Case Study: How John Mac Reduced Email Marketing Costs By 35% With Self-Hosted Emails (vs SaaS)

If you run an agency and rely heavily on email marketing, then you should see how John Mac managed to reduce his email marketing costs with a simple business decision to move from a SaaS email tool to a self-hosted WordPress email plugin.

A Little About John Mac
John has been building websites and online businesses for 15 years. He knows Shopify inside out. He builds WordPress sites for clients and teaches others how to do the same.

So you can understand that he is not a beginner with email marketing.

A couple of years back, John took a bold step. He was fed up with one of the popular email platforms back then and was looking for options to switch. Definitely, it wasn’t a random decision.

Eventually, he switched to Mail Mint and achieved the following:

• Cut his yearly email marketing bills by more than 35%…technically just by switching platforms.
• Removed all sending limits by running the email on his own server
• Stopped worrying about the subscriber limit. Now he could collect unlimited leads without seeing a larger bill.
• Built a system that lives inside WordPress, on infrastructure he fully owns

Let’s see how it all came to be.

He Was Paying More And More… For Very Little Return

John initially selected email marketing tools the same way most people do; he picked a well-known platform, paid the monthly bill, and got on with it.

But over time, he realised that as his email list was growing, his bills were getting larger… even if he wasn’t sending more emails or campaigns than usual.

That is how SaaS email pricing works. The more contacts you collect, the more you pay. Even if you are using the exact same features you always were. If you are running a WooCommerce store or any online business and paying ConvertKit or Klaviyo every month, you are probably on the same boat.

Moreover, the tools John was with didn’t fully serve what he was looking for. For him, every task took more steps than it should.

Here were his exact words:

“It’s hard to find good email marketing apps and services that make sense to work with, and is not overpriced.” — John Mac, CEO, JohnMac.pro

He Did Not Waste Time Complaining. He Switched Multiple Times!

While his first tool wasn’t ideal for him, he isn’t someone to stay put for no return. So he actually tried a few more email platforms.

And it did take him some unwanted efforts in migrating subscribers, setting up automation workflows, and connecting them to his WordPress sites.

But it was never a perfect experience or ROI. And with so much hassle taken, he realized that he was actually moving his data to external platforms, even though it would have made sense to keep them on his own database.

And on every tool, it was the same case. More contacts equals higher bills. Doesn’t even matter if he sent out emails or not.

So here’s a question for you: how many times have you looked at your monthly email bill and thought, “I am not even using half of what I am paying for”?

After a few years of moving around, John decided to look for a different way to manage his leads and email marketing.

His Whole Business Ran On WordPress… Why Take Email Marketing Elsewhere?

John manages multiple WordPress websites. And he collects customers and leads with his own campaigns.

But just for email marketing, he was using an external tool where he had to send out all his customer data and subscribers’ list, and rely on the platform to run email campaigns or automations. It was simply an extra layer that added costs, bandwidth, and effort.

So, after struggling with SaaS email platforms, he started to look for a more convenient setup and eventually decided, “Why not use a self-hosted email solution?”

And eventually, he found Mail Mint, which just launched a couple of months ago.

At the start, he was a bit skeptical about trying this on the live site. So he tested it on a staging site and communicated with the support team about any confusion or issues he faced. And after carefully migrating leads and testing out campaigns, he was able to get out of the SaaS bubble!

Now, he has a self-hosted email marketing setup where he owns all data and no longer needs to worry about the growing number of contacts.

He doesn’t have to pay more for more leads or emails. Mail Mint only offers affordable yearly plans, which actually cost much less than most SaaS tools.

Once it was all set up, this is what he had to say:

“Finally a WordPress plugin that let me self-host the whole email marketing system on my own platform.” — John Mac, CEO, JohnMac.pro

The Numbers – What He Was Paying vs. What He Pays Now

By now, you are pretty curious about how much the difference in cost was, right?

Well, it wasn’t about the cost, really (at least not to John; he was more worried about how it all made things complicated and unfair when growing the business).

But still, here’s the breakdown.

One of the tools John used was ConvertKit, which normally costs about $33/month. But back then, it used to cost $29 for 1000 subscribers. That is about $348 a year!

But of course, John had a lot more contacts.

Let’s assume he had 5000 contacts. For this, the price was $792 a year!

After switching to Mail Mint, his total cost looks like this:

Mail Mint plugin: $12.49/month (billed annually),
SMTP sending cost: ~$8/month

Total: $20.49/month — which is $245.88 a year

Technically, he saved over $500 a year. That is more than 35% back in his pocket. Just by switching platforms.
(Even if he had only 1000 leads, you would still save over $100.)

But if you think about it. Then, for every 2-3k leads John would get, his price would move up the tier, adding 30% every time on average to the overall bill.

Now, it stays the same. Only the SMTP costs may vary, but that is a small amount.

Ask yourself: How much have you paid in the last 12 months just because your list got bigger?

He Built Something That Actually Works for Him

Here is what John set up.

He has two websites. Both send subscribers into one Mail Mint system. When someone new signs up, they get a follow-up email sequence right away. No manual work. It just runs.

He also uses other tools in his business outside WordPress, and he easily connected data between them and Mail Mint using webhooks.

“Since Mailmint has a webhook feature, it was easy to set this up and create cool automations. Then, I can further automate in the built-in Mailmint automation tool.” — John Mac, CEO, JohnMac.pro

He set up his own sending domain with SPF and DKIM before switching. And then he easily tuned his sending volume within Mail Mint’s settings. No costs to worry about here.

So overall, he had everything in control with long-term growth potential without worrying about unfair costs.

Final Result: His Bill Dropped, Data Remained Native, And He Stopped Worrying.

Three things changed after John switched.

• His yearly email cost dropped by more than 35%.
• He no longer paid a platform based on how many subscribers he had.
• Everything was now part of his own website and database, not an external platform.
  

“I’m happy to have reduced a big yearly cost by self-hosting my email marketing setup. When it comes to email sending, I have no limitations.” — John Mac, CEO, JohnMac.pro

Want To See How Mail Mint Works?

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