Jen Olmstead from TONIC: Turn boring emails into newsletters people actually want to read

TL;DR: Big news! We’re partnering with Jen from TONIC to bring you irresistible email templates you can save to your Flodesk account and start using now, plus an email marketing masterclass you won’t want to miss. Keep reading to learn more and claim your freebies. 

One day, amid a global pandemic, Jen Olmstead accidentally blew up her business. At the click of a button, TONIC’s revenue model completely changed. The culprit? An entirely new approach to their email marketing. 

Stuck in a state of quarantined boredom, Jen pivoted from her typical newsletter style and instead wrote a long, funny email about ugly signatures, procrastination, and Nick Miller from New Girl, clicked send, and walked away.

From that moment onwards, everything changed. TONIC’s inbox exploded with responses—people wanted more. Suddenly, email marketing went from being Jen’s least favorite thing to do in her business to being the highlight of her week. Her once boring sales emails blossomed into an infamous newsletter series that’s responsible for generating multiple 7-figures each year.

Discover Jen’s top email marketing secrets, the story behind her business, and why she wholeheartedly believes in the power of templates for business growth.

Jen says email is hands-down the most powerful, enjoyable tool in her business. She has mastered the art of writing emails people actually want to read—and in this email marketing masterclass she’ll teach you how to do the same.

Join the Flodesk team and Jen from TONIC in an email marketing masterclass where you’ll learn:

Register now to get access to the replay!

Jen Olmstead is the co-founder and lead designer of TONIC—a template shop for the modern entrepreneur. You might have seen her work for clients like Jenna Kutcher, Chris Loves Julia, Bossbabe, Amy Porterfield, Jillian Harris, and more. 

When she’s not designing or marketing, Jen splits her time cooking, homeschooling, pouring cocktails, trying to make Instagram fun again, and writing TONIC’s famous #longandweird newsletter, where she tells stories and nerds out about great marketing.

Co-founders Jen Olmstead and Jeff Shipley founded TONIC in 2013 for one simple reason: they just couldn’t take it anymore. They couldn’t stand idly by watching talented entrepreneurs struggle with websites and marketing that they were embarrassed to show off. 

So, they made it their mission to put an end to website shame, because they saw how much harder people have to work when they don’t have a cohesive, intentional website, social media, and marketing experience. And they’d seen firsthand the alignment and sales that result when everything tells the same story.

That’s how TONIC was born—The Cure for the Common Template. Stunning, ready-made marketing templates designed to help entrepreneurs show up online confidently. 

Jen adds, “Our goal is to help entrepreneurs love the way they show up online. We’ve worked with brands of all shapes and sizes, from doctors and dentists to coaches and copywriters, pet spas, photographers, potters, and pretty much everything you can think of! If you give a damn about your online presence, we’re the TONIC that’ll turn a boring, bland brand into an irresistible, impossible-to-ignore empire.”

A few years ago, there was nothing Jen despised more than writing her email newsletter. But now, she’s so passionate about email marketing that she teaches others how to ditch traditional approaches and fall in love with it, too. 

We asked Jen to share her thoughts on email marketing, templates, lessons learned, and more. Here’s what she had to say.

Um, everything! Email is our number-one revenue generator. Without our email list, TONIC wouldn’t be what it is today. Our infamous #longandweird Friday newsletter hits almost 40,000 inboxes every week, which blows my mind, but my favorite part about it? The comments and replies that come back. One minute I’m writing about getting slapped in the face by a sprinkler on my way to a black-tie dinner party, then 10 minutes after I hit send, someone tells me how the story made them cry or inspired them to go full-time with their business. It’s electric, feels personal, and is easily one of my favorite things about running this business. 

The great thing about building personal relationships and showing up in people’s lives and inboxes every week? It keeps you constantly at top of mind with your customers. When they need a website or marketing template or need to share a recommendation with a friend, they’re not going to go search the internet—they’re going to think, “Oh, my friend Jen makes those!” 

The more people know, like, and trust you, the more your brand becomes what they think about when they think about what you do. Suddenly, you’re not just one option in a sea of 47 tabs—you’re the only one. (Hello, easier marketing and wayyyy more sales!)

Just start. Don’t overthink it. You don’t need a 10-, 5-, or even 1-year plan. Start building your list, sharing what you think is interesting or valuable or will make your list laugh and learn along the way. If you want the kind of email list that lines up at your door, ready to open your emails, be consistent. Email often (we recommend once a week) and at the same time and date.

One of our golden rules for marketing at TONIC is this—if we actually like it, chances are our audience will, too. (And if we don’t, why the hell are we doing it?)

At one point, we almost threw in the towel on email marketing. We were writing and sending the marketing emails we were “supposed to send,” but they felt like a chore and were sucking the life out of us. 

So, we pivoted. We stopped sending the emails we thought were supposed to send and started sending the kind of emails we’d actually want to read. We began telling stories, being ourselves, showing personality and being real with people—and it worked! Everything improved, from revenue to click rates to not hating our jobs.

Your story is the most powerful thing you own, and it can never be imitated. As humans, we’re hardwired to lean in when someone tells a story. It’s how we learn from others, relate to their experiences, and deepen our connection together. We crave the perils, the pitfalls, the lessons, and the language that make stories interesting. 

You want your email marketing to work? Tell a story. Make it valuable. Get remembered.

We like to say that we redefined the template. Because honestly, it had been a dirty word for so long, and why?! A template is just a solution to blinking cursor syndrome—a way to start with something that works (not at zero!), then make it your own. 

Of course, we specialize in website and social media templates, but the same principles apply to any kind of template—they save you tons of time, make strategy way easier, and empower you to bring your best ideas to life faster than ever.

We use our own templates for everything in our business, from social media to Canva presentations and slide decks, to websites, to email graphics. Instead of reinventing the wheel, templates allow us to spend more time focusing on the value of our content, rather than spending time on the packaging (the email design, the website, the social media graphic) of our content.

Templates have allowed us to help thousands of businesses that we otherwise wouldn’t have the resources to serve. With templates, small businesses can scale at a pace and a rate that isn’t throttled by time or staff. 

Instead of trading your time for dollars, you’re able to multiply your strengths indefinitely. They’re certainly not wholly passive income (which we’re pretty sure is a myth), since they take a ton of work to create, but they DO allow for incredible residual income and have helped us build a multi-million dollar business. 

Beautiful design meets brilliant marketing strategy. Jen designed three irresistible Flodesk Email templates to sell your offers, deliver a freebie, and share what’s new. They’ll help elevate your brand, book your dream clients, and transform your business—and you won’t find them anywhere else. Claim your free templates here.