24 Email Marketing Business Success Stories [2024]
Email marketing is a popular and effective way for businesses to reach their target audience and promote their products or services.
With the rise of the internet and the increasing use of email as a communication tool, starting an email marketing business can be a lucrative and rewarding venture.
An email marketing business involves creating and sending marketing emails to a list of subscribers. The emails can be newsletters, promotional messages, or other types of content designed to engage and convert the recipient into a customer. The business owner is responsible for building and maintaining the email list, creating the content, and sending the emails using specialized software.
To start an email marketing business, you must have a strong understanding of marketing principles and a good grasp of best practices. This includes creating compelling subject lines, segmenting your email list, and analyzing your campaigns’ results. You will also need to be proficient in email marketing software like Mailchimp or Constant Contact.
To run a successful email marketing business, you must clearly understand your target audience and what they are interested in. This will help you create relevant and engaging content that resonates with your subscribers and encourages them to take action. A solid call to action in your emails is crucial, whether it’s visiting your website, making a purchase, or signing up for a newsletter. Starting an email marketing business requires marketing skills, expertise, and a willingness to learn and improve continuously. The right strategies and tools can be a rewarding and successful way to reach your target audience and grow your business.
In this list, you'll find real-world email marketing business success stories and very profitable examples of starting a email marketing business 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. Flodesk ($25M/year)
Martha Bitar, Rebecca Shostak, and Trong Dong envisioned Flodesk out of a mutual frustration with existing email marketing tools that were either too complex or didn't support beautiful designs. Martha noticed small business owners struggled with current platforms while working at HoneyBook, and Rebecca's template business faced continuous issues as customers found it difficult to implement aesthetic email designs on platforms like MailChimp. Realizing they were addressing an underappreciated gap, they conducted numerous customer interviews to validate this pain point.
During development, they closely engaged with their target audience of creatives and small business owners, refining their product based on direct feedback. This approach allowed them to ensure they were genuinely solving the right problems and building a user-friendly platform. A challenge they faced was balancing development with their full-time jobs and bootstrapped resources, but their early focus on customer interviews and prototype testing helped them persist. Their key lesson was the importance of deeply understanding their audience's needs before writing any code, ensuring a product-market fit from the start.
How much money it makes: $25M/year
How many people on the team: 49
Flodesk, co-founded by Martha Bitar, skyrocketed to over $25 million in annual recurring revenue by solving small businesses' email marketing woes through flat-rate pricing, user-friendly templates, and an effective referral program, reaching 5,000 paying customers within months.
5. 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.
6. Superhuman ($20M/year)
Rahul Vohra, the founder of Superhuman, identified the problem of email inefficiency through personal experience and professional observations while managing his previous company, Reportive. He noticed that productivity tools like Gmail were becoming increasingly sluggish and cluttered over the years, and that plugins to enhance functionality often exacerbated these issues. This frustration was shared by many high-volume email users, including venture capitalists and founders, whom Rahul interacted with regularly.
Realizing the opportunity for a better email solution, Rahul conducted extensive informal research, asking potential users about their email pain points and needs. He also capitalized on his firsthand knowledge and experience to envision a more efficient email client. To validate his idea, he continuously gathered feedback from initial users, iterating the product based on their insights.
Essentially, the process was driven by a mix of personal annoyance with existing tools, market validation through direct user engagement, and a continuous refinement loop. Early challenges included the technical complexity of integrating advanced features into a seamless user experience, which Rahul overcame by assembling a talented team and paying meticulous attention to design and performance. This iterative approach ultimately helped shape Superhuman into a tool that significantly enhances email productivity.
How much money it makes: $20M/year
How many people on the team: 130
Discover how Rahul Vora took Superhuman from idea to $20M/year by solving email inefficiency with a high-speed, user-focused interface, securing $800K in seed funding, conducting 700+ user interviews, and leveraging viral growth strategies.
7. Beehiiv ($7M/year)
Tyler Denk founded Beehiiv based on his deep involvement with the success of Morning Brew, where he built major growth and tech features crucial to its rise. When Morning Brew's readers frequently inquired about the tools and systems behind its excellent referral program and well-constructed newsletters, Tyler realized there was a significant gap in the market for an intuitive, all-in-one newsletter platform. During his tenure at Google, Tyler and his co-founders moonlighted on building Beehiiv, constantly seeking feedback from potential users to fine-tune their MVP.
They validated their idea through exhaustive conversations with prospective users, confirming the need for a user-friendly platform specifically designed for newsletter creators. The initial focus was on building core essentials like a text editor and basic website functionality, knowing they could grow the feature set rapidly once users were on board. Tyler's journey reflects the importance of user-centric design and adaptability, wherein they remained responsive to customer feedback and industry needs, ensuring their product evolved in line with real-world demands. This hands-on and adaptive approach enabled Beehiiv to stand out even in a crowded market.
How much money it makes: $7M/year
How many people on the team: 50
This case study reveals how Tyler Denk's Beehiiv transformed the newsletter industry by addressing key pain points and growing impressively to an average revenue of $583K/month, backed by $16.7 million in funding and leveraging a combination of customer-centric design, strategic investments, and highly effective referral programs.
