11 Email Marketing Agency Success Stories [2024]
Looking to tap into a lucrative digital space without dealing with physical products? Consider starting an email marketing agency. In simple terms, this business involves crafting compelling email campaigns that help other businesses reach their target audiences and grow their customer base.
Email marketing is a proven and cost-effective way for companies to increase sales, but not every business has the time or expertise to do it well. That’s where you come in. By offering specialized services like copywriting, analytics, and campaign management, you can help clients achieve higher open rates, click-through rates, and conversions.
To get started, you'll need a solid understanding of email marketing platforms like Mailchimp or Constant Contact, and the ability to analyze metrics to optimize campaigns. If you’re skilled in crafting engaging content and have a knack for digital marketing strategies, this could be an ideal business venture.
In this list, you'll find real-world email marketing agency success stories and very profitable examples of starting a email marketing agency that makes money.
1. ActiveCampaign ($250M/year)
Jason VandeBoom, founder of ActiveCampaign, initially identified a repetitive problem while doing consulting work: small businesses struggled with effectively communicating with their customers through email. This realization came as he kept building custom email solutions for various clients, which was both time-consuming and inefficient. To streamline his work and create a more sustainable business model while attending art school, he decided to package these one-off solutions into a single, sellable product.
Before fully committing to the idea, Jason observed the market and noticed a lack of comprehensive email marketing tools tailored to small businesses. This insight led him to develop an on-premise email marketing solution that could be easily installed and used by businesses without extensive IT resources. After years of slow but steady growth, he validated the market demand and saw the potential for a more scalable approach.
In the ideation phase, Jason faced the challenge of transitioning from an on-premise model to a SaaS platform, which required convincing his existing customer base to switch to a subscription model. He overcame these hurdles by maintaining close relationships with early adopters and iterating based on their feedback. A key lesson from this journey was the importance of staying close to customer pain points and incrementally validating each step before scaling further. Through this process, Jason learned the value of balancing innovation with practical, user-driven solutions.
How much money it makes: $250M/year
How many people on the team: 1000
ActiveCampaign's founder Jason VandeBoom transitioned the company from on-premise software to a SaaS model, achieving over $165M in ARR by solving small businesses' customer engagement challenges with scalable marketing automation tools, all while raising $260M in funding and leveraging innovative growth strategies like LinkedIn campaigns and influencer partnerships.
2. Boundless Labs ($99.6M/year)
Chase Dimond, the co-founder of Boundless Labs, came up with the idea for his email marketing agency after realizing the potential of email marketing for eCommerce brands. With impressive figures, such as driving over $25 million in email attributable revenue and working with clients who generate ~30% of their total revenue from email, Boundless Labs quickly became a successful and sought-after agency in just 18 months.
How much money it makes: $99.6M/year
How many people on the team: 2
Boundless Labs is an email marketing agency for eCommerce brands that has generated over $25 million in email attributable revenue for their clients since launching 18 months ago and currently makes around $90K per month, with plans to reach $100K per month by the end of January 2020 through client referrals, strong relationships, and hard work.
3. iContact ($50M/year)
Ryan Allis co-founded iContact by recognizing a pain point early on through his experiences with digital marketing. His journey began as a young entrepreneur who started various ventures, like a computer consulting business when he was 11 and a web marketing consultancy by 16. While handling web design jobs, he noticed how tedious and inefficient existing email marketing solutions were, especially as most were desktop-based and not user-friendly.
This revelation came to a head when he partnered with Aaron Houghton, whom he met through the Carolina Entrepreneurship Club at UNC. The duo discussed creating a web-based email marketing tool that would simplify email newsletter distribution for small businesses. They validated their idea by offering free services to local businesses, such as Jimmy John's Sandwich Shop, to demonstrate the tool's effectiveness. Learning from initial user feedback and adjusting their approach, they managed to generate recurring revenue and acquire paying customers.
One of their early challenges was managing their resources; they bootstrapped the company, working in frugal conditions without a salary for years. Additionally, an instance of a critical server crash taught them the importance of system reliability and customer trust. Surviving these hurdles with persistent efforts and smart pivoting, they refined their product, proving the business model was not only feasible but scalable. By focusing on getting things right with the product and maintaining a close relationship with initial customers, they learned the importance of real-world validation and adaptability in their startup journey.
How much money it makes: $50M/year
How much did it cost to start: $5K
How many people on the team: 250
Discover how Ryan Allis turned a $4,000 server investment into a $169 million acquisition by Vocus, overcoming technical and financial challenges through strategic pivots in email marketing for small businesses.
4. ConvertKit ($25M/year)
In 2013, Nathan set a challenge for himself: build a $5K/mo SaaS in 6 months with just $5,000. He got the idea after reading people's complaints about Mailchimp online, and decided to build a product that addressed those.
How much money it makes: $25M/year
How much did it cost to start: $5K
How many people on the team: 82
Discover how Nathan Barry bootstrapped ConvertKit from a $5,000 investment to a $25 million/year email marketing powerhouse by addressing the main objections of online creators and scaling through a lucrative affiliate program with an impressive $2.08 million/month average revenue.
