If you search for the best email copywriters, you'll find the writers whose daily emails every other copywriter reads. Ben Settle, Daniel Throssell, Ian Stanley. They deserve the reputation. Almost none of them will write your sequence, because the best email copywriters discovered years ago that a list of their own pays better than clients.
So this list does two jobs. It ranks email copywriters by tracked results, with the claims sourced, and it tells you who you can actually hire in 2026. I'm on it, at number one, and I'll be straight about why: the ClickBank health email funnel I wrote for Ben Palmer runs at 300 percent ROAS, a SaaS sequence lifted trial-to-paid conversion by 22 percent, and I still take a small number of new email engagements each quarter.
Key Takeaways
- Seven email copywriters ranked by tracked results, with an availability line on each
- Why the most famous names in email now sell newsletters and courses rather than sequences for clients
- The difference between ecommerce flow writers and direct-response sequence writers, and which one your project needs
- What senior email copywriters charge in 2026, by sequence and by retainer
- The five questions that show whether a writer has built a sequence that sold
Definition
Email Copywriter
A direct-response copywriter who writes emails engineered to produce a measurable action: a click, a reply, a purchase. The work ranges from launch and VSL follow-up sequences that sell an offer the reader has not bought yet, to ecommerce flows such as welcome, abandoned cart and post-purchase that turn a first order into a repeat customer. Email copywriters are judged by revenue per subscriber and ROAS on the sequence, not by open rate.
How this list was built
Three filters. Results on email specifically, sourced to the writer's own published claims or a client's. Sequences that sold on real lists, not single emails that went viral among other copywriters. And availability as of November 2026, checked against what each writer is publicly doing now.
1. Rob Palmer
Known for: Email sequences written as part of complete funnels, so the emails carry the same angle as the VSL or the page they feed. I've written launch sequences, VSL follow-up, affiliate promotions, ecommerce flows and SaaS trial sequences across forty years of direct response, with $523 million in tracked results.
Key results: 300 percent ROAS on the email-driven ClickBank health funnel I wrote for Ben Palmer, a ClickBank Platinum vendor, with every email built on the same angle as the front end. A 22 percent trial-to-paid lift on the Chatterkick SaaS email sequence. Email sequences supporting more than $30 million in funnel revenue, including the back end of the $40 million Gluco 6 supplement offer. Ben's verdict: "Rob is a killer copywriter. We're getting a 300% return on ad spend."
Specialisation: Direct-response sequences for health, supplement, financial, biz-op and info-product offers; ecommerce flows for DTC brands; SaaS onboarding and trial conversion. I write the sequence as one arc, hook to close, and I write it in the sender's voice rather than mine.
What sets him apart: The emails are written by the same person who wrote the offer, so the sequence never contradicts the page. Behind the writing is an AI engine built on Claude Code with my own copywriting skills and a 1,239-file library that includes the sequence structures of every writer on this list, which lets me research a list and draft a full arc in days. The subject lines, the voice and the sequence decisions are made by hand.
Current focus: Client email sequences and full funnels, plus creative strategy for DTC brands.
Availability: ✅ Taking a small number of new email engagements each quarter. Book a strategy call.
2. Ben Settle
Known for: Email Players, the paid print newsletter that has taught more working copywriters to write daily emails than any course, and a personal daily email that has run for well over a decade. Ben's approach, one email a day, personality first, selling in every one, built the modern daily-email school. Email Players reaches its fifteenth year in 2026.
Key results: A newsletter business built almost entirely on his own emails, and a method that a large share of today's email copywriters learned from.
Specialisation: Daily emails, infotainment, personality-driven selling to a list the writer owns.
Current focus: Email Players, his books and his own products.
Availability: ❌ Describes himself as a client-less copywriter. He does not take client work.
3. Chase Dimond
Known for: Ecommerce email at scale. Chase co-founded Structured, an email marketing agency that works with more than 100 ecommerce brands, and reports more than $200 million in email revenue generated for clients since 2017. His ecommerce email course has more than 2,000 students.
Key results: $200 million-plus in client email revenue, and the agency most DTC brands name first when they want email done for them.
Specialisation: Email and SMS flows for Shopify and DTC brands: welcome, abandoned cart, post-purchase, win-back, campaign calendars.
Current focus: Structured, his course and his newsletter.
Availability: ✅ Through Structured, which is a team. You're hiring the agency's process rather than Chase on your flows, so ask who writes.
4. Daniel Throssell
Known for: The daily email that other copywriters dissect. Daniel, an Australian copywriter, built his reputation on wildly entertaining, story-driven emails and on the Persuasive Page, his training business. A prominent client called him the best marketer in Australia, and his launch emails for his own products are studied as the modern reference for curiosity-led sequences.
Key results: A training business built on his own list, and a run of launches that are quoted and deconstructed across the industry.
