Storytelling Email Marketing w/ Breanna Owen
Adding stories to your email newsletters can spice up even the boringest of industries!
Email marketing & storytelling go together like summer nights & fireflies. (Bet you thought I would say PB&J 😜) But let’s say—hypothetically—that email writing is not your favorite thing. In fact, you STRONGLY dislike it. What do you do? What do you need to know? Breanna Owen is back, but this time I get to interview her! She’s sharing where to find inspiration for stories, the best way to structure stories in emails, & a raw truth about subject lines. We’ll see you inside!
Topics covered in this podcast episode:
The importance of storytelling especially in email marketing
How to spice up emails for a boring/dry industry
How storytelling impacts sales
Why it’s important to repeat yourself
The best way to structure stories in your emails
Where to find inspiration for stories to share in your emails
Where entrepreneurs get tripped up with storytelling emails
How storytelling helps establish your authority
The best subject lines for storytelling emails
The benefits of email marketing for your business
Meet: Breanna Owen
A left handed, Enneagram 3, (pure) Generator who believes peanut butter M&Ms are the best M&Ms and purpose-driven brands connecting with customers are most likely to leave a mark on the world. When not watering my 82 houseplants or feeding my four children I’m likely rearranging furniture in our new home. I’m obsessed with working smarter – not harder and using email lists that create fans for life!
Mentioned Resources:
Carne Asada Street Tacos (recipe)
Related Episodes:
Laura Belgray (Organic Marketing)
My Case Study Fail w/ Ashleigh
Connect w/ Breanna:
Connect w/ Brittany:
This episode of The Basic B podcast is brought to you in partnership w/ Leah Bryant Co.! Help me reach more service providers like you by following the show & leaving a rating or review on Apple & Spotify!
The unedited podcast transcript for this episode of The Basic B podcast follows
Welcome back to the Basic B podcast. I'm so thrilled and just honestly grateful to have you here. Whether you're tuning in on YouTube or Spotify or Apple or any of the 3 million other things that you could be listening to. Thank you. I'm stoked to have you here and I'm super excited to share with you today's topic, which is all about storytelling and emails with my friend Breanna Owen. So we're gonna be talking all about email storytelling. Get ready. We have no idea where this is gonna go, but before I invite her on, quick intro for you. Breanna is a left handed enneagram three peer generator. We geek out on human design all the time. Who's obsessed with working smarter, not harder, and using email lists that create fans for life. I'm stoked to have you here. Breanna. Hi.
Breanna Owen [00:01:47]: Oh, I'm so excited to be here. Brittany. Thanks for having me today.
Brittany Herzberg [00:01:51]: Oh, my gosh, of course. All right, I'm going to hit you with my heavy hitter. First question.
Breanna Owen [00:01:56]: Love it.
Brittany Herzberg [00:01:56]: There's no wrong answer. You know, why not have, like, a heavy hitting icebreaker, you know? So here we go. Which do you believe is most important for sales, SEO, storytelling, or social proof?
Breanna Owen [00:02:09]: I think it all depends on the person. So I think that they can all be the most important to different people. And so I think it just depends on the person you're talking to. You can't be found without SEO. Storytelling kind of makes it hit home, and social proof gives you that credit and that credibility. Otherwise people might think you're just, like, a quack. So I might say storytelling simply because SEO and social proof can fall into storytelling.
Brittany Herzberg [00:02:42]: Oh, I like that. It's so fun to see how people's brains work with this when there's really no wrong answer. It's just fun to be like, big question, go for it.
Breanna Owen [00:02:52]: I love it.
Brittany Herzberg [00:02:53]: Let's go with some easier questions. So storytelling and emails. When did you really get into writing more stories in emails?
Breanna Owen [00:03:01]: Yeah, I didn't come into emails right away. I landed an internship that honestly has never ended. It's seven years later and it's still going, and I kind of got, like, this freedom and capacity to do whatever I wanted within his marketing for this organization. And so part of that was we ended up writing a bunch of emails. It was such, such a boring topic, and I was like, how do we jazz this up? Because the person I was working for was not a boring person. He just worked in what I consider a very boring industry. And so I was like, we've got to be able to jazz this up, add some personality. And that's when I personally started writing stories in email. And so that's probably where it started, was because I was just bored and I wanted to entertain myself.
