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How Email Marketing Can Support Your Personal Brand

Kruti Shah
Kruti Shah
Aug 2, 2024
How Email Marketing Can Support Your Personal Brand
How Email Marketing Can Support Your Personal Brand

Branding is for more than just companies and organizations. It is for everyone with a professional career aiming to stand out and succeed in their industries. 

Personal branding is the public-facing identity you create for yourself. It is a reflection of your identity. It tells your story - who you are, what you stand for, what your strengths are, and how you can utilize those strengths to contribute to your community. 

Strong and effective branding helps you connect with like-minded industry experts and professionals and allows you to stand out in a competitive market. Email marketing is one of the most commonly used ways to amplify your personal brand. 

In this post, we will learn why email marketing is among the best mediums for building a personal brand. We will also share a detailed step-by-step guide on building a personal brand with email marketing. 

Building a personal brand with email marketing

Email marketing allows direct and personalized communication with your audience. You can use it to share engaging content, expert insights, anecdotes, and more to foster a deeper connection with your readers. You can also tailor your messages to your subscriber's preferences, interests, and engagement history. 

A step-by-step guide on building a personal brand with email marketing

First and foremost, define your goals.This will help you track what you want to achieve with your email marketing efforts. For example, driving traffic to your blog, growing your email list, etc. 

Next, set measurable targets for your email campaigns. For instance, if you wish to grow your email lists, the target would be the number of subscribers.

#1. Know yourself first

Personal branding is all about you. That is why you need to understand who you are and evaluate your professional persona. This will help you build an authentic personal brand for yourself, which will then reflect in your email marketing campaigns. It will give your email messages a unique voice. 

Interview yourself and get to know yourself better. Ask yourself the following questions:

  • Who are you, and what are you all about? 
  • What adjectives describe you? And what adjectives can you never associate yourself with?
  • What is one thing that is unique about you regarding your professional life?
  • What are your strengths and weaknesses?
  • What are your short-term and long-term goals?
  • Who or what is your inspiration?
  • What impact do you want to make with your personal brand?

#2. Define your brand identity and values

Now that you have answers to these questions, it is time to define your brand identity and values.

Your values truly represent what matters to you and form the foundation of your brand identity. For example, if you value innovation, this may mean that you consistently seek new ideas or novel approaches in your professional career. Similarly, if you value empathy, you represent yourself as compassionate and focused on understanding others and their needs. 

Your values set you apart from others.  

Ensure that your values are conveyed correctly in your email messaging. You may also design visual elements like different types of logos, unique typography, and a color theme to make it more impactful and relatable.

#3. Determine your target audience

The next step is to define your target audience. Ask yourself why you are building your personal brand. Is it to grow your business and secure business partnerships or funding? Is it to advertise your existing business?

This will help you identify your target audience and guide you with your future steps.

Find a way to talk to your target audience and build a professional relationship with them. To connect with them on a more personal level, you need to understand their needs, challenges, interests, and more. Create personas to gain deeper insights into your target audience. This will help you personalize your branding strategy according to their expectations. 

#4. Build your email list

Now that you know your target audience, it is time to build an email list to communicate your personal brand. Email lists are important for developing a successful email marketing strategy. They give you complete control over your communication by helping you tailor your messages according to your recipients' preferences. 

Segment your audience into different categories. Understand your audience's demographics, behaviors, and interests and categorize them into various groups. This will help you send personalized content that meets the needs and preferences of different audience groups.

Here are a few tactics you can follow to build your email lists.

  • Create email newsletter sign-up forms and place them on your website, especially the homepage, blog, and important landing pages.
  • Design pop-ups and slide-in forms that can be displayed to visitors once they spend a certain amount of time on your website or during exit.
  • Include the sign-up link in your email signature to collect email addresses. Do not forget to highlight the same in your signature using appealing content and design.
  • Utilize your social media pages to run contests or giveaways, asking participants to sign up with their email addresses.
  • Write guest posts on other websites sharing your expert knowledge with a CTA to join your email list.
  • Create downloadable resources like ebooks, templates, checklists, and more, and provide access to these exclusive resources in exchange for email addresses.
  • Host meetups, workshops, or other training events in a coworking space to connect with your subscribers and share your knowledge. Most coworking spaces use meeting space booking systems that allow non-members to reserve conference rooms and other spaces on demand.

