Email Marketing Best Practices for Agencies with Chase Dimond
Key Takeaways
- E-commerce brands prefer working with fewer agencies offering complementary services rather than managing 12 specialized vendors
- Acquiring agencies in the 3-15 person range doing $20k-$80k monthly EBITDA is the sweet spot for consolidation
- A referral program paying 10% of retainer within 24-72 hours creates a strong incentive loop for partner referrals
- Content creation - courses, social media, thought leadership - is the primary pipeline driver for agency growth
- Building an email marketing course as an internal resource turned into a lead generation engine ranking #1 on Google
- Approximately 50% of course buyers are agencies and freelancers, not just brands - creating unexpected partnership opportunities
Gray MacKenzie interviews Chase Dimond, partner at Structured and advisor for Triple Whale, about building a high-growth e-commerce marketing agency. Structured serves approximately 150 e-commerce brands with a team of 70-75 full-time employees, offering email, SMS, paid social, and content services. In this episode, Chase breaks down the email marketing strategies that drive results for e-commerce brands and the agency growth playbook that scaled Structured into a market leader.
From Crohn’s Disease Fundraising to Email Marketing Expert
Chase’s path into email marketing started at age 13 when he was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. He used email to raise awareness and support fundraising efforts - an early education in the power of direct communication at scale. In college, he learned email automation from a software engineer colleague, then built an email platform connecting college students. That experience cemented his focus on email as a channel.
Those early experiences taught Chase something that many marketers miss: email works because it is personal, direct, and permission-based. Unlike social media algorithms that control who sees your content, email lands in someone’s inbox because they chose to receive it. That fundamental dynamic makes email one of the highest-ROI channels available to e-commerce brands.
Scaling Structured Through Acquisition
One of the most interesting strategic decisions Chase discusses is Structured’s growth-through-acquisition model. Rather than building every service line from scratch, the agency acquires smaller shops that have strong capabilities in complementary areas. At the time of recording, Structured had recently acquired a Snapchat-focused agency and was actively seeking additional acquisition targets.
The sweet spot for acquisitions is agencies with 3-15 employees generating $20k-$80k in monthly EBITDA. These agencies are large enough to have real clients and proven capabilities but small enough that the founders are often looking for a path to liquidity or a larger platform to grow within.
This consolidation strategy aligns with a broader market trend: e-commerce brands prefer working with fewer agencies that offer complementary services rather than managing a dozen specialized vendors. By combining email, SMS, paid social, and content under one roof, Structured becomes the single partner that handles the full marketing stack. That positioning creates stickier client relationships and higher lifetime value.
The Course as a Lead Generation Engine
Chase launched an e-commerce email marketing course in October 2020, initially intending it as an internal training resource. The course now ranks number one on Google for “ecommerce email marketing course” and has become a significant lead generation funnel for the agency.
What surprised Chase most was the buyer breakdown. Roughly 50% of course purchasers are agencies and freelancers, not brands. This created an unexpected network effect - agencies that learn Chase’s frameworks often refer clients to Structured for implementation, and some become acquisition targets or partnership opportunities.
The lesson for agency owners is that educational content does double duty. It establishes authority in your niche while creating a pipeline of potential clients, partners, and even acquisition targets who already trust your expertise.
Pipeline and Business Development
Beyond the course, Structured’s business development relies on three primary channels. Content creation is the top driver - Chase’s active presence on Twitter and other platforms generates consistent inbound interest. Partner and client referrals are the second channel, supported by a referral program that pays 10% of the monthly retainer to referring partners within 24-72 hours. The fast payout cycle keeps the referral channel active and incentivized.
Speaking engagements round out the pipeline. Chase’s visibility in the e-commerce space leads to conference invitations, podcast appearances, and webinar opportunities that put the Structured brand in front of qualified prospects.
The combination of these three channels - content, referrals, and speaking - creates a business development engine that does not depend on cold outreach or paid advertising. Each channel reinforces the others, with content driving speaking invitations and speaking driving referrals.
Tools and Operations
On the operations side, Chase mentions several tools that keep Structured running. Figma handles design and email template collaboration. Klaviyo powers email marketing execution. Notion serves as the internal operations and project management hub. The agency previously used ClickUp and has explored other project management platforms as the team has scaled.
Resources Mentioned
- Chase Dimond on Twitter - E-commerce email marketing insights
- Chase Dimond - Personal site
- E-Commerce Email Marketing Course - Chase’s top-ranked course
- Structured - E-commerce marketing agency
- Triple Whale - E-commerce analytics platform
- The Ecommerce Opportunity Podcast - Chase’s podcast