When I joined Max Spielmann as Digital Marketing Manager in August 2024, I inherited an email program that looked busy but wasn’t actually working.

You know the setup:

• Hundreds of thousands of contacts
• Constant sends
• Leadership asking “why aren’t we seeing results?”

The answer was uncomfortable but clear. We were doing a lot, but we weren’t doing it smart. Here’s what happened when we stopped sending to everyone and started sending to the right people.

Why our high-volume email strategy wasn’t working

Max Spielmann has been turning memories into printed photos and personalized gifts for over 70 years. We’re part of the Timpson Group, with stores across the UK in supermarkets and high streets. But our email program was stuck in a different era.

The problems were stacking up:

• We had a massive database bloated with inactive contacts from in-store photo kiosks Segmentation was based only on open rates (thanks, iOS privacy updates)
• We had a “sales are down, send another email” mentality instead of strategy
• Our automations showed customers generic category pages instead of the actual products they’d looked at
• And no one was really owning email as a channel

For a small team managing marketing across multiple Timpson Group brands, something had to change.

Cleaning up data for better results

Working with my Dotdigital Customer Success Manager, we tackled the scariest part first: our contact list.

I discovered that people signing up through in-store photo kiosks had engagement rates way below those who signed up on our website. These contacts were inflating our send volumes but contributing almost nothing to revenue.

What we did 

Step 1: Focusing on the contacts that actually matter

We got ruthless and removed long-term inactive kiosk customers, dropping our average newsletter sends from 323,000 to 63,000. We also introduced double opt-in for new kiosk sign-ups because quality beats quantity every time.

People get nervous about reducing volume, and I did too. But with the right insights in place, testing it on a handful of newsletters was enough to show the impact. 

We also rebuilt our segments from scratch based on what actually matters like:

• Click behavior
• Browsing activity
• Purchase recency

Step 2: Making our automations smarter and more relevant

Our browse abandonment emails were sending customers to generic category pages and our welcome series was asking people to leave reviews, without knowing if they’d even made a purchase. And all it took to show improvements were a few simple changes:

• Now our browse abandonment shows customers the exact products they looked at, not a “here’s everything” link
• We extended the journey with a follow-up email to give people another nudge
• And we added purchase checks to the welcome series so customers who’d already bought didn’t get irrelevant review requests

It was a mix of technical setup, design refresh, better messaging, and rules that just weren’t there before. We also tested consistently throughout the year because we needed to know what resonated before peak season hit.

Step 3: Planning peak season with data-driven emails

With cleaner data and smarter automations, we approached Christmas differently. Instead of panic-sending to everyone, we sent more strategically while actually reducing volume.

For December 23rd (consistently our biggest shopping day), we pulled back on discounting and focused on convenience messaging for last-minute shoppers. It worked.

The monthly calls with my Dotdigital Customer Success Manager made all of this possible. For a team our size, having someone I can bounce ideas off and get answers from has been invaluable. I bring challenges, and he gives me the blueprint to execute.

The results

Here’s what happened during our peak period:

Overall email performance:

• Revenue up 41% year over year
• Sends down 63% year over year
• Open rates jumped from 35% to 42%
• Click-through rate doubled from 1.58% to 3.17%

Automation performance:

• Revenue up 78% year over year
• Automations now drive 38% of total email revenue (up from 30%)
• Conversion rate more than doubled from 17% to 37%

The results aren’t just from cutting inactive contacts. They came from testing, better designs, and consistently sending relevant emails to relevant people over time.

My recommendations for other marketers

The numbers got people’s attention, but the efficiency story really resonated with leadership. Senior people in the business like results that make sense. The fact that we drove growth with fewer sends (and didn’t have to spend more) went down really well. Especially when other channels are getting more expensive year over year, having email working better isn’t just a good story internally.

I’m definitely getting more questions about email than I was before. It’s become a strategic conversation, not an afterthought.

Why this worked

Dotdigital has been really good for us. The drag-and-drop builder means I can make changes myself without waiting on developers. The automation builder with visual notes means I can document why I built things a certain way, which is crucial when you’re managing multiple brands.

You wouldn’t think a 150-year-old business like Timpson is doing sophisticated email marketing in the background. But we are, and we’re doing it with a really small team. You don’t need massive resources. You just need the right approach and the right partner.

What’s next

In-store data is the big opportunity. We could almost replicate all our email campaigns around those kiosk machines if we sorted out the data properly. Multi-channel expansion is on the radar too. SMS and WhatsApp are still untapped, and for customers using their phone to get photos onto the kiosk, it makes sense to explore those channels.

