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How To Start an Email Marketing Agency in 2025 (In-Depth Guide)
Launch Your Email Marketing Agency in 6 Simple Steps
Brandon Storey
December 28th, 2024
People say, “Email is dead.”
But, email is far from dead or dying.
In fact, the opposite is true.
In 2023, 4.37 billion people used email.
By 2027, that number is projected to reach 4.89 billion.
Email is a growing channel. So, how can you capitalize on this?
While everyone’s building a social media marketing agency (SMMA) or dropshipping business, you can tap into an in-demand service with email marketing now while the competition is low.
But, don’t think it’s going to be easy.
There are a few key steps you need to take to ensure you launch your agency on the right foot so you can become profitable now (and in the future).
In this guide, you’ll learn everything you need to know about starting a revenue-generating email marketing agency in 2025 (even if you’re brand new to email).
Ready?
Let’s begin.
Table of Contents
What Is An Email Marketing Agency?
An email marketing agency is a business made up of email marketing experts who help other businesses attract, nurture, and convert audiences with email.
Businesses hire email marketing agencies to help them acquire new customers, retain existing customers, and grow their overall revenue.
An email marketing agency will take care of the entire email operations in a company, including:
Campaign strategy
List management
Market research
Landing page creation
Design
Copywriting
Development
Signup form creation
Lead magnet creation
Analytics and reporting
And more
If you want to stand out as an email marketing agency and land clients, then adapting a holistic approach to email marketing, and skill stacking will go a long way.
Typically, email marketing agencies start when an email marketing freelancer (one-person service business) decides to scale their business by hiring help to be able to service more clients.
An email marketing agency can be as small as two people, or could be made up of dozens of different marketers and service providers.
Within an email marketing agency, you’ll commonly see these roles:
Account managers
Email marketing managers
Copywriters
Graphic designers
Developers
Sales
However, with smaller agencies, each person typically takes on more than one role.
Email marketing agencies sometimes partner or collaborate with other marketing agencies or internal teams at companies to produce marketing campaigns.
For example, an email marketing agency will often work with its client who’s running organic social media marketing and paid ads to create a streamlined marketing campaign.
Why Should You Start an Email Marketing Business?
So, what’s so enticing about launching an email marketing agency?
If you want to build an online business, generate recurring revenue, and create a rewarding business that gives you flexibility, then keep reading.
No business is worth starting unless there’s demand.
So, how much demand is there for email marketing?
The Average ROI of Email Marketing Is 36:1
Let’s dive into one of the most overlooked facts about email marketing:
On average, businesses will generate $36 for every $1 invested into email. That’s an ROI of 3600%.
This means if a business spends $1,000 on email marketing every month, they should expect to get a whopping $36,000 back through revenue.
And that’s just the average.
Take that up to a $10,000 investment and they’ll be looking at estimated returns of $360,000.
Investing $120,000 into email each year should bring $4.32 million in revenue.
Business owners get incredible returns from email marketing. Why is that? Two main reasons:
The average email software costs the average business about $100 per month. Considering how powerful the marketing is, this is an insane deal for the vast majority of business owners. Plus, most platforms offer a free version to get started so it’s easy to bootstrap from day one.
2. Email is the only channel consumers choose.
Why does email marketing outperform social media marketing, SEO, and paid ads in terms of ROI?
Because unlike the other channels, consumers need to directly opt-in to receive email marketing. They have to explicitly consent to receive marketing.
They’re essentially saying, “Yes, please market and advertise to me.”
The other channels don’t do this. With email, their purchase intent is much higher (so they’re targeted audiences).
More Consumers Are Reading Emails Every Year
As mentioned above, over 4 billion people use email (over half the population). And that number continues to grow every year.
The best marketers in the world know that attention is everything. You need to go where the people go. You need to market your products and services where they hang out.
70 years ago, people watched TV and listened to the radio, so brands invested heavily into those channels. Nowadays, people hop into their email inboxes regularly, so brands are hanging out there as well.