Specialisation: Story-driven daily emails, launch sequences, curiosity and cliffhanger structures.
Current focus: The Persuasive Page, his courses and his daily email. Client work, where he takes it, comes by referral.
Availability: ⚠️ Selective. Mostly products; occasional client work by referral.
5. Ian Stanley
Known for: Reporting more than $200 million in products sold through his emails and funnels, and for the 80/20 approach to email that strips the job down to the few emails and the few techniques that produce most of the revenue. Ian is also a stand-up comedian, which shows in the writing. His 80/20 Email MBA training bundle was released in 2026.
Key results: $200 million-plus in sales attributed to his copy and funnels, and training that a large number of working email writers use.
Specialisation: High-converting promotional email, launch and affiliate sequences, humour in direct response.
Current focus: Almost Passive Income, his training, and his own businesses. He has said publicly that he writes less copy now.
Availability: ❌ Focused on his own businesses and training. Not taking regular client work.
6. André Chaperon
Known for: Autoresponder Madness, the course that introduced story-driven, cliffhanger email sequences to the industry and that Frank Kern, Jeff Walker and some 10,000 other students have taken. The soap-opera sequence that most launch emails now follow traces back to André's work. He has been called the best email marketer in the industry by people who would know.
Key results: A method adopted across the industry, and a training business run with his partner Shawn Twing under Tiny Little Businesses.
Specialisation: Story-based autoresponder sequences, open loops across emails, selling to small lists.
Current focus: Tiny Little Businesses and his own writing.
Availability: ❌ Teaching and his own projects. Not a hire-for-your-sequence option.
7. Justin Goff
Known for: The email that sells a VSL. Justin built a supplement company to more than $20 million on his own copy, co-founded Copy Accelerator with Stefan Georgi, and wrote the 13 email hook types that many working sequence writers still use as a checklist. His Marketing Letter is a paid newsletter of campaign breakdowns.
Key results: A $20 million-plus supplement brand and a long record of email promotions in health and info products.
Notable peer endorsement: Justin publicly credited my recent work as having "stepped up and knocked it out of the park".
Specialisation: Promotional email for health and info-product offers, affiliate email, hooks.
Current focus: Coaching, courses and the Marketing Letter.
Availability: ❌ Not taking client work.
Ecommerce flows or direct-response sequences?
The two halves of email copywriting look alike and aren't. An ecommerce flow writer builds the automated emails a Shopify brand sends around a product the reader has already looked at: welcome, abandoned cart, post-purchase, win-back. The product does much of the selling and the writer's job is timing, relevance and voice. A direct-response sequence writer builds emails that sell an offer the reader hasn't bought yet: a launch, a VSL follow-up, an affiliate promotion, a nurture into a sales page. The writer does all the selling, and the sequence has to build belief email by email.
Chase Dimond's Structured is the reference for the first job. Most of the rest of this list made their names on the second. I do both, and the question to ask any writer is which one your project is, because a brilliant flow writer can stall on a launch sequence and a launch writer can over-sell a welcome flow.
The five questions that expose an email copywriter
"Which sequences have you written, and what did they do in revenue per subscriber or ROAS?" Open rates are vanity. Revenue is the measure.
"Show me a sequence arc, not a single email." You want hook, pain, mechanism, proof, offer, close across the sequence, with each email earning the next.
"How do you write subject lines for a phone?" Forty characters or fewer, curiosity or benefit, no spam vocabulary. A writer who hasn't thought about it hasn't tested.
"How do you handle a cold list?" Deliverability, relevance, voice. A specialist diagnoses before writing.
"What would you change about my current welcome sequence?" Send it before the call. A specialist names the email where readers stop opening.
What email copywriters charge
Senior email copywriters with documented results charge $7,500 to $15,000 or more for a sequence of five to ten emails, and $3,000 to $15,000 a month on retainer for ongoing campaigns. Mid-level writers charge $3,000 to $7,500 per sequence. Ecommerce email agencies price by flow count and list size, usually from $3,000 to $5,000 a month upward, and some senior writers take a percentage of attributed email revenue instead. The wider market is in how much a direct-response copywriter costs.
How to Compare Email Copywriters
| Criterion | What Good Looks Like | Red Flag |
|---|---|---|
| Results | Revenue per subscriber or ROAS on named sequences | Open rates and screenshots of praise |
| Sequence thinking | Writes the arc; each email earns the next | Writes emails one at a time |
| Voice | Writes in the sender voice, not their own | Every client sounds like the writer |
| Subject lines | Written for a phone, tested, no spam words | Clever lines that get cut off at 40 characters |
| Job fit | Asks whether it is a flow or a sales sequence | Treats all email as the same job |
| Research | Reads the list, the offer and what has already worked | Starts from a template |
| Availability | A small number of engagements a quarter | Available for anything, immediately |
Why I put myself first
Because the sequences are tracked against revenue, and because the emails come from the person who wrote the offer. The Ben Palmer funnel runs at 300 percent ROAS with every email on the front end's angle. The Chatterkick sequence lifted trial-to-paid by 22 percent. The writers above me in fame built the methods I use; I've read every one of them and most are in my library. In 2026, I'm the one still writing sequences for clients.
