How email marketing agencies can package consulting alongside automation

Key takeaways

• An effective email marketing agency advisory pricing model packages strategic thinking with execution. It moves you from selling hours to selling business outcomes, which clients value more and pay more for.
• Value-based billing is the key to higher margins. Instead of charging for the time it takes to build an automation sequence, you charge for the revenue it generates for the client.
• Consulting retainers create predictable, high-margin revenue. They separate the cost of strategic oversight from the cost of implementation, protecting your profit on both.
• Profit maximisation comes from clarity, not just higher prices. Clearly defining what is 'advisory' (strategy) versus 'operational' (doing) prevents scope creep and protects your team's time.
• The most profitable agencies use a tiered service model. This gives clients clear upgrade paths from basic automation management to full strategic partnership.

What is an email marketing agency advisory pricing model?

An email marketing agency advisory pricing model is a way of charging clients that combines high-level strategic consulting with the technical work of automation and campaign management. Instead of just billing for the hours spent building workflows or designing templates, you package and price your expertise in growing the client's business through email. This model focuses on the value you create, not just the tasks you complete.

For many email marketing agencies, this is a shift in mindset. You're not just a service provider. You become a strategic partner. The client pays for your brain and your experience in improving their key metrics, like revenue per subscriber or customer lifetime value. The actual 'doing' of the work – the setup, the sends, the reporting – becomes part of delivering on that strategic promise.

This approach is different from traditional project-based or hourly pricing. With an advisory model, you might charge a monthly retainer for ongoing strategic direction and high-level planning. The execution of that plan, like building the actual automations, could be billed separately or included in a higher-tier package. The goal is to make your most valuable asset – your strategic thinking – a clear, billable part of your service.

Why do most email marketing agencies get their pricing wrong?

Most email marketing agencies get pricing wrong by selling their time instead of their impact. They charge for building an automation sequence, not for the sales that sequence will drive. They bill by the hour for strategy calls, instead of packaging that strategic guidance as a core, valuable service. This turns their expertise into a commodity and leaves money on the table.

A common mistake is bundling everything into one flat monthly fee. This often includes unlimited strategy, unlimited support, and all implementation work. It sounds good to the client, but it's dangerous for your agency. Without clear boundaries, strategic calls can run long. Small requests can pile up. Your team's time gets eaten away, and your profit margin (the money left after paying your team) shrinks.

Another error is underpricing strategic work. Because it's harder to quantify than building a workflow, many agencies give away strategy for free to win the 'doing' work. This devalues your most important skill. A proper email marketing agency advisory pricing model corrects this by making strategy a central, paid-for component of your service. Specialist accountants for email marketing agencies often see this pattern and help agencies restructure their pricing for better profitability.

How does value-based billing work for email marketing consulting?

Value-based billing means you set your price based on the value or outcome you deliver to the client, not the time or effort it takes you. For an email marketing agency, this could mean pricing a project based on a percentage of the revenue uplift you generate, or setting a retainer fee linked to achieving specific growth targets for the client's email list or sales.

This approach aligns your success with the client's success. For example, instead of quoting £5,000 to build a new onboarding email series, you might propose: "We'll redesign your onboarding to increase customer retention by 15%. Our fee is £7,500, which is a fraction of the lifetime value you'll gain from those retained customers." You're selling the result, not the task.

Implementing value-based billing starts with understanding the client's business numbers. You need to ask questions about their average order value, customer lifetime value, and current email performance. This allows you to model the potential financial impact of your work. To see how your own agency stacks up when it comes to data-driven positioning and pricing strategies, take the Agency Profit Score — a quick assessment that reveals your financial health across profit visibility, revenue strategy, cash flow, and more. It requires more commercial conversation upfront, but it leads to more profitable, strategic engagements.

What should be included in a consulting retainer for email marketing?

A consulting retainer for email marketing should include dedicated access to your strategic expertise and oversight, but not unlimited 'doing' work. Think of it as retainer for your brain, not your hands. Typical inclusions are regular strategy sessions (e.g., monthly or quarterly), high-level campaign planning, performance review and analysis, and guidance on marketing technology and trends.

The retainer should have clear boundaries. It might include reviewing automation performance and suggesting optimisations, but not necessarily building those optimisations. It could cover creating a quarterly content strategy, but not writing every single email. The implementation of the ideas generated in the consulting retainer is often scoped and billed as separate projects or covered under a different, higher-tier service package.

