Hitting $1 million per year means you’ve proven the concept. (NOTE: Click here to hit that $ 1million/year.)
People want your product. You’ve got cash flow. Your lead acquisition is steady. You’re building a base of customers who come back for round 2.
But that’s just the beginning. What worked at $1 million will maintain your progress but won’t take you much further.
How do you scale what’s working without reinventing the wheel or “grinding” endlessly?
Just for some math:
$10 million/year = $833,333.33/month.
Indeed, that’s huge. You have to replicate the $1 million mark 9 more times.
But let’s break it down:
- If your AOV is $50, that’s about 16,667 orders per month
- Or ~3,836 orders per week ($50 * 52.15)
- Or ~548 per day ($50 * 365)
What can you do to go from your current daily sales to (in this case) 548/day?
(Those numbers fall at higher AOVs, so do the math for your business.)
Acquisition remains crucial at this stage, but retention takes the front seat. That’s how you turn a $50 order into 2, 3, 4, and even more $50+ orders.
That’s what we’ll cover in this article. We’ll walk through 10 email & retention strategies/tactics that help DTC brands grow to $10 million/year.
Let’s get into it…
1. Install Your Retention Sequence Suite
Your core flows are live and running. However, you’ll need more than those to start your journey to $10 million.
That’s what your “Retention Sequence Suite” is for. These flows aim to secure repeat orders and recurring revenue from existing customers…
Multiplying lifetime value.
This “Suite” includes:
- Post-Purchase Flow: You may already have this. Build on it by adding more emails to your current branch, adding branches for 2-time and 3+-time buyers, and segmenting (such as by category) to enhance personalization.
- Upsell/Cross-Sell Flow: Sell a larger amount of the same product, such as a bundle/larger size (upsell) or a complementary “next logical” product (cross-sell).
- Replenishment Flow: Encourage customers to reorder a product. The assumption is that they are running low and need to refill (for example, close to running out of a supplement).
- Winback Flow: Regain lapsed customers by showing them what’s new and getting them to place another order.
- Push to Continuity Flow: Pushing repeat one-off customers to upgrade to subscription/recurring delivery. Key for recurring revenue.
- VIP Flow: Treat top customers like royalty with a special discount to create an air of exclusivity and generate more repeat sales.
We’re not trying to be complex, here. The goal is to ensure more personalization and a more comprehensive “existing customer” experience.
2. Flesh Out and Optimize Existing Flows
Flows are mostly “set and forget,” but you can never stop improving them.
Testing new elements regularly helps lift each flow’s stats. Here are some things to
- Subject lines/preview text
- Email copy
- Conditional splits/personalization (categories, purchase history, etc.)
- Dynamic block placement in emails
Whether it’s boosting opens on a high-CTR email, increasing CTR on a high-opener, or lifting product interest with more congruent copy…
Every improvement means more sales (or, at least, more site traffic that boosts SEO).
But don’t stop at testing existing elements. There’s a good chance some of your flows are “basic” with only a few emails.
This is often true for abandonment flows.
Adding more emails to these almost always improves performance. More opportunities to overcome objections and address pain points. That translates to more sales.
3. Build and Maintain a Regular Campaign Calendar
Mailing a few times a week, plus an occasional promo, takes you far. But going from 7 ⇒ 8-figures takes more organization.
Build out a comprehensive calendar every quarter to plan ahead. Fill in holidays, promos, planned product drops, etc.
This will block out the “mandatory stuff,” guiding you in filling out the rest of the calendar.
Vary your email types, too. Content types to send include:
- Founder/product origin stories: Tell the story of how your brand or specific products came to be
- Storymonials: Testimonial-based customer stories with testimonial bits sprinkled throughout
- Belief-shifters: Correct a false belief in your market that orients the reader toward placing an order
- Behind-the-scenes stories: Highlight goings-on at your company where possible. Company events, the team planning a new promo, product development, etc.
- Content teasers: If content plays a big role in your online presence, mail your list a teaser. Encourage readers to click through and read. Cultivates perceived expertise and loyalty while boosting SEO via site traffic.
(Head here to grab more frameworks and ideas.)
As for segmentation, keep things simple. Most mailings will be to your engaged segment. Announcement and last call emails can go to everyone.