#5. Write compelling content and invest in good design

Create high-quality content that offers value to your audience. For example, sharing tips, advice, or industry insights will help enhance their knowledge or provide answers to their queries. 

Develop a solid content plan. Create an email content calendar that outlines the topics you will cover, how often you will send your emails and their timings.Offer a healthy mix of different types of content, like newsletters, personal stories, blog updates, and so on, to keep your audience engaged. Introduce some interactive elements like polls, quizzes, or surveys. Share ready-to-download templates, checklists, posters, and more that subscribers can take away from you.

The best way to grab your audience's attention is by telling your story.

Support your story with a few visual elements - images or videos. Share personal anecdotes, stories, experiences, and more to humanize your brand. Your subscribers will be able to relate to you better.

Write engaging email copy and attractive subject lines to entice subscribers into opening your messages. Leverage personalization to share highly tailored content with your subscribers.

Invest in good design to make your emails look visually appealing. Add branding elements like your logo, consistent color scheme, standard design layout, and more. Make sure your emails are mobile-friendly, as 50-60% of emails are opened on mobile devices. You can also use free, visually appealing, and mobile-friendly HTML email templates.

#6. Develop your email marketing program 

Creating and sending emails manually is tedious and time-consuming. Utilizing email marketing software is the best way to send emails to your subscribers without breaking a sweat. Get a branded email address before you invest in email marketing software. Instead of sending emails from johndoe@gmail.com, create a custom email address - hello@johndoe.com to send your emails. This will work wonders for your reputation. 

Invest in an easy-to-use email builder, like Beefree, that offers a robust suite of design tools to create beautiful and high-performing emails without any hassles. Beefree provides an extensive library of over 1,700 free email templates and landing page templates that can be easily customized for your email campaigns. Additionally, Beefree integrates seamlessly with leading email marketing software with a few clicks.

Next, choose an all-in-one email marketing software with excellent features, high deliverability, and cost-effective pricing structures. Some of the key features to consider include:

  • Email automation - Automation helps you communicate with your audience at the right time to ensure that you always stay on top of their minds, thus boosting your brand image.
  • Behavioral targeting—Behavioral targeting enables you to monitor your subscriber's past behavior, such as purchase history, abandoned carts, email interactions, and so on. This helps you devise a personalized strategy for individual subscribers based on their preferences, positioning you as a brand that cares about its subscribers.
  • A/B testing - A/B testing helps you test different versions of your emails to monitor their performance and optimize your campaigns for higher engagement. Thereby, helping you create engaging emails that subscribers love to read. 
  • Subscriber scoring - As the name suggests, subscriber scoring helps you rate subscribers based on their engagement levels to prioritize the most active ones. This enables targeted communication and fosters personalized interactions with your subscribers, thus enhancing audience connection and brand reputation. 
  • Advanced reporting - Advanced reporting boosts a personal brand by providing insights into engagement metrics, audience behavior, and campaign performance. This data helps you create personalized content, targeted strategies, and improved communication to build stronger connections with subscribers and enhance the brand's reputation.
  • Email ticketing systemsAn email ticketing system boosts a personal brand by streamlining customer support and ensuring timely and efficient responses. Resolving issues quickly and effectively builds trust, reinforces a positive brand image, and fosters loyalty among subscribers.

#7. Figure out what is working

Building your personal brand is an ongoing process, not a one-time activity. To ensure you are on the right track, regularly monitor your list health and email performance. Track your email list for its growth and monitor the rate at which your subscribers opt-out. This will help you understand if the recipients are loving your content or are tired of your messages.

