Health and Wellness Products
My Derma Dream: $6.4M+ Through Email While Building a Premium Brand
How we scaled from $62K to $1.5M monthly while maintaining brand equity
The Numbers That Matter
Starting Point: $62K monthly
Peak Performance: $1.5M in a single month
List Growth: 108K → 255K subscribers
Attribution: 10% → 31% of total revenue
The Real Story: Balancing Direct Response with Brand
Everyone says you can't do both. We proved them wrong:
Peaked at $1.5M monthly revenue
Maintained premium brand positioning
Actually improved customer retention
Built sustainable, predictable revenue
How We Made It Work
1. The 50/50 Approach
We mixed two types of emails:
Designed emails: Built brand equity
Plain text emails: Drove immediate sales Result: Higher engagement AND better revenue
2. Campaign Strategy That Converts
Revenue per Recipient: $0.02 → $0.29
Click Rates: 0.23% → 2.7%
Best Single Campaign: $77K (Black Friday)
3. Flow Performance That Scales
Major Revenue Drivers:
Abandoned Cart: $1.3M total
Welcome Series: $1M total
Post-Purchase Flows: Consistent $50K+ monthly
The Month-by-Month Growth
Foundation (Months 1-3):
Fixed deliverability issues
Implemented new flow architecture
Started testing campaign angles
Scaling Phase (Months 4-9):
Added SMS channel ($12K first month)
Launched seasonal campaigns
Optimization Phase (Months 10-15):
Advanced A/B testing program
What We Tested (And Won With)
1. Email Design Tests
Plain text vs. branded templates
Image placement and frequency
CTA variations and positioning
The Secret Sauce: Our Hybrid Approach
Direct Response Elements:
Campaign-specific landing pages
Brand Building Elements:
Premium design when needed
Breaking "Best Practices" (Again)
We ignored conventional wisdom:
"Premium brands can't sell hard" → We did both
"Educational content doesn't sell" → Ours did
"Daily emails will kill engagement" → Nope
"You need fancy templates" → Plain text often won
Key Learnings
Direct Response & Brand Building:
Can actually reinforce each other
Testing Is Everything:
Subject lines matter more than design
Plain text can outperform fancy templates
Always be testing new angles
Technical Excellence:
Deliverability is foundation
Segmentation drives results
What This Means For Premium Brands
You don't have to choose between:
Brand building vs. immediate sales
Premium positioning vs. direct response
Educational content vs. revenue generation
The key is knowing when to use each approach.
How to Know If You're Leaving Money on the Table
Ask yourself:
Are you afraid to mail daily?
Is your email design killing conversions?
Are you testing enough offers?
Do you have campaign-specific landing pages?