Beyond that, you might test promos to a few specific segments:
- Never bought: Occasional, limited-time discounts JUST for subscribers who have been on your list for a while but have never placed an order.
- VIPs: Promos specifically for your VIPs (see #7).
- Lapsed customers: Careful, targeted campaigns to reactivate those who haven’t bought in a LONG time (despite even your Winback Sequence).
4. Regularly Test New Opt-In Offers/Forms
List growth doesn’t stop. And for a while, your basic “minimum viable opt-in” carried you quite well.
But now, it’s time to major a bit more in the minors. That means testing new offers to boost the number of site visitors who subscribe (and buy).
Some pieces to test include:
- New copy
- New design
- New timing
- New form elements (such as social proof)
- New lead magnets (especially if you’ve been running discounts)
- New types of pop-ups, such as exit intent
Example:
I boosted a supplement/wellness brand’s email and SMS opt-ins by a few % each simply by adding testimonials to the pop-up — one on the email submission step, another on the SMS submission step.
Small change. Took a few minutes max. Had to dig for solid testimonials and arrange them properly design-wise.
But now (at the time of writing), the brand will get a TON more opt-ins in the long term, meaning more front-end conversions…
Meaning more happy customers we can sell to repeatedly.
Now, we’re testing a “free shipping with first order” offer in place of their standard 15% off welcome discount.
That said…
Don’t track opt-ins alone. Monitor conversion rate and AOV to see whether the new pop-up (and offer) generates more revenue.
5. Layer in SMS Marketing
SMS is a high-leverage companion to your email marketing.
Click rates are often insane given how personal the medium is. ROI on time is often sky-high given how short SMS messages are.
Use SMS in:
- Abandonment flows (may be legally restricted to 1/flow)
- Post-Purchase Flow
- Replenishment Flow
- Subscription Renewal Flow
- Restock alerts
- Promos (especially for announcements and urgency-driven last call emails)
Remember: Some flows legally restrict you to one SMS. This includes abandonment flows, but may also entail others. Don’t break those rules!
6. Sync Email Segments to Your Ads
Email isn’t an island. Sync your segments with Meta and Google to improve:
- Retargeting accuracy
- Lookalike quality
- Exclusion logic (e.g. don’t show ads to VIPs or recent buyers)
It makes your paid media smarter, and your customers feel more seen.
Examples include:
- “Whale Hunting”: Sync your VIP customers and build a Facebook Lookalike audience from that list. That way, you can hone in on your potential “whales.”
- Cart Abandoners: Retarget abandoners with the products they abandoned… while the flow itself runs.
- Better unengaged targeting: Exclude your engaged segment from paid ads so you aren’t paying to show ads to existing customers.
7. Create a VIP Program
A VIP program lets you reward your top customers, boosting loyalty and creating some buzz.
I recommend defining your VIPs as anyone who meets both of the following:
- Top 10% of customers by LTV/overall revenue
- Placed at least 3 orders with you (to rule out massive one-off orders)
You may need to play with these numbers to find what works best, but you want your VIP club to be hard to reach.
Oh, yeah — these are the criteria to use for your VIP Sequence mentioned earlier, too. That sequence “inducts them” into the program with their VIP discount and explains what they get as a VIP.
Reward your VIPs with things like:
- Early access to new products/promos
- Exclusive gifts or content
- Bonus offers on promos (like extra VIP discounts during BFCM)
- “First dibs” on limited runs
- Surprise thank-you emails or SMS’s
VIP customers are, of course, your most lucrative. The types you wish you could “clone.”
Well, you can kinda “clone” them by studying your existing VIPs, finding what they have in common, and dialing in your acquisition accordingly.
Look at things like:
- Pain points
- Goals
- Purchase history
- Lead source
- How they talk about their problems/your products (such as in reviews)
This info helps you land more of these “whales” with each ad dollar, boosting ROAS and front-end profitability.
8. Launch an Affiliate Program
You’ve heard of “Other People’s Money” — borrowing money to magnify returns.
Well, I’d like to introduce you to Other Peoples’ People… aka affiliate programs. You recruit other people to sell your products to their audiences.
No need to get massive, famous influencers, either.
There’s a good chance some of your customers themselves are business owners or creators in your niche/adjacent niches — and your products would fit their audiences well.