In other words, you will know what percentage of subscribers no longer wish to receive your messages.

Also, measure the percentage of subscribers who have opened your emails and clicked on any links within your email messages. This will offer you invaluable insights into how engaging your emails are to the audience and, thus, the effectiveness of your strategy.

Best personal branding examples to derive inspiration from

Jay Clouse

Jay Clouse is a content creator who has mastered the art of content creation and ventured into teaching others how to become one. He has created multiple courses to share his knowledge and guide people to become professional creators. Email newsletters are one of the ways through which Jay has built his brand (and then his company, Creator Science). He also runs a personal blog sharing anecdotes of his life to connect with his audience personally.

Source

Noah Kagan

Noah Kagan, the CEO of AppSumo, is a successful entrepreneur and content creator. He has consistently built his brand via a newsletter with over 200000+ readers. His newsletter “Noah's Nuggets” talks about business tips, product recommendations, productivity hacks, and so much more. This weekly marketing newsletter from Noah Kagan is one of his personal branding strategies and has directly contributed to his growth.

Source

Sade Kelly

Sade Kelly is a time management coach who has mentored ambitious individuals on how to manage their time to peacefully balance work and personal life. She offers coaching services to help individuals learn how to leverage time and organize their lives. Her newsletter, Join the Fire Insiders, shares exclusive time management tips, lessons on personal growth, and more.

Source

Wrapping up

Personal branding is an invaluable tool for carving your unique identity in today's competitive market. It helps you attract new opportunities and advance your career. Leveraging email marketing to boost your brand is an effective way to connect with your audience.

Utilize our guide on building a personal brand with email marketing to kickstart your personal branding efforts and build a loyal following.

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Now, let's be honest—you’ve likely heard about all of these rotating for the last few years. While email marketing has come a long way and is changing faster than ever, there’s only so much you can do within 600x1,500 pixels. However, there are no limits to where your creativity can take you. 

Let’s get into it.  

#1. Unique, tailored experiences 

Damian Grabarczyk, the co-founder and growth marketer of PetLab Co., says, “We faced the challenge of connecting meaningfully with an audience that expects more than one-size-fits-all communication.” 

When we speak about crafting tailored emails we mean going beyond the recipient's first name in the subject line. We’re talking about optimizing your entire email strategy to design multi-stage touchpoints to nurture leads across the customer lifecycle. As well as, leveraging data to send hyper-personalized, relevant, and engaging emails that feel less like a broadcast message and more like a conversation. 

Many are using AI machine learning algorithms and AI automation to analyze customer interactions, past purchases, browsing habits, website visits, and even social media behavior to curate engaging email content that resonates deeply with the real-time needs of recipients.

For PetLab Co this looked like including content such as an individual’s pet health history or product usage timelines. Damian Grabarzyk expands, “This approach transformed the conversion rate and strengthened customer loyalty. As we look ahead, I see brands in 2025 moving beyond generic personalization to adopt strategies that make customers feel truly understood and valued.”

On the other hand, many are leaning into user-generated content (UGC) for crafting tailored experiences. Customers today are more likely to trust the opinions of peers over branded messages. UGC like customer reviews, testimonials, videos, and photos are the best form of social proof depicting real people using and benefitting from your products or services. 

We see the benefits of using both AI and UGC to get the most out of your email conversions ;). 

#2. AI tools as an addition, not a substitution

Experts at NordPass state, "AI-powered content generation tools are not here to replace email copywriters and marketers. These tools make us more efficient. The smarter the tool is, the better equipped we are to create high-performing email content that drives results." 

AI tools can support us by significantly enhancing the speed, precision, and effectiveness of your emails. For instance while traditionally A/B testing has required a lot of time to analyze small variations with AI you quickly implement and test multiple email elements and make adjustments based on real-time engagement data. There are AI algorithms that can even predict which variations are most likely to resonate with different audience segments, leading to more accurate targeting and faster optimization.

