Brand Strategy & Coaching for Jess Zierer of Tails & Emails
How One Email Marketing Expert Found Her Niche and Filled Her Roster With Dream Clients in Less Than One Year
What we did:
Stand Out Brand Strategy Session + 1:1 Brand and Business Coaching
Jess Zierer of Tails & Emails is an email and SMS marketing strategist with over 10 years of marketing experience. She helps small businesses build email marketing systems that actually work by combining data, strategy, and automation to grow revenue without adding to the business owner's already-full plate.
When Jess came to me, she had clients and was making money, but she wasn't doing the work she wanted to do with the clients she wanted to work with.
She was working with health supplement companies, travel agencies, and chiropractors. All fine clients, but not the ones that lit her up. She knew she wanted to focus on pet businesses (her true passion), but felt too scattered and too close to her own business to figure out how to make that shift.
But before we dive in,
Here’s what Jess had to say…
“I feel like I can breathe again. Morgan was able to take the chaos that was my brain and make it make sense. Now I have a much stronger understanding of who I am, who I can help, and where I want to go with my business. ”
— Jess Zierer, Founder of Tails & Emails
The Challenge: Doing The Right Work for the Wrong Clients
When Jess and I first connected, she was in an interesting position. She had a full roster of paying clients, and they were all happy with the work she was doing for them.
But it just wasn’t lighting her up in the way she knew it could be.
As she explained in our initial conversation:
"I'm doing email management and making money, which is nice… but it's not what I want to be doing."
The core issues we identified for Jess were:
01.
Working with the wrong clients
Jess had clients in health supplements, luxury travel, home renovation, and chiropractic care. All paying clients, but none in the industry she was passionate about: pet businesses.
02.
Not charging
enough
She was doing too much work for too little money, which made it even harder to transition to her ideal clients.
03.
Feeling
scattered
When Jess looked at other email marketers in her space, she felt like they had it all "together" while she felt all over the place. Her messaging was unclear, her website didn't reflect her expertise, and she didn't have a cohesive brand strategy to guide her decisions.
03.
Too close to see clearly
Jess had a clear vision of where she wanted her business to go. She'd been in marketing for 10 years, and knew that email marketing was her true passion. She also loved animals and wanted to combine that passion with her expertise to work exclusively with pet businesses. The destination was clear in her mind, but she couldn't see the path forward on her own.
Brand Strategy: Fully Owning Her New Niche
In April 2025, Jess and I sat down for her Stand Out Brand™ Strategy Session with one goal in mind – to helpher make the pivot from generalist email marketer to THE email marketing expert for pet businesses.
The goal was clear: niche down, get specific, and give Jess the language and positioning to confidently claim her space in the pet industry.
This wasn't about reinventing her expertise. Jess already knew email marketing inside and out. But we needed to translate that general expertise into something highly specific and valuable for pet business owners and more importantly, give her the confidence to say "I only work with pet businesses" without second-guessing herself.
What we defined:
We distilled all of Jess's thoughts and opinions about her business and industry along with her client feedback and my outside perspective into final brand purpose, mission, and vision statements which all centered around helping pet businesses establish effective and easy-to-use email marketing systems so they can increase revenue and spend more time growing their business instead of struggling to DIY their marketing.
Jess's core values became the filter for every business decision moving forward:
Tails & Emails’ unique positioning:
The really special thing about Jess and Tails & Emails is that she helps pet businesses who are looking to grow their business implement email marketing strategies that support sustainable and long-term growth.
Unlike other email marketing agencies, she has a deep and unique understanding of the pet industry and places a special emphasis on education so that her clients understand exactly why they're doing what they're doing, and how they can build upon the work they've done together.
This clarity became the foundation for everything that came next.
Ongoing Coaching: Turning Strategy Into Action
After our strategy session, Jess had a clear plan for where she was going, but knew she needed some support in actually executing, so she immediately signed on for ongoing 1:1 brand and business coaching.
This is where the magic really happened, because here's the thing about brand strategy: it's incredibly valuable, but only if you actually use it.
Over the course of about a year, we met regularly to work through every aspect of Jess's business transformation. Every single move that we made was rooted in the brand strategy we created together.
What we worked on:
Package Development & Pricing Strategy
Jess needed to create service offerings specifically for pet businesses that reflected the true value of her expertise and niche positioning. Using her brand strategy as the foundation, we developed two core packages for both service and product based pet businesses:
The Enhanced Email Package — A comprehensive package with email list setup or clean-up, four automated email sequences (welcome, opt-in, service promo, and nurture evergreen), training, and 30 days of post-launch support.
The Core Email Package — Perfect for businesses just getting started, including setup, two automated email sequences, training, and support.
