Hims & Hers: Building a $1.5 Billion Telehealth Empire Through Email Marketing

In 2025, Hims & Hers stands as one of the most impressive growth stories in the direct-to-consumer telehealth space, with recent revenue reaching $1.5 billion. While many factors contributed to their meteoric rise, their sophisticated email marketing strategy has been a cornerstone of their success, helping them build lasting relationships with customers around sensitive health topics.

Introduction

Founder Background & Startup Context

Andrew Dudum founded Hims in 2016 while working at Atomic Labs, a company builder and venture capital fund. For years, Dudum had observed a significant gap between men and access to stigmatized healthcare issues. Despite having a solid hairline himself and being a long-time user of skincare products, he noticed that many colleagues and friends weren't as fortunate or informed about treatment options.

This realization led him to create Hims, initially focusing on men's health products as the name suggests. However, expansion into women's products was always part of the plan, as Dudum himself explained at the 2020 Wharton Healthcare Business Conference: "We have always had the vision of building the brand into Hims and Hers, which is quite frankly why we named the company Hims".

Early Challenges & Launch Conditions

Like many startups addressing sensitive topics, Hims faced significant challenges in their early days. The company needed to overcome the stigma associated with personal healthcare issues like erectile dysfunction and hair loss. Building consumer trust in a telehealth model—still relatively new at the time—presented another obstacle, especially when dealing with intimate health concerns.

The company operated at a loss during its early years due to aggressive marketing investments, yet this approach was guided by a long-term vision of customer retention and repeat purchases. Dudum recognized that creating a brand that could destigmatize personal healthcare by improving access to medications and professional care would require significant upfront investment.

Key Turning Points

A critical milestone in Hims' growth came when they expanded beyond men's health to launch Hers, fulfilling their original vision of providing telehealth services across genders. This expansion significantly broadened their potential market and established them as a comprehensive telehealth provider.

Another pivotal moment came in January 2021 when Hims & Hers made its entry into the stock market by merging with a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) led by legendary investor Howard Marks. This merger valued the company at $1.6 billion, providing capital for further expansion and legitimizing their business model in the eyes of investors.

Growth Strategies & Tactics

Marketing-Driven Growth

Unlike traditional companies that spend a small fraction of their revenue on marketing, Hims dedicates nearly 50% of total revenue to customer acquisition. This aggressive spending fuels their ability to rapidly scale, dominate digital channels, and increase brand awareness faster than competitors.

This approach has yielded impressive results. In 2024, Hims & Hers reported revenue of $1.5 billion, representing a 69% year-over-year increase. Their subscriber base grew to 2.2 million, a 45% increase compared to the previous year. Perhaps most impressively, they achieved net income of $126 million and Adjusted EBITDA of $177 million, proving that their marketing-heavy strategy ultimately leads to profitability.

Website & Conversion Optimization

Hims' website serves as a critical element of their success. With 2 million daily visitors, their site is optimized for maximum conversions through:

Simplicity and mobile-first design focusing on clean UX and high-speed performance
Brand-aware traffic funneling that assumes visitors already have some familiarity with Hims due to prior marketing exposure
Consultation-based lead capture where users are guided through quiz-style forms rather than traditional checkout processes

Multi-Channel Marketing Approach

Hims & Hers employs a sophisticated multi-channel marketing strategy that includes:

Content marketing driving over 1 million monthly organic visitors
Aggressive paid media campaigns with carefully managed acquisition costs
AI-driven personalization to create tailored experiences
Email marketing for nurturing leads and driving conversions

Email Marketing Deep Dive

Email's Critical Role in Growth

Email marketing has been instrumental to Hims & Hers' growth strategy, serving as a direct and personal communication channel for addressing sensitive health topics. For a telehealth company dealing with stigmatized issues, email provides the perfect medium for educational content, building trust, and guiding potential customers through their healthcare journey.

The intimate nature of email communication aligns perfectly with Hims & Hers' mission of destigmatizing personal healthcare. Through email, they can have private, one-on-one conversations with customers about sensitive topics that people might be uncomfortable discussing in person or through more public channels.