For example, if you sell all-natural health supplements… personal trainers, wellness businesses, health bloggers, and similar types of people may want to be affiliates.
A few benefits to an affiliate program:
- Multiply sales: Say you promote Product A today. Affiliates promote Products B, C, D, and E. Now you “sell” 5 different products without bombarding your list. Heck, you could make sales without even mailing on a particular day.
- Warmer traffic: Good affiliates have earned their audience’s trust. When they promote your product, their subscribers are more likely to buy than cold traffic.
- Future partnerships: Affiliate relationships could evolve as you build stronger personal and professional relationships with certain affiliates.
- No pay-per-click: You only pay when the affiliate makes a sale. Such a structure helps lower your CAC.
Indeed, you pay a commission on every sale. That commission is merely the cost of acquiring a warmer customer. Much like you pay for Facebook ads.
As for how to promote your program…
- Post-Purchase Flow: Especially in the 2 and 3+ purchase branches. These are prime affiliate candidates.
- Review Request Flows: Particularly if they leave a positive review.
- VIP Flow: Good chance some of your most lucrative customers are solid affiliate candidates.
And don’t forget to provide “affiliate swipe assets,” like emails, banner ad copy, and more to help your affiliates get up and running. Give them a simple onboarding process, and help them prep for any big promos.
9. Keep Your List Clean
A bigger list is not a better list… if it’s full of unengaged subscribers, bounce risks, and similar profiles, that is.
Set up an automated Sunset Sequence ASAP. This gives cold subscribers 1-2 last chances to engage/update their email preferences before automatically unsubscribing/suppressing them.
Perform quarterly list health checks, too:
- Review open/click/inactivity segments
- Check deliverability (to find warning signs of dead/risky profiles)
This protects your sender reputation and helps you stay out of spam/trash.
But what if you just segment those people out of your sends? Doesn’t that do the same thing?
Perhaps.
However, you pay for your subscribers. Do you want to pay for subscribers that are unlikely ever to engage, let alone buy?
No.
Yet if those people stay on your list, it’s almost like your list is “stealing” money from you!
Hence the importance of list cleaning. It’s a financial decision as much as a technical one.
10. Reinvest in Infrastructure
At this stage, it’s cool to take a nice paycheck for yourself. But not too nice. You’re building a machine now.
Put revenue back into:
- People: An email strategist, retention manager, or agency.
- Tools: Upgrade your ESP, invest in retention analysis tools, get better analytics software, etc.
- Strategy: Consultants or coaches (specializing in growing and scaling eCom brands)
- Lead acquisition: Dump extra capital into winning campaigns and test new ones.
You don’t have to build a huge operation if you don’t want to scale to the moon.
Something to say about a lean, mean, $10 million machine that pays you a HANDSOME income after expenses and taxes.
I worked with a company run by ONE guy that did multi-8-figures. Although, to my point, he was working his ass off and finally hired a couple of people to take things off his plate.
Still, a small team. Big numbers. Guy’s doing well for himself.
If I had to pick one thing…
I recommend working with an expert (coach or consultant) who can help you navigate bigger decisions at this stage.
They can at least identify opportunities to grow and improve without “scale,” such as uncovering potential sales you haven’t unlocked or finding and fixing inefficiencies.
8-Figures Per Year… You Can Do It
A $1 million business can still be scrappy. Some basic flows, a few ad hoc emails a week, a handful of winning ad creatives, and a contractor or two can get you there.
But a $10 million business looks different. It’s not just “more orders” or “another zero.”
It’s a machine — one that has more complexity, volume, and moving parts. That’s what makes it daunting.
But you don’t get there by working 10x harder. You work a little bit harder by doing the right things intentionally… and implementing systems that’ll work 10x harder for you.
With steady lead flow, small tweaks can lead to big wins:
- Small lifts in flow performance can dramatically raise your base monthly revenue
- Pop-up improvements can capture more new leads, improving ROAS and making ads easier
- Clean deliverability keeps your costs lower, freeing up more capital for reinvestment
- Retention strategy — like VIP segments, retention flows, and a more organized email approach — can boost repeat orders and multiply your revenue
Growth is no longer something to chase, but to compound. These 10 strategies will help you reach $10 million…
And lay the groundwork for what makes the next $10 million possible.
What To Do Next
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