Send the Damn Email With Shannon Vonderach

Why Email Marketing Feels Hard (And How to Make It Easier)

Shannon, aka the Email Queen, didn't always believe in email. As a wedding photographer running a full calendar with her husband, she tried it a couple of times, got no obvious results, and moved on. Then 2020 happened, the calendar emptied out almost overnight, and she found herself helping a friend with her email marketing — and realizing she'd been doing it completely wrong.

She sent one email to the list she'd been quietly collecting but never actually emailing. She made $2,600. Then she sent a few more emails a couple months later and made another $1,400. And she thought: why is nobody teaching this?

That's what this episode is about.

The Real Reason You're Not Emailing Your List

If you've got a list of emails sitting there and you're not sending to them, you're probably telling yourself it's because you don't know what to write. And maybe that's true. But Shannon thinks there's something else underneath it too.

Email doesn't give you instant feedback. When you post on social media, you get likes, replies, a little dopamine hit that tells you people are paying attention. When you send an email, you get... silence. Maybe an open rate. Maybe an unsubscribe. And when that one person unsubscribes, it's easy to spiral — does everyone hate this? Did I say something wrong? — while completely ignoring the 90 people who are still there and still reading.

The other thing that gets in the way is the emails we're used to receiving. Massive brands blasting promotional content 27 times a week. Of course that feels like what email marketing is supposed to look like. Of course it feels exhausting and performative.

But what if it didn't have to be that? What if your emails were just an extension of you — your personality, your community, your way of talking to people? Shannon's reframe: write it like you're texting a friend. If a client asked you a question in real life, what would you actually say? Write that. Send that.

Stop Waiting for the Perfect Email

Your emails do not need to be 500 words. They don't need perfect grammar. They don't need to be polished to within an inch of their life before you send them.

A typo is not a disaster. A wrong link is not a disaster — you just send a follow-up with the right one and move on. You're a human being writing to other human beings. Most of your readers are not sitting there with a red pen. And the ones who are? Honestly, that says more about them than it does about your email.

Shannon's take on unsubscribes is one of my favourites: if you had a physical store and one person walked out, would you chase them down the street demanding to know why they didn't like the window display? No. You'd keep serving the people still in the store. Unsubscribes work the same way. Let them go. They might not have been your people anyway — and in some cases, they'll see a post of yours somewhere else a few weeks later and buy from you then.

What to Do If You've Ghosted Your List

First: don't apologize. Seriously. Nobody noticed you were gone. They were too busy with their own lives to track your email cadence.

If it's been three to six months, Shannon says just show up again. No need for a big explanation. If it's been longer — a year or more — a short re-introduction email makes sense. Something honest: hey, it's been a while, here's how you probably ended up on my list, here's what I'm up to now, here's what you can expect from me going forward. You can even offer a freebie or point them to something valuable. Give them a reason to stay, set expectations, and then actually follow through on them.

That's it. No dramatic comeback moment required.

Email vs. Social Media: The Case for Prioritizing the Inbox

Here's what it comes down to: the return on your time and energy with email is significantly higher than social media. Shannon moved to another country recently, and while she was barely posting, she was still making sales almost daily — because her email was running in the background doing the work.

Social media requires you to keep showing up in order to keep seeing results. A post from three weeks ago is basically gone. An email from three weeks ago might still get opened. A blog post or email from years ago can still bring someone into your world today.

And unlike social platforms, you own your email list. The algorithm doesn't decide who sees your emails. You're not at the mercy of a platform that might change its rules tomorrow. You're landing directly in someone's inbox — a place they chose to let you in.

That's a fundamentally different relationship than a follow or a like, and it's worth treating it that way.

One Quick but Important Note on Consent

Before you start emailing everyone who's ever handed you their address — make sure they've actually opted in. If you're collecting emails through bookings or appointments, add a simple checkbox: Would you like to receive emails from me? Make it cute if you want. Call it something that sounds like your brand. Just ask.

Always include an unsubscribe option in every email. This isn't just good practice — in Canada and the US, it's the law.

The Bottom Line

Just send the email. Start with one. It doesn't have to be long or perfect or profound. It just has to sound like you talking to someone you like.

Your list is waiting. They gave you their email address because they wanted to hear from you. Go give them something worth reading.

🎧 Listen to the podcast

If you're a local, service-based business owner who's done great work but struggling to put it into words, Market This is the podcast that helps you fix that. 

Listen to the show here: 

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1rfllDKDEW62DQBb7HMBHS 

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/market-this-local-business-marketing-content-marketing/id1719786195