Brittany Herzberg [00:03:56]: I really like that because I do think a lot of copy and especially emails can be boring and dry, especially if you're in an industry that's already boring and dry. And it is like knowing that that client of yours wasn't a boring, dry person. It's like, okay, how do we make these things line up really well?
Breanna Owen [00:04:14]: And I also think it's storytelling is how you can set yourself apart if you do the same thing as other people. Yeah. Before I became a copywriter, I actually sold jewelry and, like, a network marketing company for eight years. And once I discovered, like, email marketing and storytelling and emails, I was like, man, I was one of thousands, thousands and thousands, thousands of people who sold literally the exact same thing in the nation. And if I had been able to utilize an email list and I was able to deliver these stories or communicate with people more often, I think that would have just made a huge difference in my business and in the relationships that I was building. So I'm still a big proponent for storytelling and emails. Even if you have a physical product and especially if you have a physical product that a lot of other people could also be selling, for sure, the.
Brittany Herzberg [00:05:16]: First thing that's coming to mind when you're talking about physical products is, and especially since, like, I just got to see your dog whiskey is pet supplements, like, or even, like, pet anything. Pet fill in the blank, because my dog jack is, like, super picky. About what he will consume or go near or entertain the idea of possibly, maybe. And just so to find the one company that we now use that he's absolutely in love with, and really, we haven't ordered a single product that he was like, nope, I'm not doing it. That was huge for us. So. And that was a product. And there are, you know, however many dogs and however many dog owners, but hearing that story is like, oh, that did that for you? What could it do for me and my dog? You know, that's not just pet supplements, like you said, jewelry or handbags or water bottles, since that's a hot topic now, like, anything.
Breanna Owen [00:06:06]: Yeah. Yeah. Well, because storytelling is magical, because I think it takes the pressure off of selling, and it presents it more as, like, I'm sharing information, right? Like, I'm not trying to swindle you, and I'm not trying to, like, spam you. I truly believe in the thing I'm gonna tell you about. And here's a story that either, like, provides that example or, like, anchors that idea and plus just makes you relatable or humanizes or canaanizes. If it's about dogs, I don't know. But, yeah, it makes it so, like, it's just relatable because you put a story in place and it makes it less salesy.
Brittany Herzberg [00:06:52]: Yeah, exactly. It makes it hit home. You said it earlier, where it just, it brings it to life, too. And anchors it. That's what you said. You said, it anchors it. And that's a really good thing to call out, too, is, like, business owners don't like being repetitive, and yet that's what we need to be. We have to figure out what those things are and figure out what we need to repeat. And a story is an easy one. I know. And, you know, business owners, we could think of them right off the top of our head where we've heard these business owners talk about so and so who went through their program or so and so who bought their thing. And, like, this is their story. I know that there's, like, three or four coming to mind right now. So it does it, like, anchors it in there, and it fattens down the hatches and, like, ties it in there. And it's like this. This. If you're thinking of this thing, this is the person, this is the product, this is the service or the program or whatever that you need. So you also were talking about at the very beginning how the emails were boring, the industry was boring, but the person you were working with wasn't boring. And that's just another reason why we're talking about emails. Yes, but we're still talking about storytelling. And storytelling is why I like case studies, and I did not want to write boring Af case studies. I just did not want to do that. So I was like, how can I not do that? And immediately my brain was like, duh, storytelling. Like, you're having the before, during, and after. So do you do the same thing with your emails? Is there a before, during, after, or do you have some other kind of framework or something that you use to structure storytelling in your emails?