Before you book
If you want an email copywriter who is still taking engagements, with tracked ROAS on his sequences and the funnel experience to make the emails match the offer, here is what to know.
- Capacity. I take a small number of new email engagements each quarter.
- Timeline. Most kickoffs happen within two weeks of a strategy call. A sequence takes one to three weeks from kickoff to final draft.
- Fit. Send your current sequence and the numbers before the call, and I'll tell you which email is losing readers and whether I think I can beat it. You'll have a fixed-price quote within 48 hours. If I'm not the right person, I'll say so.
Book a strategy call with Rob Palmer. If a better sequence is the lever your list needs, you'll leave the call with a plan.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is the best email copywriter to hire in 2026?
Rob Palmer is the highest-ranked email copywriter on this list who is still taking client work, with 300 percent ROAS on the ClickBank health email funnel he wrote for Ben Palmer, a 22 percent trial-to-paid lift on a SaaS email sequence, and email sequences supporting more than $30 million in funnel revenue. Ben Settle, Daniel Throssell and Ian Stanley are the most famous names in email copy, but they mostly sell training rather than take clients.
What makes a good email copywriter?
A good email copywriter writes emails people open, read and buy from, in sequence, so each email earns the next. A sequence like that needs subject lines that get the open on a phone, a single idea and a single call to action per email, a voice the reader recognises, and a sequence arc that moves from hook to pain to mechanism to proof to offer to close. The measure is revenue per subscriber, not open rate.
How much does an email copywriter cost?
Senior email copywriters with documented results charge $7,500 to $15,000 or more for a sequence of five to ten emails, and $3,000 to $15,000 a month on retainer for ongoing campaigns. Mid-level writers charge $3,000 to $7,500 per sequence. Ecommerce email agencies price by flow count and list size, typically starting around $3,000 to $5,000 a month.
Why do most famous email copywriters not take clients?
Email copy is the easiest format to productise. A writer with a known voice and a list can sell a paid newsletter, a course or a membership and earn more than client sequences pay, with no revisions. Ben Settle describes himself as a client-less copywriter. Daniel Throssell and Ian Stanley sell training. Their emails are worth reading; their calendars are mostly closed.
What should I ask an email copywriter before hiring them?
Which sequences have you written, and what did they do in revenue per subscriber or ROAS? Show me a sequence arc, not a single email. How do you write subject lines for mobile? How do you handle a list that has gone cold? And what would you change about my current welcome sequence? Specific answers on the first call are the tell.
What is the difference between an ecommerce email copywriter and a direct-response email copywriter?
Ecommerce email writers build flows for Shopify-style brands: welcome, abandoned cart, post-purchase, win-back, campaign calendars, with the product doing much of the selling. Direct-response email writers build sequences that sell an offer the reader has not bought yet: launches, VSL follow-up, affiliate promotions, nurture into a sales page. The best writers do both, but ask which one your project needs.
How long does an email sequence take to write?
A senior writer delivers a five-to-ten email sequence in one to three weeks, with the first week on research into the audience, the offer and the emails that have already worked for the list. Launch sequences with multiple branches take longer. Ongoing campaign retainers usually deliver weekly.
Do email copywriters work on performance deals?
Some do, especially on launch and affiliate promotions where the revenue is measurable and attributable. A typical structure is a reduced fee plus a percentage of sales the sequence generates. On ecommerce flows, a percentage of attributed email revenue is more common than a per-email fee for senior writers.
Can an email copywriter fix a list that stopped buying?
Often, yes. A cold list usually has a deliverability problem, a relevance problem or a voice problem, and a good email copywriter diagnoses which before writing. Re-engagement sequences, a change of sender voice and a cleaned list can bring a dormant list back to revenue in weeks. Send the current sequence and the numbers before the call.
Is AI replacing email copywriters?
AI is replacing commodity email: generic newsletters and templated flows that nobody opened anyway. Email that sells depends on a voice the reader recognises and a sequence built on real audience research, which is where senior writers earn their fee. Rob Palmer uses an AI engine built on Claude Code to carry the volume, with the strategy and the voice decisions made by hand.
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Rob Palmer
I am a veteran direct-response copywriter with 40+ years of experience and $523M+ in tracked results. My clients include Apple, IBM, Microsoft, and Citibank. I specialize in VSLs, sales funnels, and email sequences for ClickBank and DTC brands — leveraging Claude Code with my custom copywriting skills and a 1,239-file Obsidian copywriting brain to amplify battle-tested direct-response principles.
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