Branding, SEO & 1:1 Coaching for Tails & Emails
How Jess Niched Down & Got Booked Out With Dream Clients
Have you ever had a business that was working… but realized it wasn’t the business you actually wanted?
That’s where Jess Zierer, founder of Tails & Emails, found herself.
She had a profitable email marketing business and happy clients, but she was starting to feel burned out by the work she was doing. She knew she wanted to stop marketing to everyone and become the go-to email marketer for pet businesses… she just wasn’t sure how to make that pivot.
Today, Jess has replaced her old roster with five ongoing pet-industry clients and is booked out at a capacity that feels good to her.
And even better… she finally feels clear on the business she’s building
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
Before: A Successful Business That Didn’t Feel Like Her Business
When Jess and I first connected, she wasn’t starting from scratch.
She had paying clients, her business was profitable, and her clients were thrilled with her work.
The problem was that she didn’t really want more of what she already had.
Jess knew she wanted to focus exclusively on email and SMS marketing for the pet industry. But knowing what she wanted and figuring out how to actually get there were two different things.
She had a lot of ideas about what this new version of Tails & Emails could look like, but she was too close to her own business to see how they all fit together. Her messaging felt scattered, and she needed a clear direction that could help her make the transition without burning down a business that was already working.
Before we worried about marketing, offers, visuals, or anything else, we needed to answer a few foundational questions:
→ Who exactly was Tails & Emails for?
→ What did the brand stand for?
→ Why should pet businesses choose Jess?
→ Wwhat kind of business did she actually want to build?
So that’s where we started.
Step One: Getting Hyper-Specific About the Business She Truly Wanted
Jess booked a Stand Out Brand™ Strategy Session with one big goal… to make the pivot from general email marketer to an email marketing expert specifically for pet businesses.
She already knew email marketing inside and out. Our job was to take all that experience (and all the ideas floating around in her head) and turn them into a clear brand strategy.
We dug into the pet industry, what those business owners needed, where Jess’s expertise could make the biggest impact, and what she wanted Tails & Emails to be known for.
From there, we clarified her positioning, messaging, values, and overall direction.
Suddenly, the ideas that had felt chaotic started fitting together.
Jess described it like this: “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.”
And then she started putting that clarity to work.
Step Two: Building the Business Around Her New Direction
Jess refined her offers around the needs of pet businesses, became more intentional about where and how she marketed, and started showing up within the pet industry—including at industry trade shows.
As Tails & Emails evolved, Jess wanted someone in her corner to help her navigate the changes, so she continued working with me through 1:1 brand and business coaching.
We used her brand strategy as a filter for the decisions that came up along the way, from offers and marketing opportunities to growing her team.
And soon, Jess started seeing proof that the pivot was working.
Pet-industry clients were booking.
As she built momentum, we started thinking about how to get Tails & Emails in front of even more of the right people.
Step Three: Helping More Pet Businesses Find Tails & Emails
Our next project together focused on SEO.
We optimized the existing pages of Jess’s website around her services and the pet businesses she wanted to reach. We also brainstormed content she could create to answer the questions her ideal clients were searching for and continue building her visibility.
Because her positioning was already so clear, we knew exactly who we wanted to reach and what we wanted Jess to become known for.
And the work started paying off in a pretty cool way:
Jess booked a new pet-industry client after ChatGPT recommended Tails & Emails to them.
But as she spent more time working on her website and getting more eyes on the business, Jess realized there was one piece that still didn’t feel right.
Her visual brand. →
Step Four: Creating a Brand That Finally Felt Like Jess
Jess had created a visual identity when she first began her pivot. But at that point, Tails & Emails was still largely an idea of what her new business could become.
By the time she came back to Specht & Co. for brand design, that had changed.
She had worked with real pet businesses. She knew what kinds of clients she loved. She knew more about how she wanted to communicate and show up. And she had real evidence that this was the business she wanted to keep building.
There’s a big difference between branding the business you hope you’re going to build and branding a business you’ve actually lived in.
This time, we had something real to work from.
We created a new logo suite, color palette, font system, and supporting graphics that reflected the personality and direction Tails & Emails had grown into.
For Jess, it finally clicked.
She said the updated brand “truly embodies who I am and what I’m trying to accomplish,” and said the response from others has been overwhelmingly positive, too.
She also advised anyone thinking about rebranding to “Live your brand before you invest in visuals. Know the good, the bad, the ugly parts that make up your business before you invest in professional branding.”
The Results: Fully Booked With Dream Clients
When we started, Jess already had a full roster, so our measure of success was never about simply getting more clients.
It was about building a roster of the right clients.
And that’s exactly what she did.
Jess has booked five pet-industry clients and has offboarded the clients in other industries she no longer wanted to serve. Today, she’s booked out at a comfortable capacity with the kind of work she wanted all along.
Her positioning, offers, marketing, SEO, and visual identity all point toward the same thing: establishing Tails & Emails as the email marketing expert for pet businesses.
But the bigger transformation is the newfound confidence that Jess has in herself and her business.
Jess started this process knowing something needed to change but struggling to make sense of all the ideas in her head. Now, she knows who she is, who she wants to serve, and what kind of business she’s building.
She isn’t trying to figure out how to become the email marketing expert for pet businesses anymore. She is one. And her business finally reflects that.
You Don’t Have to Settle for a Business That Doesn’t Light You Up
If Jess’s story feels familiar—maybe you’re working with clients you don’t love, feeling scattered in your messaging, or you know you want something different but aren’t sure how to get there—you don’t have to keep building a business that doesn’t feel like you.
A Stand Out Brand™ Strategy Session is the first step to getting clear on who you want to serve, what you want to be known for, and how to move your business in the direction you actually want to go.
Or Schedule a Brand Chat to talk about where you are now, where you want your business to go, and whether a Stand Out Brand™ Strategy Session is the right next step to help you get there.