Email the people who already know you
Acquiring new traffic is expensive, but re-engaging people who already trust you isn't. I can build reliable newsletters and automated outreach that convert your subscriber base on autopilot.
Winning a new audience is slow and expensive, but reaching the people who already signed up isn't. I can build newsletters and automated follow-ups that put each new report, paper or event in front of them on a schedule you'll keep.
- SPF says which servers may send as you.
- DKIM signs the message so it can't be forged in transit.
- DMARC tells inboxes what to do when the first two fail.
Get these three right and your mail shows up where people actually read it. Nothing else you do for email pays off this fast.
The plan
How we get you there
Every plan uses the same three stages; you choose which ones you need.
Who this is forOwners sitting on a list they feel guilty about. Usually a few hundred people who gave you their emails once and they’ve been collecting dust ever since.Nonprofits and centers with a mailing list older than the website. Nonprofit email is its own problem: practitioners, donors, alumni and conference contacts who want to hear about your work but all they hear is crickets.
Clarify
How to tell your story so your audience listens.
Beautify
Every place you say it: your website, logo, print collateral, email marketing.
Amplifyyou're here
Search, email, and outreach: Systems that carry your marketing to the people who need to hear it.
Real sends
Consistent guest outreach that takes hours, not days
Immediate welcomes and regular reasons to return keep Cliff Cottage Inn booked. With a repeatable template in place, building each issue is an evening task, not a weekend project.
Each new publication reaches its readers the week it lands
The UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health sends a companion email with every issue of Carolina Public Health and every annual Impact Report. One template carries all of it, so a new issue means writing the words and nothing else.
Why people call me
Three things I hear before anyone hires an email marketing agency
“We keep meaning to send one.”
It's been on your to-do list for a year. Every month it loses to something urgent, because it doesn’t follow a set schedule or plan and there's no template to make it easy.
“We sent it and nothing happened.”
Low open rates, no replies, and no way to tell whether the writing was weak or the thing never reached an inbox in the first place.
“People download it and vanish.”
Someone hands over their email address to download your free offer, nothing happens for eight months … then they've forgotten why they signed up in the first place.
Scope
What you actually get
Built so the person who sends the newsletter can send it without you, and so the numbers at the end are the ones your report asks for.
Built so sending the next email is easy, and so you can see which campaign brought who back and how they interacted with your website from there.
Deliverability, first
SPF, DKIM and DMARC checked and fixed before anything is written, and verified on a real send.
Email template design
All your emails match your brand, they're readable on a phone, and simple enough that your next email build takes 20 minutes (and no fighting with a confusing email builder). You'll have a newsletter template that you keep using, not a new build every month.
Follow-up sequences
Automated emails that go out the moment someone signs up or downloads a guide. They're spaced so each one arrives when it's useful, and they keep running so you never follow up by hand.
Landing pages that actually convert
Simple, distraction-free pages designed to do one thing: collect emails. Built right into your existing site, so traffic and signups show up in your 360° dashboard if you have one.
List hygiene that keeps you out of spam
Dead emails scrubbed, hard bounces cleared, and single-click unsubscribes that actually work. A lean list landing directly in inboxes beats a bloated list doomed for the junk folder.
Practical segmentation, better replies
Group subscribers by real differences in interest, not vanity tags. Two or three groups is enough to make every email feel written for the person reading it, which is what gets replies.
Metrics that actually mean something
Open rates and clicks are vanity signals, not the end goal. I track what actually earns money, which is replies, booked calls and conversions, and they sit beside your other business numbers in your 360° dashboard if you have one.
A clear schedule you’ll actually keep
Decide frequency, drafting roles, and core messaging before writing line one. That's what keeps it going month after month.
You own your audience, always
Your software, your login, your list. Everything is set up under your name so you have full control to export, migrate, or take it with you whenever you want.
Build your emails the same way you edit your site
If I built your website it already runs on Tiffin CMS, meaning your email campaigns live under the very same roof. You design them using the same intuitive drag-and-drop blocks you're already used to. Your sends automatically match your brand styling, and there's never a second tool or platform to learn.
Blocks
Try it out! Drag a section onto the page, or press Add. Nothing here is saved.
Tap “Add” to drop a sample section onto the page. Nothing here is saved. Play around. Have a ball!
An empty email. Drop a block here.
You are receiving this because you signed up at the front desk.Unsubscribe
123 Example Street, Durham, NC 27701
It sends through your own platform, so nothing about who owns the list changes. Tiffin CMS comes with your site, and Tiffin Email sits on top of it. It is priced by the size of your list, free under 2,000 subscribers and $29 a month to 10,000.
The first hour I spend
Emails that actually hit the inbox
The first step is verifying your domain protocols. Low open rates usually aren't a creative failure. They're the result of unauthenticated mail landing straight in junk.
What I check first
- SPF, DKIM, and DMARCCorrectly published, properly aligned, and tested with actual test sends.
- Third-party sendersInvoicing tools, scheduling apps, and CRMs. If they send from your domain without authorization, your sender score suffers.
- DMARC monitoring reportsVisibility into every server dispatching email under your name … insights most businesses never look at.
- Database hygieneStale contacts and hard bounces actively degrade domain reputation on every broadcast.
What usually takes the blame
- The subject lineEndlessly rewritten to entice an audience that never received the message.
- Send timeDebated at length in meetings, while having practically zero effect compared to authentication.
- Subscribers "losing interest"A convenient excuse that falls apart once deliverability is actually audited.
- The email platformReplaced at great expense, only to drag the exact same broken DNS setup along for the ride.
Process
How it gets set up
Plumbing, then template, then one real send. Sequences come after you've seen the first one land.
We talk
First we have a quick meeting. Who's on the list, where they came from, and what you'd want to say to them if sending were easy.
The plumbing
Authentication records, the sending domain, and the platform in your name. Unglamorous, yet it decides whether any of the rest matters.
Template and list
A template matching your brand, and the list cleaned, deduplicated and segmented into groups you'd actually communicate differently to.
One real send
We write and send an actual email campaign together, so you see the whole loop once with me there.
Sequences, if they fit
The automated follow-up after a download, written once and left running. Only worth building when you have something your audience thinks is worth downloading.
Investment
How pricing works
The phases below are priced separately, so you can start with the setup and stop there if that's all this year's budget covers.
Get your emails into inboxes, give people an actual reason to join, and keep it going without losing your weekends. Pick where you need help and handle the rest yourself.
Setup & Inbox Placement
Authentication, software configuration, list hygiene, and targeted audience groups.
Opt-Ins & Sequences
Focused landing pages and automated follow-ups that deliver on your lead magnets.
Content & Writing
Run the system solo with pre-built templates, or delegate the writing entirely.
Grant-funded higher education marketing. This usually sits under dissemination. I quote against your budget lines and bill each piece of work separately.
Questions
What people ask before they hire me
Which email platform do you use?
How often should we send?
Our open rates are terrible. Is that the writing?
Do you write the emails too?
What counts as a list worth keeping?
Does this work for a research center?
The rest of the plan
Email is only part of the system
You still need a clear destination and an offer worth opting in for.
Adrial is my go-to designer for anything my business needs … which is why I have used him for three different companies over the last 20+ years.
Craig WoodCEO, Definian
Get your emails into inboxes
Let's have a quick meeting. Give me your web address and list size. We’ll verify SPF and DMARC upfront, map out a realistic strategy, and decide if you need me to write or if you're good to fly solo.