For over 70 years, Max Spielmann has been helping UK customers turn their memories into something they can hold. As part of the Timpson Group, Max Spielmann specializes in photo printing, personalized gifts, and same-day services across stores in supermarkets and high streets nationwide.

When Alannah Sneyd joined as Digital Marketing Manager in August 2024, she knew there was work to do.

The challenges were clear

Legacy database dragging performance down

Hundreds of thousands of inactive contacts from in-store photo kiosks were inflating email send volumes but contributing almost nothing to engagement or revenue.

Batch-and-blast approach

Segmentation was based solely on open rates (increasingly unreliable), with a “sales are down, let’s send another email” mentality rather than strategic engagement.

Generic automations with zero personalization

Browse abandonment didn’t show customers the products they’d viewed. Welcome emails didn’t check if someone had already purchased before asking for reviews.

No dedicated owner

Email had been managed as an afterthought rather than a strategic channel.

For a small team managing marketing across multiple Timpson Group brands, it was time for a change.

Rebuilding email from the ground up

Working closely with her Dotdigital Customer Success Manager, Alannah took a phased approach to transforming Max Spielmann’s email program.

Phase 1: Getting the data right

The first priority was audience quality. Alannah discovered that engagement from contacts acquired through in-store photo kiosks was dramatically lower than those who signed up via the website.

The solution:

• Introduced double opt-in for all new kiosk sign-ups to ensure quality over quantity
• Rebuilt segments based on click behavior, browsing activity, and recency – not just opens
• Removed long-term inactive kiosk customers, reducing average newsletter sends from 323,000 to 63,000

“People get nervous about reducing volume, but with the right insights in place, testing it on a handful of newsletters is often enough to show the impact,” Alannah notes.

Phase 2: Automation with actual intelligence

Next came a complete overhaul of Max Spielmann’s automations.
Key improvements:

Browse abandonment that actually works

Customers now see the exact products they browsed, not generic category links.

Extended abandonment series

A follow-up email added to the browse abandonment journey.

Welcome series with logic

Added purchase checks so customers who’d already bought didn’t get irrelevant “leave a review” emails, and those who didn’t purchase received a reminder to use their offer.

“It was a mix of everything – technical setup, design refresh, messaging, and adding sophisticated rules that just weren’t there before,” Alannah explains.

The team also tested continuously throughout the year to understand what resonated before peak season.

Phase 3: Smarter seasonal strategy

With cleaner data and better automations in place, Max Spielmann approached peak season differently – sending more strategically while actually reducing overall volume.

“Even with additional sends during peak, volume was down year on year,” Alannah says. “It’s about sending to the right people, not just the most people.”

For Christmas (when December 23rd is consistently their biggest day), the team pulled back on discounting and focused on convenience messaging for last-minute shoppers.

Working with her Dotdigital Customer Success Manager made the transformation possible, Alannah says “with our Customer Success Manager’s support, we’ve been able to achieve things that would normally require a much bigger team or agency support. The relationship is more like a consultant-client dynamic – I come with challenges, and he gives me the blueprint to execute.”

With our Customer Success Manager’s support, we’ve been able to achieve things that would normally require a much bigger team or agency support. The relationship is more like a consultant-client dynamic – I come with challenges, and he gives me the blueprint to execute.

Alannah Sneyd
Digital Marketing Manager

The numbers tell the story

Peak period 2025:

• Total email revenue increased 41% YoY
• Email sends reduced 63% YoY
• Open rates increased from 35% to 42%
• Click-through rate improved from 1.58% to 3.17%

Automation performance:

• Revenue up 78% YoY
• Automations now account for 38% of total email revenue, up from 30%
• Conversion rate increased from 17% to 37%

Impact beyond the metrics

The efficiency story resonated with leadership too. “Senior people in the business like efficiency. The fact the results have been driven from fewer sends – and we didn’t have to spend more – that went down really well. Especially when other channels are getting more expensive year on year, having email working better is just a good story internally.”

Looking ahead

With solid foundations in place, Alannah is eyeing bigger opportunities:

Unlocking in-store data

“We could almost replicate all the campaigns we’ve got just around those kiosk machines if we sorted out the data.”

Multi-channel expansion

SMS and WhatsApp remain untapped. “For customers using their phone to get photos onto the kiosk, it makes sense to explore.”

“Dotdigital has been really good for us,” Alannah notes. “The drag-and-drop builder means I can do things myself. The automation builder with visual notes means I can document why I built things a certain way. For a generalist marketer managing multiple brands, that matters.”

Whether you’re a Marketing Director, a Content Manager, an Email Marketer or somewhere in between, understanding revenue attribution helps you make smarter decisions, allocate budget effectively, and improve campaign performance.

What is revenue attribution?

