VRNation Email Marketing Program | Updated August 2026 | Crystal Springs Marketing

VRNation Email Marketing Program

This document walks through setup, your monthly plan, your total costs, the plan for moving forward, and your full 501(c)3 discounts and partnership trades.

1Where Things Stand

  • The VRNation email program is moving from SendSquared to Campaign Monitor via the Crystal Springs Marketing's platform.
  • The GrowthZone API is being enabled on VRNation's GrowthZone plan:
      • $605 One-Time Setup Fee
      • $740 Per Year
      • Both credited back to VRNation via Crystal Springs, shown in Sections 3 and 4
  • Crystal Springs Marketing builds and maintains the connection. We connect GrowthZone to Campaign Monitor through Zapier, and we cover the Zapier subscription, the same as we do for every client.

How the GrowthZone Connection Changes Things

Membership changes and event registrations flow from GrowthZone into Campaign Monitor on their own. Event reminders, thank-yous, and member emails become automations that trigger based on live GrowthZone data, instead of manual list exports and imports before every send, and no more rebuilding the same event email five times in a month.

The Only Thing the VRNation Team Needs to Do

If membership information is wrong in GrowthZone, it will be wrong in regards to every automated email that goes out. VRNation's membership records need to be cleaned up in GrowthZone before the November 1 start, which is about 1.5 months away. We will help define what clean looks like, but the "source of record" is in GrowthZone.

2VRN x CSM 2025-2026 Contract

A lot has been uncovered over the last year that expanded the original agreement. CSM was not allowed access to the VRN SendSquared account until after an agreement was signed with SendSquared.

CSM supports everything that VRN does and was happy to finish out the original agreement, but similar to VRN, as a small business just starting off, we are unable to absorb the same $30,000 discounts that we provided for the 2025-2026 contract.

Your Current 2025-2026 Agreement

  • $3,000 per month Unlimited Sends
  • Minus a $2,500 per month 501(c)3 Partnership Discount
  • Totaling $500 per month Monthly Program

The Original Agreement

What Crystal Springs Has Delivered

  • ✓ Branded email template
  • ✓ List cleanup
  • ✓ Addressing deliverability issues
  • ✓ Google Analytics tracking
  • ✓ Website form and signup checkbox audit
  • ✓ Branded confirmation page audit
  • ✓ Unlimited sends, which grew well past the original proposed plan with additional marketing for roadshows and conference sends
  • Still to come All blocked on SendSquared and finally possible on Campaign Monitor
    •   • Welcome subscriber automation
    •   • Subscriber popup
  • Total Service Value: $38,000 / yr
  • Discount Applied: about $30,650 / yr

What VRNation Has Delivered

  • ✓ 2026 Gold Sponsorship: membership, vendor badges, booth, booth selection priority, attendee list access, logo recognition, conference tickets ($5,000)
  • ✓ Email credit line, live on your sends
  • ✓ VRNation Station podcast sponsorship ($2,575)
  • Still to come
    •   • Sponsored Content Article: Thought Leadership Showcase
  • Total trade value provided: about $8,689 / yr

3One-Time Setup

One-time setup item CSM Published rate Your 501(c)(3) plan
VRNATION
VRNation account setup and migration

 ✓ White-labeled Campaign Monitor account
 ✓ Email domain authentication (DKIM, SPF, CNAME, DMARC)
 ✓ Google Analytics tracking
  • CSM Advanced Reporting tool
  • Subscriber list setup and segmentation
  • Website form connections and checkboxes
  • Custom branded HTML drag-and-drop template
  • Team training
  • Welcome subscriber auto-reply (carried over from '25-'26 contract)
The completed items have not been billed for yet

$2,000 $2,000
Welcome auto-reply
carried over from the
'25-'26 contract: −$400
Setup discount: −$300

$1,300
VRNation GrowthZone API setup fee N/A −$605
Credited back
to VRNation.
VRNation Website pop-up build $300 Waived
Carried over from
'25-'26 contract.
VRNation Re-engagement email set $1,200 Waived
YOUR TOTAL ONE-TIME SETUP
$3,500
one-time cost
$695
one-time cost

Similar to the '25-'26 contract, setup can be spread over 12 monthly payments. That choice lives in your combined monthly in Section 5, so all the payment math stays in one place.

