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The Email Marketers is a retention marketing agency for 7 to 9-figure ecommerce brands. We help you increase revenue and build an audience of raving fans, with every retention channel under one roof.
A note from our founder
Acquisition costs keep rising. Margins keep getting tighter. Teams are expected to do more with less. And somewhere inside the business, there is usually a massive amount of revenue hiding in plain sight: customers who should be buying again, but are not. Email lists that are growing, but not converting as well as they should. SMS programs that feel either too quiet or too aggressive. Post-purchase journeys that leave money on the table. Loyalty, subscriptions, referrals and lifecycle marketing that technically exist, but are not working together as a true retention engine.
And then there is the agency problem.
Too often, brands hire a retention agency and get a junior team, generic strategy, recycled copy, slow execution, and reporting that tells them what happened without explaining what to do next. The account is "managed," but not truly led. Campaigns go out, flows get built, dashboards get shared, but no one is thinking like an owner.
We built The Email Marketers to be the opposite.
I started freelancing in 2019, almost by accident. In 2020 it became a company, and we set out to become the best retention agency in the world. Many of our clients have been with us since the very beginning, even though the contract is month-to-month. That is the real proof.
When you work with us, you get a senior team that understands ecommerce, customer psychology, lifecycle strategy, offer architecture, creative, copy, data and execution. We do not just "send emails." We build the system that turns first-time buyers into repeat customers, repeat customers into loyalists, and loyalists into the most profitable segment of your business.
Our job is to make retention one of the strongest, most reliable, most profitable parts of your business, without adding more work to your team.
More repeat revenue. More customer value. More profit. Less hand-holding.
Melanie BalkeFounder & CEO, The Email Marketers
Why us
Our results
Most brands come to us with email and SMS driving 10 to 15% of their revenue. In the best-performing accounts we see, the ones that are growing and healthy, that number is 30 to 40%, with roughly 80% of it from email and 20% from SMS. Closing that gap is the job.
Revenue share is only one of the things we are accountable for. We are also measured on customer lifetime value, average order value and repeat purchase rate.
Case study
From September 2025 to April 2026 we ran email and SMS for Koala Eco in Australia and the United States. More than $700,000 of the revenue we drove was net-new, meaning above what the account was already doing at the September baseline, on a $4,500 per month retainer.
Case study
We changed one thing, the welcome series. Same audience. Same traffic. Completely different results.
Creative
Conversion copywriting and on-brand design, written and built by senior specialists for your brand. Never a template.
Testimonials
I have been blown away by the level of service from The Email Marketers team. They're revamping all workflows while also treating me like family. I never want to work with anyone else!Amanda Goetz
I was running last minute changes with two agencies side by side today, and it's been polar freaking opposites. Incredible. It's FUN to work with an agency like yours.Constantin Ricken, Olavson
VERY PROMISING start to ALL flow A/B tests. TEM's emails are winning across every. single. test.Mike Pyle, The Freeze Pipe
I have worked with many agencies in my 16 years of marketing and I have never met such an amazing group of humans who are so talented on top of it.Amanda, client
What working with us is like
Every account gets a full team of five: a senior strategist, a project manager, a senior copywriter, a senior designer and a senior implementation specialist. Nobody is learning on your account.
Between them they cover strategy, copywriting, design, implementation, deliverability, list growth, SMS and push, plus the programs most agencies never touch: memberships, subscriptions, loyalty, referrals and direct mail. All of it in one month-to-month partnership.
A clear path from kickoff to compounding revenue. You see results before most agencies finish onboarding.
Every client gets access to our own dashboard, built to make working together simple.
Every plan ties to a number. We forecast revenue with baseline, plan and stretch targets, then track every KPI against goal each month.
The math
| Retention & email strategist | $7,400 / mo |
| Email copywriter | $5,500 / mo |
| Email designer | $5,500 / mo |
| Technical specialist | $6,500 / mo |
| Benefits, tools and overhead | $2,490 / mo |
| Building this team in-house | $27,390 / mo |
With The Email Marketers
$4,400per month to start, fully managed.
Month-to-month. See full pricing
Who we work with
Our clients are in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and the rest of Europe, and Australia. Many are VC or private equity backed, and all of them care about the numbers.