Revenue attribution is all about connecting the dots between your marketing efforts and the revenue they generate. It looks at different touchpoints across the customer journey and shows which channels are driving sales. Think of it as a way to see what’s really working and what’s not, so you can optimize your marketing strategies with confidence.

Different products, markets, and roles require different approaches. A Marketing Director might want a high-level overview of top-performing channels, while a Content Manager might be more interested in which campaigns are influencing engagement along the journey. That’s why having a flexible attribution model and conversion window is key to success at an individual and business level.

Why revenue attribution matters now

Customers interact with multiple channels like email, SMS, web, social, ads before making a purchase. Budgets are tight, and stakeholders want clear proof of ROI.

Revenue attribution lets marketers see which channels and campaigns are actually driving revenue, not just clicks or impressions. It’s no longer enough to measure success by the number of leads or total conversions; understanding the contribution of each touchpoint is essential to making smarter, data-driven decisions.

How do you measure revenue attribution?

Revenue attribution is measured through different models, each suited to particular marketing goals or roles. Let’s break down the most commonly used ones:

First touch

This model gives 100% of credit to the first touchpoint a customer interacts with. It’s great for identifying which channels are bringing in new customers. The downside however is that it doesn’t show how later interactions influenced the final conversion.

Last touch

Opposite to first touch, this model credits the final interaction before conversion. It’s simple to track and easy to understand, but it ignores all the other touchpoints that played a role. In Dotdigital, this is known as “direct campaign revenue.”

Linear

Linear attribution spreads credit evenly across all touchpoints. So if you have five touchpoints, each gets 20%. This gives you a balanced view, but it doesn’t highlight which touchpoints were more influential than others.

Time-decay

Time-decay gives more credit to interactions closer to the final conversion. It’s useful for understanding which channels drive conversions regularly, though it may undervalue top-of-funnel efforts. Dotdigital refers to this as “assisted campaign revenue.”

Positional

Positional attribution assigns 40% of credit to both the first and last touchpoints, with the remaining 20% spread across middle interactions. While it’s more nuanced, it can still undervalue the middle touchpoints.

At Dotdigital, you can choose between last touch or time-decay models, and customize a fully flexible conversion window to suit your business and customers.

Revenue attribution for email

In the Dotdigital platform, our revenue attribution for email uses direct campaign revenue (last touch) or assisted campaign revenue (time-decay and linear). Here’s how it works:

1. Interactions between a contact and your campaign (like clicks) are tracked.
2. A unique tracking code is assigned to the customer and stored as a cookie.
3. All subsequent actions, including purchases, are attributed to the right campaign within your chosen conversion window.

This approach captures multi-touch, cross-device journeys, giving you a complete view of which campaigns are driving revenue. Dotdigital’s reporting tools then help you identify high-performing campaigns and make data-driven optimizations.

Revenue attribution for SMS

SMS is the ideal channel to support email, due to high open rates and engagement from customers. So offering revenue attribution for SMS gives you that extra overview of overall campaign success. As with email, it tracks both direct and assisted campaign revenue to easily identify how different touchpoints perform throughout the customer journey.

It works the same way as revenue attribution for email. Each SMS is assigned a unique tracking code which is embedded in all links in the SMS message, allowing you to track all interactions, like clicks and conversions.

Any click is recorded and associated with the specific campaign and message. If your customer then goes on to complete a purchase, the revenue generated will be attributed from the specific action within the corresponding SMS campaign.

ROI vs. revenue attribution

For many years, ROI was the gold standard for checking how your marketing is performing vs converted sales. But since revenue attribution came on the scene, it has begun to take over as the leading method of tracking marketing effort vs sales.

There’s several benefits to using revenue attribution over traditional ROI methods of tracking. Here’s some of the most important ones:

• Revenue attribution provides more granular insights to pinpoint specific marketing activities that drive sales, enable better decision-making and help optimize each channel

• By understanding which channels and campaigns contribute the most, you can distribute and allocate budgets more efficiently and prioritize high performing channels

• Attribution models can consider multiple touchpoints, so companies can measure the impact of their entire marketing funnel across various channels. ROI only looks at the whole picture without breaking down the details

• Revenue attribution helps identify the most effective marketing channels and campaigns, enabling companies to refine and focus their strategies and efforts on what works best

• While ROI provides a general measure of the profit generated from marketing investments, revenue attribution applies a value to specific touchpoints, offering a more detailed analysis of marketing performance

• Revenue attribution equips you with better information for creating long-term marketing strategies and adapting as needed. You can also use this for annual campaigns by using your results from previous years (such as Black Friday/Cyber Monday campaigns)