This separation is crucial for profit maximisation. Consulting retainers are typically high-margin because they leverage your senior team's knowledge without consuming large amounts of execution time. By keeping the 'thinking' and 'doing' distinct, you protect the profitability of both. Your retainer covers the strategic direction, and any additional work needed to execute that direction is quoted and approved separately, ensuring your team's time is properly compensated.

How can packaging consulting with automation maximise profit?

Packaging consulting with automation maximises profit by allowing you to charge separately for your two most valuable offerings: strategic thinking and technical execution. When these are bundled into one cheap price, you erode margin. When they are clearly defined and priced according to their value, you protect and grow your profit on both fronts.

Here's how it works in practice. You offer a client a 'Strategic Partner' retainer for £2,000 per month. This gives them four hours of your strategic lead's time for planning, analysis, and guidance. Separately, you offer 'Automation Management' packages starting at £3,000 per month to handle the build, send, and reporting work. The client can buy both. The consulting retainer has a very high gross margin (maybe 80-90%) because it's mostly expertise. The automation work has a healthy, protected margin because its scope is clear.

This model also creates a natural upgrade path. A client might start with just automation management. As they see results and value your input, you can introduce the consulting retainer. This is far more effective for profit maximisation than simply raising your rates on the doing work. It adds a new, high-margin revenue stream. If you'd like to understand how advisory revenue could transform your agency's profitability, check your Agency Profit Score for personalised insights into your financial position across five key areas.

What are the practical steps to create this pricing model?

First, audit your current services. List everything you do and categorise each item as either 'Advisory' (strategic thinking, planning, analysis) or 'Operational' (building, designing, scheduling, reporting). Be honest. How much high-value advisory work are you currently giving away for free within your operational fees?

Second, design your service tiers. Create at least three packages. A basic tier could be 'Automation Execution' – you build what the client asks for. A middle tier is 'Automation Management' – you build, manage, and provide basic reporting. The top tier is 'Strategic Partnership' – this includes the middle tier's doing work PLUS a monthly consulting retainer for strategy and planning. Each tier should be 40-60% more expensive than the last, reflecting the added value.

Third, develop your value-based pricing arguments. For each tier, write down the specific business outcomes the client can expect. For the top tier, this isn't "we'll send your emails." It's "we'll own the growth of your email channel, aiming to increase its contribution to total revenue by X% over the next year." This shifts the conversation from cost to investment. Finally, communicate this new email marketing agency advisory pricing model to existing clients as an exciting new offering, not just a price increase on their old service.

How do you communicate this new model to clients?

You communicate the new model by focusing on the client's benefits, not your internal restructuring. Frame it as an evolution of your service designed to deliver better results for them. Explain that to truly drive growth for their business, you need to dedicate more focused time to strategy, analysis, and planning – and that this is now a dedicated, formalised part of your offering.

Use clear, simple language. Avoid jargon. Say: "We're introducing a new 'Strategic Partner' tier. This includes everything in our management package, plus a dedicated monthly strategy session where we analyse your results, plan upcoming campaigns, and work on big-picture growth ideas. This ensures our work is always aligned with your business goals and gets the best possible return on your investment."

For existing clients, present it as an upgrade opportunity. Show them the value they're already getting and how the new advisory layer will amplify it. You might say, "Based on the success we've had managing your automations, we believe adding focused strategic time could help us increase your revenue per subscriber even further. Here's what that would look like and the investment required." This consultative approach is more likely to succeed than just sending a new invoice.

What metrics prove the success of an advisory pricing model?

The key metric is your average revenue per client (ARPC). A successful email marketing agency advisory pricing model should significantly increase this number. You're not just getting more clients; you're earning more from each client by delivering more value. Track how this number changes as clients move into higher-tier packages.

Monitor your gross margin by service line. You should see that the margin on your consulting retainers is much higher than on your implementation work. This is a sign of healthy profit maximisation. Also, track client retention and satisfaction. Advisory clients, who feel you are a true partner invested in their growth, typically stay longer and are less likely to leave over price.

Finally, look at your team's utilisation. In a good model, your senior strategists are focused on high-value advisory work (which is highly billable), while your execution team is efficiently delivering on clear scopes of work. This leads to better profitability and a more sustainable business. If you find your top people are constantly bogged down in low-level execution, your model needs adjusting. Getting this balance right is where specialist commercial advice, like that from a sector-focused accountant, becomes invaluable.