We also developed an Email Audit + Strategic Roadmap — a low-barrier entry point that provides a comprehensive 30-point audit, 15-page detailed report, 90-day action plan, review call, and 14 days of support. This gives pet business owners a clear roadmap for their email marketing without the commitment of a full implementation package.
Each offering was designed around her values of education, empowerment, and meeting clients where they're at, and were structured in a way that solved the problem of Jess doing too much work for too little money.
Marketing Strategy
How do you reach pet business owners who need email marketing help? We built a comprehensive marketing plan that included showing up both digitally and in person, attending industry trade shows, and creating content that positioned Jess as THE email marketing expert for the pet industry.
Team Building
As Jess's client roster grew with ideal clients, she needed support to maintain the level of quality and education she'd built her reputation on. She needed someone who understood her values-driven approach and could write in a way that aligned with her brand voice.
Using her brand strategy as the hiring guide, Jess brought on a copywriting subcontractor who could support her education-first methodology and empathetic approach to client communication. The focus here was on strategically scaling her business while maintaining the brand consistency and quality her clients expected.
This has allowed Jess could focus on the strategic work and client relationships she loves most (the parts that light her up) while still delivering exceptional, on-brand results for every client.
Website & Visual Identity
With her brand strategy clearly defined, Jess was able to confidently guide other service providers in helping her with a complete visual rebrand and website overhaul. She worked with Kylie Buss Design for her visual identity, Hello Co. Creative for copy, and DIY'd her website design. These processes were incredibly smooth and effective because everyone was working out of the same playbook and basing their work on the same brand strategy.
Ongoing SEO Support
We're currently working together on an SEO project to help Jess reach even more ideal clients through organic search. Again, everything we are doing for Jess’s SEO is rooted in the brand positioning we established in her initial strategy session.
We're optimizing for search terms that her specific ideal clients (pet business owners) are actually using when they're looking for email marketing help. Keywords like "email marketing for veterinarians" or "automated emails for pet groomers" rather than just "email marketing services."
Every piece of SEO-optimized content we create reinforces her positioning as THE email marketing expert for the pet industry, uses her brand voice, and leads with her values of education and empowerment.
Steadfast Support and Accountability:
But beyond all the tactical work, 1:1 brand and business coaching provides something equally important: accountability and reassurance.
Making a big pivot in your business is scary, and more than once on this Journey Jess felt discouraged and even second guessed herself. That’s just the nature of doing business. She needed someone in her corner saying "keep going" and "you're on the right track” and also to help course correct and see things objectively when they didn’t go how we expected.
The Results: Lit Up About Business & Fully Booked with Dream Clients
Here's what happened over the course of about a year of working together:
5 Ideal Clients Booked
This is the big win. Jess went from working with clients outside her ideal industry to exclusively booking pet businesses.
Five clients, all in the pet industry. All exactly the kind of work she wanted to be doing.
A mix of product and service-based businesses — pet supplement companies, end-of-life care, doggy daycares, animal rescues — the kinds of businesses that light Jess up and align with her passion for animals.
Jess was able to accomplish this because she had:
Crystal clear messaging about who she serves
Packages designed specifically for pet businesses
The confidence to say "no" to clients outside her niche
A marketing strategy to reach the right people
The accountability and support to stay the course
Strategic Industry Presence
With her brand strategy as the guide, Jess made strategic moves to establish herself in the pet industry: attending two pet industry trade shows, executing a complete visual rebrand and website overhaul, and hiring a copywriting subcontractor to support her growing client roster.
All of this was guided by the brand strategy we created together. She knew where to show up, where and how to get support, and how to present herself because the strategy gave her that clarity.
Renewed Confidence and Validation
Perhaps most importantly, Jess went from feeling scattered and unsure to feeling confident and clear.
As she described our strategy session: "You were able to take the chaos that was my brain and made it make sense."
That clarity compounded over time. With every client she booked, every trade show she attended, every piece of content she created, she got more confident in who she is and what she offers.
And the best part is that the work is actually working.
Jess now has the reassurance that the brand strategy we developed together isn't just theory, it's actively bringing in the exact clients she wants to work with right now.
Why Combining Brand Strategy With Coaching Helps Grow Your Business
For service providers wanting to change industries or niche down, Jess's story illustrates several critical lessons:
Jess didn't just need a brand strategy document.
She needed ongoing support, accountability, and reassurance that the work was actually working. And when she had all of that, we were able to turn her dreams for her business into a reality.
Ready to Transform Your Brand?
If Jess's story resonates with you… if you're working with clients you don't love, feeling scattered in your messaging, or struggling to articulate what makes you different, Schedule a Brand Chatand let's talk about it!
A Stand Out Brand™ Strategy Session is the first step to getting the clarity you need to move your business in the direction you actually want to go.