• By mapping out the customer journey across touchpoints and stages, you can create more personalized and engaging marketing experiences for you and your customers

Some common pitfalls and trade-offs

Revenue attribution gives you powerful insights, but there’s a few things to watch out for:

• Attribution window too short or too long. If your window is too short, you might miss important touchpoints. Too long, and you could over-credit interactions that had little impact

• Over-crediting last touch. Focusing only on the final interaction can hide the influence of earlier channels in the journey

• Ignoring offline conversions. Purchases or interactions that happen offline or outside tracked channels may not be counted

• Data quality and integration issues. Attribution is only as good as the data you feed into it. Missing or inconsistent data can skew results

Being aware of these trade‑offs helps you interpret results accurately and make smarter marketing decisions.

How to get started with revenue attribution

If you’re an existing ecommerce customer using the Dotdigital platform, you can start using revenue attribution straight away. Your customer and retail dashboards already hold all the data you need to begin.

Set your attribution window

Your attribution window controls how long a touchpoint can influence a purchase.
The default is five days, but you can change this to match your sales cycle.
There’s a few things to think about:

• Longer buying journeys need a longer window
• Fast-moving products usually work better with a shorter window
• You can tweak your settings later if something doesn’t feel right
• It helps to check what your other models are doing (Google Analytics uses 30 days by default)

Use data to guide your choice

Take a quick look at how your customers usually behave. If most shoppers return a week later to buy, a five-day window won’t tell the full story. If customers buy within a couple of hours, a long window might over-credit activity that didn’t make an impact.

Accurate revenue, no matter the currency

One thing that makes Dotdigital’s attribution stand out is how well it handles global sales.

If a customer pays in dollars, yen, pounds, or any other currency, our built-in Forex rates convert revenue back to the exact exchange rate on the day of purchase. You get reliable numbers you can trust, without any manual work.

Not a customer yet?

If you’re not a Dotdigital customer yet, we’d love to show you how revenue attribution works in the platform. Get in touch and we’ll walk you through how it can support your marketing strategy and give you clear insight into what drives revenue.

Final thoughts

Revenue attribution gives you the clarity you need to understand what’s really driving revenue across your customer journey. When you can see which channels, messages, and moments make the biggest impact, you’re in a stronger position to budget smarter, improve performance, and build more meaningful customer experiences.

Whether you’re refining your attribution window, exploring different models, or looking for a clearer view of your multi-channel activity, the goal is the same. You want data you can trust and insights you can act on.

If you’re ready to take the next step, we’re always here to help you make the most of your data and turn it into growth.

For more than 70 years Essentra Components has been manufacturing precision metal and plastic products to support projects across the globe.

When Essentra’s customers get in touch, they’re often building something big – and they need the right part, fast. Keeping Essentra top‑of‑mind with buyers and engineers has been Simon Wade’s mission since he joined as E‑CRM Manager in 2020.

Back then, the list of challenges was long:

• No CRM integration or email editor meant building emails, segmentation and automation was only possible with knowledge of coding. Looking to scale his team, Simon needed a platform where non-technical marketers could be self-sufficient.
• Management of multiple brands, teams and languages was difficult – slowing down campaign roll-outs with lots of duplicated work
• Revenue opportunities missed as more B2B buyers moved online but left without making a purchase and couldn’t easily be retargeted.

On top of that, Essentra’s setup with their previous ESP was clunky and hard to scale and the support was poor, with a revolving door of account managers. “We needed a platform that works for an international B2B business without slowing us down,” says Simon.

After demoing various B2B marketing platforms, Dotdigital ticked every box, and became the foundation for a smarter, faster, more connected marketing operation.

Talking to 1.25 million contacts — in 17 languages

Five years on, Simon’s small-but-mighty team of three now speaks to 1.25 million contacts across 30 countries, in 17 different languages. That adds up to around 25 million targeted emails every year.

Here’s how…

Connected data for easier, smarter segmentation

Before Dotdigital, Essentra could only segment customers by location. Now, thanks to Dotdigital’s integration with its Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM, the team can target by industry, product type, buying stage, whatever’s relevant.

“Dotdigital and Dynamics talk to each other,” says Simon. “It means we can send the right product to the right person, at exactly the right time.”

With 45,000 products in the catalogue, that matters. An alert about the right add‑on can turn a small order into a big one, and makes life easier for the customer.

Automation that saves days

Gone are the days of batch-and-blast campaigns. Now, data passes from its CRM and website to Dotdigital in real-time. This means Essentra is able to run over 1,900 automated campaigns across its multiple accounts, including 1,500+ one-off transactional emails and 400+ automated journeys.

