From “Nice to have” to “Can’t run without”: Reframing email in your pitches

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Let’s be honest, most ecommerce marketing agency pitches follow a similar pattern. Paid ads? Front and center. Landing pages? Absolutely. Maybe even a dash of SMS for flair. 

But email is often tacked on as an afterthought — the digital equivalent of “Do you want fries with that?”

Well, it’s time to reframe that. Because with such an abundance of marketing tools that look shiny but don’t always deliver, email does stand out. It’s an entire infrastructure and, frankly, the only marketing tool most ecommerce brands literally can’t operate without. So if your agency isn’t positioning it that way, you’re leaving money — and credibility — on the table.

Let’s unpack that.

The stack is crowded, but only two tools keep the lights on

The tech stack conversation has gotten bloated. Everyone’s chasing the “best in class” everything: reviews apps, loyalty tools, funnel builders. But when budgets tighten, nothing is sacred. Even email platforms get reevaluated.

And that’s fair. Some ESPs overcharge and overload users with features they don’t need, wrapped in pricing that’s hard to justify. Clients end up paying for complexity instead of value.

But email itself isn’t optional. Alongside the ecommerce platform, it’s one of the only tools an ecommerce brand truly can’t operate without.

That’s why choosing the right one matters. Omnisend gives your clients the revenue-driving automation, segmentation, and analytics they need, while cutting their email and SMS spend by up to 60 percent compared to other leading ESPs.

So if you’re helping clients scale profitably, start with the two systems they literally can’t live without:

• Ecommerce platform = where the sale happens
• Email = how you make sure it happens again

Reframing email as infrastructure

Clients tend to see email like it’s a tactic — a campaign, a way to announce the next discount. But we want to break that thinking.

Email is an entire infrastructure that turns one-time buyers into repeat customers. And it’s the only channel that’s working for you 24/7 without bidding wars or whatever algorithms decide is working that day. 

So forget the newsletter and start thinking systems:

• Welcome series that onboard customers
• Abandoned cart flows that recover revenue
• Post-purchase flows that build loyalty and drive upsells
• Browse abandonment that brings visitors back
• Reactivation flows that keep customers coming back

Merchants that use Omnisend get $68 back for every $1 spent on email (one of the highest ROIs in marketing), and a simple newsletter couldn’t achieve that. So you know this channel is way more than that.

Paid advertising brings people in, but email makes it sustainable

Let’s call it like it is — customer acquisition is expensive. Always has been, always will be. And the chances of it getting any cheaper in the future are close to zero.

So while you can’t avoid directing part of your client’s budget towards paid advertising, not having a lifecycle engine would be like lighting that money on fire.

Think of it this way:

• Paid ads = rent: You pay to play, and when the budget’s gone, so are your visitors
• Email = your mortgage: You own the list, control the channel, and the longer you invest, the more valuable it becomes

For most high-performing DTC brands, email can drive up to 20–40% of total revenue. And unlike paid ads, that revenue is repeatable. As an agency, you need a partner that helps you build systems, not just campaigns, to keep those repeat sales coming.

For example, Omnisend agency partner Vyber Media successfully scaled their client Headbanger Sports to an eight-figure ecommerce brand and email played a crucial role in that. Email became a core revenue driver, contributing over $1.5M in annual revenue and growing over 55% year-over-year. All of this was achieved by implementing Omnisend automations and scaling their subscriber list (at the same time lowering acquisition dependency).

How to reposition email in client pitches

Here’s where most pitches go wrong. Email gets introduced as an optional extra, a campaign channel, a thing you’ll “set up later.” Flip it.

Start with this framing: “To get a return on your ecommerce platform, you need a retention system, and that system is email.”

Then ground it in practicality:

• Abandoned cart flows recover lost revenue
• Post-purchase flows drive UGC, reviews, upsells
• Welcome series turns strangers into subscribers, then buyers
• Winback automations re-engage dormant customers without extra spend

In addition, show clients that with the right email tool, they can market like top-performing brands, using the same strategies and automations as names they already admire

All of this is the backbone of a healthy business, not something that’s just “nice to have.”

You don’t even need to lead with design or content. Start with the automations and say that in 2024 automated emails drove 37% of sales from just 2% of email volume. So that’s where your client’s revenue lives.  

“But we’re not ready for email yet…”

It’s a common objection, and you’ll hear it often: “We’re too small,” “We want to focus on ads first,” “Email can come later.” So you handle it with a response: “If you’re spending anything on acquisition, email is how you ensure it pays off long-term.”

You don’t need a big list, a 100-page-long brand book, or even custom graphics. You need:

• A working ecommerce site
• A way to collect emails (popups, checkout opt-ins, etc.)
• The core automations turned on

Omnisend handles the rest — no code integrations, prebuilt automation workflows, drag-and-drop email builder, and performance insights built for ecommerce.

So no, your client doesn’t need to “be ready,” because they already are ready. They simply need to stop pouring the budget into a leaky bucket.

Omnisend makes email make sense

If you’re recommending a tool, choose one that actually fits your client’s stage and won’t hold them back as they grow. That’s where Omnisend comes in.

Trusted by over 125,000 brands, Omnisend is powerful without being clunky, offering advanced features without forcing anyone through a steep learning curve. And it’s always going to be better priced than the leading ESP. You’re not compromising on capability — Omnisend delivers a nearly identical feature set, just without the bloated price tag.

It’s loved by seasoned professionals but accessible enough for anyone to pick up and run with. And because it’s built specifically for ecommerce, everything from segmentation to automation to analytics feels like it belongs.

Even better, along with getting a tool, agencies also gain a partner. Omnisend Partner Program gives you lead sourcing, co-marketing opportunities, priority support, and 20% lifetime revenue share. So while your clients get a platform they won’t outgrow, you get a strategic edge that pays off.

Stop pitching email like a feature

Email isn’t optional, and it’s not the cherry on top of a conversion strategy. It is a conversion strategy.

After the first purchase, it’s email that keeps customers coming back, drives repeat revenue, builds loyalty, and makes every dollar spent on acquisition actually worth it. Without it, there’s no retention. No momentum. No growth that lasts.

So don’t pitch email like a feature. Pitch it like electricity. Because without it, nothing works.