#65: The 5 Email Sequence Every Business Needs(and Why Post-purchase Comes First) with Breanna Owen

Email Marketing Experiments — Episode Transcript

The 5 Email Sequences Every Business Needs (with Breanna Owen)

Dr. Sapphire: Hello, listeners. Welcome back to Email Marketing Experiments. Today I have the amazing Breanna Owen, founder of Owen Your Mark and the creator of Email Energetics. She's about to tell us about something very exciting — our conversation today is something that is really dear to my heart: the five email sequences every business needs, and why the post-purchase sequence comes first. You already know one of them, but there are four more you need to know. Welcome, Breanna! It's so good to have you here.

Breanna Owen: Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited for our conversation today.

Dr. Sapphire: Me too. Breanna has such a rich and exciting journey. She started out studying fashion, then transitioned into email marketing, and she has 15 years of sales experience. There's something she said that really struck me — anytime she has the opportunity to make email easier, more personal, and more effective for business owners, she's all in. That's very much in line with our mission here. So Breanna, you're doing email strategy, copywriting, and creating human-design-aligned email strategies — emails that feel good, are simple to implement, and give results in people's businesses. But you have a degree in fashion and worked at Banana Republic. How did we go from there to here?

Breanna Owen: That's a question I ask myself sometimes too. To give you the backstory — and this covers the 15 years of sales experience as well — I had a direct sales business when my oldest son was a newborn. By the time he was about six, I had three kids. I'd been a stay-at-home mom running that side business for so long that I was craving something more for myself, so I leaned further into fashion — styling, jewelry. I loved the community of getting a room of women together; the jewelry was almost an excuse. But I noticed something as I worked with these women: when I asked about their day-to-day, their style, what they needed, and helped them find the right piece, they'd look in the mirror, stand taller, smile more. It clicked that this was never really about the jewelry — it was about helping women show up more confidently and be the fullest version of who they were made to be.

So I went to fashion school planning to build on the styling side. Marketing and fashion were under the same school umbrella there, and I needed a few marketing classes for my fashion degree. A professor pointed out I only needed three more classes to double-major in marketing and fashion — so I did both. For my internship, I needed a marketing placement, and I ended up cold-calling a friend's husband, our mortgage lender, and convincing him to hire me for the summer. That "summer internship" lasted about eight years.

Marketing became the practical choice too — after our fourth child, retail hours didn't fit the life I wanted. Marketing let me work from home and be there for my kids. That's really how I ended up in the marketing lane instead of the fashion lane.

Dr. Sapphire: I love that you just said, "I know he needs marketing — convince him to hire me," and that turned into eight years of a rich working relationship. Sometimes people are afraid to put themselves out there. Thank you for sharing that. Do you think you'll ever return to fashion, or has marketing become home?

Breanna Owen: I feel really comfortable in the marketing lane now. What I loved about styling — helping people feel like the best version of themselves — had very little to do with the actual clothes. It was about how you make someone feel good about who they are. I still do that; I just use words and emails instead of jewelry and clothes. The mission is the same, only the vehicle changed. I still often ask myself, "What would this sales experience be like in person? What would this be like in a brick-and-mortar interaction?" It's still there — it just looks different. Though my kids will tell you I have no fashion sense, despite the degree on my wall.

Dr. Sapphire: For our audience — when you say "brick and mortar," what kind of businesses are you referring to, and how does that shape how you think about email?

Breanna Owen: Brick and mortar just means any literal, in-person business for me — a store in a mall like Banana Republic, a vendor booth at a jewelry show, even a folding table with a tablecloth. It's any in-person selling experience. The email marketing obsession really solidified with my mortgage lender. He was incredibly customer-centric — he genuinely cared about connecting with people — but he hated writing emails, so he'd dash off something short and reward himself with a handful of M&Ms. Given how many customers he had, that wasn't sustainable.

So I'd sit with him and ask: if this customer were sitting right here, where are they in their journey, and what would you say to them? Not "what email do I send," but "what's the first thing you'd say if they walked into your store? What would you ask about what they need? What would you say next, and what are you ultimately trying to get them to do?" In my fashion background, that "next step" was often the dressing room — showing how a piece is versatile, worth the cost per wear. For the mortgage lender, it was often just getting them on the phone, because he was excellent on calls. We reverse-engineer that in-person conversation into email.

Dr. Sapphire: I love that flow — what do you want to achieve, what do you want the person to do, and if they were right here, what would you say? It reframes email as just a written version of a conversation you'd naturally have.