Now the team runs fully automated customer journeys, from abandoned cart nudges and prospect follow‑ups to retention emails, all without touching a line of code.

Child accounts that make scaling simple

With child accounts set up for each region, (EMEA, Asia-Pacific, US and Canada, Brazil and Mexico) plus separate accounts for internal comms and other Essentra brands like Wixroyd and Reid Supply, the team can quickly replicate winning campaigns across markets and see what’s working with cross-account analytics.

Simon comments, “This is another reason of why Dotdigital has been really good for us, it’s allowed me to add additional accounts for reasonable cost”. This is particularly important when dealing with multiple market and languages.

“We build the master in English, send it for translation, get approval from the teams, and we’re ready to go,” Simon explains.

The next step? Using Dotdigital’s AI tool not just for subject line ideas but to automatically translate and localise content. That’s going to make the team even faster.

A partnership built on consistency and trust

Simon’s experience with Dotdigital stands in sharp contrast to his time with their old supplier, where he had four different account managers in just over a year and “no real connection.”

With Dotdigital, he’s had the same dedicated Customer Success Manager, for the entire four years since joining. That consistency has built trust and deep understanding of Essentra’s unique needs.

“It’s hugely valuable to work with someone who knows our setup inside out,” Simon says. “I’ve also been able to feed ideas into the product roadmap and I’ve seen a lot of improvements to the platform over the years”.

When we went looking for a marketing automation partner, yes, we wanted great features. But more than that, we wanted a team willing to work with us, give advice, and help a small Email marketing team with big ambitions. We found that in Dotdigital.

Simon Wade, E‑CRM Manager

Results that speak for themselves

Essentra’s email click‑throughs have surged by 52%, rising from around 57,000 to almost 87,000 unique clicks – thanks to always‑on, automated campaigns. That’s tens of thousands more customers visiting product pages, exploring the catalogue, and moving closer to purchase.

Word also got around internally. Dotdigital is now used for employee communications too.

After five years with Dotdigital, Simon’s advice to any B2B or B2C marketer is clear: “Hook Dotdigital up to your CRM, add product and order data, and watch your campaigns fly.”

Start with abandoned carts, he says. “It’s so easy to set up, and even in B2B the response surprised us. Remind people about what’s left in their cart and they come back to buy.”

Deeper integrations

The next step is to integrate their websites directly with Dotdigital to further enhance personalization, targeting and programs. After experiencing the benefits of Dotdigital’s integration with Microsoft Dynamics 365, the Essentra team is also exploring using other integrations with platforms like Trustpilot, Bynder and LinkedIn to automate more of its marketing processes and provide more personalized experiences.

“When we went looking for a marketing automation partner, yes, we wanted great features. But more than that, we wanted a team willing to work with us, give advice, and help a small Email marketing team with big ambitions,” he says. “We found that in Dotdigital.”

That’s surprising, because email is a long-standing part of the marketing mix. And, it’s a channel that, despite being told every year it’s no longer relevant, continues to thrive. According to Litmus, for every dollar spent on email marketing, marketers can get $36–$50 in return, so it’s no wonder global email marketing revenue is projected to hit $14.5 billion by 2026.

It’s safe to say email is still the MVP of marketing channels. The inbox is where customers want to engage. It’s personal, permission-based, and gives customers control over how they interact with brands.

Marketers clearly know the value of this channel, too. Brands scored the highest in the email marketing category in our latest Hitting the mark report, and it remains the preferred channel for consumers, according to our consumer research report, the loyalty divide. But while email continues to outperform other channels, many brands still aren’t tapping its full potential, especially when it comes to email list growth and long-term engagement.

An email address is the starting point of a relationship. It’s your invitation to deliver value, build trust, and set the tone for a long-term connection. Once you’ve earned that inbox spot, you unlock the ability to retarget, nurture, and delight your customers over time.

Need to know email marketing stats

• Email was the highest-scoring category in Hitting the mark, with brands averaging 16 out of 25, a clear sign that marketers recognize its power and potential
• For every $1 spent on email marketing, 35% of marketers see $10–$36 in return, 30% see $36–$50, and 5% earn more than $50
• Global email marketing revenue is projected to reach $14.5 billion by the end of 2026, proving that the channel still generates big business
• 60% of marketers said improving CLV is their top goal, while nearly 40% are focusing on increasing purchase frequency, with email playing a central role in achieving both
• Despite email’s proven results, 22% of marketers across major markets say proving ROI is still a major roadblock to success
• Around 24% of marketers say Tuesday is their go-to day for sending campaigns, with Thursday close behind at 20%
• When asked about their main objectives, 20% of marketers said generating leads was their primary goal, followed by 17% focused on nurturing subscribers with offers or lifecycle automation
• 40% of marketers say the most exciting use of AI right now is automatic content and image generation, opening the door to faster, more personalized campaigns

Why email list growth matters

But performance that delivers results doesn’t happen by accident. To get the most from your email marketing, you need to start the relationship strong and think about how to grow your list strategically. A strong list growth strategy doesn’t just fill your database; it lays the foundation for smarter automation, richer personalization, and lasting loyalty.