More Brands Are Launching Email Newsletters
More consumers reading emails means more demand for email marketing.
Brands are starting to catch on that email is a good idea. That’s why more businesses are starting email newsletters every year.
In fact, in 2022, the number of newsletters launched on beehiiv was 3,674 while that number skyrocketed to 26,345 in 2023.
More demand for email marketing means a greater opportunity for you to build a profitable email marketing agency in 2025.
Why Listen to Me? I’ve generated over $1 million with email marketing and written over 1,000 blog posts. I run Storey Time, a newsletter where I teach people how to become full-time copywriters. Feel free to reach out to me on X anytime!
How to Set up an Email Marketing Agency (Step-By-Step)
Now that you know what an email marketing agency looks like and why they’re a great opportunity right now, it’s time you learn how to launch your own.
Here’s a step-by-step guide to setting up an email marketing agency in 2025.
1. Learn Email Marketing
This step may seem silly to add here, as you likely already have your email marketing skills up to speed.
But, it’s crucial.
The reality is that too many people try to start marketing agencies and other businesses without doing the most important part: learning how to do it.
If you try to approach potential clients but your skills aren’t there, then you’ll never get your business off the ground. There are dozens of skills you can learn to improve your game as an email marketer.
But, if you’re not sure where to start, begin with email copywriting.
When I started copywriting in 2019, I landed ecommerce clients by offering my copywriting services, not email marketing. But, as I identified their needs, they truly wanted someone to not just write their email copy, but to run their entire email marketing.
I got my foot in the door by leading with my copywriting skills. Next thing I knew, I was also learning email marketing and leading that client’s entire email department.
For more resources on learning email marketing, check out the beehiiv blog.
2. Identify Your Ideal Client
Once you’ve got your email marketing skills built up, don’t start pitching clients yet.
First, you want to determine what kind of client you want to serve. Not all clients are the same.
For example, you wouldn’t want to try to land a client who is only generating $1,000 per month in total revenue.
Why?
Because your possible billable services will only be a fraction of their revenue, so you might be able to make $100 per month from that client.
Instead, make sure you’re targeting companies who are already generating solid revenue.
But, don’t go too big (at least when you’re new).
For example, it wouldn’t be the best idea to try and land Apple or Tesla as a client.
Not only are these companies too big for a new email marketing agency to handle, but they would likely only allow their internal teams to run their marketing (employees, not agencies).
Also, consider your niche. Are you going to serve cosmetic ecommerce brands for 18-25-year-old women? Or are you going to target 35-55 year old men looking to improve their fishing game?
If you’re unsure or overwhelmed at the thought of narrowing down such a specific target client, then just start with a broad niche (i.e. fitness, finance, SaaS, sports, relationships, etc.).
The easiest place to start is by identifying what you’re passionate about and what area you already have expertise in.
3. Consider the Type of Email Marketing Agency You Want To Be
You also need to consider the type of email marketing you’ll do. Many companies run different email strategies requiring different email operations.
For example, here are three common email agencies:
Emails for service-based companies (typically text-based emails, not too focused on design)
Ecommerce emails (typically rely heavily on designed emails and automations).
Content or creator business (typically driven by daily or weekly news-style newsletters rather than traditional email marketing).
So, that’s three types of agencies right there: a standard email marketing agency, an ecommerce email marketing agency, and an email newsletter agency.
When you identify your client, you’re also identifying the type of work you want to do, so it’s important to get this right.
4. Pick Pricing Structure (Retainers vs. Project Fees vs. Revenue Share)
Email marketing agencies also have a few different types of pricing structures.
You need to determine what kind of pricing you’ll offer as it will impact your experience as an agency (and how you operate).
There are three core pricing structures you could offer clients:
Project fees
Retainers
Revenue share
Project Fees
Project fees mean you’ll charge one-off project fees to your clients. Every time you complete a new project, you get paid. Here are a couple of examples:
Set up a client’s email newsletter from scratch for $2,000
Create a 5-day welcome email series for $1,500
Design a new subscribe landing page for $1,000
If someone just needs a one-off project completed, then you could offer your services a la carte.
