Customer.io Email Marketing: Audit + Ongoing (Shopify Business)

Customer.io Email Marketing: Audit + Ongoing (Shopify Business)

We're a small Shopify business currently spending $870/month on Customer.io. Before I commit to another year — or move off the platform — I need help from someone who actually knows the tool, can tell me whether we're using it well, and can take ownership of our email marketing going forward.

This isn't a one-off audit role. The audit is the starting point. The end goal is finding a long-term email marketing partner who can run our program in a way that drives real ROI.

The honest question I need answered first

Are we on the wrong platform, or are we just not using the one we have? We've never properly used Customer.io's segmentation, automation, AI tooling (Agent, Copilot, Journey AI), or Shopify integration. Before any decision on platform direction, I need a clear-eyed audit from someone who knows what Customer.io is capable of in 2026 and can honestly assess whether it fits our business — including the ROI we're actually getting today vs. what we should expect.

What I'm looking for

Step 1 — Audit and recommendation

• Audit our current Customer.io setup: what's running, what's dormant, what's broken, what we're paying for but not using
• Quantify the ROI of our current spend — revenue per email, attribution, plan/tier fit
• Assess Customer.io's current AI tooling against what we actually need
• Evaluate our Shopify integration: what's possible vs. what we have today
• Deliver an honest recommendation: stay and optimize, stay and renegotiate, or move

Step 2 — Ongoing email marketing partnership

• Once we have a clear direction, you'd take ownership of running our email program
• Building and optimizing flows, segmentation, campaigns, reporting, and the AI tooling that supports it
• This is the real role. The audit is how we start.

Tell me how you'd approach both

I want to understand how you think about the audit — how long it takes, what you need from me, whether you charge for it, and what your audit deliverable looks like. I want to know how you would structure an ongoing monthly engagement — what's included, hours, cadence, what you own vs. what I own, how you report progress, and what your monthly cost looks like.

I'm not looking for someone to confirm a decision I've already made. I want someone who'll tell me honestly if I'm wrong about the platform, the plan, or the way we're using it — and someone I can build a long-term partnership with after.

Before you apply

Take a look at our YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/@empoweredcooks), our Pine & Pepper Shopify store (pineandpepper.co), and our main site (empoweredcooks.com).

Engagement: Starts with an initial audit. If we both feel good about the fit, transitions into an ongoing monthly engagement to run our email marketing program.