Yet, in our latest Hitting the mark report, only 45% of brands had a clear list growth strategy, using tools like popovers or attention-grabbing sign-up tactics. The remaining 55% buried their sign-ups in footers or hid them behind account creation. In other words, more than half of the brands are making it harder than it should be to kickstart a relationship with prospective customers, missing out on list growth opportunities.

And that’s a problem because if subscribing isn’t easy, most visitors won’t bother, and once they leave, that connection is lost.

The benefits of a strong email list growth strategy

Making it easy and enticing to subscribe creates a reliable way to boost CLV and build long-term loyalty. Plus, a well-planned email list growth strategy arms you with everything you need to deliver smarter automation, sharper personalization, and drive sustainable revenue growth.

A strong strategy can:

• Increase CLV: Engaged subscribers buy more often, spend more per purchase, and stay loyal longer, directly improving customer lifetime value
• Capture zero- and first-party data: Easily gather the insights you need to personalize campaigns, segment audiences, and even inform your broader marketing strategy
• Build trust and transparency: Set expectations from the first interaction by being clear about data use, consent, and the value exchange
• Enable smarter automation: Trigger personalized journeys that welcome, nurture, and convert new subscribers automatically
• Improve engagement rates: Deliver tailored content that feels relevant and timely, boosting open, click, and conversion rates
• Strengthen retention and loyalty: Turn new sign-ups into long-term brand advocates through consistent, value-driven communication

How to calculate the value of an email address

If you’re wondering whether it’s worth investing in your email list growth efforts, here’s a simple exercise to help you find out: calculate how much a single email address is worth to your business. Because when you can put a number to it (even a rough one), it becomes incredibly clear how powerful your acquisition efforts can be.

The value of one address

A single email address represents a relationship, a potential sale, and a share of your brand’s long-term revenue. To estimate what that relationship is worth, start with two numbers:

• Your total email-attributed revenue from the past 12 months
• The number of active subscribers (people who actually open, click, and convert — not your total list size)

Then use this simple calculation:

Email value per address = total email revenue ÷ active subscribers

Example: $20,000 ÷ 10,000 active addresses = $2 per subscriber(per year)

It’s a simple calculation, but it’s eye-opening. Even if that number seems small, it adds up fast when you think about the lifetime of that relationship.

The lifetime value of one email address

Now, let’s think about how long a subscriber typically stays active. If you lose around 5% of your list each month, your average subscriber lifespan is roughly 20 months (1 ÷ 0.05). Multiply your per-subscriber value by that number to get their lifetime value (LTV).

Lifetime value = Email value per address × average subscriber lifespan

Example: $2 × 20 months = $40 lifetime value per subscriber

Even if a single subscriber only contributes $2 a month, over time, they could be worth $40 to your brand. This number will increase the more they engage and when they make repeat purchases.

The value of your entire list

To get an even bigger picture, multiply that lifetime value by the number of active subscribers you have.

List value = lifetime value × active subscribers

Example: $40 × 50,000 active subscribers = $2,000,000 total list value

That’s the potential of your email list, which makes it worth thinking carefully about how to fill it with highly engaged subscribers.

How to grow your email list with engaged subscribers

Your email list growth strategy is about attracting the right people and giving them a reason to stick around. When you focus on quality, intent, and value exchange, you’ll build richer lists of engaged customers who love your brand.

Here’s how to build a list full of genuinely engaged prospects:

1. Get your placement right

Your sign-up form’s location can make or break your list growth efforts. If your only option to subscribe lives in the footer of your website, then you’re relying on visitors to scroll all the way down, which most won’t.

Think about where people are most engaged; every touchpoint is a chance to encourage email list growth. With 54% of consumers discovering new brands on mobile, the experience has to be quick and easy to act on. Popovers can work well, but they’re not the only way to get noticed. Try adding multiple touchpoints on your website, like banners, sticky headers, or embedded sign-up forms, to make subscribing feel seamless.

Activewear brand Rebel Active keeps a permanent sign-up CTA in its website header, making it easy to subscribe anytime. The homepage also promotes its loyalty program, giving visitors an extra reason to join.

2. Include clear consent and privacy messaging

Trust starts the moment someone shares their email with you, and it’s key to sustainable list growth. Yet in Hitting the mark, 32% of brands didn’t communicate their privacy policy or collect proper consent.

