Fix these 3 things and email will drive 40%+ of your revenue

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Hey it’s Max from The Inbox Newsletter.

Today, I’m breaking down the three main things I look for in every Klaviyo account when we’re thinking about working together with a new client.

List growth. Campaign frequency. Flow quality.

These three areas determine whether email drives 15% of your revenue or 40%+ of your revenue.

Key Takeaways:

• Email converts warm leads who know and trust you (paid ads are expensive content)

• List growth health: Pop-up CVR should be 5-8%, sub:unsub ratio should be 3:1 minimum

• Campaign frequency: Most brands should send 4x/week, scale to 5-7x/week if list growth is strong

• Flow quality: Core flows need minimum 3 emails, most brands have 1-2 and wonder why flows underperform

• Target benchmark: Email should drive 40%+ of total revenue

Why Email Matters in 2026 (And Why Most Brands Underinvest)

The 2026 consumer is more skeptical than ever.

In the age of AI, brands paying influencers and more products to choose from than ever before, brands are fighting hard to win over new customers.

Here's the reality: in 2026, you can't convert cold audiences in e-commerce. You can only convert warm audiences who know, like, and trust you.

Paid ads acquire attention. But they're expensive. Email converts and maintains that attention. And it's cheap.

Every piece of content a customer sees (email, social post, ad) earns trust points. Eventually they cross what I call the Trust Threshold: the point where someone trusts you enough to buy.

The brands that rely only on paid ads to reach the Trust Threshold have rising CACs and break even on first purchases. The brands that use email as cheap, predictable content convert cold traffic into warm buyers without burning cash.

That's why the three checks below matter. If your email system is weak, you're paying more to acquire customers and converting fewer of them.

The Bare Minimum 3-Check System

When I open a new client's Klaviyo account, I'm checking three things in order:

Check 1: List Growth - Are you growing your list efficiently (3x new subs compared to unsubs) and keeping it healthy?

Check 2: Campaigns - Are you sending enough emails with the right segmentation and creative quality?

Check 3: Flows - Do you have the core flows built out with enough emails in each sequence?

These checks take 15-20 minutes. And they tell me exactly where a brand is leaving money on the table.

Check 1: List Growth (Is Your Pop-Up Actually Working?)

Your pop-up is how you capture the people you paid to acquire. Without it, visitors leave and never come back.

Pop-up conversion rate: Your pop-up CVR should be a MINIMUM 5-8%. If you're under 5%, your pop-up isn't working.

We have some brands at 20%+… the warmer your audience is the higher your pop-up conversion rate should be.

Where to find this: Klaviyo → Sign-up Forms → Click on your pop-up → View Analytics.

Real example: A client came to us with a 2.5% pop-up CVR. We optimized it to 8.75%. Their welcome flow revenue went from $7K/month to $25K/month. Over 12 months, that's $300K in revenue instead of $84K.

3.5x pop-up conversion = 3.5x welcome flow revenue.

What makes a pop-up convert: Strong offer (mystery discount, free gift, not generic "10% off"), proper timing (4-12 seconds), single request (email first, SMS second), large form size, minimal copy.

Sub:unsub ratio: For every 3 new subscribers, you should have no more than 1 unsubscribe. That's a 3:1 ratio minimum.

Where to find this: Klaviyo → Analytics → Lists & Segments → Check net growth over the last 30 days.

If your list growth is weak, fix this before you increase send frequency.

Check 2: Campaigns (Are You Sending Enough Emails?)

Send frequency: Most brands send 1-2 emails per week. That's not enough.

You should be sending 3-4 emails per week minimum. If you're doing $1-10M per month and your list growth is strong (4-5:1 sub:unsub ratio), ramp up to 5-7 emails per week.

Why? Most people miss most of your emails. Sending 4x/week just increases your chances of being seen.

Segmentation: Stop sending to people who haven't opened an email in 90+ days. Create an "Engaged Segment" (opened or clicked email in last 60 days) and send campaigns to them only.

Creative quality: Use the 75/20/5 ratio. 75% designed product emails, 20% text-based pattern interrupts, 5% original concepts.

Quick audit: Go to Klaviyo → Campaigns. Count how many you sent in the last 30 days. Divide by 4. That's your average emails per week. If it's under 4, you're leaving money on the table.

Check 3: Flows (Do You Have the Basics Built Out?)

Most brands over-invest in their campaigns while under-investing in their flows.

This is a HUGE mistake. It’s very much dependent on the brand, but for some brands, 70% of their email revenue comes from flows.

Core flows you need: Welcome Flow, Abandoned Cart, Abandoned Checkout, Browse Abandon, Post-Purchase, Winback.

Minimum 3 emails per flow. Welcome flow should be 4-5 emails. Most brands have 1-2 and wonder why they're not converting.

Content quality: Good flow emails use urgency (countdown timers, stock scarcity), show the abandoned product (dynamic content), include social proof, and have multiple CTAs.

Quick audit: Go to Klaviyo → Flows. Click on each core flow. Count how many emails are in the sequence. If any core flow has fewer than 3 emails, you're leaving money on the table.

What Good Looks Like

List Growth: Pop-up CVR 5-8%, sub:unsub ratio 3:1 minimum

Campaigns: 4x/week baseline (5-7x for high-growth brands), 20-30% open rate, 2-5% click rate

Flows: Minimum 3 emails per flow, 20-30% of total email revenue, welcome flow 8-15% conversion

Overall: Email should drive ~40% of total revenue

PS - Something big is coming back next week…

In October, we quietly dropped a 90-day email marketing mentorship program for 10 brands to help them generate 30-50% of their store revenue from email.

And it sold out in 48 hours before we closed it off.

90 days later… and we’re re-opening it up.

The results have been awesome.

It is an exclusive, invite-only group to maintain the quality of brands.

The waitlist is now open, and we will be launching in early January… inviting only the brands we believe we can help the most that fill out the application below.

(It takes 60 seconds to fill out the application)

Learn More & Join The Waitlist Now →

Email Inspiration Of The Day

Brand: Goodrays

Email Design: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1u7QXJzv5dMkq8vo0TPGYkcswJAUz4isJ/view?usp=sharing

Notes: Fantastic copy on this email. “Your mind doesn’t have an off switch. That’s why we created Goodrays” positions the product as the anti-energy drink, drink. Love the featured product section as well.

Template of The Day

If you want access to a bank of 134 mix and match templates like this equating to over 5,000+ possible email designs, click here »

Reply to this email if you have any questions or further content you want covered.

Cheers,

Max | Well Copy Email & SMS Marketing
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