Breanna Owen: Exactly. Over the eight years I worked with him, we built about 20 different sequences — not overnight, over three or four years, one at a time. At most, his mortgage lending team was three people — a small operation in central Iowa, not a huge corporate org. One year, his team sent 13,000 emails to customers without ever hitting "send" manually, working with maybe 100–150 people a year. Think about all the follow-ups we mean to send versus what actually goes out — automation closes that gap. I'd guess most of us send a fraction of the emails we intend to.

Dr. Sapphire: So you built 20 sequences for him, but you've distilled it down to five that every business needs. Before we get there — we have a tradition on the show where guests share their biggest email marketing mistake. What's yours?

Breanna Owen: Mine is that I didn't set up these systems for myself for a long time. I'd been doing email marketing for about nine years before I built my own email list two or three years ago.

Dr. Sapphire: That happens to a lot of service providers — the thing you do for everyone else is the hardest to do for yourself.

Breanna Owen: Exactly. We're all so good at helping other people that we neglect our own. I think business owners need a co-working call where we just trade tasks — you handle mine, I'll handle yours.

Dr. Sapphire: So, what are the five email sequences every business needs?

Breanna Owen: I'd actually start with the fifth one, because I think it's the most important: the sequence that goes out after someone has worked with you — the post-purchase (or post-service) sequence. It sounds backwards, since they've already bought, but the data shows existing clients are 60–70% likely to hire you again, compared to 13–20% for a new lead. Even conservatively, if half of last year's clients rebooked or moved to your next offer, think about the impact on your business. They already know you — you don't have to re-establish trust or explain your process. It's like brunch with an old friend versus a new one; you just dive in.

Dr. Sapphire: That makes sense. Before we go deeper on post-purchase, what are the other four?

Breanna Owen: These five emerged as the patterns that generalized across all the nuanced sequences we built for the mortgage lender.

Welcome sequence — probably the most familiar one. Someone downloads a lead magnet or fills out a form, and the emails that follow are your welcome or initial nurture sequence.

Follow-up sequence — for after a call or an in-person meeting. We always say "I'll follow up with you," but as business owners we often talk ourselves out of it — "I don't want to bother them, I don't know what to say." Automating this removes that friction. Some of my clients prefer it saved as a draft rather than auto-sent — about 80% written, so they're never starting from a blank page but can still personalize it.

Onboarding sequence — especially useful when there's a gap between when someone starts working with you and when the process wraps up (mortgages, courses, longer projects). It can be as short as one or two emails, or longer for a multi-week course.

Cart-abandon sequence — for when someone clicks a link or views a sales page but doesn't follow through. A three-email sequence tends to convert better than a single email. Think of it as someone picking something up in a store, then putting it back — what would you say to them if you noticed that happening?

Post-purchase sequence — the one we started with.

Dr. Sapphire: This is basically the entire customer journey mapped to email — attention, nurture, convert, and then retention, because you're bringing them back in.

Breanna Owen: Exactly — everything.

Dr. Sapphire: I've used the onboarding sequence for a course that took about 60 days to complete on average, spacing reminders and resource pointers across that window so people don't forget the course exists.

Breanna Owen: That's a great example. I know a SaaS marketer who was brought in to fix high churn on a yearly subscription. The real issue was there was no email sequence walking people through the year — if you don't remind them you're there, they forget. It's the same idea: "You said you wanted this for a reason, here's your reminder to keep going."

Dr. Sapphire: Let's go deeper on post-purchase. Does it vary by industry, or is the core idea universal?

Breanna Owen: Big picture, it's universal, though the emphasis shifts. A consumable product (skincare, food) needs a different push than a durable good (a bag) or a service. It helps to ask: what do you want from people after they work with you?

Dr. Sapphire: For a service, maybe it's a retainer. For a course, maybe it's upselling to a longer mentorship.

Breanna Owen: Right — repeat business in some form. Beyond that, we want referrals, reviews, and raves. I recently learned some people split feedback and reviews into two separate emails — an early ask for honest feedback ("what could've been better?") and a later ask for a public review. Essentially, we want people to refer us, review us, and rave about us. How that's framed depends heavily on the business — and this is where I bring in human design.

Dr. Sapphire: Tell us about that.

Breanna Owen: Human design is the framework I use — similar in spirit to a personality assessment, but based on your birth date, time, and location rather than a subjective 120-question quiz. It shows how someone is naturally wired to communicate and motivate. I'm wired to light people up and get them excited — you can hear that energy in how I talk about these sequences. But I have another client whose motivation style is about fixing what's broken: "This isn't working, and I know it's hurting you — let me help you fix it so it doesn't hurt anymore." If I wrote her emails in my "let's get fired up" voice, they wouldn't land, because that's not how she — or her audience — shows up in the world.

