The situation
404Found is a young digital agency in New Zealand. When we started, they had no email program. No platform set up, no list, no automations, no idea who was going to write the campaigns. They’d been winning work through referrals and direct outreach, but knew that to scale they needed a channel they owned. Email was the obvious answer. They had no internal capability to build it.
What we did
We took ownership of the channel end to end. Platform selection, account setup, domain authentication, list architecture, segmentation logic, template system, automation flows, and ongoing campaign production. We work as their email function, embedded enough to know the business but separate enough to keep perspective.
The first ninety days were foundational: getting the platform configured properly, authenticating sending domains, building a small high-quality list rather than chasing volume, and putting a basic campaign cadence in place. After that we layered in nurture flows, sales-aligned sequences, and a quarterly campaign program tied to their content calendar.
What changed
In nine months the list grew from zero to a meaningful subscriber base, with open rates settling in the low forties and a steady contribution to pipeline. More importantly, email is now a channel the agency can rely on. They don’t think about it. We do.
Why it worked
Two reasons. First, we set the foundations properly before sending anything: authentication, list hygiene, template design, segmentation. None of that is exciting work, and most agencies skip it. Second, we kept the ownership model clean: they brief, we run. No back and forth on every line of copy. That’s the only way a small business actually gets value from an embedded channel like this.