done over the phone or even through catalogs. InterCoastal Net Designs (ICND) aimed to change that and modernize how people booked their properties.

Today, ICND not only provides website design, but as a Mailchimp Pro Partner, they also manage email marketing strategies for their clients around the world. Surfside Realty, a longtime client of theirs, manages over 350 vacation rentals within a three-mile stretch in Surfside, SC, just south of Myrtle Beach, which is known for sunny boardwalk strolls and nightlife. But Surfside? Think quiet nights, relaxed dining, kids’ activities, and plenty of sand and sea for the whole family to enjoy.

We sat down with ICND’s Digital Marketing Project Manager, Diamond Frandsen, and Digital Marketing Specialist, Wesley Aulet, to see how they use Mailchimp to help ICND, as well as their clients, reach their marketing goals.

The Challenge: Differentiation in the Market, Engagement, Retention, and Gaining New Customers

As for Surfside Realty, Diamond says that because of their proximity to Myrtle Beach, they needed to differentiate themselves and educate potential guests about their unique atmosphere. ICND’s strategy was to move beyond broad messaging and target their customers by interest. For example, people search for homes with access to golf courses, private pools, and the most popular option—homes that welcome dogs. Customers also want to know about activities and events in the area so they can plan their stay accordingly.

With a large contact list accumulated over decades, they needed an effective way to maintain engagement and encourage repeat bookings. The question for Wesley was how to connect with guests and offer different kinds of exclusive retention discounts. “The best thing to us is repeat guests,” he says. “Even though you want new guests to come along too, how do you take advantage of the guests you've already had in-house, and how do you retain them? I think that's the biggest challenge when it comes to email marketing.”

“Just use Mailchimp. I've had a couple clients I've switched from other companies to Mailchimp. Mailchimp just makes it streamlined… It’s been the easiest platform I've used, and I've done this for almost 8 years.” —Wesley Aulet, Digital Marketing Specialist, ICND

The Tools: Segmentation, Click Maps, and Resends to Non-Openers

Vacation rentals aren’t like e-commerce stores, where sales can be attributed directly to a single email. For Surfside Realty, most clients open emails several times, click around the website to browse, or even forward emails to friends or family members who book on their behalf. Because of this, they use Google Analytics to effectively track revenue generated from their email campaigns.

Surfside Realty sends a monthly newsletter to everyone on their list, highlighting local family-friendly events throughout the Grand Strand and helping differentiate them from the busy, bustling Myrtle Beach. An important tactic ICND implemented is resending to non-openers. Wesley explains that they send the first version in the morning, then resend it a few days later in the afternoon with a different subject line to reach people who check emails later in the day. As a remarketing tool, they also resend to people who clicked on the original email.

For targeting Surfside Realty’s specific audiences, segmentation plays a key role. Wesley notes that they include interest-based navigation links (like pet-friendly properties) within emails and analyze click map reports, which help them segment audiences and communicate in a more personalized way. For example, dog-loving travelers can receive updates about changing leash laws in the Grand Strand area as seasons change.

Additionally, Diamond mentioned that when Surfside Realty runs a promotion, they can provide Wesley with a list of guests who have already booked during promotional periods, allowing him to exclude them from those emails. “This helps ensure we’re targeting the right audience who may be interested in a last-minute stay,” she says.

The Results: High Engagement and Significant ROI

Using a combination of segmentation, click maps, and resends to non-openers, ICND helped Surfside Realty achieve strong engagement and ROI on their email marketing with Mailchimp between September 2024 and August 2025. Their average click-through rate of 2.68% is 20.18% higher than the real estate industry average. Along with an average open rate of 27.58%, they were able to generate a 66x ROI.

Mailchimp’s expert support has been instrumental in helping Surfside Realty build an effective email marketing strategy. Looking ahead, Wesley says he wants to make targeting even more granular and increase email frequency without overwhelming inboxes. “I feel like with that, we can generate more revenue and more bookings, versus just sending one newsletter per month.”