In short, AI tools are revolutionizing the way we craft and optimize our email’s deliverability. There are many different types of AI solutions so we suggest finding the right one for your needs. 

#3. Even more transparency around data

With AI continuing to rise, folks are more and more concerned about where their data is going. That’s where zero-party data collection becomes a key strategy in email marketing, allowing you to gather data directly from customers rather than relying on third-party sources. 

Zero-party data includes information that consumers willingly share, such as preferences, interests, and purchase intentions. This data is often collected through surveys, preference centers, quizzes, or interactive content and is highly valuable because it is shared explicitly, ensuring accuracy and deeper personalization without privacy concerns associated with third-party tracking.

As privacy regulations tighten, zero-party data will empower you to deliver hyper-personalized email experiences while respecting user privacy. This approach will help you build trust, as customers feel more in control of their data, and you gain insights that lead to more relevant and engaging email content.

#4. The death of static emails

With attention span getting shorter day after day, digest-format emails are expected to rise in popularity in 2025. Presenting email content in an easy-to-scan, organized, and minimalistic layout will surely help deliver the most relevant information in a fraction of the time. 

Additionally, interactive emails will allow recipients to directly engage within the email without having to visit a landing page or website. Interactive elements like product carousels, polls, and quizzes create a dynamic experience that keeps subscribers engaged, especially in visually driven industries like fashion brands

So what now? 

You’ve heard these strategies before, but now it’s time to actually put them into action. The brands that win at email marketing in 2025 won’t just be sending emails—they’ll be creating experiences. Whether it’s hyper-personalized content, AI-driven efficiency, zero-party data collection, or interactive emails that break the mold, the key is to stay ahead of the curve.

So, what’s the first strategy you’ll finally implement? Your inbox (and your audience) are waiting.

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What do customers think about your brand’s products? The best way to find out is to ask them directly, which you can do via strategic email campaigns.

Email makes gathering authentic product reviews quick and easy. By collecting sincere feedback, you can build trust, increase sales, boost loyalty, and innovate product improvements. 

That said, requesting reviews via email requires precise timing, personalized messaging, and lots of engagement optimizations. But don’t worry—we’ll walk you through some key steps to create email campaigns that deliver the valuable feedback you need.

Why product reviews matter

Product reviews do more than confirm that you're meeting customers’ needs. Sincere feedback drives loyalty and sales, offers valuable customer insights, and helps you develop a strategic product development roadmap.

  • Fosters customer loyalty: Requesting and listening to feedback makes your customers feel valued and heard. It demonstrates that you prioritize customer satisfaction, which helps you build stronger, long-term relationships. Review requests also act as re-engagement emails by starting new conversations with customers.
  • Increases sales: Social proof drives sales. According to a recent survey by Power Reviews, 90% of potential customers use online reviews to make purchasing decisions. In fact, reviews have more influence over purchasing decisions than product prices. Turning product reviews into customer testimonials and encouraging reviews on third-party sites can significantly boost sales.
Image sourced from powerreviews.com
  • Builds Customer 360 insights: Customer feedback delivers insights into customer needs and sentiments, enriching Customer 360. Exactly what is Customer 360? It’s a unified, 360-degree view of customer data. It empowers you to tailor products and customer experiences to meet individual needs and preferences. 
  • Drives product improvements: Sincere customer feedback reveals what target customers like/dislike about your products. It provides key insight into their value, functionality, and usability, unlocking large-scale development opportunities.

How to create an email campaign to collect product reviews

Want to unlock the power of product reviews? Let’s explore how to create email campaigns that encourage customers to share their feedback.

Segment your audience

Like promotional emails, product review requests shouldn’t be sent to every subscriber.

If subscribers haven’t had the chance to try your product, product review requests will feel irrelevant and may trigger unsubscriptions. So, only send review email requests to customers recently trying your product.

You can do this by segmenting your email list based on where customers are in the buying cycle. Target loyal customers, recent purchasers, and first-time buyers with tailored email campaigns. This ensures that you’re sending emails to customers most likely to respond with insightful feedback.

