How Chess Gaja made the right moves with email marketing to scale global coaching

The company

Chess Gaja was founded by Grandmaster Priyadharshan Kannappan with a vision to offer world-class online chess coaching to students across the globe. What began as an individual initiative to share his knowledge gradually evolved into a structured academy. Today, Chess Gaja trains over 300 students from more than 20 countries, including the US, Singapore, the UK, and Malaysia.

The academy caters to players at all levels—from absolute beginners to internationally rated competitors—offering personalized one-on-one and group sessions. A strong emphasis is placed on tournament preparation and long-term growth.

The challenge

Chess Gaja was using different email tools to reach out to potential leads who dropped their email addresses. After a certain point, this process became hard to manage. "Before using Zoho Campaigns, we relied on manual emails, word of mouth, and our reputation to spread the word," says Priyadarshan.

The team struggled with manually sending out emails and keeping communication aligned with student records. "There was no direct connection between our email campaigns and our CRM," he explains. "This meant a lot of extra effort to ensure everything was in sync."

According to Priyadarshan, Zoho Campaigns addressed both of these pain points effectively. "Now, we can automate key messages like welcome emails, and with the CRM integration, every interaction is logged and actionable."

The solution

Priyadarshan notes that the transition was smooth thanks to their existing use of Bigin by Zoho CRM. "We were already using other tools in the Zoho ecosystem, so Campaigns integrated seamlessly into our workflow," he says.

What stood out was the user-friendly interface, cost-effectiveness, and scalability. "For a growing startup like ours, it was the obvious choice. Other tools felt too complex or expensive," he adds.

Benefits and ROI

Chess Gaja saw tangible improvements across several fronts after implementing Zoho Campaigns:

• Segmentation: We're now able to send different newsletters to our current students and our broader email list," Priyadharshan says. "That means every audience member gets content that's relevant to them."
• Automation: Once a student signs up, they automatically begin receiving weekly emails—which keeps them engaged and informed without Chess Gaja having to send each message manually.
• CRM integration: According to Priyadharshan, having their CRM linked to their campaigns gives them a complete view of each student's journey and helps them deliver timely and personalized communications.
• Analytics: "The dashboard in Zoho Campaigns is very intuitive and easy to understand," Priyadharsan says. "You can easily track where people opened the emails and which geography they belong to."
• Improved engagement: According to Priyadharshan, since using Zoho Campaigns, Chess Gaja has seen a 40 to 50% increase in email open rates. "That's largely because of better segmentation and more consistent branding," he says.
• Wider reach: Chess Gaja's monthly newsletter now goes out to over 1,000 subscribers—a major improvement over their previous efforts.
• Better enrollment: "Our email campaigns have led to better enrollment," Priyadharshan says. "Maybe not immediately, but after a span of two or three months. The recipients are more aware of our programs that suit their requirements. This has increased our student count as well."
• More parent involvement: "We've seen much better engagement from parents," Priyadharshan reports. "Especially when we announce new class batches or highlight student achievements."

Looking forward​

Summing up its impact, Priyadarshan says, "Zoho Campaigns is the simplest way to scale your email marketing with structure, clarity, and powerful automation—especially for growing education businesses like ours."

To know more about Chess Gaja, visit their website. click here.