Breanna Owen [00:08:18]: That's a really good question. It all comes down to possibly the story that I'm telling and the purpose of the email. So I make a lot of email sequences. I help clients work through email sequences a lot of the time. And so I'm taking five to eight emails as a whole, and I'm trying to help people move through the story between each of the eight emails. And so each email itself probably isn't going to have a beginning, a middle, and end, but it's going to highlight an element or a piece of this story arc that I'm trying to pull the reader through. And then there are times where if an email, it's just like a weekly nurture email, that's more likely to have a beginning, a middle, and an end, because its purpose is to serve people that week and not necessarily, like, through a whole process. A lot of the times, what happens? Like, I was thinking about it today. I was thinking of something, and I was like, I want to do this, so I'll give you the example. I am a mom. I have four kids. Dinner time's the worst time. What are we having for dinner? Tonight is the worst question. That happens all the time. And I spent years dreading this, right? Years dreading dinner time, because I didn't know what we were gonna make, and I didn't know what they were gonna eat. And it doesn't matter what I ate. Somebody's not gonna like it anyway. I hate it. I hate it.And I realized this morning, like, something has changed in the last couple of weeks where probably more than that, probably months, where I don't hate dinner time and that we're trying new meals and the kids are liking things and, like, our evenings are just going better. And I wanted to, like, I've got some meals that I'm really proud of. I found on Pinterest. I didn't make them up, but, like, trial and error at mealtime is rough. And so if I could give other families, like, hey, these recipes are tried and true. Like, try them. I want to do that. I talk about email strategy. I talk about email marketing. Like, why would I show up to my community with a couple of, like, recipes? Like, that's just so random and so odd. And so I'm trying to figure out, like, okay, I still really want to do this.I still really want to share these recipes. But, like, how? Why? Like, where's the story here that would make it make sense? And so when I realized that, oh, things are going well right now because I actually have a meal plan in place. I know what meals we're gonna have and they align with what's going on with our week. So if we've got kids that have to go to activities, I know we need a super, super quick meal. But if kids are home early and I don't have meetings late in the day, I know that I have time for, you know, our homemade chicken tenders or something that takes more time. Plus, the kids know what to expect. It's really awesome. It's all because we have a plan. It's all because I have a strategy going into it. Well, there's my connection. I preach on email strategy and having a strategy before you sit down to write your emails.So I haven't done this yet, but my list will see it soon. I now have a way to talk, use storytelling to talk about this transformation I went through in my brain with meal planning and how it's very similar to your email strategy. It sucks sitting down to write an email when you don't know what to say and people probably aren't going to like what you're reading and you're probably not going to get much interaction and engagement anyway.But when you start with the strategy, when you start with the plan and you align it with your business goals, it's so much easier to sit down and type away and the words just flow out of you. People are more likely to read it, you're going to get more interaction, and the experience is just going to get better and better and better. And now I have a legitimate excuse for sharing my carne asada mexican street tacos recipe.
Brittany Herzberg [00:12:16]: I love this so very much. I know. I was like, if you didn't figure this out by now, I'm going to help you do this, like, right now while we're recording this.
Breanna Owen [00:12:24]: Uh huh.
Brittany Herzberg [00:12:25]: But it's so true. Like, sometimes we're just so in our lives that moment and we're like, I want to share this thing, but how do I make it happen. You just walked us through that beautifully. So I love that for you with that and with like, I know one thing that you were alluding to was just, like, showing up to write an email and being like, and I don't know what I'm going to write today. And I've had very many of these days, where do you notice entrepreneurs getting tripped up when writing emails or even more specifically, writing stories in their emails?
Breanna Owen [00:12:55]: I think the trip up happens is that we are in business mode and we're not in human mode. We want to do the things. We want a checklist. We want to cross it off. And I'm very direct. I am a checkmark person. I am like, hey, let's get things done. I'm in the mode. It's very rare for me to start a conversation with, hi, how are you? Let's get into it. I'm a get into it person, and I think a lot of business owners can relate to that because you have to be self aware to notice the stories around you. We can struggle with that if we are just head down focused doing things in the business.
Brittany Herzberg [00:13:35]: Yeah. Do you ever find resistance from your clients when you mention storytelling in emails? Is it something that they're like, no, I don't want to do that.
Breanna Owen [00:13:43]: So I pull them through a process, and usually by the time that I start talking about stories in their emails, I've already brought them along the journey where they're like, oh, okay, that makes sense. You know, we start with who they are and what makes sense for them. We might talk about, like, what things that they want to teach on or what are hallmarks of their personality. There are 7 billion people in the world, so what makes you you, like, I start there and then we go into the strategy of what's happening. What is it that they're wanting to accomplish? Who is it that they're talking to? Where are those people at in their customer journey? You know, their awareness. What are you trying to pull them to all of this? And then, you know, I have, like, the systematic strategy of, okay, well, in order to get them from a to b, we need to walk them through these points. And so I've tapped into the business side of things that when I get to the point of like, and now here's how we're going to do it, and here are the stories that I want to incorporate. It's a strategic move, and it's not just like a willy nilly storytelling for storytelling sake.
