ServiceBOFU
Email marketing measured in revenue, not opens
The short answer
Email is still the cheapest revenue channel most brands own, and the one most often run badly: weekly blasts to the full list, discount-led every time, measured on open rates that privacy features have made meaningless.
PMG runs email as a revenue channel: deliverability protected first, automated flows doing most of the work, segmented campaigns for the rest, and everything judged on revenue per recipient.
Deliverability comes first
- SPF, DKIM and DMARC configured correctly on a sending domain you own
- Compliance with major mailbox providers' bulk-sender requirements, including one-click unsubscribe
- List hygiene: remove hard bounces and long-term non-engagers
- Sending volume warmed gradually on new domains or IPs
- Engagement-based sending — people who never open shouldn't receive every campaign
- Spam complaint rate monitored and kept well under provider thresholds
If emails land in promotions or spam, nothing else matters.
Flows versus campaigns
- Flows are automated, triggered by behaviour, and run permanently. They usually produce the majority of email revenue for mature programmes.
- Campaigns are scheduled sends — launches, sales, content. They matter, but they're the smaller share for a well-built programme.
Most brands we audit have it backwards: heavy campaign effort, neglected flows.
What we build
- Fix deliverability — authentication, list hygiene, sending reputation.
- Build the core flows: welcome, abandoned browse, abandoned cart, post-purchase, win-back.
- Grow the list properly — sign-up offers that attract buyers, not freebie hunters.
- Segment campaigns by engagement and purchase behaviour.
- Design for mobile and dark mode, since that's where most email is read.
- Test one variable at a time — subject line, offer, send time, content length.
The flows every eCommerce brand should run
- Welcome series — three to five emails that introduce the brand, handle objections and convert a first purchase
- Browse abandonment — a gentle reminder of what they looked at
- Cart and checkout abandonment — the highest-revenue flow for most stores
- Post-purchase — thank you, what to expect, how to use it, then a review request
- Replenishment — timed to the product's real usage cycle
- Win-back — for customers who haven't bought within their expected interval
- Sunset — removes long-term non-engagers to protect deliverability
Why deliverability comes before everything else
If emails land in spam or the Promotions tab unseen, nothing else matters. Since February 2024, Gmail and Yahoo have required bulk senders to:
- Authenticate mail with SPF, DKIM and DMARC
- Offer one-click unsubscribe and process unsubscribes within two days
- Keep spam complaint rates low (Google's guidance is below 0.3%, ideally under 0.1%)
We set these up on a dedicated sending subdomain, warm it gradually, and monitor complaint and bounce rates. See deliverability.
Flows vs campaigns: where email revenue comes from
| Flows (automated) | Campaigns (broadcast) | |
|---|---|---|
| Triggered by | Customer behaviour | Your calendar |
| Relevance | High — timed to the person's action | Variable — depends on segmentation |
| Revenue per email | Usually higher | Usually lower |
| Effort | Build once, optimise over time | Ongoing creation |
| Examples | Welcome, abandoned cart, post-purchase, replenishment, win-back | Launches, content, sale events |
Build flows first; they work every day without new effort.
Which email metrics matter now?
| Metric | Use it for |
|---|---|
| Click-through rate | Content and offer relevance |
| Conversion rate and revenue per recipient | Commercial value of each send |
| Unsubscribe and complaint rates | List health and relevance |
| Bounce rate | List quality and hygiene |
| Inbox placement (seed tests) | Deliverability |
| Open rate | Only as a rough trend — privacy features inflate it |
What does email marketing cost?
Email platforms charge mainly by number of contacts, so list hygiene saves money. Management — strategy, flow builds, design, copy, segmentation and reporting — is usually a monthly retainer, with flow builds sometimes quoted as a one-time project. Plus 18% GST. Compared with paid media, email's marginal cost per send is very low, which is why growing an engaged list is worth investing in.
Email list growth that respects consent
- Clear value for subscribing — guides, early access, useful content, a genuine offer
- Explicit consent, with what people will receive stated clearly
- Double opt-in where list quality matters more than size
- No purchased or scraped lists — ever
- Preference centre for frequency and topics
- Regular suppression of inactive subscribers
Email by business type
| Business | Must-have flows | Key metric |
|---|---|---|
| eCommerce | Welcome, abandoned cart, post-purchase, win-back | Revenue per recipient |
| B2B | Nurture, webinar, newsletter | Pipeline influenced |
| Education | Enquiry nurture, deadline reminders | Applications |
| SaaS | Onboarding, feature adoption, renewal | Activation and retention |
A worked example: rescuing deliverability
A brand's emails were landing in spam. We authenticated the domain with SPF, DKIM and DMARC, removed long-inactive subscribers, slowed sending to rebuild reputation and focused on engaged segments. Inbox placement recovered, and revenue per email rose even though the list got smaller.
