For many high-growth eCommerce brands, revenue is climbing, targets are being met, and product-market fit is solid. Everything looks great on the surface.
But under the hood? Their email and SMS programs are quietly bleeding the revenue that should be going directly to their bottom line.
These brands often generate only 10-20% of their total revenue from email and SMS, when well-optimized retention programs should be driving 25-40%+. That’s not just lost opportunity, it’s millions of dollars of profitable revenue left on the table.
Why does this happen?
📉 Poor deliverability – Emails land in spam or get clipped by Gmail.
📉 Weak engagement metrics – Low open rates, poor conversions.
📉 Basic or broken automation – Key flows aren’t set up properly.
📉 Bad list hygiene – Campaigns are blasted to entire databases, harming deliverability.
📉 Lack of segmentation – Unengaged subscribers get hammered, while valuable customers get ignored.
And the worst part? Most brands don’t even realize there’s a problem.
Let’s break down why this happens, the revenue impact, and how fixing email and SMS can unlock millions in incremental growth—without spending more on acquisition.
Why High-Growth Brands Overlook Email & SMS Optimization
The issue isn’t that these brands don’t care about retention. It’s that email and SMS are treated as just another box to check.
👉 The person managing retention is also running ads, handling social media, and juggling influencer partnerships.
👉 Leadership is focused on total top-line revenue, assuming email & SMS are “fine” as long as sales keep growing.
👉 If something isn’t visibly broken, there’s no urgency to optimize it.
This is why so many fast-growing brands settle for 10% of revenue from email & SMS, not realizing they should be at 25-40%+.
The truth? If your retention program is underperforming, you’re not just shifting revenue from other channels, you’re actively losing money.
The Real Cost of Not Having a Retention Marketing Manager On Your Team
Let’s look at the math.
Say your brand does $10M per year in revenue, with 10% coming from email & SMS ($1M).
If you optimize your retention strategy and grow email/SMS to 25% of total revenue, you’re now generating $2.5M from email & SMS alone.
And because better retention increases total revenue, your business could now be doing $12M-$13M per year.
Over three years, that’s a $5M+ difference.
This isn’t just shifting numbers around, it’s real, scalable, and profitable growth. The only question is how much revenue you’re leaving on the table right now.
How Optimizing Email & SMS Unlocks Massive Growth
When brands finally take email & SMS seriously, the transformation is immediate and dramatic.
✔ Better deliverability → Emails reach inboxes, not spam folders.
✔ Higher engagement → Open rates, clicks, and conversions improve.
✔ Stronger segmentation → The right messages reach the right customers.
✔ Smarter automation → Every touchpoint is optimized for revenue.
✔ Increased profitability → Retention revenue doesn’t require ongoing ad spending to return customers.
Instead of scraping by with 10-20% of revenue from retention channels, brands see 30-40%+ within 3 months.
The result? More total revenue, higher profit margins, and a stronger owned audience.
Signs Your Brand Is Bleeding Email & SMS Revenue
If any of these sound familiar, you’re losing more revenue than you think:
❌ Your email open rates are below 20%
❌ Click-through rates are below 2%
❌ You send campaigns to your entire list instead of segmented audiences
❌ Your automation is basic (or worse, non-existent)
❌ Email & SMS together drive less than 20% of revenue
❌ You rarely A/B test subject lines, content, or offers
❌ Your deliverability has never been audited
If you’re not tracking these metrics, or if they’re underperforming, you’re leaving revenue on the table.
The Biggest Mindset Shift: Email & SMS Are Not "Just Another Channel"
Too many brands view email & SMS as secondary to paid acquisition.
🚀 They spend millions on Facebook and TikTok ads.
🚀 They obsess over CAC (customer acquisition cost).
🚀 They chase new customers but neglect the ones they already have.
But here’s the thing: Retention revenue is the most profitable revenue you can generate.
Unlike paid ads, which require constant investment, email & SMS drive revenue at zero additional cost per send.
Once you optimize your retention strategy, every new customer acquired becomes exponentially more valuable. Instead of relying solely on expensive acquisition channels, your business builds a sustainable revenue engine.
So, What’s the Fix? How to Capture the Revenue You’re Missing
If email & SMS are just an afterthought in your marketing strategy and you don't have a dedicated retention marketing manager overseeing these channels, you’re guaranteed to be losing revenue.
The only question is how much.
Most brands don’t realize this until they get an audit. Then, the reaction is always the same:
🚨 “We had no idea we were doing this wrong.”
If email & SMS are only driving 10% of your total revenue, it’s time to take action. Not next quarter. Not next year. Now.
The cost of inaction compounds over time. Every month you wait is another month of lost revenue.
Want to Unlock the Full Revenue Potential of Your Email & SMS?
At Dispatch, we help fast-growing eCommerce brands stop leaving money on the table and turn email & SMS into high-performing, revenue-generating machines by bringing a fractional Retention Marketing Manager into your business with true expertise.
🔹 Get an expert audit of your retention strategy
🔹 Fix deliverability, segmentation, and automation issues
🔹 Scale email & SMS to drive 25-40%+ of your total revenue
If your brand is scaling but email & SMS are just a checkbox, you’re losing money.
📩 Get in touch with Dispatch and let’s unlock your missing revenue. 🚀
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