This is a good way to get your foot in the door with a new client – by offering an initial project with a one-time fee to test the waters. And, if you and the client are happy with how the first project went, you could potentially move onto a retainer model (as you’ll learn about next).
Retainers
If a client is looking for a long-term partnership, then a retainer can be one of the easiest ways for you and the client to establish that relationship.
For example, let’s say you started with an initial project to set up a client’s email system from scratch for $2,000 and they liked it. So they ask if you’d like to run their entire email operations for $5,000 per month.
This kind of agreement is straightforward for both you and the client. You always know what you’re getting paid so you can scale easier. They always know what they’re paying so it’s easier to manage their finances. And, you just take everything off their plate to help them every month so they have more free time every month to work on other aspects of their business.
But, what happens if you’re getting a client incredible results but you’re stuck in a flat rate structure? There’s one more pricing model to choose from.
If you’re running a client’s email marketing at a set rate but you’re seeing that your emails are generating way more revenue than anticipated, it’s fair that you get compensated for the results.
You might negotiate your monthly retainer. But, another option is to switch to a revenue share model, also known as a performance or commission. This is where you only get paid for the revenue you generate.
For example, if your email marketing generates $50,000 per month in revenue for your client, you might make $3,000-$5,000 per month on retainer.
So, if you switch to getting paid 10% of all email revenue generated, you’d get $5,000 for that month’s performance.
If you’re able to take a company from $50,000 to $100,000, then you’re now making $10,000 per month, which a company will gladly pay you since you got them bigger results.
This model is also safer for the business owner in many ways. For example, if your emails underperform from $50,000 and you only generate $15,000 in monthly revenue, you only get paid $1,500 that month.
This way, a business owner only pays for the results you get, so their profit margins are always safe. This structure also gives you more incentive to get better results for a client, since the work you do directly impacts how much money you’ll make, so it can help both you and your client out.
One downside is that this model is a bit more complicated than a retainer. You need to put more effort into tracking results and attribution. And, it can be harder to manage your agency’s cash flow and bookkeeping since you’re always generating a different amount from each client each month.
5. Pick Your Email Marketing Software & Tools
Next up, it’s time to figure out what kind of software you’re going to use.
As an email marketing agency, you’ll need to leverage a few different tools to ensure you can handle all your client’s needs.
So this could include:
Analytics tools
Design tools
Project management
Internal communications
And more
The best place to start is with your email software, which will serve as the headquarters for all your email operations.
When picking an email marketing platform, there are a few things to consider:
Email editor
Automations
List growth tools
Integrations
Monetization options
And more
beehiiv is one of the most well-rounded email platforms for email marketers. Launched by the same team that grew the Morning Brew newsletter to millions of subscribers, beehiiv is an email platform built by email marketing experts.
beehiiv helps email marketers create highly targeted email campaigns through data analysis, personalization, and optimization.
The all-in-one email platform helps you build, grow, and monetize your email marketing efforts all within a single tool.
Get started for free today (no credit card required).
6. Set Your Business Up Legally
Okay, now time for the boring, yet necessary part.
Once you’re set up and ready to serve clients, you should register your business entity.
This means obtaining any necessary permits or licenses, setting up business structures like an LLC, corporation, or sole proprietorship. And, complete all necessary paperwork for taxes in your country.
If you’re unsure of where to start, contact a local business attorney and accountant to get set up the right way.
If you fail to properly register your business, you could put yourself and your business at risk financially and legally.
How To Find & Serve Your Ideal Clients
There’s one final pieces of the puzzle that’s crucial to setting up your email marketing agency successfully:
Marketing your business.
If you can’t find and land clients, then you don’t have a business; you have a hobby.
So, where do you get started?
1. Offer Your Services for Free
Free work?
Won’t that devalue my service?
Quite the opposite.
