The 3 Types Of Emails Every Local Business Owner Needs

You're Not Bad at Email. You Just Don't Know What Job It's Supposed to Do.

That's the thing I hear all the time from small business owners: I'm just not good at email.

And I'm here to tell you — that's not it. What's actually happening is you've been asking one email to do too many jobs at once. Once you understand that there are different types of emails, each with a different purpose, the whole thing gets a lot simpler.

So let's break down the three types: nurture emails, sales emails, and newsletters.

1. Nurture Emails

The whole point of a nurture email is right there in the name — it's designed to nurture your audience. To make them feel seen, heard, and understood. These are your warm-up emails, the ones that build the relationship before you ever ask anyone to buy anything.

When someone joins your email list, they're not just scrolling past you like a stranger on the street. They invited you in. That's a fundamentally different kind of relationship than a social media follow, and it deserves to be treated that way.

The replies you're going for with nurture emails? It feels like you were reading my mind. I felt like this was written just for me. That's the signal you're doing it right.

On length: Your nurture emails do not have to be long. Some of mine are seven lines. Paragraphs of two or three sentences, a little space, two or three more sentences. Most people are reading email on their phones, so digestible beats impressive every time.

On storytelling: This is the secret to nurture emails that actually land. Think about why you remember certain stories — your favourite books, your favourite movies, a line you can still quote twenty years later. Stories are sticky in a way that information alone just isn't.

Using storytelling in email doesn't mean writing a 600-word saga. It means borrowing the structure of a good story: introduce a character (you, a client, your dog, your kid — whoever fits), bring in some kind of conflict or tension, reach a resolution, and tie it back to your business. The whole thing can happen in a few sentences. The opening hook of your email might be something as simple as: "The other day I was at my daughter's volleyball game and got talking to another parent, and what she said stopped me cold." That's a story beginning. People will read on.

The other thing I want you to hear: stop second-guessing your drafts. If you have emails sitting in your drafts folder because you don't think they're good enough — send them. They don't have to be perfect. Done and sent beats polished and sitting there doing nothing.

2. Sales Emails

Here's the thing about sales emails: we are in business to make money, and a sales email's job is to sell. There's no need to be weird or apologetic about it.

The best example of a simple, effective sales email? My esthetician sends one every month with her current specials — three blocks of text describing what's on offer, and a link to book. That's it. It works because it's clear and it makes it easy to take the next step.

Where most people go wrong with sales emails is either (a) burying the sales part so deep in nurture-style writing that nobody realizes there's an offer, or (b) leading with the offer before the reader has any reason to care.

The key is understanding what your clients are actually struggling with — their real pain points — so your email speaks to that before making the pitch. Not to agitate people for the sake of it, but so they read it and think: yes, this is exactly what I need. When you nail that, the offer feels like a natural next step, not an interruption.

You can still use storytelling in a sales email. You can still have warmth and personality. The difference is that the destination is clear: here's what I'm offering, here's who it's for, here's how to get it.

3. Newsletters

I want to push back a little on how the word "newsletter" gets used — because a lot of people use it as a synonym for "email marketing," and I think that causes a lot of confusion.

A newsletter, to me, is a specific format for a specific purpose. Think of the emails your financial planner or accountant might send — here's what's happening in the market, here's a relevant update, here are some links worth reading. It's a roundup format, often sent on a regular schedule, and it works really well for industries where there's genuinely newsworthy content to share.

That's different from a personal email where you're connecting with your audience and nurturing the relationship. Both are valid. They're just not the same thing. And calling everything a "newsletter" is part of why so many people feel like they're doing email wrong — they're trying to write something that fits a format that isn't right for what they're actually trying to do.

The Takeaway

You don't need to start sending three emails a week. You don't need a complex sequence or a fancy strategy.

When you have something to sell, put it in an email. When something happens in your life or business that you can connect back to what you do, put it in an email. When you want to stay top of mind without a hard sell, put it in an email.

And if something you shared on social got a great response — repurpose it. You don't have to come up with brand new ideas every time. The goal isn't cleverness. It's clarity and consistency.

One email at a time.

🎧 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: 

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