Dr. Sapphire: So what does someone actually need to build a post-purchase sequence?

Breanna Owen: Start with one service — probably your most frequent one. Ask yourself: where do I want them to go next? And, if the conversation or project just ended in person, what would I say to them? I always like to include a quick win or tip — the same way you'd want care instructions after buying new clothes. After my one-on-one strategy sessions, I send the recording, a transcript PDF, and a clear next step: watch it again, take notes, and so on. That cements the fact that the experience was valuable before I come back later to ask for a review or referral.

Think long-term too. There's the immediate thank-you email, then maybe a review ask a day or two later, a referral ask a week after that, and a next-step offer. But don't stop there — check in again in three months, six months. Post-purchase is like postpartum: your "baby" could be 50 years old and you're still postpartum.

Dr. Sapphire: [laughs] I'm an OB-GYN, so we usually define postpartum as six weeks — but I get exactly what you mean. As long as someone is your client, you're always checking in.

Breanna Owen: Exactly — once a client, always a client.

Dr. Sapphire: Can you walk us through a real post-purchase sequence you've built — a case study?

Breanna Owen: Sure — this is for a coaching client who helps business owners transition out of the 9-to-5 grind. After she finishes working with someone, here's the sequence we built:

Celebration email — every post-purchase sequence should open with celebrating the win together.

Testimonial/review request — framed using her human design, since it shapes her best CTAs and what her ideal clients respond to. We also gave people fill-in-the-blank prompts ("Before I worked with [her], I felt ___. After, I felt ___") since people often don't know what to say.

Referral request — instead of "do you know anyone," we asked for two specific names. It's easier for people to picture two people than "anyone."

Next-step invitation — inviting them to consider working together again, reflecting on progress and what new opportunities that progress has opened up.

5–7. Value-add / "make the most of it" emails — because her audience learns through trial and error and wants time to experiment before re-engaging, so the sequence includes more spacing and more informational touchpoints than a typical one.

Future check-in — a "how's it going, want a tune-up?" email sent around the three-month mark.

In total, about seven or eight emails: the first two or three within a week of the project ending, spaced a few days apart, then a week-or-10-day gap before the value-add emails, and a bigger gap — around three months — before the final check-in.

Dr. Sapphire: I love how intentional each email is, and how the audience's traits shape the timing, not just the content.

Breanna Owen: Exactly — there's no universal length. If five emails do the job, do five. If you need more or less, that's fine too.

Dr. Sapphire: What's one myth about email marketing you'd like to bust?

Breanna Owen: That there's a one-size-fits-all rulebook. I'd love to burn that idea entirely. Everyone can have their own version of what works for them.

Dr. Sapphire: That's exactly why this show is called Email Marketing Experiments — the foundation stays the same, but the approach differs person to person, and experimenting is how you find what actually works for you.

Breanna Owen: I've actually started a series on my socials called "Burn, Bend, or Bible," where I run various email marketing "rules" through that filter — is this absolute truth, something to adapt, or something to toss out? So far, very few land as an unbendable "Bible."

Dr. Sapphire: What's your myth to bust, on your end?

Dr. Sapphire: The idea that email marketing is inherently hard. It's as hard or as easy as you make it. From the outside it looks complicated, but most people find it's far more approachable once they actually get into it. Because people believe it's hard, they push it to the back burner in favor of social media — even though plugging in email consistently often multiplies the results of everything else they're doing.

Breanna Owen: Yes! And the version of that myth that gets me every time is "email marketing just doesn't work for me." No — the way you're currently doing it might not be working. Email is an $11 billion-a-year industry. There's plenty of room for everyone to have a slice.

Dr. Sapphire: Well said. Where can our listeners find you and connect with you?

Breanna Owen: My website is OwenYourMark.com — if you go to OwenYourMark.com/links, you'll find all my freebies in one place, including resources on sequences and email list growth, with one coming soon on human design specifically. You can also find me on Instagram at @OwenYourMark — that's where I'm most active, and where the "Burn, Bend, or Bible" videos live.

Dr. Sapphire: Thank you so much, Breanna — this has been such a joy, and a genuine masterclass in email marketing. Listeners, all the links will be in the show notes, so just click through and check out everything Breanna has to offer. And if you're building or revamping your post-purchase sequence after this episode, we'd love to hear about it — drop a comment on your podcast player of choice. Until next time, this is Email Marketing Experiments, where we share the behind-the-scenes of failed and successful email marketing campaigns — what worked, and what didn't. Thanks again, Breanna!

Breanna Owen: Thank you so much for having me.