8. GMass, Inc. ($5.4M/year)
During his previous business venture, Wordzen, the founder recognized the necessity of sending personalized emails to small groups. After researching available options, he was not satisfied with the solutions offered. Therefore, he developed GMass as an internal tool to aid in managing his business. Although Wordzen failed to gain much traction, GMass proved to be successful and was featured on Product Hunt, giving him the validation that he needed to make the decision to pursue this as a business.
How much money it makes: $5.4M/year
How many people on the team: 1
GMass, an email marketing platform that allows users to send cold emails and email marketing campaigns with Gmail, has attracted over 500,000 user signups, including major tech companies like Uber, LinkedIn, and Google, and now generates over $200K in monthly recurring revenue through a successful content marketing strategy and focused ad spend.
9. 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.
10. Tetra ($2.4M/year)
Phil Rivers, an email marketer, started Tetra in 2019 as a one-man shop with $5k/month in revenue. He focused on email marketing for e-commerce businesses and grew Tetra to a team of 15 with $200k MRR and over $200,000,000 in sales generated for clients.
How much money it makes: $2.4M/year
How much did it cost to start: $500
How many people on the team: 11
In this case study, learn how an aspiring entrepreneur turned a one-man email marketing shop into a thriving agency, netting $200k in monthly recurring revenue, and generating over $200 million in client sales by leveraging smart ad strategies and a focused service offering.
11. 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%.
12. GreenRope ($1.92M/year)
metrics for our business are our customer satisfaction and retention rates, which remain consistently high. We currently have over 1,000 customers in over 20 countries, ranging from startups to universities and municipalities. Moving forward, we plan to continue evolving and improving our platform to meet the changing needs of businesses and provide even greater value to our customers.
How much money it makes: $1.92M/year
How many people on the team: 15
GreenRope, a self-funded CRM and marketing automation platform with over 1,000 customers in 20 countries, was built organically and focused on creating a positive, customer-centric culture without outside investment, with an all-in-one interface solving challenges in managing sales, marketing, customer service, and operations.
13. Taximail ($1.44M/year)
Phaiboon Trikanjananun, a computer engineer and serial entrepreneur, came up with the idea for Taximail while sitting in his garden in 2012. Drawing on his experience in the digital business, he saw a need for a locally homegrown email marketing platform that could cater to all types of businesses. Today, Taximail serves over 5,000 reputable organizations in Thailand and continues to grow.
How much money it makes: $1.44M/year
How much did it cost to start: $10K
How many people on the team: 60
How a Thailand-based email marketing platform, Taximail, grew to serve over 5,000 organizations in Thailand and generate $3.6 million per year through tailored features, close customer collaboration, and utilizing AWS services.
14. Data Driven Marketing ($712K/year)
John Ainsworth, the founder and CEO of Data Driven Marketing, came up with the idea for his business after realizing that many online course creators had a large audience but struggled to convert them into paying customers. With his expertise in funnel building, Ainsworth saw an opportunity to help these course creators boost their revenue through email marketing and funnels. Since its launch in 2018, Data Driven Marketing has experienced impressive growth, with sales increasing from $60,000 in 2018 to over $600,000 in 2022, and on track to hit over a million in 2023.
How much money it makes: $712K/year
How much did it cost to start: $25K
How many people on the team: 7
Data Driven Marketing is a company that helps online course creators maximize revenue via KPI analysis, building funnels, and email marketing, with a revenue of $60k in 2018 and a projected revenue of over $1M in 2023 based on a 70% client retention rate.
15. Add Value | Growth Marketing Agency ($600K/year)
24-year-old Joachim Brouckaert founded Add Value, a growth marketing agency, after noticing that many marketing agencies prioritized money over delivering value to their customers. With a background in digital marketing and experience freelancing as a digital marketer, Joachim decided to start his own agency focused on full-funnel marketing services. After a year in business, Add Value generates an average monthly turnover of 30k and works with 18 active clients.
How much money it makes: $600K/year
How much did it cost to start: $1K
How many people on the team: 5
A 24-year-old founder shares how his growth marketing agency generated €360,000 in its first year, with a team of 5 people working for 18 active clients per month, using SEO, Facebook and Google ads, organic content on LinkedIn, and a hybrid agency model with a focus on client retention.
16. 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.
17. Power Move Marketing ($264K/year)
Hailey Brooke McFadden, a former college volleyball player and sideline reporter, started Power Move Marketing after realizing the lack of professional marketing services offered to e-commerce businesses. With a focus on empowering women and providing excellent customer service, PMM has quickly grown, making $22,075 per month and projected to make nearly $300,000 in its first year. By prioritizing employee satisfaction and creating a positive company culture, McFadden has found success and aims to grow PMM into a marketing powerhouse with over 100 employees.
