Most ways of paying for email marketing share one quiet assumption: that you'll be sending constantly. A monthly software subscription charges you every month. An agency retainer charges you every month. If your sending is steady and high-volume, that can make sense.
But plenty of businesses don't work that way. You send when there's something worth saying, a launch, a season, an offer, an update. For you, paying every single month for capacity you don't always use is just waste dressed up as a plan.
The two models, plainly
Monthly retainer / subscription. You pay a fixed fee every month. You get a set amount of work or software access, used or not. Predictable for the provider; often expensive for you if your sending is occasional.
Pay per campaign. You pay when a campaign actually goes out. No monthly fee, no contract, no subscription sitting on your card. Your cost tracks your activity.
When pay-per-campaign wins
- You send occasionally or seasonally. A few campaigns a quarter shouldn't cost you twelve monthly payments a year.
- You're testing the waters. You want to see email work before committing to an ongoing arrangement.
- You hate "use it or lose it" bills. You'd rather pay for outcomes than for access.
Pay per campaign means the incentive is simple: we only get paid when we send something worth sending.
When a monthly arrangement makes sense
- You send frequently, weekly newsletters, regular promotions, an always-on calendar.
- You want it fully off your plate with continuous list care and priority turnaround.
- You value a fixed, predictable line item over usage-based billing.
That's exactly why we offer both: pay per campaign as the default, and an optional managed monthly plan for businesses that send often and never want to think about it.
How to decide in one question
Ask yourself: over the last year, how many months did I actually send something?
If the honest answer is "most of them," a managed monthly plan will likely be simpler and better value. If it's "a handful," pay-per-campaign keeps your money tied to your activity, and keeps you out of contracts you'll resent.
Either way, the work is the same on our end: get your email into the inbox and turn your list into revenue. The only thing that changes is how you pay for it. If you want help figuring out which fits, that's a quick conversation away.