The tricks and tips behind successful retail email marketing
Jim Rudall, head of EMEA at Intuit Mailchimp, discusses his career in marcomms, including founding his own consulting firm, how Intuit Mailchimp is incorporating AI into its toolset to help SMBs drive better customer comms than ever before, and how consumers’ expectations around email marketing have evolved over time.
When Jim Rudall, Head of EMEA at Intuit Mailchimp, reflects on his career, it is clear he has navigated an eclectic journey. From aspiring musician to tech innovator, Rudall’s story is a masterclass in adaptability and leadership. At the heart of his current mission is a drive to harness cutting-edge AI tools to empower small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to revolutionise customer communication.
“I left school, I wanted to be a musician, so I upped sticks and my guitars and moved to London,” Rudall shared, recounting his early years. “That didn’t go well, so I went to uni, studied psychology, and ended up on the graduate trainee scheme of a software company linked to marketing services.” That company was eventually acquired by Experian, where Rudall stepped into a leadership role.
Since those formative years, he has cultivated an impressive track record in high-growth marketing technology (martech) and e-commerce companies, including launching and selling startups and scaling global giants like Shopify. It’s no surprise that Intuit Mailchimp tapped him for the role he now holds. Reflecting on this, Rudall said, “About a year ago, I was approached by Intuit Mailchimp to pick up the EMEA role, and here I am.”
Mailchimp’s Evolution: From North America to Global Expansion
Founded over two decades ago, Mailchimp carved its niche as an email marketing powerhouse. “Mailchimp has been around for about 20 years. I think we just celebrated our 21st birthday,” Rudall noted. The company’s acquisition by Intuit three years ago marked a new chapter. “It has a vision and mission to empower prosperity across the world,” Rudall explained. The alignment between Intuit’s broader mission and Mailchimp’s goal of supporting SMBs made the partnership natural.
For Rudall, the acquisition was one of the key reasons he joined the team. “The unified vision for Intuit and its SMB suite of tools, including Mailchimp, is a really exciting reason why I joined,” he emphasised. As head of EMEA, he is tasked with localising Mailchimp’s strategies for diverse markets. “It’s super important that we show up for those customers in a more localised way,” he said, citing efforts to build teams in London, Germany, Spain, and Scandinavia.
Transforming Marketing with AI
Artificial intelligence (AI) has become the buzzword of our time, and Intuit Mailchimp is no exception. For Rudall, AI is more than a trend—it’s transformative. “AI is a big bet for Intuit. We made a decision five years or so ago that AI was going to be at the centre of our strategy,” he shared. Rudall credits the foresight of Intuit’s leadership, stating, “The CEO of Intuit, Sasan Goodarzi, made that call earlier than most.”
Mailchimp’s AI-driven tools are designed to meet the diverse needs of its users. “If you’re an entrepreneur or a very small business, it’s likely that you don’t really know what to do,” Rudall said. He explained how Mailchimp’s AI enables novices to create campaigns from scratch by simply posing queries like, “I’d like to email my most valuable customers.”
For larger businesses, the capabilities scale up significantly. “Our AI capabilities allow somebody with little or no expertise or no resource to effectively deliver email marketing campaigns from scratch, which is great. For a larger, perhaps more sophisticated business, AI brings you scale.”
Consumer Expectations: From Mass Emails to Personalisation
The world of email marketing has undergone seismic shifts, and Rudall has witnessed it all. “Back then, honestly, it was a volume approach,” he said, recalling the early days. “How many emails can we gather? How many times can we message these consumers?”
Today, consumer expectations demand sophistication. “There’s a value exchange between consumer and brand,” Rudall explained. “Brand builds trust through an engaging brand story. Consumer reacts to that trust by giving over more information about themselves, which allows a brand to iterate on more and more personalised communications.”
In a landscape shaped by GDPR and a deluge of digital content, the rules have changed. Consumers are not just discerning—they are demanding. “They vote with their feet or with their fingers, really. They click, they opt out because the messages they’re receiving are either not relevant, too numerous, too frequent, or too spammy,” Rudall said.
Success Stories and Lessons Learned
One of Rudall’s favourite examples of Mailchimp’s impact is the story of Earl of East, a brand that started as a market stall and has grown into a thriving business with multiple retail locations and an online presence. “They’ve been able to do that in part because Mailchimp has enabled them to drive engagement, drive loyalty, drive revenue through engaging an audience, telling their brand story, and using the information and data that they gather,” Rudall said.
The tools Mailchimp provides are particularly critical in a time when consumer trust is paramount. As Rudall highlighted, “Eighty percent of those surveyed [in Intuit’s Science of Loyalty report] said they will only buy from a brand if they know it’s trustworthy.” This underscores the importance of not just effective communication, but also ethical and transparent use of customer data.
Retail Challenges and the Future of Email Marketing
The challenges facing retailers today are stark. “A lot of retailers have lost sight around where they’re profitable,” Rudall observed. He pointed out that while discounting strategies can drive revenue, they often come at the expense of margins. “Retailers need to take a little bit more time, build a bit more trust, build a bit more engagement, and still offer that promotion, but instead of 50%, it’s like 10%.”
Looking ahead, AI remains a cornerstone of Mailchimp’s strategy. Rudall is optimistic about the role of technology in levelling the playing field for SMBs. “AI becoming more embedded in our products will help entrepreneurs and SMEs get off the ground,” he said, pointing to innovations that enable businesses to “start email marketing, scale email communications, and reflect the ever-changing demands of the consumer.”
Leadership Insights: Seeking Out Change
As our conversation wound down, Rudall shared a powerful leadership lesson. “Change is not only inevitable, but you should seek it out,” he said. “If you’re going to build a high-performing team and drive a company forward, you have to be the provocateur of change.”
For Rudall, this philosophy extends to his approach to talent. “How can we bring in high-potential individuals who can tell us what we don’t know or bring a new flavour?” he asked. His aim is not just to find cultural fits, but “cultural adds”—a term he prefers because, as he put it, “If you fit in, you disappear.”
A Lasting Impact
In Rudall’s world, technology and strategy are only part of the story. At the heart of his work is a deep belief in the power of communication to build trust, loyalty, and ultimately, business success. Whether it’s helping a market stall become a retail chain or equipping a small business owner to reach their first customer, Rudall’s vision for Mailchimp is clear: empowering entrepreneurs and SMBs to thrive in an increasingly complex digital landscape.