Brittany Herzberg [00:14:52]: Right. It's not just, I'm like, I have this great idea. We should do this thing right. They've been warmed up to it at that point.
Breanna Owen [00:15:00]: Yeah. Because they're not gonna want to sit down and be like, yes, let me tell you all these stories of interactions that I've had with people and thoughts that I've had along the way. Like, you have to train them to get to that point.
Brittany Herzberg [00:15:11]: Yeah. You really do. And, like, I'm wondering, because there are some case studies where I actually have one case study I really want to write about myself with a client where there is just, like, an epic fail moment where it actually inspired, like, a checkpoint that I now added to my process because I was like, how did we get here? And how do I make sure this never happens again? And what is some feedback from this client that I can then, like, use and incorporate into my process? So I want to do, like, a case study story about that. Is there any time that you can see us using, like, a quote, unquote? Because I don't ever really think that there's failures. It's just lessons to be learned. But do you ever find that there's moments to share those, like, whoopsie moments?
Breanna Owen [00:15:54]: Oh, 100%. Because they make you relatable. Right?
Brittany Herzberg [00:15:57]: Like, yeah.
Breanna Owen [00:15:58]: And especially because I talk a lot about. And I think we're just seeing it more in our culture, too, of progress over perfection. And I think, like, as a culture, as a generation, we struggle in sitting with the hard.
Brittany Herzberg [00:16:13]: Yeah.
Breanna Owen [00:16:14]: There's so many times where we try to avoid the hard. And I'm not saying, like, walk into it intentionally, but those are the things that we learned from. And so you can lead by example with saying, hey, we got here, but in order to get here, we had to go through this crummy thing. So maybe it's not all about how to avoid the crummy things, but how can you use the crummy things to your advantage? And so, while I wish you don't have to go through crummy things, I hope that if you do go through crummy things, you are reminded that it doesn't last forever. Something good can come of it, and there are still better things in store in your future. Right? Like, so you can give hope, you can lead by example and makes you relatable people, like, knowing they're not the only ones who f. Up.
Brittany Herzberg [00:17:02]: Yeah, no, and that's huge. And even as you're saying that, I'm reminded of. So, I've been writing show notes for an agency, and one of the podcast episodes that I listened to she was saying, like, no one wants to read about how perfect everything is because just like you said, it makes you unrelatable. I don't really care to read about how, like, perfectly beautiful and flowy everything went. For someone, I want to know that they're a real person and that they've been through some stuff, too.
Breanna Owen [00:17:29]: Yep.
Brittany Herzberg [00:17:30]: So that's a really good point, and I'm glad you drove that home.
Breanna Owen [00:17:33]: I often will say, like, if anything, I hope this makes you feel better about yourself.
Brittany Herzberg [00:17:37]: Cause why not? Like, I mean, we've all been through stuff, and I think we're seeing this a lot with social media. If you only ever put out a the good and share the good and actually, like, it turns out that people think that I do that, too, so I'm just as guilty of this. Like, people think everything's fine. People do find that you're unrelatable. They start to almost, like, idolize you and put you on this pedestal of, like, oh, if I just blank, I'll get to where she's at, or I'll be able to do that, or my life will look like that. And it's. We've all been through trials and tribulations. We've all had hard moments. And it's not about opening your coat and being like, here's everything. But it is more about, like, strategically. Like, here's this time I went through this. And even just, like, with my stuff, here's this, like, not super great situation that I can now laugh about with a case study client. But also, this was the lesson that was learned, and this is how I have updated my process. And you now get to benefit from that.