Email Marketing playbooks by industry
How a Email Marketing engagement with PMG runs
- Audit (week 0–1). Accounts, analytics, tracking, website, CRM flow and competitors reviewed, with a written list of what's broken, what's wasted and the three moves we'd make first.
- Plan (week 1–2). Break-even ROAS or a target cost per lead, a measurement plan and a 90-day roadmap for Email Marketing, with owners and dates.
- Launch (week 2–4). Clean structures, verified conversion signals, the first creative sprint and landing-page fixes.
- Optimise (months 2–3). A weekly test cadence, with budget following the cheapest incremental results rather than platform-reported ones.
- Scale (month 3 onwards). New channels, geographies and retention loops, added only when the economics hold.
Every week you get a one-page scorecard, a change log, the test board and a 30-minute call with your strategist. See how we work and pricing for details.
Why teams choose PMG for Email Marketing
- Measurement first. Unit economics and clean tracking come before any increase in spend.
- You own everything. Ad accounts, data and creative stay in your name; ad spend goes straight to the platforms.
- Senior hands on the account. The strategist you speak to is the person running it.
- Weekly transparency. Scorecard, change log and test board — every week.
- Short minimum terms. We keep clients with results, not contracts.
- India and international. One Mumbai team running campaigns across Indian cities and overseas markets, Mon–Sat, 7am–9pm IST.
Where we run Email Marketing
We manage Email Marketing for businesses across India — including Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Bengaluru, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata and Ahmedabad — and for companies in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Singapore and Germany. Campaigns are planned market by market, with language, currency, platform mix and privacy rules matched to each. See all Indian locations and international markets.
Free growth audit
Get a written audit for Email Marketing.
No sales call required. Tell us where to look; a strategist replies within working hours and sends the written audit within 72 hours.
- Tracking check
- Pixels, Conversions API, GA4 events and offline conversions — what is firing, what is double-counted, what is missing.
- Wasted spend
- Search terms, placements, audiences and overlap that cost money without producing qualified leads or sales.
- Conversion path
- Landing page speed, message match, form friction and follow-up time — where interested people drop off.
- 90-day priorities
- The three changes we would make first, with the metric each one should move.
Frequently asked questions
Are open rates still useful?
Barely. Apple Mail Privacy Protection and similar features inflate opens. Use clicks, placed orders and revenue per recipient instead.
How often should we email?
As often as you have something worth reading, segmented so your most engaged customers get more and disengaged ones get less.
Do we need a dedicated sending domain?
For any serious volume, yes — a subdomain you control, properly authenticated, protects both your deliverability and your main domain's reputation.
How often should a brand send marketing emails?
Enough to stay relevant without fatiguing the list. Many brands send one to three campaigns a week to engaged segments, fewer to less engaged ones, with automated flows running alongside.
Is email better than WhatsApp in India?
They do different jobs. WhatsApp has high attention and a per-message cost; email is cheaper per send and better for longer content. Most brands use both; see WhatsApp vs email marketing.
Why are our emails going to spam?
Common causes: missing authentication, a new domain sending too much too fast, high complaint rates, poor list hygiene or spammy content. We diagnose with authentication checks, seed tests and complaint data.
Can email work for B2B?
Yes — nurture sequences, newsletters and account-based outreach, integrated with the CRM and sales process.
Do you write and design the emails?
Yes — copy, design, templates and testing, in your brand style.
What are SPF, DKIM and DMARC?
Email authentication standards that prove your messages really come from your domain; major inbox providers now expect them for bulk senders.
How often should we email our list?
As often as you have something valuable to say — and less often to people who rarely engage.
Does email still work in India?
Yes, particularly for B2B, education and eCommerce, alongside WhatsApp and SMS.
How long does Email Marketing take to show results?
Tracking fixes and search campaigns often show improvement within two to four weeks; prospecting on Meta or YouTube usually needs three to six weeks of creative testing; SEO compounds over three to nine months. We agree leading indicators up front so progress is visible early.
Is there a long contract?
No. Minimum terms are short, because we would rather keep clients with results than with contracts.
Will we own the ad accounts and data?
Yes. Everything runs in your own accounts with partner access for PMG, and you can see it all at any time.
What do you need from us to start?
Access to ad accounts and analytics, your margins and order values (or deal values), brand assets, and a decision-maker available for a weekly 30-minute call.
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