Email Marketing & Automation
Email that pays its way — long after it's set up.
Most small businesses sit on a list they've barely emailed: months of collected addresses doing nothing. I turn yours into reliable revenue with welcome flows, follow-ups and campaigns that nurture and convert, set up once and quietly working in the background while you get on with the business.
What is email marketing & automation?
Email marketing is staying in front of the people who've already shown interest in you — your list — with messages they genuinely want to open. It's the highest-return channel most small businesses have, because you own the audience and no algorithm decides who sees it.
Automation is the part that runs without you. Welcome sequences, enquiry follow-ups, reminders and re-engagement — all triggered automatically by what someone does. Set up properly, the right email lands at the right moment, every time, without you lifting a finger. As a marketing consultant in Cornwall, email is one of the first systems I set up for small businesses — the returns are too good to leave idle.
What does email
work involve?
From growing your list to the always-on automations that earn money and build your reputation on autopilot, plus the campaigns that keep your list warm — all built on a clean, reliable, on-brand setup.
Clean, on-brand foundations
I get the groundwork right: the platform set up properly, your list tidied, segmented and permission-based, deliverability sorted, and clean, on-brand templates that render properly everywhere — so every email lands in the inbox and looks unmistakably yours.
Growing your list
An email list is no use if no one's on it. I set up signup forms, lead magnets and point-of-sale capture so you're steadily adding the right people, turning website visitors, customers and passers-by into subscribers you can actually reach.
Flows that run themselves
Welcome sequences, enquiry follow-ups, post-purchase and win-back flows — the always-on emails that turn interest into sales automatically, while you get on with running the business.
More reviews, better reputation
Happy customers rarely leave a review unless you ask. I set up automated requests that fire at the right moment after a purchase or job and send people straight to your Google or Trustpilot page — so your reputation builds itself and the next customer has every reason to choose you.
Newsletters & offers
Regular, well-written campaigns that keep you front of mind without becoming a nuisance — offers, updates and useful emails people are genuinely glad to receive.
Test & optimise
I track opens, clicks and — crucially — revenue, then refine subject lines, timing and content. Every send teaches us something, and the results compound over time.
An experienced marketing lead, without the full-time cost.
I'm Josh. I run Arda Studio single-handedly, working with small, owner-led businesses across Cornwall and the South West. I've spent fifteen years on the practical side of marketing — the strategy, the analytics, the copy, the small changes that quietly move the needle.
Email still returns around £35 for every £1 spent — among the highest of any channel (DMA). For most small businesses it's the most underused asset they own.
More about how I work →A free 20-minute call. Find out what your list should be doing for you.
- Where you’re trying to get to and what’s been getting in the way
- Where I’d focus first, and why
- An honest outside perspective from someone who’s worked across multiple industries with businesses like yours
- Clarity on where to start — not a list of everything, just the one or two things that’ll actually move the needle
- A one-page summary of our conversation with a clear recommended next step — yours to keep, no obligation
Will this turn into a sales pitch? No hard sell. I’ll act as a sounding board, give you a clear outside perspective and ideas worth acting on. If I think there’s potential for us to work well together, I’ll mention it — but there’s no agenda beyond that. These calls are useful for me too: I get to understand your business properly, and be there when the timing is right.
Email questions.
The things people most often ask before getting started. Don't see yours? Drop me a line — happy to talk it through.
Email marketing is staying in front of the people who've already shown interest in you — your list — with messages they actually want.
Automation is the part that runs without you: welcome sequences, follow-ups and reminders that trigger automatically based on what someone does, so the right email lands at the right moment without you lifting a finger.
Far from it. Email is still the highest-return channel most small businesses have, because you own the audience — no algorithm decides who sees it. The reason it gets a bad name is bad email: irrelevant, too frequent, clearly automated. Done with care, it consistently outperforms social and ads on cost per sale.
Yes. A small, engaged list of the right people beats a huge cold one every time. I start by setting up the automations that work even at low volume — welcome and follow-up flows — then grow the list deliberately with the lead generation work, so it compounds.
Definitely — that's one of the most common situations I see. A list you've barely touched isn't dead, it's dormant. I start with a gentle re-engagement sequence to win back the people who still care and drop the ones who've lost interest, so you're left with an engaged list that's safe to email and ready to buy. It's often the fastest win there is: the asset's already there, it just needs switching on.
Yes. Most small business owners know they should email more but never know what to send, so it never happens. I handle the writing — the flows, the campaigns, the subject lines — all in your voice. You can be as hands-on or hands-off as you like, but you'll never be staring at a blank screen wondering what to say. And if you need the content itself — the articles, guides and pages that give people a reason to subscribe — take a look at the content marketing work.
Yes, and it's one of the easiest wins. Most happy customers would leave a review but never get asked. A simple automated request, sent at the right moment after a purchase or job, steadily builds your Google and Trustpilot ratings — which then does its own quiet work winning you the next customer.
A campaign is a one-off send — a newsletter, an offer, an announcement — that goes to your list at a moment you choose. An automation is an email or sequence that triggers by itself when someone takes an action, like signing up or making an enquiry. Most businesses need both: automations for the reliable, always-on revenue, campaigns for the timely stuff.
Whatever fits your business — Mailchimp, MailerLite, Klaviyo, Brevo, or whatever you already pay for. I keep the stack light and use the tool that matches your needs rather than forcing a switch, and I set it up so you can run it yourself if you ever want to.
I keep things on the right side of the basics: you only email people who've opted in, every send has a clear unsubscribe, and your sender details are correct. That covers how most small businesses should be running email day to day, and it means you're only ever talking to people who actually want to hear from you. For anything unusual it's worth a quick word with a specialist, but standard setups are well-trodden ground.
It depends on scope. Most engagements start with a one-off setup — your core automations and a clean, working account — then an optional light retainer for ongoing campaigns and improvements. Book a free call and I'll give you a clear quote based on what's actually needed.