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Deep Dive

Email is absolute gold for rural businesses. Full stop.

Hey friend!

Pull up a chair and grab some cold brew. We need to have a heart-to-heart about something I wish someone had told me two years ago.

If your goal is to build something meaningful that allows you to share your writing, ideas, and relationships with customers, there's nothing better than email.

Especially these days—when social media is noisier than my barn aisle at feeding time...

Sharing story-driven emails with people who actually want to hear from you? That's about as close to the magic of Hogwarts as we get in this life.

In this new series I'm putting together, I'll show you how to really connect with your tribe.

We'll talk about telling stories that resonate with rural audiences, building trust (something those of us in the country value above all else), and making offers without feeling like a used car salesman. Plus, I'll help you create a simple system for your writing process that makes it effortless to stay consistent.

This series will help you make email the very heart of your rural business.

But before we dive in deeper, I want to clear up a couple things.

People ask me all the time:

"What's the difference between a newsletter and an email list?"

Honestly?

There isn't one.

It's like us Northerners vs. Southerners debating the proper pronunciation of pecan (it’s pah-cahn in case you’re wondering…sorry, I don’t make the rules).

They're just different words for the same thing: growing your business through email.

The real difference is in what you send.

I don’t know about you, but we don’t need more generic, info-dumping, feel-like-you’re-back-in school-reading-a-textbook newsletters.

The ones we DO need more of?

Ones that are personal, useful, and rich with stories that make you feel something. That make you sit back and go, “wow, it’s like this person is reading my mind!”.

I’m going to help you get on the right side of this fence.

Which brings me to my next point:

Treat your emails like you would a neighbor who stopped by—with care and intention, not as an afterthought.

The health of your rural business is directly tied to how well you can tell its story.

You’ll be amazed at how little competition you’ll have if you just take that statement seriously.

It's not about who has the fanciest website or biggest following—it's about who can communicate in a way that feels like coming home.

And trust me, by the end of this series, that'll be you.

Now to the meat and potatoes. Because theory without action is about as useful as a three-legged horse.

If you want your emails to evoke emotion, there's one thing you absolutely can't skip:

Knowing exactly who's on the other end reading.

So top off that coffee, and let's dig in.

The Lesson I Learned the Hard Way

The advice everyone tells you is true…

If you try to write to everyone, you end up writing to no one.

It's especially important for email. Why? Because great emails should feel like we're having a conversation across the kitchen table.

You want your readers to feel like you’re friends.

And the secret to creating this feeling is being specific.

So today, we're going to figure out exactly who you're writing to: your Perfect Reader.

Your Perfect Reader

Your Perfect Reader is the target for everything you write.

The more you write, the more you'll attract people who connect with your particular way of seeing the world. Your Perfect Reader is the person you most want to welcome across the threshold.

They might be:

• Your dream customer

• Someone you want to partner with down the road

• Someone similar to you (because sometimes the best audience is just a version of ourselves a few years back)

Let's start with the basics.

Step 1: Paint the Picture - Who Are They?

Brain dump all the details you can. Nothing is too specific. Start with things like:

• Gender

• Age

• Family situation (married? kids? divorced?)

• Where they live (rural? small town? hobby farm?)

• What they do for work

• How much they make

• Their hobbies

When you do this, don't worry about leaving people out. Just write what comes to mind.

For example, my Perfect Reader is a 32-45 year old who might have a 9-5, but who also runs a small business from home. They may or may not have kids, and live in a rural town where everyone knows each other. They might be married, and they make decent money but want to grow the business without losing that personal touch. They want more time and financial freedom to do what they want, when they want, with whom they want.

Does this mean I don't welcome people in their late 20’s? Or those who live in cities? Of course not! It just means I have someone very specific in mind when I write. This makes everything feel more like a real conversation.

But people don't join your list because of who they are on paper. They join because of how they think and feel.

So next, I'm going to share the simplest way to really understand what makes your Perfect Reader tick.

It starts with something we all know to be true:

Everyone's living their own story. And everyone wants to be the hero of that story.

It’s the classic Luke vs. Anakin Skywalker (though I’m firmly an Anakin girl myself). Harry Potter vs. Voldemort. Frodo Baggins vs. Sauron.

Can you tell I read a lot of fantasy?

If you understand what drives your Perfect Reader, what makes them want to get out of bed in the morning, you'll become their favorite writer. Especially once you get the hang of these email techniques—which, by the way, you absolutely will.