4Your Monthly Plan

What you get, every month Published rate Your 501(c)(3) plan
VRNATION
VRNation email program: Pro Plus
Our Pro Plus plan, up to 8 campaigns a month, at your 501(c)(3) partnership rate
  • Campaign Monitor Premier access
  • 8 custom HTML campaigns per month, built, designed, and sent by CSM
  • Unused campaigns bank for 6 months, so quiet months cover busy ones
  • Campaign needs beyond 8 in a month are quoted as a custom plan
  • List up to 25,000
  • List management and segmentation
  • Mobile and dark mode optimization
  • Post-send performance reports
  • Unlimited strategic support
  • Dynamic content and guest segmentation
  • Cadence strategy and editorial calendar
  • Advanced segmentation and audience insights
  • Guest lifecycle automations
  • A/B testing on subject lines and content
  • Full automation suite
  • Advanced dynamic content
  • Priority support and faster turnaround
  • White-glove account management
$1,950 / mo $1,300 / mo
VRNation Website pop-up signup form $50 / mo Waived
VRNation GrowthZone API Annual Fee ($740 / year) N/A −$61 / mo
Credited back
to VRNation.
Zapier subscription (running GrowthZone connection) Included Included
YOUR TOTAL MONTHLY PROGRAM
$2,000 / mo $1,239 / mo

Similar to the '25-'26 contract, Monthly costs can be discounted even further by Sponsorship trade with VRNation.

5Total Costs + Extra Trades

Use the following checkboxes to bring your Setup Costs & Monthly Invoices down in addition to the 501(c)3 gifts we have offered.

Sponsorship trades (ongoing)

Your year-one trade package completes with the current contract (Section 2), so this new agreement starts with a fresh trade menu. A trade comes off every invoice going forward. These are options, not set terms; we value every trade at your published rates and agree on it together, and we size the final trade package so trades cover up to 50% of your monthly program cost. We pre-checked the mix we think fits the partnership best; adjust freely. The email credit line will also continue as a trade.

Our preferred trade package

The combination we would choose together: the Podcast Spotlight, a Roadshow Segment Sponsorship, 3 conference registrations at your member rates, and CSM's vendor membership continuing as part of the email partnership, with no exhibitor booth this year. Every priced piece is pre-checked below and marked Preferred; the email credit line value gets set together once VRNation prices it.

VRN 2027 Annual Conference

Choose up to 1 option.

Gold Sponsor ($6,650 / yr, $554.17 / mo)
Platinum Sponsor ($15,400 / yr, $1,283.33 / mo)

VRN 2027 Roadshow Preferred

Choose up to 1 option.

Segment Sponsor ($2,575 / yr, $215 / mo)
Hospitality Hour Sponsor ($2,575 / yr, $215 / mo)
Tour Bus Secondary Sponsor ($2,575 / yr, $215 / mo)

VRN 2027 Podcast Preferred

Choose up to 1 option.

Spotlight Sponsor ($2,575 / yr, $215 / mo)
Season Sponsor ($7,725 / yr, $643.75 / mo)

VRN 2027 Webinars

Choose this option.

Partner Education Sponsor ($1,545 / yr, $128.75 / mo)

CSM Conference Access Preferred

Choose up to 1 option. Registrations at your member rates.

3 conference registrations ($1,775 / yr, $147.92 / mo)
2 conference registrations ($1,200 / yr, $100.00 / mo)

VRN 2027 Emails Preferred

Includes CSM's annual vendor membership as part of our ongoing partnership.

CSM credit line at the bottom of every VRNation email

Referrals (single invoice)

A referral is anyone who signs on with Crystal Springs Marketing after finding us through you: a direct introduction, hearing us on your podcast, or meeting us through one of your webinars. For every one who signs on, we take $250 off your invoice for that month. Referral credits apply to that month only and can bring that month's invoice all the way down to $0.*

0 operators who sign on in a given month

Your Combined Monthly, All In

Spread your setup over time, like your first agreement

← Drag the slider to see how a shorter or longer setup spread changes your monthly →

VRNation Total One-Time Setup Cost Installments (Spread Over: 12 months)$108.33
VRNation Total Monthly Cost$1,300.00
GrowthZone API Setup Fee Credited Back (Spread Over: 12 months)−$50.42
GrowthZone API Monthly Fee Credited Back−$61.00
Monthly Payment While Setup Is Spread*$719.84
Monthly Payment After Setup Is Paid*$661.92

* Sponsorship trades can cover up to 50% of your monthly program cost; we size the agreed annual trade package to fit. Referral credits can take a month's invoice down to $0. Credits do not carry forward to other invoices. Unused campaigns bank for 6 months; campaign needs beyond 8 in a month are quoted as a custom plan.

