My Journey as Sagar KC: Building Emar Media and Mastering Ecommerce Email Marketing
Sagar KC on Building Emar Media and Mastering Ecommerce Email Marketing
Hello and welcome. I’m Sagar KC, the founder of Emar Media, author of Grow with Email Marketing and The Abandoned Cart Recovery Playbook, and someone who's spent nearly a decade navigating the deep waters of ecommerce email marketing. If you’re here to understand who I am, what I do, or how I built a career from retention marketing strategies that actually work, this post is for you.
Whether you’re a startup founder, digital marketer, ecommerce store owner, or simply curious about how email marketing still dominates the ROI charts, I hope this article gives you insight, practical value, and a reason to stick around.
Where It All Started
Before Emar Media, before the books, and long before being featured in outlets like TechBullion and Vents Magazine, I was just a curious learner fascinated by how brands communicate with customers. My journey started in Kathmandu, Nepal, where I majored in Information Technology and got deeply involved in digital marketing.
After working with top-tier clients at Curves n Colors, where I managed high-profile campaigns including for Miss Universe Nepal, I realized that my strength lay not just in digital outreach but in the retention side of the equation. That's where email marketing found me or maybe, I found it.
Why Email Marketing?
If you’ve ever run a business or launched a product, you know how difficult it is to keep attention. Social media is loud. Ads are expensive. Organic growth is slow. But email is different.
Email allows you to build a relationship, not just a reach. You’re not broadcasting into the void; you’re speaking directly into someone’s inbox, a private space. That intimacy is powerful. And yet, so many businesses treat email like it’s a bulletin board.
That’s what pushed me to dig deeper. I didn’t want to just "do" email marketing. I wanted to master ecommerce email marketing.
Founding Emar Media
I founded Emar Media with a single mission: to help brands increase customer lifetime value through meaningful email marketing strategies. We don’t just write emails. We build retention systems. We automate customer journeys. We turn browsers into buyers and buyers into loyalists.
Our clients range from Shopify stores to large ecommerce businesses in competitive niches. Whether it's a cart recovery flow, a welcome series, or re-engagement campaigns, we focus on what matters: retention, not vanity metrics.
Our agency’s home is emar.email where we offer services that blend storytelling, data, automation, and conversion science.
My Books: A Manifesto for Marketers
I wrote two books that capture what I’ve learned through practice, experiments, and mistakes:
1. Grow with Email Marketing
This book is a field guide. It walks readers through foundational principles, explains how to structure your email list, build lead magnets, segment users, and measure impact. It’s not theory. It’s strategy rooted in what works.
2. The Abandoned Cart Recovery Playbook
If you run an ecommerce store and you’re losing sleep over cart abandonment, this book is for you. It’s a hands-on playbook to build a cart recovery sequence that doesn’t feel spammy. Inside, I share templates, timing strategies, psychological triggers, and subject lines that convert.
You can find both books on Amazon and Gumroad.
Being Featured in TechBullion and Vents Magazine
I was honored to be featured in TechBullion, where I shared insights into how brands should approach retention marketing and why most email strategies fail due to a lack of empathy. That feature allowed me to reach audiences globally who were struggling to build loyalty in an age of instant distractions.
Later, Vents Magazine ran a story about my journey, diving into how I transitioned from IT to ecommerce marketing. The article highlighted not just my business but my beliefs: that consistency beats complexity, and that marketing is about building trust at scale.
These features gave me validation but also responsibility. More people were now asking me for help, mentorship, or strategy. That’s when I realized my mission was bigger than my agency.
What Sets My Email Marketing Approach Apart?
Let me be brutally honest. Most email marketing advice is either outdated or overly generic. My approach is different. Here’s why:
1. I Treat Email as a Relationship Tool
Every email is a conversation. Every sequence is a journey. I don’t sell with every email. Sometimes I ask questions. Sometimes I share stories. And when I do pitch, it’s from a place of understanding, not manipulation.
2. Strategy Comes Before Software
It doesn’t matter if you use Klaviyo, Mailchimp, or ConvertKit. What matters is how well you understand your buyer’s journey. I build customer-centric sequences based on behavior, interest, and lifecycle.
3. I Measure What Moves Revenue
Open rates are nice, but I care about repeat purchases, customer lifetime value, and net revenue from email. Every campaign is tracked not for vanity, but for sustainable growth.
4. I Design for Humans, Not Just Algorithms
From plain-text emails to mobile-optimized design, I make sure every email feels natural to read. No robotic copy. No clickbait. Just real messaging for real people.
What You’ll Learn if You Follow Me
If you follow my journey or subscribe to my Substack or connect with me on social, here’s what I share:
Email marketing strategies that drive retention
Copywriting frameworks for ecommerce emails
Customer journey mapping
Insights from real client case studies
Behind-the-scenes from Emar Media’s client work
Retention marketing best practices
Tools and tech I personally use and recommend
And from time to time, I’ll share updates from my books, speaking engagements, or interviews.
Beyond Marketing: My Values
I believe marketing, at its best, is a service. It’s not manipulation. It’s communication. I treat every client relationship with care, and I’ve built Emar Media not as a churn-and-burn agency but as a partner in brand growth.
I also mentor aspiring marketers in Nepal and abroad. I speak in workshops, collaborate with colleges, and support local startups in getting their digital foundations right.
I’m passionate about digital independence, which is why email marketing excites me so much. It’s not beholden to an algorithm. It’s owned media. It’s freedom.
Where I’m Going Next
The future for me is simple: keep helping brands scale retention. Keep building Emar Media. Keep writing. Keep teaching.
I’m also exploring video content and plan to bring more visual, digestible lessons on ecommerce email marketing soon. The industry is changing rapidly, and I want to be part of shaping its future, especially in underserved markets like South Asia.
If you're a startup or store struggling with email, feel free to reach out. I love diving into funnels, fixing flows, and making your marketing meaningful.
Let’s Stay Connected
📩 Follow me here on Substack for weekly
breakdowns and strategies
📸 Instagram: @therealsagarkc
💼 LinkedIn: Sagar KC on LinkedIn
🌐 Emar Media: emar.email