The Truth About Retention Most Agencies Won't Tell You

Hey, Michael from AdSumo Digital here.

Quick note before we dive in - I know it's been a few weeks since you heard from me. We've been heads-down onboarding new clients and expanding the team. Growing faster than ever, which means I've been buried in client work and strategy sessions.

But I had to share what happened last week because it perfectly illustrates something most agencies won't tell you...

Last week, I turned down $7,000 in potential monthly revenue.

Two separate founders. Both wanting to work with us. Both willing to pay invoices immediately.

And I said no to both.

Key Takeaways

• Retention doesn't create customers - it maximizes existing ones. Without consistent traffic, even perfect email flows won't move the needle.

• High email attribution can be misleading. 38% email revenue sounds great, but if 30% is just cart recovery and welcome flow sales and only 8% is from campaigns, you have a issues within your account

• The minimum viable threshold: You need at least 500+ new email subscribers monthly before retention becomes worth the investment. (unless your pop-up is underperforming)

• Traffic first, retention second. No amount of email genius makes up for the absence of consistent customer acquisition.
  

Top Links of The Week

• How To Design High-Converting Emails With Figma For Klaviyo

• The NEW WAY To Scale an Ecom Brand to 7-Figures in 2025

• How to Grow Your Email List for Klaviyo Email Marketing (2025 Pop-Up Form Guide)

Why Retention Can't Replace Acquisition

Here's what happened on those two calls and why it matters for your brand.

Call #1: Luxury Home Goods Brand The founder had been grinding for three years. Klaviyo showed 38% email attribution. Sounds great, right?

But when I dug deeper: 8% came from campaigns. The other 92% was just flows.

Translation: Their email wasn't driving growth. It was just catching the scraps from whatever little traffic they had.

Call #2: Food & Beverage Brand Similar story. Passionate founder. Great product. Tired of the hustle.

He wanted email to replace his in-person events so he could "scale without spending on ads."

Both founders had the same fantasy: Email would be the magic lever that transformed their businesses.

The Hard Truth About Retention

Here's what no agency will tell you:

Retention doesn't create customers. It maximizes the ones you already have.

If you're not consistently acquiring new customers (or potential customers) through paid ads, organic content, or partnerships, email becomes expensive math homework.

Even if we improved that first brand's email by 50% - which would be massive - we're talking about an extra $2K/month. Nowhere near enough to justify an agnecy retainer.

(We aim to get all of our clients an average ROI of 10x our service fee)

Why Founders Get This Wrong

I get it. Acquisition is expensive and exhausting.

• Paid ads feel like gambling.

• Organic takes forever.

• Agencies keep burning your budget.

Email feels safer. You own the list. No algorithm changes. No ad costs.

But here's the thing: Without traffic, email is just talking to the same 1,000-10,000 people forever.

At a certain point, you've maximized all the high-buying-intent leads in your email list, and you're left with people that are just window shopping. You might get some sales that trickle in but it's nothing worthwhile.

The Real Playbook

Before you even think about hiring a retention agency, you need:

1. Consistent traffic - Whether paid, organic, or partnerships. You need new eyeballs weekly.

Once you have this, then retention becomes a force multiplier.

We've helped brands go from 25% to 45% email attribution. But only because they had traffic to work with.

How I Can Help

If your brand is already acquiring customers consistently and email feels like an underused asset - let's talk.

AdSumo Digital Retention Systems: We build done-for-you customer lifecycle journeys that add $50K–$250K in monthly revenue for 7- and 8-figure brands. Book a 15-minute call here if you're doing $100K+ monthly.

Free Klaviyo Audit: I'll personally review your account and send you a custom strategy within 48 hours. Get your audit here.

The DTC Letters: Weekly insights on what's actually working in retention marketing, based on real client campaigns. Subscribe here.

If you're not hitting those traffic numbers yet? Focus on acquisition first. Your future self will thank you. And if you're looking for someone to help you with acquisition, I have a fantastic partner who has got an amazing track record for some of the biggest brands in the space. Let me know if you need an intro.

Tell me what you think

What's your biggest challenge with retention vs. acquisition? Hit reply and let me know - I read every response.

Talk soon,
Michael

P.S. - Want to see exactly what "retention done right" looks like? I'll be sharing real client case studies in an upcoming newsletter. Including a wellness brand that went from 0% to 53% email attribution in 90 days, adding $55k in monthly revenue from their email list that they hadn’t emails in 11 months!