I never planned on starting an email marketing company. In fact, back in 2014, I couldn't tell you the difference between an ESP and ESP-N.
My career took a sharp digital turn that year when I met Sam, who would later become my husband and colleague. At the time, I had spent 8 years teaching design. I was working with large brands at a niche publishing company in Karachi. Sam couldn't stop talking about the kind of work he was doing for his clients in the US.
One conversation about digital transformation later, and I found myself abandoning the physical design world for something less tangible but infinitely more scalable.
Within months, I'd joined one of his clients as their self-proclaimed "Customer Success Cheerleader." Yes, that was my actual job title.
Little did I know that this role would be the first step in a journey that would lead to founding Reply Two, an email marketing company focused exclusively on newsletter operations for creators.
When customer support led to email marketing expertise
My first digital role involved operating Intercom and managing customer support tickets. Not glamorous, but it gave me a front-row seat to customer pain points.
My design background proved surprisingly useful. I could improve content, design, and messaging while understanding where people got stuck.
Some key responsibilities included:
- Managing customer communications
- Lead scoring to identify high-value prospects
- Improving message content and design
- Finding patterns in customer questions
Then came the day Sam announced we'd be implementing HubSpot. Everyone else groaned. I got curious.
"I'll figure it out," I told my boss, who looked simultaneously relieved and skeptical.
While juggling support tickets during the day, I spent nights getting HubSpot certified. The platform fascinated me. It was like designing customer journeys, but with real-time feedback and measurable results. I quickly realized that being in support gave me an edge. I knew exactly:
- What confused customers
- What questions they asked and
- What language resonated with them
I didn't know it yet, but I was building the foundation for what would eventually become our email marketing agency's approach.
Deep customer empathy paired with solutions that lead to outcomes.
When numbers get too big to ignore
As our customer base grew, so did my responsibilities. Soon I was managing thousands of personalized communications, nurturing campaigns, and tracking conversion metrics that made my head spin.
Our website hit 90,000 monthly visitors with a 0.7% lead conversion rate. That's 630 new leads every month needing personalized follow-up. The math was simple, but the execution was anything but.
I operated increasingly complex systems that were architected by Sam and built by my work BFF, Darko:
- Automation flows that triggered based on behavior
- Segmentation rules to deliver relevant content
- Personalization logic that made emails feel custom-made
- Nurturing paths aligned to the customer lifecycle stage
I also witnessed firsthand the impact of technical improvements:
- Moving emails from promotions folder to inbox
- Improving deliverability rates
- Navigating iOS privacy changes
Each small technical improvement created massive improvement. A single hour spent optimizing email deliverability could impact thousands of customer interactions.
"You know," Sam mentioned casually one day, "most companies have entire email marketing companies handling what y'all are doing."
That was the first time I considered that my growing expertise might have broader applications beyond our company. But I was too busy operating HubSpot workflows to give it much thought.
Learning to see the jobs behind the tools
Everything changed when I was introduced to the Jobs-to-be-Done framework. These approaches completely changed how I thought about customers. Everything changed, again.
Instead of traditional buyer personas like "Marketing Mary" or "Executive Ed," we started focusing on the specific jobs customers were hiring our product to do.
Our CEO ran workshops that transformed our messaging and dramatically improved campaign outcomes.
For our social media planning app, we discovered users weren't just trying to "save time posting". They wanted more clicks, more leads, and more sales.
This subtle shift in understanding led to completely different email messaging that resonated deeply.
The frameworks gave me a structured way to think about customers' real needs. Something I'd been doing intuitively but could now approach systematically.
Years later, these same frameworks would become the foundation for how we position our own email marketing company.
The pattern emerges across industries
Over the next few years, I applied my growing email expertise across wildly different industries. I worked with a B2B OTT video streaming provider using Salesforce and Pardot.
I helped a mobile app for Instagram creators run their first viral email campaign.
I even worked with education and breast cancer nonprofits. Applying my learning to mission-driven work.
Despite the different tools and audiences, I kept seeing the same pattern, organizations struggling with the operational side of email.
They had great content and clear goals, but the technical implementation, deliverability, and optimization consistently tripped them up.
"It's the same problems everywhere," I told Sam. "Different industries, same operational headaches."
"That's usually a sign there's a business opportunity," he quipped.
I nodded, but still didn't connect the dots to starting an email marketing agency myself. Sometimes the most obvious path is the hardest to see when you're walking it.
The newsletter that changed everything
The pandemic hit, and suddenly everyone wanted a newsletter. Around this time, I was working with a long-time colleague. An OG social media influencer, who needed help managing their 500,000-subscriber community newsletter.
This wasn't corporate email marketing. This was direct creator-to-audience communication at scale. The stakes felt higher. People had chosen to invite this content into their inboxes because they genuinely valued it.
Working alongside this creator, I got to it and:
- Operated systems that maintained high deliverability as the list grew
- Managed advanced segmentation based on engagement patterns
- Tracked and analyzed open rates and click patterns
Meanwhile, Sam had developed what I affectionately called his "ridiculously over-engineered newsletter workflow". It was complex but incredibly effective – consistently achieving 70%+ open rates with a small controlled pilot, while most newsletters celebrated 20%.
I had the incredible opportunity to participate in the live Beehiiv Newsletter XP program delivered by Tyler Denk and Alex Lieberman, along with practically every top newsletter expert on the planet.
The experience solidified what we'd been seeing. The creator economy was booming, but the operational side of newsletters remained a massive challenge for most creators.
Sadly, life events (some difficult ones) got in the way. Nevertheless, the idea had taken root.
What if we focused exclusively on newsletter operations for creators?
What if we built an email newsletter agency that handled everything except content creation?
Why creators need an email marketing agency
While working with some of my regular clients, I conducted an informal market analysis of creator economy needs. The pattern was clear. Content creators were excellent at creating content, that's why they had audiences in the first place. Yet, they consistently struggled with the operational side.
They just wanted to create. After all, that's what they should be doing, right?
But, instead, they were googling "email deliverability problems" at 2 AM or trying to figure out why their open rates had suddenly tanked.
I identified four critical areas where creators needed help:
- Why aren't my emails getting opened? → They want newsletters read
- How do I connect all these tools together? → They want simple tech
- This formatting is driving me crazy! → They want it to look good
- I have no idea if this is working. → They want clear insights
The gap was obvious, but what really convinced me was seeing the frustration on creators' faces. They didn't want to become email deliverability experts, they wanted to create content that resonated with their audiences.
That's when I decided to focus exclusively on newsletter operations and formally founded Reply Two as an email marketing company dedicated to the creator economy.
Want to get back to creating?
We're a couple-run email marketing company that'll help you build your media empire. We handle everything but copy.
The road ahead
Looking back, my journey from customer success to founding an email marketing agency follows a clear path, though it certainly didn't feel that way while living it. Each role built on the previous one, gradually deepening my expertise in email operations while broadening my understanding of different industries' needs.
The core insight that drives Reply Two today emerged from years of seeing the same pattern.
Content creators need to focus on creating great content, not managing the operational complexity of newsletters.
What we're trying to do is simple, I think. Handle everything except content creation so that creators can focus on what they do best.
We bring deep technical and design expertise to newsletter operations, allowing creators to write, record, or create without worrying about deliverability issues or platform integration headaches.
We're still early in our journey as an email marketing company, but the response so far confirms what we suspected.
The creator economy needs specialized operational support. If you're a creator struggling with the technical side of your newsletter, or just want to focus more on content creation, we'd love to chat about how we can help.
After all, that's why we started this email marketing company in the first place.