The List-Warming Strategy That Rescued This Email Domain

Overview

Heather Brown is a speaker, podcaster, and content creator who serves as an encouragement for mothers to live a healthy lifestyle—from the inside out. Focused on supporting the mental, physical, and spiritual health of busy moms, Heather has fostered a loyal following on Instagram and through her exclusive membership.

After using a Gmail domain (ex: @gmail.com) for all newsletters and promotions, Heather (like other influencers) was met with the new requirement to use an owned domain in 2024.

Without having an email marketing team in her corner, she blasted her entire list of 20,000 subscribers with no list warming (cue the tears).

To no surprise, she was met with a 5% open rate and no idea why her email performance was tanking.

The good news is… she found our team right in the nick of time. Acorn to the rescue!

With a proper list warming strategy in place and emails that would re-engage her audience, we are proud to have brought her email performance up to a 60% average open rate!

After saving her domain, we are now supporting Heather with a retainer, creating and sending four newsletters a month. Coming alongside her to foster an owned audience has been a partnership made in marketing heaven! ✨

Challenges

• Poor email domain reputation due to mass email sends
• No formatting or brand guidelines to her email templates
• Sales heavy messaging with little subscriber engagement
• Needed an owned marketing channel in today’s ever changing algorithm world
• Wanted to grow her membership offering through targeted email sequences

Solution / Scope of Work

• We implemented a list-warming strategy to rescue her domain from landing in spam
• We set up new templates to simplify her emails and represent her brand
• We supported her podcast launch and ongoing membership to grow her reach
• We are continuing to build her email list with engaged, ideal clients through free resources and email sequences
• We partner with Heather and her team every month to create newsletter content that resonates with her audience and fosters subscriber loyalty

Wins

With the proper email strategy in place, Heather has seen email performance she’s never seen before. From 10-15% open rates 👉  55-65% open rates, our team is so thankful that Heather called us in to rescue her domain! Another email list saved. 😉

We have integrated seamlessly with the team at Healthy By Heather Brown, and have become major fan girls of the work they are doing. While we lead email efforts, her team stays on top of social, podcast, and affiliate strategy—a well-oiled marketing machine! Everyone knows that marketing isn’t just about Instagram anymore. And with our help, Heather’s email list is now a profitable, owned marketing channel that nurtures her audience and engages on a personal level.