Now that you know who your Perfect Reader is, we need the other parts of the story.

And a story has two important parts: where your reader is now and where they dream of going.

Some writers may disagree with me on this, but I think it’s more helpful to start with the end in mind.

Step 2: Describe Their Dream Life - What Do They Want?

What big hopes does your reader have?

More specifically, what big hopes to they have that relate to what you offer?

This is your promise. By keeping it, this is how you start to build trust.

It's incredibly important because in your emails, you'll keep painting this picture before you ask your reader to take any action.

When thinking about it, consider what their life looks like when they get what they want:

• The actual results they see

• How it impacts their day-to-day life

• How others in their local community see them (because let's be honest, in small towns, we all care what the neighbors think)

The key is to describe tangible benefits — the ones they can see, feel, taste, smell etc.

Let's use an example to make this stick.

Say you help small-town farmers markets improve their digital advertising presence. Most people would say:

"Get more customers online."

Instead, I want you to say:

"Have a waitlist of vendors jumping at the chance to advertise in your online directory. No more worrying if you'll run out of sponsors, no more wondering if this month's bills will get paid. Your market is the heart of Main Street, where folks drive from three towns over just to buy from your producers. Instead of constantly struggling to get noticed, your reputation spreads like wildfire through the county. People don't just love your market—they love being part of your market’s story."

Can you feel how much more appealing that is? See why a farmers market sales director would open every email you send?

Another example:

"Improve your farm's profitability."

Could become:

"Turn your family farm into a sustainable business that will support generations to come. Sleep soundly knowing your bills are paid and there's money left over to fix that sagging barn roof and replace the worn out fence line. Become the farm that neighbors point to and say, 'They're doing it right.' Create a legacy that honors your grandparents' hard work while building something your kids will be proud to inherit someday."

Much better, right?

In the next few newsletters I’ll give you many more examples like this—you'll get the hang of it in no time.

But it's not the dream that gets people eagerly opening every email you send.

It's the struggle.

Step 3: Understand Their Pain Points - Where Does It Hurt?

Ever hear someone say people will pay 100X more for the pain pill than the vitamin?

This is just another way of saying people will pay more, do more, to avoid pain then they will to get pleasure.

The pain, the struggle, is where your Perfect Reader is right now.

As the old saying goes, to take folks where they want to go, you've got to meet them where they are. If you can describe someone's problems better than they can themselves, they'll trust you have the solution.

Ask yourself (and write down):

• What problems is your Perfect Reader facing right now?

• What pain are they feeling because of these problems?

• What keeps them up at night?

• What do they see, think, and feel about what you can help them with?

• What solutions have they already tried that didn't work? (This is SUPER important for showing how you're different)

Now, the key to emails that connect (and good writing in general) is empathy.

If every email you write touches on one of these pain points, your Perfect Reader will feel seen and understood.

This is incredibly powerful. But I find most founders tend to skip over it. That's why "pick a problem" is the first step in creating emails that convert. To get people to take action, you first need connection.

Putting It All Together

Now, you might be wondering:

Where do I find all this information? Well, you can describe your Perfect Reader to AI and ask it those questions.

But nothing beats real conversations. Find out where your Perfect Reader hangs out. Is it online or at church? On Facebook or LinkedIn or Reddit? Read comments on posts about your topic to get a feel for the common issues your reader is facing.

But most importantly:

Talk. To. Your. People.

Surveys and other digital tools are fine, but for writing that really connects, actual conversations are pure magic.

Your audience and customers will give you the exact words to use in your emails. That's why I suggest keeping what I call a "Perfect Reader Words" document where you jot down the phrases you hear over and over. For this to work, you must use the exact words. Don’t paraphrase. Don't leave your marketing to chance.

Finally, give your Perfect Reader a name.

Because the more real they feel to you, the more real your writing becomes.

With both the struggle and the dream defined, you've created something more motivating than a blue ribbon at the county fair:

A journey from here to there.

The best writers know it's not their job to simply share information. There’s more information out there now than we know what to do with! It's to take people on a journey and act as their guide along the way.

The more you help your Perfect Reader get what they want, the more they'll help you get what you want.

And so in the next newsletter, we'll cover the 10 Commandments of Emails that connect—including the secret to positioning yourself as the no-brainer guide so your Perfect Reader turns to you first (but you have to be subscribed in order to read the entire thing!).

For now, I'd love to hear who YOUR Perfect Reader is. Reply to this email and let me know—my door’s always open. Come on in!