That’s not just risky, it’s a missed opportunity to build trust and confidence in your brand. Being upfront about how you’ll use a customer’s data and linking to your privacy policy shows transparency and respect.

Beyond being a legal must-have (in compliance with GDPR, CAN-SPAM, and various US state laws), this shows customers you value their data and won’t abuse their trust. With consumer confidence in data security at an all-time low because of recent and ongoing data breaches, this reassurance goes a long way in building relationships based on trust.

Mammut keeps its privacy and consent messaging short, clear, and customer-friendly. A simple tick box at the end of the form lets subscribers know exactly what they’re opting into, while a link to more details keeps things transparent without overwhelming the experience.

3. Use smart attention-grabbing tactics

Sign-up opportunities should adapt to where the visitor is in their journey. If you’re using popovers, make them contextual.

A few popover tactics you can try are:

• Delayed scroll popovers: Let visitors explore your homepage or landing page first, then invite them to subscribe halfway down the page
• Timed triggers: Show popovers after a set time period, like 45 seconds, to reach visitors who’ve clearly engaged or haven’t bounced
• Exit-intent prompts: Offer a light-touch “stay in touch” message before someone leaves your site
• Save your basket messages: Convert browsers who aren’t ready to buy yet but want to keep in touch

Just make sure you’re not overdoing it. Use conditions to avoid showing popovers to existing contacts, to avoid turning your helpful prompt into an annoyance.

BÉIS uses a delayed popover to invite visitors to subscribe and sweetens the deal with a 25% discount. It’s a smart example of value exchange done well.

And remember, attention-grabbing doesn’t have to mean adding a popover to your site. If your website visits happen predominantly over mobile, popovers might not be ideal. Try using interactive tools like quizzes or style finders that collect valuable data in a fun, opt-in way. It’s engagement that doubles as insight.

Health and nutrition brand Free Soul knows that choosing supplements can be confusing. To help, it offers an interactive quiz that delivers personalized product recommendations and collects valuable subscriber data in a natural, engaging way.

4. Be clear, open, and value-driven

The best-performing sign-ups are built on honesty. Tell customers what you’re collecting and why you’re collecting it.

Instead of saying “Tell us your birthday,” flip it to “Get a birthday treat from us.” Make the value exchange obvious to the subscriber. For every piece of data they share, they should feel like they’re getting something better in return. This small shift builds trust, reinforces transparency, and positions your brand as one that gives more than it takes.

Grill’d makes data sharing irresistible by clearly explaining why they collect information like birthdays and favorite Aussie Rules teams, and what subscribers get in return. It’s transparent, relevant, and builds trust from the start of the relationship.

5. Weave loyalty into your sign-up experience

Loyalty isn’t the final stage of the customer journey; it should be your brand’s mindset that shows up right from the first interaction. Shoppers today expect to get something back for their engagement, and loyalty programs are a big part of that.

But according to Hitting the mark, only 22% of brands integrated loyalty or advocacy into welcome and onboarding messages, and just 9% had a fully integrated loyalty program across the entire customer journey.

If you have one, make it a feature of your sign-up experience. Position your loyalty or rewards program as a reason why visitors should subscribe. This shifts the mindset from “giving your email away” to “joining something valuable.”

GANT takes a loyalty-first approach to list growth, shifting the message from “Sign up to our emails” to “Join the club.” This subtle change makes subscribing feel like joining an exclusive community, which sparks instant engagement and long-term loyalty.

Strong lists build stronger brands

Your email list is one of your most valuable marketing assets, but only if it’s full of people who genuinely want to hear from you. Keep focusing on meaningful list growth, quality data, and transparent value exchanges, and the ROI will follow naturally. When you treat list growth as an ongoing strategy, not a one-time task, your inbox becomes one of the most powerful drivers of loyalty and revenue your brand has.

Würth UK is a B2B company supplying essential products to the automotive, agriculture, and construction industries. Its online store stocks more than 60,000 items.

Taking a more personalized and customer-centric approach

Würth UK has consistently achieved year-on-year ecommerce growth, supported by Dotdigital’s personalization platform.

But they wanted to take their marketing to the next level.

Their current email marketing system was stifling their ambitions due to its lack of personalisation and triggered email capabilities. They also had plans to introduce a new website and wanted to create a more joined-up experience across their website and other channels.

A fully integrated ecommerce and marketing platform

The Dotdigital implementation was led by the Head of E-Business at Würth UK, Reece Smith. He explains: “We’ve been using the Dotdigital for several years and it has made a massive impact on our customer experience.”