Food and beverage, apparel and accessories, skincare and beauty, health and wellness, electronics, home, toys and pets, and restricted categories like THC, CBD and tobacco, where paid channels are closed and owned channels carry the business.
Our founder
Melanie began her career in consulting in Germany, working with large automotive, telecommunications and healthcare companies. She moved to the United States and became the first marketing hire at Apt2B, an early direct-to-consumer furniture brand that was later acquired, then led email marketing at one of Los Angeles' fastest-growing agencies.
She left that role because of the habit of over-promising and under-delivering, and swore she would never work at an agency again, let alone start one. She started freelancing in 2019. Clients kept coming, she hired help, and in 2020 the thing she had promised herself she would never build became a company. It was rebranded as The Email Marketers in 2021.
Melanie hosts the No Mild Takes podcast and has been featured in Business Insider and Authority Magazine. Connect on LinkedIn or X.
What we stand for
To be the most trusted name in retention marketing, with a legacy as lasting as Ogilvy's, known for exceptional client results and a team that never wants to leave.
To deliver a consistent wow experience through high-impact retention that drives revenue, builds loyal communities, and makes every client feel genuinely supported.
We care, deeply, about people, impact and potential. We exist to turn ambition into reality, for our clients and our team, with in-house-level care at every step.
Our values are Honesty, Excellence, (Positive) Attitude, Results and Trustworthiness: HEART. It means we do the right thing even when no one is looking. It is also why we pledge 1% of our revenue each year to 1% for the Planet. So far we have planted more than 16,000 mangroves with SeaTrees to restore coastal ecosystems.
At a glance
| Company | The Email Marketers |
|---|---|
| What we are | Retention marketing agency for ecommerce brands |
| Founded | 2020, by Melanie Balke, who began freelancing in 2019. Rebranded as The Email Marketers in 2021 |
| Based in | Los Angeles (Santa Monica), California, with a fully remote, US-led team |
| Who we work with | 7 to 9-figure direct-to-consumer ecommerce brands in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, wider Europe and Australia |
| Channels | Email, SMS, push, direct mail, referrals, subscriptions, memberships and loyalty |
| Your team | Five senior specialists per account: senior strategist, project manager, senior copywriter, senior designer, senior implementation specialist. No juniors |
| Pricing | Monthly packages from $4,400. Month-to-month, with 10% off for a six-month commitment |
| Platform partner | Klaviyo Platinum Master partner |
| Results | $103M+ generated for clients in 2025 |
| Clients include | Grüns, Koala Eco, BodyBio, Gimme Seaweed, Plunge, Llama Naturals, The Freeze Pipe, V-Flat World, Outer, KiwiCo, OpenStore |
| Giving back | 1% for the Planet member. 16,000+ mangroves planted with SeaTrees |
FAQ
The Email Marketers is a retention marketing agency for 7 to 9-figure ecommerce brands, founded by Melanie Balke in 2020 and based in Los Angeles. One senior team of five runs your entire retention channel: email, SMS, push, direct mail, referrals, subscriptions, memberships and loyalty.
An email agency manages a channel and reports on opens, clicks and campaign wins. We own the whole retention program and are accountable for repeat purchase rate, customer lifetime value, average order value and total lifecycle revenue. Campaigns and flows are only the beginning.
Monthly packages start at $4,400, fully managed, on a month-to-month contract. Commit to six months and we take 10% off. The full pricing breakdown is published on our site.
Your first quick-win campaigns go live in week two, all core flows are live by weeks five to seven, and your first quarterly review happens at week twelve. These are targets, not guarantees, and they assume timely access, assets and approvals.
No. We do not run paid acquisition, SEO or website development. That is the only boundary. Everything that happens after the first order is ours: email, SMS, push, direct mail, referrals, subscriptions, memberships and loyalty.
Melanie Balke, Founder and CEO. She started in consulting in Germany, was the first marketing hire at DTC furniture brand Apt2B, led email at a Los Angeles agency, began freelancing in 2019 and founded the company in 2020.
Let's build your retention engine
You'll leave with three things you can act on, whether or not we work together:
