We Have 25,000 Emails. We Send 8 Times A Year. (Confessions of A Wasted List)

I need to confess something.

We have 25,000 email subscribers. People who bought from us. People who signed up for our newsletter. People who explicitly said "yes, you can email me."

We email them about 8 times a year.

Sometimes we go 3 months without sending anything. Then we remember we have a list, throw together a promotional email, and blast it to everyone.

> "We have 25,000 emails of people that have purchased and signed up... We send out an email 8-10 times a year — tops."

That quote isn't from me, but it could be. When I read it on Reddit, I felt called out.

Here's the embarrassing truth: Email should be 25-40% of our revenue. For us, it's maybe 5% on a good month.

We're leaving probably $20,000 a month on the table because we "don't have time for email."

How Did We Get Here?

It wasn't intentional neglect. It was gradual.

When we started, we set up a basic Klaviyo account. Added a popup. Collected emails. We even set up an abandoned cart flow because someone told us to.

For a while, that abandoned cart flow was making decent money. So we thought, "Email is working!"

But we never built other flows. We never set up a welcome series. We never created a post-purchase sequence. We told ourselves "we'll get to it eventually."

Eventually never came.

> "Drowning trying to set up all these email flows everyone says I need. Right now I've just got abandoned cart running and maybe a newsletter when I remember (which is almost never)."

That was us. One flow. Occasional newsletters. A 25,000-person asset collecting dust.

The Wake-Up Call

Last quarter, I sat down to actually look at our numbers.

We were paying Klaviyo $600/month for those 25,000 subscribers.

Email revenue (according to Klaviyo's attribution): About $8,000/month.

That's roughly 13:1 ROI. Sounds okay, right?

But then I read that well-managed email programs see 30-50:1 ROI. And that email should be 25-40% of revenue.

Our email was 5% of revenue.

If we were "normal," email would be generating $40,000-50,000/month. Instead, it was $8,000.

We were leaving $30,000+ on the table. Every month.

Why We Were Stuck

The reasons were always the same:

"We don't have time."

But we have time for Facebook ads. We have time for Instagram. We have time for customer service. We just didn't prioritize email.

"It's too complicated."

> "Klaviyo is overwhelming even if you have intermediate knowledge of email marketing."

Every time I logged in to set up a new flow, I'd get lost in segments and triggers and splits. I'd close the tab and tell myself I'd figure it out later.

"Our list probably doesn't want to hear from us."

We assumed that because we hadn't emailed in months, people would be annoyed if we started now. Classic self-sabotage.

"We tried and it didn't work."

We'd occasionally send a newsletter, get a 15% open rate, and feel demoralized. We didn't realize that 15% was because we hadn't warmed the list properly.

What We Finally Did

Last month, we stopped making excuses.

We hired someone to build our flows. It wasn't cheap ($1,500), but it was one-time. They set up:

- Welcome series (5 emails)

- Abandoned cart (3 emails)

- Browse abandonment (2 emails)

- Post-purchase (4 emails)

- Win-back (3 emails)

Then they cleaned our list. Suppressed 8,000 subscribers who hadn't opened anything in a year. Our Klaviyo bill dropped $150/month.

They gave us a simple content calendar: 2 campaigns per week. We committed to actually following it.

The Results (So Far)

It's been 6 weeks since we made these changes.

Before:

- Email revenue: ~$8,000/month

- Open rate: 15%

- Email as % of revenue: 5%

After (so far):

- Email revenue: ~$14,000/month (and climbing)

- Open rate: 28% (suppressed the dead weight)

- Email as % of revenue: 9%

We're not at 30% yet. But we're finally moving in the right direction.

The embarrassing part? The fixes were mostly obvious. Flows that should have existed from day one. List hygiene we'd been avoiding. A basic sending cadence.

We didn't need sophisticated marketing. We needed to stop neglecting the basics.

What I'd Tell Past Me

1. "Not having time" is a choice.

Email is probably your highest-ROI channel if you do it right. The time you spend on a marginal Facebook ad would generate more returns in email flows.

2. The best time to build flows was when you started. The second best time is now.

Every day without proper flows is revenue walking out the door.

3. You don't have to be an expert.

You can hire someone to build the flows for you. Or use templates. Or take a course. The knowledge exists. The only barrier is your willingness to start.

4. Your list wants to hear from you.

People who bought from you or signed up want your content. They're more annoyed by silence than by emails. If they don't want your emails, they'll unsubscribe. That's fine.

If This Sounds Like You

> "I don't enjoy it, I'm not good at it, and it doesn't produce results."

Email doesn't have to be your passion. It just has to be set up correctly.

We offer Klaviyo Flow Foundation for stores exactly like ours was: good lists, no flows, money being left on the table.

Stop being us from 6 months ago. That store was leaving $30K/month behind. Don't be that store.