Breanna Owen [00:18:31]: I also think that helps solidify ourselves as an expert in the field. The more that we talk about, like, oh, I. I've been through some things, right? Like, I've got the battle scars to prove it. Because inevitably, anybody who's looking ahead to you and hoping that you're able to help them on their journey, they're going to come through something hard. They are. And if you've already shared how you've been through hard things even more, so they're going to want to come and turn to you for help, advice, mentorship, to be a client. Like, you're going to be the person they think of when they then go through hard things. And so I've heard of the saying, like, talk from your scars, not your wounds. And so I like, hey, now that I've healed a little bit, I can tell you the story behind this, but, like, not while it's still gushing.
Brittany Herzberg [00:19:20]: Yeah, I like that sentiment.
Breanna Owen [00:19:22]: Yeah. Yeah. Like, I think it's okay. You are entitled to your privacy. You don't have to share everything with the world, and you get to pick and choose what you share when the time is right for you. But I think there's something to be said about speaking about your scars, especially if it will help somebody else down the road.
Brittany Herzberg [00:19:40]: I very much agree with that. Okay, so we can look to points where we have, quote unquote failed or had a whoopsie moment. What other points can we look to to find some stories that we might want to end up sharing in emails?
Breanna Owen [00:19:53]: I love using just regular life things. I think you can follow the dominoes far enough and find a way to connect it back to yourself. But anything that matters in your life is going to be easy for you to write about and, like, you're going to be excited to write about it. So that's why I say, like, whatever you're into for the moment, it doesn't have to be something you're into forever. But right now, these are the things that are getting you excited. Those are the things that you should find a way to write about. You can think about things that, like, make you really mad or things that make you really happy or funny. Things your kids say. Like, there are stories all around us. We just have to live in the moment enough to see them.
Brittany Herzberg [00:20:36]: No, that totally makes sense. And I think that's really good advice. And now you have my brain going, okay, are there subject lines that seem to work best for emails with stories in them?
Breanna Owen [00:20:47]: So, okay, two things here. I'm currently working through the narrative that I'm not good at writing subject lines. It's a narrative I made up in my head. I can decide to change it at any point. I'm in the middle of that journey. So I will say that. But I will say that coming from the perspective of subject lines actually aren't my favorite. So what I like to do is I tend to write the email first and then I will say, what's something that I can pull out of this to put into a subject line that would make me want to read it? It would drive enough curiosity or it would, like, be loud enough that somebody would be like, what? What is this? And what is happening here? And so I like doing that every now and then I'll start with the subject line and then I'll make the email fit the subject line. But that's pretty rare. It might be something like a don't you dare. Like, if my subject line is don't you dare, there's a whole breadth of options of an email that could fit under the umbrella of don't you dare.
Brittany Herzberg [00:21:50]: Oh, totally. And I'm definitely clicking on that when that happens.
Breanna Owen [00:21:54]: Right, exactly. And so usually I try to, I write the email first, then I'm like, what's something, like, weird or interesting or quirky that I can pull out of it?
Brittany Herzberg [00:22:03]: Yeah, I like hearing that because I do. I do tend to write the email and then come up with a subject afterward. Every once in a while, I'll do it the reverse way. Now that I think about it, it was the same way with writing essays in school. I would write the thing and then titling it was my favorite. So I actually do really like titles! But it was the last thing that I would do. And I'd be like, how can I encapsulate this? How can I really make this peak curiosity and make someone want to read more? And of course, that's evolved from writing an essay in fifth grade to now writing headlines for case studies or whatever it may be, or subject lines for emails. But I do think that it's good tip for people to hear that you, as an email copywriter, don't even really love the art of writing a subject line for an email.
Breanna Owen [00:22:47]: I will data mine my own inbox for email. Subject lines that caught my attention, got them in a note on my phone, and sometimes I'll like, okay, let's pull a subject line that works. And other times I'll be like, how can I take the idea of this subject line that caught my attention and make it work for the email?
Brittany Herzberg [00:23:09]: I've definitely done that. That is one of the funnest places to, like you said, data mine your subject lines. It's like, what was, I super intrigued to click on what was catching my attention. Oh, that's so true. Is there anything you just, like, wish people knew about emails in general?