The team has used product recommendations, dynamic banners, and data capture popovers to expand its database and deliver impressive results. Würth UK has achieved a 72.4% increase in revenue and a 12.8% gain in average order value. In the past year, its abandoned cart emails have generated almost £800k in additional income.

The experience using the platform and the proven results instilled Reece and the team with confidence that Dotdigital’s approach to marketing automation was the right fit for Würth UK. He adds, “A big advantage of Dotdigital is the fact that it is a single centralized platform. It gives us full control to create effective, highly personalized, and fully automated content and campaigns.”

Dotdigital is a vital component in our e-commerce and marketing ecosystem

Reece Smith, Head of E-Business

The sky is the limit!

“The more we can automate, the more we can focus on the things that matter to our customers and us. We see the sky as the limit with marketing automation!” adds Reece. The team is now rolling out new automated emails, including:

• Price drop alerts – letting customers know when products they’re interested in go on sale.
• Back-in-stock notifications – to ensure customers never miss out.
• Browse abandonment emails – helpful reminders about products they were interested in but have not yet purchased.

They’re also using A/B testing to fine-tune campaigns and ensure every message hits the mark.

By combining Dotdigital’s marketing automation and personalization platforms, Würth UK will take the company’s philosophy of operating as a truly multi-channel organization to the next level. “We want to help our customers throughout their lifecycle. By ensuring our core systems talk to each other and automating wherever we can, we can go further and do even more,” concludes Reece. “Dotdigital is a vital component in our ecommerce and marketing ecosystem.”

Each year billions of packages are sent using a highly competitive courier service industry. The market is growing rapidly the global market is expected to be worth $648bn and the UK market £25bn by 2030. Driving this growth in the UK is Parcelhero. The market leading online parcel delivery service operates a popular price comparison website, that brings together the delivery services of the world’s biggest carriers, including UPS, DHL, FedEx and DPD to offer customers savings of up to 60%.

Three days to create, segment and send a marketing email

Parcelhero’s small marketing team work hard to ensure that whenever a package needs to be delivered, customers know to visit the website for the best prices and delivery times. The team have found the one of the best ways to communicate with customers is through timely and helpful emails.

Until November 2023, Parcelhero was using MailChimp to send relatively low numbers of marketing emails to customers. The team wanted to increase the volume, frequency and type of messages being sent to customers, but it was not possible, as the Head of Digital Marketing, Johana Kedjam explains: “You need to be quick and adaptable in the courier business, but it was taking us three days to build an email, segment the database and send it. We needed a marketing platform that could match our fast pace.”

Johana had used the Dotdigital marketing automation platform before joining Parcelhero in 2022 and instantly recognised an opportunity to lay new foundations for the team ambitious email strategy.

Dotdigital enables automated email campaigns and programs

Parcelhero is using Dotdigital for a wide range of email campaigns and programs. Campaigns are centred around events including Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, school holidays and graduation. Programs include welcome and membership activity, re-permission and re-engagement communications and a cart abandonment strategy. These activities are supplemented by additional brand awareness and customer education emails.

“Every email is easy to create using Dotdigital,” says Johana. “We have branded templates and a toolkit that enables us to simply drag and drop content and widgets from our library to make emails that we know will resonate with our customers.”

The team has also taken advantage of Dotdigital’s WinstonAI to add greater levels of personalization within these messages, as Parcelhero’s Email, eCRM & Lifecycle Manager, Alethu Sive Bam, explains: “A unique feature of WinstonAI is the ability to incorporate personalization within sentences and not just the subject line of an email. It is a subtle touch that makes the message feel more engaging.”

The sharp rise in sales was incredible and it kept growing and growing

Johana Kedjam, Head of Digital Marketing, Parcelhero

A four-fold increase in revenue from email

Before Dotdigital, Parcelhero did not have a cart abandonment program and the impact was instant. “The sharp rise in sales was incredible and it kept growing and growing,” comments Johana. Moving to Dotdigital has made a massive impact, in numerous ways:

• Improved communication with customers – 29 campaigns executed in the first 11 months vs. 4 in the same timeframe with Mailchimp.
• Huge increase in revenue – 4x increase in revenue from email
• Automating processes to save time and stay compliant – through automated abandoned cart, re-permission and re-engagement programs
• Improved results through easier A/B testing – constantly looking at what customers want to see and how conversion rates can be improved.

This huge increase in productivity has enabled the team to increase the number of emails it delivers to customers from 33k to 1.3 million. All of this additional activity has generated an almost four-fold increase in revenue from email.

And the cherry on top? Parcelhero’s marketing team won Marketing Team of the Year at Dotdigital’s 2024 Dotties, a well-earned nod to their results and creativity.