Plans cover lists up to 25,000 subscribers; 25,001 to 50,000 adds $150 per month. The list cleanup we have done keeps you under that today, and we will always flag it before it applies. The re-engagement set built in your first 90 days is the $1,200 waived gift shown in Section 3.

6The Plan Moving Forward

Your plan covers 8 campaigns a month from day one, with unused campaigns banking for 6 months, so your calendar does not change: 5 sends in November, 3 in December, 2 in January, exactly as scheduled. The first 3 months simply carry a second job alongside the sends: building every automation on the list below, with no separate build fees.

Months 1 to 3 (Nov 1 to Jan 31)Month 4 onward (Feb 1)
Your scheduled campaigns continue as planned, and alongside them, we build:
  • Zapier connection: membership and event registration flows, field mapping, testing
  • List and segment architecture in Campaign Monitor
  • Event lifecycle journey templates (reminders, day-before, thank-yous)
  • Welcome subscriber automation
  • Subscriber pop-up
  • Re-engagement set: Unengaged, Dormant, Ghosts
  • Documentation, and training for your team
Automation takes over the repetitive work: event and member emails run on live GrowthZone data, and custom HTML production continues at the plan's 8 campaigns a month, with unused campaigns banking for 6 months. We also build drop-in content sections you can place into automated emails, so they stay fresh without a rebuild.

Which emails send themselves, and when

The connection can only see registrations made after it turns on. So:

  • We build it
    Events with registration already open (like Ocean City on November 3). Those registrations happened before the connection existed, so we send their emails by hand, like today.
  • Sends itself
    Events that open registration after launch (2027 Roadshows, the Annual Conference). Reminders, thank-yous, and surveys to registrants fire on their own.
  • We build it
    Promotional emails to your full list (newsletters, months-out announcements, membership pushes). Always built by us, covered by your monthly plan.

7Your 501(c)(3) Partnership

The nonprofit discount did not go away. It changed shape. This is the full list of everything in your program and how the partnership discounts it, shown yearly so it all adds up in one place. Flip the toggle to see monthly.

Plan or program pieceNon-discounted base rateYour 501(c)(3) partnership
Our base plans, for reference
Essentials (1 campaign per month)$7,800 / yrN/A
Growth (2 campaigns per month)$12,600 / yrN/A
Pro (3 campaigns per month)$18,000 / yrN/A
Pro Plus (up to 8 campaigns per month)$23,400 / yrN/A
Your program, and what the partnership does
VRNation email program: Pro Plus, up to 8 campaigns a month, banked when unused, full automation suite$23,400 / yrYou pay $15,600 / yr
VRNation website pop-up ongoing fee, waived$600 / yrWaived
GrowthZone API annual fee, credited back on invoices$740 / yrCredited back
Ongoing partnership value$9,140 / yr
One-time partnership gifts (the setup in Section 3)
VRNation setup discount (flat $300, after the welcome carry-over)$300Gifted
Re-engagement email set, waived$1,200Waived
GrowthZone API setup fee, credited against setup$605Credited back

Your monthly invoice is $1,239, matching Section 4: the $1,300 VRNation program minus the $61 API credit. The one-time gifts above total $2,105. The welcome automation and the VRNation pop-up build are not listed here on purpose: both were already covered by your Nov 2025 contract, so delivering them now is a carried-over obligation, not a new gift.

Total VRN gifts for the year
$11,245+
Total monthly gifts for the year
$937
Total percentage off published rates
~42%

Timing

Our current agreement runs on SendSquared through October 31, 2026, and we will honor it fully. This plan replaces it starting November 1. Renewal notice is due by October 1, so we are asking for a decision by the end of September to give both teams time to plan, and to leave time for the GrowthZone membership cleanup before launch.