Breanna Owen [00:23:26]: Oh, emails in general, that they're more important than they are realizing, say more. So I feel like one of two things happen. Either people get caught up on an email list because there are technical aspects of getting an email list. Like, there's a lot that goes into place from, like, I'm going to write an email to I'm actually going to send it out. There are lots of little steps that people can get tripped up by compared to something else, like social media, for example, but also that people do get tripped up on those steps and they don't realize how important they are. To get through and what it can do for your business compared to if you don't create an email list. And then when you do have it all set up like we talked about earlier, it can be very hard to be like, what am I doing and what am I sending? And all of this. And there's so much more to your email strategy than sending, like, a weekly or monthly newsletter. And there's so much more you can do with it to serve your clients and to create free time and to serve people and to actually, like, increase the people who come from your funnel from, like, a very, just, like, business industry speak to close the loop with, like, closing deals and, like, more money being in your pocket. Email can serve all along that process. And so I think that people will often be like, oh, it's just a monthly newsletter. It can be so much more than that if you let it. It can actually do so much more for your business than you probably realize.
Brittany Herzberg [00:25:05]: Yeah, for sure. What are, like, one or two of the top things you've seen it do for your clients?
Breanna Owen [00:25:11]: So one of my clients that I absolutely want to turn into a case study is, I think this data is about two years old now. But I helped him create an email campaign that helped people move from the beginning of his business when people said they were interested in working with him until the point where people had worked with him and, like, their case was closed or whatever. I helped him create milestone campaigns to help them move through each of those things. And at the end of the year, he had sent 13,000 emails without ever hitting a send button. He had the highest close rate in his office. And in a year where his industry was seeing a decline in sales, he saw an increase in sales. And we did all of that through his email automation campaign.
Brittany Herzberg [00:26:00]: Oh, my gosh. Yeah. That needs to be a case study. I mean, just saying. But that needs to be somewhere.
Breanna Owen [00:26:06]: I will be talking to you later this year. Don't worry.
Brittany Herzberg [00:26:08]: Yeah, you will. You know where to find me. This is a good segue. Where can people find you?
Breanna Owen [00:26:13]: Yes. So, interestingly enough, I am on social media.
Brittany Herzberg [00:26:18]: You don't hate it? I. I'm kidding. Never mind. That was a can of worms.
Breanna Owen [00:26:22]: It is a can of worms. It's not my best friend, but I tolerate it, if you know what I mean. So, Owen, you're Mark is my handle on social media. My last name is Owen, so it's o w e n your mark. My website is breannaowen.com. super simple. So those are the primary places you can access my email list from my website.
Brittany Herzberg [00:26:44]: Do you have any kind of like, whether it's paid or free resources that might help people either simply just with email or even like storytelling in their emails?
Breanna Owen [00:26:55]: Yeah, absolutely. So right now I've got a freebie on my website. It's ten pro tips for growing your email list. And it's just ten random tips. My hope is that you find one or two that will be helpful to you for creating an email list, growing your email list, connecting with people. I even talk a little bit about like data and unsubscribes and stuff like that. So just kind of like ten random things to grow your email list is available for free on my website and then launching soon, it's done and I'm just putting all those tech pieces in place. But I have a new product called email Impact 365. It's this huge monster document on helping people come up with a year of email content that aligns with your strategy, but it also walks through, like how do you use storytelling in your emails to show up?
Brittany Herzberg [00:27:52]: I got a sneak peek of it and like, I can't wait to actually, I have not carved out time to really put that into play, but I'm so excited to because that resource was just absolutely incredible. I knew it was going to be amazing and then I got in there and I was like, oh, it's amazinger than I thought.
Breanna Owen [00:28:06]: Well, thanks. That's my goal. That's my hope is that how do we break it down and make this manageable and doable for people, right?
Brittany Herzberg [00:28:13]: I like your mission. Your mission is very aligned with my mission. It's a shocker you're here today.
Breanna Owen [00:28:19]: Why are we friends? I don't understand.
Brittany Herzberg [00:28:21]: I don't understand. Well, thank you so much for being here and for giving us all of this insight and all of this stuff to think through and really actionable tips as well that you shared. I really appreciate it. I need that recipe now too.
Breanna Owen [00:28:33]: I will send it. It was easy and delicious.
Brittany Herzberg [00:28:36]: I'm excited to hear that because that's what I need in my life. Well, I will catch you next time.