The reality is, when you’re first starting your email marketing agency, you have no value to the marketplace.
So offering free or cheap client work is the best place to start.
Why?
Because you’ll have the opportunity to generate proof by landing a client at all costs (and getting them results).
Your goal when you’re ready to start marketing your services should be to generate 2-3 case studies proving that your email marketing gets business owners results.
It’s incredibly difficult to convince a stranger to hand over thousands of dollars to you every month if you have no proof to show that you know what you’re doing (and can give them a return on their investment in you).
So, start by reaching out to your ideal target client by offering them free work. Here’s a little secret tip I teach email marketers to land clients (even if they don’t have a portfolio):
Before you pitch a potential client, go sign up to their email list, check out their emails, and write them an audit (write down 5-10 tips) showing them how they can improve their email strategy. Start the conversation as a consultant giving them free advice and explaining why they should make those improvements.
To take it to the next level, write them their first email for free to show off a sample of what it’ll be like to work with you and the kind of emails you can send their audience.
Then, deliver that audit and sample to them as a way to open the conversation about your services.
This method works like a charm when you’re just getting started. But, once you have your first client, now you want to scale to more than $10,000 per month, what do you do?
2. Create Case Studies
Every time you land a new client, you should always proactively start documenting your work with them. You want to build case studies that tell the story of what you did to improve their business. This should include:
What challenges they faced in their marketing before meeting you
How you helped them (exact steps you took)
Results of your work (increase in revenue, conversions, click rate, open rate, list growth, etc.)
Samples of your work (emails, landing pages, lead magnets, sign-up forms, etc.)
A testimonial from your happy client verifying everything you wrote in your case study (ideally a video testimonial)
Once you have a few case studies built showing off your work, you’ll be able to land higher paying clients and grow your business.
Remember this: the amount of proof you have will determine how much you can charge as an email marketing agency.
3. The 3 Rs: Retainers, Reviews, Referrals
Once you’ve got some case studies built, you’ll be well on your way to landing more (and higher-paying) clients since you have proof to show you know how to grow businesses with email marketing.
Now what?
Lean into the three Rs: retainers, reviews, and referrals.
Once you work with a client for a month on an initial project, you should always present an option to continue working together, ideally on a retainer basis (or revenue share).
You want to create an ongoing, monthly partnership with them.
It’s way easier to grow your agency if you can keep clients around rather than trying to hunt down new ones every month for one-off projects.
Next, you should push for reviews, or testimonials from your current clients. Ask them for a written and video testimonial that you can promote to potential clients. Show it off on your social media, on your website, and when pitching prospects.
Finally, ask your happy clients for referrals. You’d be amazed at how much business you can get by simply asking your current client to ask their network of business owners if they need help with email marketing.
Apart from targeting high-paying clients, the most important aspect of to building an agency that earns you $10,000-$100,000 per month for years to come is simple:
Overdeliver for your clients.
It’s way easier to keep a client than find a new one. So once you find clients, do everything you can to serve them, get them results, and keep them happy. That in itself is the highest leverage activity you can do to grow your business as that directly leads to the 3Rs: retainers, reviews, and referrals which are necessary to scale your business.
How beehiiv Can Help Your Agency
If you’re looking for an online business that can give you the freedom, finances, and flexibility you’re after, then an email marketing agency is a great opportunity.
There’s never been a better time to dive into email:
Email marketing ROI of 36:1
Over 50% of the world’s population uses email
Many businesses don’t have the time or knowledge to run it themselves
Plus, with email software like beehiiv, it’s never been easier to run email easily (and effectively) so you can get powerful results for your clients.
beehiiv helps email marketers create:
Performance-driven email campaigns (to generate more revenue)
Robust automations to get you results on autopilot
Audience-attracting signup elements to grow lists with ease
beehiiv makes it easy to get results for your clients thanks to robust analytics, advanced segmentation, and world-class email editor.
Ready to launch a profitable email marketing agency on the world’s most powerful email software?
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