Email Collection and List Building

While the search results don't provide explicit details about Hims' list-building tactics, their approach likely combines several strategies:

Quiz-based sign-ups that collect emails while helping users identify appropriate treatments
Content-driven lead magnets offering valuable health information in exchange for email addresses
Strategic website opt-in forms positioned at key decision points in the customer journey
Cross-promotion across their men's and women's product lines to expand their subscriber base

Sophisticated Email Marketing Tactics

Hims has crafted a sophisticated email program that blends value-driven content with top-notch design to engage and educate customers. Their email strategy can be broken down into three key phases:

Pre-purchase emails focused on building trust and guiding potential customers toward personalized solutions. These emails educate users on targeted treatments, emphasizing safety, expertise, and a supportive approach.
Transactional emails designed for transparency and reassurance, updating customers on their treatment or order status—from intake confirmation to shipment and delivery. Each email features clean designs and consistent progress bars that provide a clear, step-by-step view of the customer journey.
Post-purchase emails centered on guiding customers through their treatment journey with ongoing education and encouragement. These emails offer practical tips, like setting treatment reminders and tracking progress with photos, helping users stay consistent with their treatments.

Beyond these core sequences, Hims employs several advanced email tactics:

Cross-category lead nurture series introducing customers to their full range of products and services
Cross-category reactivation series to re-engage inactive customers
Abandoned cart recovery emails with compelling messaging to complete purchases

Measurable Results

The effectiveness of Hims' email marketing strategy is evident in their impressive metrics:

53% average open rate across campaigns, significantly higher than industry averages
61% average increase in abandoned cart conversion through strategic recovery emails
Increased retention rates to approximately 44% across all categories

These metrics highlight how email has become a critical growth driver for Hims, fostering deeper customer relationships and driving substantial revenue.

Tools & Resources

Hims leverages several key technologies to power their email marketing:

Braze - Their primary email service provider (ESP), a customer engagement platform specifically designed for multichannel marketing that allows them to manage cross-channel campaigns effectively.
Advanced analytics and segmentation tools - Enabling sophisticated targeting and personalization based on customer behaviors and preferences.
HTML-optimized email design tools - Supporting their visually appealing emails with live HTML text, beautifully integrated background images, and thoughtful dark mode optimization.
Automation platforms - Powering their sophisticated email sequences from pre-purchase through post-purchase.

An interesting insight into their email approach is their strategic use of emojis—appearing in a remarkably high percentage of their emails, with common emojis including 🐎 🍆 😌 👀 💦 🕐, which cleverly relate to their product offerings while maintaining a lighthearted approach to sensitive topics.

Comparison of Email vs. Other Channels

While Hims invests heavily in multiple marketing channels, email marketing offers several unique advantages that complement their broader strategy:

Superior ROI and Direct Access

Email marketing continues to deliver exceptional ROI in 2025, with industry averages suggesting $42 earned for every $1 spent. This makes it one of the most cost-effective channels in Hims' marketing mix.

Unlike social media where algorithm changes can dramatically reduce organic reach, email provides Hims with direct access to their audience without intermediaries. This direct line of communication is invaluable for a telehealth business where trust and relationship-building are essential to conversion.

Personalization at Scale

The sophisticated segmentation and personalization capabilities of modern email platforms allow Hims to deliver highly relevant content to different subscriber segments. This level of personalization is particularly important when addressing different health concerns across diverse customer demographics.

Privacy and Trust

For a company dealing with sensitive health issues, email's private nature creates a safe space for communication. This aligns perfectly with Hims' mission of destigmatizing healthcare by allowing discreet, judgment-free interactions that build trust over time.

Complementary Role in Multi-Channel Strategy

Email doesn't exist in isolation within Hims' marketing strategy. It serves as a crucial touchpoint that complements their other channels:

Content created for email can feed into their content marketing efforts
Email sequences can nurture leads generated through paid advertising
Post-purchase emails enhance the customer experience initiated on their website

Conclusion & Key Takeaways

Hims & Hers' remarkable growth from startup to $1.5 billion telehealth empire offers several valuable lessons about effective email marketing:

Build trust through valuable content - Hims demonstrates that addressing sensitive topics requires educational, supportive content that puts customers at ease and establishes credibility.
Invest in sophisticated email sequences - Their comprehensive approach covering pre-purchase, transactional, and post-purchase communications creates a cohesive customer journey.
Optimize for engagement - Their exceptional open rates and conversion metrics show the importance of compelling subject lines, clean design, and mobile optimization.
Focus on retention - Hims' cross-category nurturing and reactivation series highlight email's power for extending customer lifetime value.
Embrace transparency - Particularly in healthcare, clear communication about order status and treatment expectations builds confidence and trust.

The Hims & Hers growth story demonstrates that even in 2025's crowded digital landscape, email marketing remains a powerful driver for ecommerce growth when executed with sophistication and strategic alignment. Their success proves that building direct relationships with customers through owned channels like email creates a sustainable competitive advantage even as other marketing channels become increasingly expensive and volatile.

Hims & Hers: Building a $1.5 Billion Telehealth Empire Through Email Marketing