Transforming Dr. Charlie’s Email Marketing with ActiveCampaign
Prepared by: Aveline Elfar & Co.
August 2025
The Client
Dr. Charlie is a holistic physician based in Franklin, TN, specializing in chiropractic, frequency, and functional medicine. With a unique, integrative approach, he helps both in-person and virtual patients uncover and address the root causes of their health concerns. His website, blog, and "In The Trenches" membership extend his mission, sharing practical resources and insights that have empowered thousands to achieve their healthiest selves.
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Despite building a substantial MailChimp email list of nearly 15,000 contacts, Dr. Charlie’s practice wasn’t leveraging this audience beyond its original purpose as a patient waitlist. The list sat largely dormant, missing opportunities to promote a growing range of online memberships, podcasts, supplements, and affiliate offers.
Recognizing this untapped potential, AE&Co partnered with Dr. Charlie to transform his email marketing from a passive asset into a dynamic growth engine—setting the stage for scalable engagement and revenue.
Quick Stat: an engaged email list has an average ROI of $36-$42 for every $1 spent on email marketing as of 2025, according to sources like Martal Group and Litmus.
Challenges
As the business evolved, the limitations of the existing setup became more pronounced. The email list, while large, wasn’t being effectively leveraged to support business growth, audience engagement, or new offers. Specific hurdles included:
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Underutilized, stagnant list: Nearly 15,000 contacts sat idle—growth had stalled, and the list was not being actively nurtured or expanded.
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Single-purpose communication: The list’s only function was managing patient waitlists, missing out on promoting Dr. Charlie’s membership, podcast content, supplements, affiliate partnerships, and recommended practitioners.
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Rigid automation & segmentation: MailChimp’s basic, inflexible automation made it difficult to create personalized journeys or timely campaigns for different segments.
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Missed revenue: Without regular engagement or strategic promotion, significant revenue streams from digital products and partnerships were being overlooked.
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Inefficient scaling: Manual processes and lack of automation made campaign management time-consuming and frustrating—limiting the ability to grow or diversify offerings.
Solutions Implemented
To unlock the full potential of Dr. Charlie’s audience, we executed a comprehensive email marketing transformation. Our approach focused on future-proofing the strategy and building a system that could scale with the business.
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Platform assessment: Evaluated leading platforms and selected ActiveCampaign for its robust automation, advanced segmentation, and scalability.
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Seamless migration: Moved over 14,000 contacts to ActiveCampaign, ensuring data integrity throughout the process.
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List health: Cleaned out inactive subscribers to boost engagement rates and maintain a strong sender reputation.
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Targeted segmentation: Organized contacts into strategic segments based on interests and engagement.
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Automated engagement: Built out automated newsletters, nurture sequences, and promotional campaigns to consistently engage and educate the audience, both current and potential customers.
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Growth focus: Established a content cadence and regular campaign schedule to promote all aspects of Dr. Charlie’s brand—from memberships to one-time digital offers and affiliate partnerships.
Results & Outcomes
The transformation delivered immediate and compounding results, turning a dormant asset into a powerful marketing engine:
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Efficient, personalized campaigns: Automation and segmentation enabled Dr. Charlie to deliver the right message to the right people.
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Explosive list growth: The email list doubled from 14,800 to over 25,000 active contacts in just one year after implementing a newsletter subscription and automated follow-up engagement sequence.
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Higher engagement: Different types of weekly campaigns and targeted content drove open rates over 50% and click rates around 2%.
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Improved deliverability: Proactive list cleaning improved sender reputation and ensured emails landed in inboxes.
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Future-ready scalability: Dr. Charlie’s email marketing now supports ongoing business growth and diversification—no longer limited by outdated tools or missed opportunities.
Client Testimonial
“I've had countless wins since working with you - Got my whole business organized! I value your attention to detail and how easy you make everything for me. I feel safe, taken care of and more at ease that things are running smoothly without me needing to do anything. Everything has been amazing. The systems that you set in place have been a game changer and you have really helped my business in all aspects. Forever grateful for you and the team!"
- Dr. Charles Fagenholz
Ready to transform your business?
If you are ready to transform your business and achieve similar success, apply to work with AE&Co today to discover how we can help you implement tailored solutions that drive growth and efficiency and help you to scale quickly.
