The email retainer template for agencies driving 25-40% of their clients' revenue from email.
Email is the highest-ROI channel agencies under-charge for. This template positions email as a strategic revenue engine — flows, segmentation, deliverability, lifecycle — not just "send a newsletter." Pricing scales with broadcast cadence, flow count, and segmentation depth.
Setup fee + monthly retainer. Round numbers. Each tier includes everything below it plus specific upgrades. The middle tier is recommended — most clients pick it.
DTC brands or SaaS launching their first proper email program
Growing brands with a list of 10K+ ready to drive 25-40% of revenue from email
Mature brands where email is a top-3 revenue channel and needs full ownership
Cover, Executive Summary, Understanding Your Business, Proposed Email Marketing Services, Our Email Marketing Approach (Audit → Flow Build → Optimize → Scale), Timeline, Investment (3 tiers), Why Us, Case Study, Next Steps. Tiers scale with broadcast cadence and lifecycle flow count.
Foundation: $1,500/mo + $1,500 setup, 1 broadcast/week + 1 lifecycle flow built (welcome OR cart abandon). Growth: $4,000/mo + $4,000 setup, 2 broadcasts/week + 5 flows + segmentation + bi-weekly testing. Scale: $10,000/mo + $10,000 setup, daily cadence, 10+ flows, SMS integration, predictive segmentation, dedicated strategist. Per-email pricing collapses your margin the moment volume spikes — go retainer.
1) No deliverability strategy — sender reputation tanks and the rest doesn't matter. 2) Skipping list segmentation — generic broadcasts to everyone is why open rates die. 3) Building flows without a measurement framework. 4) Pricing per-email instead of per-program — you'll always lose to in-house when scaling.
DTC brand or SaaS with a list of 5K+ ready to make email a top-3 revenue channel. They've tried in-house or a freelancer and hit a ceiling. They want a partner who can do strategy + production + analytics, not just a designer who lays out emails.
Swap ESP (Klaviyo, Mailchimp, Customer.io, HubSpot). Adjust broadcast cadence and flow count per tier. Add SMS scope as upsell. AI rewrites in your voice. Trackable share link.
21-day free trial. No credit card. AI rewrites in your firm's voice.