How much money it makes: $264K/year
How much did it cost to start: $400
How many people on the team: 2
Power Move Marketing is an innovative digital marketing company founded by Hailey Brooke McFadden, which has achieved an impressive monthly income of $22,075 and is projected to make almost $300,000 in its first year, by offering a one-stop-shop for e-commerce businesses looking for a marketing powerhouse with a female positive culture.
18. Maildroppa ($240K/year)
Feeling stifled in corporate life, Marcus Biel leveraged his Java development skills to create Maildroppa, an affordable email marketing tool for solo founders. The platform's unique free plan and bootstrapper ethos helped it achieve $20,000 in monthly revenue, transforming the email marketing landscape.
How much money it makes: $240K/year
How much did it cost to start: $5K
How many people on the team: 0
Bootstrapper turned entrepreneur created an affordable yet powerful email marketing solution, offering a free plan for 100 subscribers forever, leading to $20,000 in monthly revenue, catering to solo founders and bootstrappers building their businesses.
19. Aun Digital ($240K/year)
When a friend's cleaning business couldn't afford a website, Aun Ali discovered that many UAE startups faced similar challenges, inspiring him to launch Aun Digital. The firm offers affordable, comprehensive digital services and now generates annual revenue between $200,000 and $300,000, serving 20 regular clients.
How much money it makes: $240K/year
How much did it cost to start: $60K
How many people on the team: 50
Aun Digital, a UAE-based web design company, generated $200,000 to $300,000 annually by offering affordable and reliable digital services to small businesses, startups, and medium-sized enterprises, with 20 regular clients per year and an average project cost ranging from $10,000 to $15,000.
20. Mailmodo ($102K/year)
Aquibur Rahman, the founder and CEO of Mailmodo, came up with the idea for his business while working as a marketer at a fintech company. He realized the importance of email for business growth and saw the potential of AMP emails when Google announced them for the Gmail app. Seeing the gap in the market for a no-code platform that supports AMP emails, Rahman decided to create Mailmodo to help marketers improve email conversions and engagement.
How much money it makes: $102K/year
How many people on the team: 25
Mailmodo, an email marketing software that enables marketers to send app-like interactive emails, accelerated to 100k+ ARR in just five months after launching the public version in January 2021, with a focus on attracting and retaining customers through organic growth and product-led solutions.
21. SupplyDrop ($96K/year)
Danavir Sarria, an eCommerce marketing consultant, came up with the idea for SupplyDrop after his own luxury sportswear brand failed to be profitable. He realized that his skills in email marketing could be valuable to other eCommerce businesses and pivoted his focus to offering full-service email marketing services. Today, SupplyDrop is his flagship business, making an average of $8,000 per month and attracting clients such as Kettle & Fire and Lensabl.
How much money it makes: $96K/year
How much did it cost to start: $0
How many people on the team: 0
Danavir Sarria shares how he built SupplyDrop, an eCommerce email marketing agency that helps scale 6, 7, and 8 figure businesses, and currently makes $8,000/month on average, through trial and error and thoughtful pivots, while utilizing content marketing and focusing on building trust with potential clients.
22. Anachak Design ($84K/year)
Vathana Nguon stumbled into starting his web design agency in 2015 with low expectations, but through face-to-face marketing and old-fashioned methods, he was able to grow his business and generate $5,000 per month. He built his expertise in WordPress development through self-teaching and extensive research, eventually launching his agency that focuses on WordPress design and development. By targeting the tourism industry and offering specialized services, he was able to stand out and become the go-to web designer for tourism businesses in Cambodia. Additionally, he utilized SEO and blogging to attract customers and achieve long-term success.
How much money it makes: $84K/year
How much did it cost to start: $1.5K
How many people on the team: 3
Learn how Vathana Nguon started a freelance web design agency in Cambodia through self-taught WordPress design, attracting clients through search engine optimization and unique selling techniques, and utilizing tools like Themeforest and MailChimp to grow a steady stream of new and returning clients.
23. Bluetick.io ($42K/year)
Mike Taber came up with the idea for Bluetick.io after experiencing the frustration of sending follow-up emails and tracking responses manually. He validated the idea by conducting customer interviews and collecting prepayments, and then hired a team of developers to build the product. After improving the website and launching, he focused on email marketing to attract and retain customers.
How much money it makes: $42K/year
How many people on the team: 0
Bluetick.io is a self-funded SaaS app that helps salespeople, customer success reps and busy founders close the loop with their customers using sequences of automated email follow ups, achieving $1,000 MRR without writing a single line of code through customer validation and prepayments.
24. weMail ($1.44K/year)
Tareq Hasan and his partner Nizam Uddin founded weDevs in 2008, a company focused on building successful WordPress products. After experiencing the need for an affordable and WordPress-based email marketing platform, they developed weMail to save money and offer quality features. Their strategy of targeting the WordPress community and utilizing content marketing has helped attract and retain customers.
How much money it makes: $1.44K/year
How much did it cost to start: $500
How many people on the team: 4
weMail is a WordPress-based email marketing tool that boasts affordable email automation and boasts features such as third-party sending APIs and the ability to integrate for free, with over 12K downloads and 500 active installs.
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.
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.
