Naomi West
Q What do you do?
“I’m an email-obsessed marketer.”
With social channels becoming tumultuous and difficult to track performance of, email is a tried and true marketing channel where creators and businesses own their audience, and delivery. No sneaky algorithms or wild CEO's here! I've worked in over 25 different email and automation tools, focused on helping brands strike a balance where they stand out in the inbox, but not enough to drive subscribers away. From email audits, to long term consulting, I work with brands to pinpoint areas of opportunity where automation via email marketing can deliver compounding returns. I don't look at communication as just a conversion tactic, returning customers can be far more valuable than a one-off sale, so I always emphasize focus on retention techniques!
Q What steps did you take to get to where you are now?
Side hustles on top of corporate jobs (shout out to Angellist), moving to the UK, working for ESP's and other email vendors, and finally, having a huge mouth on social and always chatting about my love for email!
Q How do you stand out in your field?
My motto is that I refuse to lose sleep over email. No one should ever stress about a newsletter send. This is marketing! We should all be having fun and being creative. I'm practical in my approaches, passionate, but also remind those that I'm working with that we aren't saving lives.
Q What are you working on right now?
I'm about to release a 9-module email course that covers list acquisition, deliverability, HTML and CSS rendering, and email client considerations to keep in mind!
Q What’s your style?
I always want to be open to different marketing tactics and techniques. I try to apply this open mindedness to technology, and strategies. Although I don't know if this answers the question correctly, but I value community-based learning and try to always share insights I gather, as I gather them. naomiwest.ca
Q Out of all your slashies, which one do you wish you could do more often?
I've been trying to learn JavaScript more this year!
Q What is frustrating you right now?
Feeling like I don't have the technical chops to move forward on some projects. I have a variety of different tooling ideas for products I want to build out but no idea where to start with them! Therefore the rudimentary tasks end up being the ones I pick up because they feel easy and attainable.
Q If you could hire someone for $20/hour, what would you have them do to make your day easier?
Social media surprisingly! Content creation is a lot harder than I thought it would be 🤣
Q What do you wish you could have told yourself, when, and why?
Don't worry about getting into a marketing major at your university because you'll graduate with a degree in political science and do marketing anyways.
Q What kind of opportunities/projects are you looking for?
Short term (3-6) month projects with SaaS or D2C brands looking for advice on where they should develop their email marketing program further. Accessibility or deliverability consulting as well!
Q Describe your ideal job/client/collaboration.
For two years I worked with Formula Fig on retainer to develop their email automation strategy via Klaviyo. They now have booking reminders, membership upgrades, a monthly newsletter to members, and frequent New In product emails that build relationships with their community base. I encouraged them eventually to bring the role full-time in house since they still had so much opportunity, and now they still loop me in occasionally for one-off questions!
Q What is your rate?
I have an hourly rate of $120/hr, or once a month Zoom consulting prices at $180/Zoom call in which we can review metrics, chat about questions, or use the time to brainstorm together.
Q How should someone approach you about working together?
Ideally by submitting a contact form on my website!
Q Who is a creative you admire?
Lianna Patch is a phenomenal copywriter.
Q Oh! and… how do you stay creative?
Reading other newsletters :)
This member profile was originally published in September 2023