Write a compelling email subject line

According to Superoffice, 33% of people open an email based on the subject line. 

Image sourced from superoffice.com

To get the click-through rates you want, your email subject lines should be personalized, relevant, and engaging. Here are some examples:

  • Did you love [product]? Or hate it? Let us know!
  • We value your opinion — help us improve!
  • We want YOU to help us make our product better!
  • Up for a discount? Share your feedback for 10% off! 

Learn more > Tips for writing open worthy subject lines.

Optimize for customer engagement

A successful email marketing strategy relies on customer engagement. Here are some key email elements you need to encourage interactions.

  • An attractive email design: With the right layout, color scheme, typography, and images, you ensure easy readability and promote interaction. Use these engagement-boosting email design best practices to help you create a design that boosts conversion rates.
  • Gratitude and value: Thank customers for reading the email and explaining why their feedback is so important. Also, consider including a personalized Gmail email signature with your content details to build trust and encourage customers to engage with your review request. 
  • Personalized, relevant content: Personalized email content motivates engagement. Use customer data platform (CDP) data to tailor messages to individual customers. What is a CDP? It’s a centralized platform that collects and unifies customer information, building comprehensive customer profiles. 
  • Incentives: Offering a small discount can motivate customers to leave reviews, especially first-time buyers. That said, incentives can (sometimes) generate insincere reviews, so stress the importance of honesty. 
  • A strong call-to-action (CTA): Your CTA should direct readers straight to the reviews submission page. Use clear CTAs with bold buttons and typography to make it stand out.
  • Mobile responsiveness: If your emails are slow to load or don’t display correctly on mobile devices, your bounce rate will spike. Leverage solutions that offer advanced mobile optimization features — such as Beefree— to create responsive emails every single time.

Ask specific, concise questions

Complex, drawn-out questions that are too open-ended can disengage customers. So, get straight to the point with concise, direct questions. Here are some examples:

  • What did you think of [specific product feature]?
  • How often do you use our product?
  • What are your favorite/least favorite features?
  • How likely are you to recommend this product?
  • What could we do to improve our product?

Use a mixture of closed and open-ended questions to increase your chances of receiving meaningful responses.

Make it easy to respond

The easier it is for customers to leave a review, the more responses you’ll receive. So, make the process as seamless and convenient as possible. One way to do this is with survey emails.

Email surveys have high response rates. They can be completed within the email with minimal effort, which is a big plus for busy customers. And, they can generate a wealth of quantitative data and metrics that are quick to analyze, leading to faster improvements. BeeFree has an extensive collection of email survey templates to suit every need.

For longer review requests, include a CTA that directly links to the review submission page. Review forms should use simple, clear language, be optimized for mobile, and have a progress bar. 

You could even provide your telephone contact details to allow customers to leave a review via telephone. It’s the preferred communication method for 55% of Baby Boomers according to Hubspot, so it’s worth considering. 

Leverage small business telephone services from Vonage to access call center capabilities like virtual receptionists and CRM integrations, streamlining processes.

Also consider directing customers to leave reviews on popular review sites, such as Google and Amazon.

Optimize email timings

If you send product review requests too early, there’s a chance your customers won’t have tried your product yet. But if you send them too late, your customer might have forgotten their experience. 

So, when’s the best time to request reviews? 

Aim to send review requests within 7-14 days post-purchase. This gives customers a chance to try the product a few times, leading to more sincere, meaningful reviews. Plan for seasonal surges such as Black Friday and incorporate them into your schedules.

Key takeaways

Do email campaigns work for gathering valuable product reviews that drive improvements, boost trust, and increase sales and loyalty? 

Absolutely — but they need to be strategic.

To generate sincere reviews and valuable data, ensure your marketing emails are personalized, engaging, and optimized for convenience. And, use email list segmentation and marketing automation to ensure they’re sent to the right customers at the right time.

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