Grow your ecommerce store · Email marketing · 3 min read
How Much to Charge for Email Marketing Services
Short answer
Most email marketers price in one of four ways: per email or campaign, fixed project fees for building automated flows, monthly retainers for ongoing management, or a retainer plus a performance component. Set rates from the time each deliverable takes, your target hourly income and the value to the client, then raise them as you build proof.
Pricing is where many new email marketers undercut themselves. They quote by the email, underestimate revision time and end up earning less than minimum wage on a demanding client. Here's how to structure pricing so it's fair to both sides.
What clients are actually paying for
An email isn't just words. A single campaign can involve:
- Strategy and planning
- Copywriting
- Design or template work
- Segmentation and list selection
- Building and QA in the platform
- Testing and scheduling
- Reporting
Price for the whole job, not the visible output.
Common pricing models
Per email or campaign
Simple and easy for clients to understand. Works for writers who only handle copy, or for one-off campaigns. Downside: it encourages haggling over each email and ignores strategy.
Project fees for flows
A fixed price to build core automations: welcome series, abandoned cart and checkout, browse abandonment, post-purchase and win-back. Clients like the clarity, and you can productize it. Scope tightly: number of emails per flow, rounds of revisions, whether design is included.
Monthly retainer
A recurring fee for an agreed scope, such as a set number of campaigns per month, flow maintenance, list hygiene and reporting. Retainers give you predictable income and give clients consistent execution. This is the backbone of most email agencies.
Retainer plus performance
A base retainer covers your costs; a bonus kicks in when email revenue passes agreed targets. Define attribution clearly (which platform's numbers, what window) to avoid disputes.
Hourly
Best for audits, consultations and small fixes. Avoid it for ongoing work.
How to calculate your rates
- Decide your target annual income and subtract the weeks you won't work.
- Estimate billable hours. Admin, sales and learning take a big share of your week; many freelancers bill only half their working hours.
- Find your effective hourly target (income / billable hours).
- Time your deliverables. Track how long a campaign or flow actually takes, including revisions.
- Multiply to get a floor price per deliverable.
- Adjust for value. A flow that recovers abandoned checkouts for a store doing serious volume is worth more to that store than to a brand-new one.
Factors that justify higher prices
- Specialization in a niche (beauty, supplements, apparel)
- Deep expertise in a platform like Klaviyo
- Design and copy in one package
- SMS included
- Documented results from past clients (real ones, shared with permission)
- Speed and reliability
Scope creep: protect yourself
Write a clear agreement that covers:
- Deliverables per month
- Number of revision rounds
- Turnaround times
- Who supplies images, offers and product info
- What counts as extra work and how it's billed
- Notice period for cancellation
Remember the client's tool costs
Clients also pay their email platform. Klaviyo, for example, has a free plan for up to 250 active profiles and paid plans that scale with list size. If a client is on a small list, your fee plus tool costs needs to make sense against their revenue. Sometimes the right advice is a smaller starter package.
Pricing for your first clients
You'll probably charge less while you build proof, but avoid "free." Instead, offer a defined starter project at a lower price with the agreement that you can document the work. Raise prices with each new client until you hear "no" occasionally. That's usually a sign you're near the market rate.
For finding those first clients, read how to land your first email marketing client. For the client side of the table, when to hire an email marketing expert explains what store owners look for.
Frequently asked questions
Should I charge hourly for email marketing?
Hourly works for audits and small fixes, but it caps your income as you get faster. Project and retainer pricing reward efficiency and are easier for clients to budget.
Is revenue share a good idea?
It can align incentives, but attribution is messy and you depend on factors you don't control, like product and traffic. Many marketers use a base retainer plus a smaller performance bonus.
How do I raise my prices?
Raise rates for new clients first, then give existing clients notice of increases at renewal, ideally alongside a summary of results delivered.
Sources and further reading
Platform features, prices and policies change. Check the official help pages linked above before you act on a detail that matters to your store.