Why Benchmarks Don’t Pay Payroll: 2026 And Beyond Email Conversion Strategy for Founders With 10k+ Email Lists
Intro: Why Benchmarks Don’t Pay Payroll Most founders think their email list is a trophy. 13,842 subscribers. Benchmarks hit. CTRs “fine.” But when Stripe shows a nervous pulse instead of a steady heartbeat, you realize the trophy is hollow. This isn’t about open rates. It isn’t about pretty templates. It’s about whether your list is a profit lever —or a sugar pill that embarrasses you in the boardroom. In this post, you’ll learn: Why Email conversion strategy beats vanity metrics How A/B testing in email marketing transforms polite clicks into unapologetic conversions What it looks like when you finally treat your list like the revenue engine it was meant to be Once Upon a Time: The Founder’s Email List Once upon a time there was a founder whose list sat at 13,842 subscribers and felt heavier every month. Every day, she watched Stripe show a thin, nervous pulse of sales that barely covered her ad spend, let alone the payroll of the people who trusted her to get this right. ...