# Email Marketing Service — Playbook

**Tier scope:** Email Starter ($497/mo) · Email Growth ($997/mo) · Email Pro ($1,997/mo)
**Time budget per month per tier:**
- Starter: ~4-5 person-hours/mo (1 campaign, 1 segment)
- Growth: ~10-12 person-hours/mo (2 campaigns, A/B subject, 3 segments)
- Pro: ~22-26 person-hours/mo (4 campaigns, multivariate, 3 automation flows, segments unlimited)

**Owner:** Offshore team lead
**US reviewer:** Marketing strategist
**Customer-facing SLA:**
- First campaign within 5 business days of intake complete + payment
- Ongoing: monthly cadence locked in customer's calendar; campaigns sent on agreed dates
- Monthly report delivered by 5th business day of following month

## Required intake fields

Section A (1-12), Section B (13-17 if branded template), and **Section C-4 (questions 18-26 from C-1 plus 39-42)**. Hard blocks:

- Q18 customer list (or migration access — Q39)
- Q22-23 goal + offer for first campaign
- Q40 frequency preference (must match tier)

## Cadence overview

| Tier | Campaigns/mo | A/B | Automation flows | Reporting cadence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | 1 | – | – | Monthly: opens, clicks |
| Growth | 2 | Subject | – | Monthly: + conversion + ROI |
| Pro | 4 | Subject + body + send-time | 3 (welcome, cart, win-back) | Monthly: + cohort + revenue attribution |

## Step-by-step execution

### Month 1 — Onboarding (first 5 business days)

- **Day 1:** Intake review + list import to ESP (SendGrid/Klaviyo/Mailchimp per Q39)
- **Day 2:** Kickoff with US strategist; lock content calendar for the month + monthly cadence going forward
- **Day 3-4:** Build first campaign (see "Per-campaign production" below); set up segments (1 for Starter, 3 for Growth, unlimited for Pro); Pro tier: build the 3 automation flows in parallel (welcome, cart-abandonment, win-back)
- **Day 5:** US review → send first campaign

### Per-campaign production (ongoing, every campaign)

- [ ] Strategy ping: confirm topic/goal/offer with customer (email or 15-min check if Growth/Pro strategy call month)
- [ ] Use ChatGPT-4 or Claude to draft subject + body + preheader
- [ ] Source/generate hero image (Midjourney or stock)
- [ ] Build in ESP; apply segments per tier; merge tags resolved
- [ ] Internal QA (see checklist)
- [ ] Send draft to customer for written approval (non-negotiable)
- [ ] US reviewer approves → schedule send
- [ ] After send: capture 24h + 7-day stats

### Monthly reporting (by 5th business day of next month)

- Starter: 1-page PDF — sends, opens, open rate, clicks, click rate, unsubs, top links
- Growth: + conversion count (where tracking installed), ROI estimate, segment performance, next-month recommendations
- Pro: + cohort comparison (this month vs last 3), revenue attribution (where Shopify/WooCommerce integrated), automation flow performance, A/B winners

### Growth tier — extras
- 30-min monthly strategy call with US strategist (calendly-booked)
- 2 segments active (defined with customer in onboarding)

### Pro tier — extras
- Bi-weekly 60-min strategy call with US strategist
- Full dynamic body content (per-segment versions)
- 3 automation flows live and monitored monthly

## Internal QA checklist (every campaign, BEFORE flagging for US review)

- [ ] Subject line tested in inbox preview (no truncation, no broken emoji)
- [ ] Preheader visible in preview
- [ ] All merge tags resolve in test send (including fallbacks)
- [ ] Unsubscribe link works
- [ ] Mobile + desktop render verified
- [ ] mail-tester.com score ≥ 9/10
- [ ] CTA URLs have UTM params
- [ ] CAN-SPAM physical address in footer
- [ ] Customer approved in writing
- [ ] No AI tool names anywhere in customer-facing copy

## AI tools used (INTERNAL — never mention to customer)

- ChatGPT-4 or Claude — subject/body/preheader drafts, A/B variants
- Midjourney or DALL-E — hero imagery
- mail-tester.com — deliverability
- ESP-native preview + Litmus/Email on Acid — render
- Customer's ESP analytics + Google Analytics — reporting data

## Common gotchas

- **List hygiene degrades over time** — Growth/Pro: monthly re-engagement or sunset rule; Starter: quarterly cleanup
- **Customer wants to send more than tier allows** — note overage politely; pitch upgrade
- **Customer slow to approve drafts** — chase 24h before send window; if no approval, US strategist calls
- **Customer brand voice drifts** — Pro tier should have a brand voice mini-guide on file (often the bundle bonus); Starter/Growth: keep a 1-pager in their Drive folder
- **Send-time deliverability dips** — monitor sender reputation monthly in SendGrid/ESP; if score drops, pause and investigate
- **5-day onboarding SLA at risk** — escalate immediately

## Deliverable spec (per spec §5.1)

### Starter — $497/mo
- 1 campaign/mo to up to 3,000 contacts
- 1 list (no segmentation)
- AI personalization: subject + greeting
- Monthly open/click report
- Email support

### Growth — $997/mo
- 2 campaigns/mo to up to 5,000 contacts
- 3 segments
- AI personalization: subject + body intro + offer
- Subject-line A/B testing
- Monthly report + conversion + ROI
- 30-min monthly strategy call

### Pro — $1,997/mo
- 4 campaigns/mo to up to 25,000 contacts
- Unlimited segments
- Full dynamic body content
- Subject + body + send-time A/B
- 3 automation flows (welcome, cart, win-back)
- Monthly report + cohort + revenue attribution
- 60-min bi-weekly strategy call

Cross-checked against spec §5.1: matches.