5. Zero Gravity Marketing ($9.6M/year)
Chris Uzzo, the founder of Zero Gravity Marketing, came up with the idea for his digital marketing agency after building and overseeing the SEO and PPC departments for multiple agencies. With a focus on data-driven strategies and a commitment to transparency, Zero Gravity Marketing has experienced impressive growth, including being recognized by Inc as one of the fastest-growing privately-owned companies and projecting over $10 million in revenue for 2022.
How much money it makes: $9.6M/year
How much did it cost to start: $10K
How many people on the team: 70
Zero Gravity Marketing is a five-star rated digital marketing agency with Premier Google Partnership and recognized by Inc 5000 for the last three years, on track to gross over $10M in 2022, specializing in SEO, paid media management, social media marketing, email marketing, website design, CRO, content marketing and creative services.
6. Email Paramedic ($3.12M/year)
Troy Ericson, founder of Copywriting.org and EmailDeliverability.com, came up with the idea for his business when one of his clients wanted to fire him. He discovered that their emails were going to spam, which was preventing them from monetizing their leads. Troy offered to solve the problem for free and ended up increasing their email revenue from $13k/month to $51k/month. This led him to realize the potential of managing email lists, and he has since grown his business to generate around $230K/mo and train freelancers in email marketing.
How much money it makes: $3.12M/year
How much did it cost to start: $500
How many people on the team: 10
Learn how Troy Ericson grew his email marketing business from scratch to generating around $230K/mo by reviving dead or stagnant email lists, maximizing opens, clicks, and sales, and writing world-class emails guaranteed to deliver to the primary inbox, and how he is expanding his services through coaching, consulting, and one-off email deliverability projects.
7. Hustler Marketing ($2.4M/year)
After trying various jobs and experiencing financial struggles, Bostjan decided to go all-in and start the "Hustle House" in Barcelona with three other entrepreneurs. While working on his craft as a copywriter, Bostjan started offering email marketing services and quickly learned the technical aspects. Through hard work and dedication, his agency, Hustler Marketing, grew rapidly and now manages retention marketing for 70 eCommerce stores worldwide, generating impressive revenue figures.
How much money it makes: $2.4M/year
How much did it cost to start: $1K
How many people on the team: 68
Hustler Marketing, a remote email and SMS marketing agency, manages retention marketing for about 70 eCommerce stores worldwide, closed its 4th year at about $2.2M, and will aim to do $3-4M in 2022, with a net profit of around 30%.
8. Sidekick ($1.19M/year)
Zac and Brendan, co-founders of Sidekick, initially started a failed education platform called Secret Sauce. However, after receiving guidance from mentors at Grid 110, they pivoted to web design for startups and launched Sidekick. They attracted clients by offering month-to-month marketing services in addition to web design, and have since focused on serving the eCommerce space with their expertise in design and marketing. After a year in business, they have grown their revenue to $12,000/month and are aiming to reach $20,000/month by summer.
How much money it makes: $1.19M/year
How many people on the team: 8
Sidekick, a data-driven web design and digital marketing agency for eCommerce businesses co-founded by Brendan and Zac, grew from $0 to $12,000/month in revenue within a year, specializing in Shopify and Squarespace development, email marketing, PPC campaigns, and more.
9. Trusted CMO ($900K/year)
Burnt out from her full-time CMO roles, Alison Murdock founded Trusted CMO in 2020 to provide fractional marketing services for B2B startups. With minimal investment, the consultancy has scaled by 50% annually and hit a million in revenue by 2023.
How much money it makes: $900K/year
How much did it cost to start: $5K
How many people on the team: 4
Trusted CMO founder built a marketing consulting firm from scratch, growing 50% yearly, attracting clients via word of mouth from investors, founders, and marketing leaders, with plans to expand educational offerings and managed services based on client needs.
10. Restoration Digital Marketing ($300K/year)
Jeff Carrier came up with the idea for Restoration Digital Marketing after speaking to restoration owners who lacked focus on internet marketing. With their industry-specific knowledge and experience as a restoration company, RDM was able to educate the industry and generate $25,000/month in leads.
How much money it makes: $300K/year
How many people on the team: 2
Restoration Digital Marketing generates over $25,000 per month helping restoration companies achieve positive ROI through its specialized digital marketing services, and its success has been fuelled through word-of-mouth marketing tactics and developing client relationships.
11. Electric Sauce ($90K/year)
The founders initially started as Shopify developers but quickly realized the need for email marketing strategies in the eCommerce space. They used Upwork as a platform to find clients and focused on providing valuable services at reasonable prices. Their dedication to simplicity and accountability helped them attract and retain customers, with their main client being acquired through Upwork.
How much money it makes: $90K/year
How much did it cost to start: $2K
How many people on the team: 0
Electric Sauce, a data-driven, retention-focused, email marketing micro-agency founded by two Seans, generates $12,500 a month through pricing their services from $3,500 to $5,000 for established brands, and $1,500 to $2,500 for startups through patient learning, frugality, simplicity, extensive outreach on Upwork, and utmost accountability while using tools like ClickUp, and exposure to thought leaders on YouTube and courses like Klaviyo and Smart Marketer.
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Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
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