How I Turned My August Slowdown Into A Profitable Email Series
Every August, my business hits a wall, and not because I want it to. In France, August means manditory time off. Shops close, school is out, childcare disappears, and the usual routines that keep my little family chugging along vanish overnight.
And as much as I appreciate the break, I still want to stay present for my audience, keep nurturing my list, and ideally still make some sales. So I tried something new this year, a collaborative email series that gave my audience heaps of value while I was basically offline.
In this post, I am pulling back the curtain on what I did, why it worked, and how you can borrow the idea for your own quiet seasons, especially if you run online courses or host collaborative events.
The August Slowdown In France
If you have never lived in France in August, it can feel a bit surreal. The energy of the city changes completely. For me, that looks like:
Shops closed
Restaurants scarce
No regular childcare
And a very real need to scale way, way back in my business
By the time June rolls around, I am already thinking, "What on earth am I going to do with my business in August?" I know I will not be available for live events, launches, or anything that needs daily attention. At the same time, I do not want my email list to go silent for a whole month.
I used to think I had to choose between rest and visibility. Now I treat August as a challenge. How can I support my audience, gather useful data, and still sell, without chaining myself to my laptop?
This year, that answer was a collaborative email series.
What I Used To Do In August (And Why I Wanted A Change)
Over past summers, I tried a few different things to keep the business ticking along while life slowed down.
Here are two of my go-to tactics from previous years:
Pre-launch content to warm up my list for something coming in September
Both worked fine, but they also relied on me doing more active promotion, writing a bunch of emails, and generally being more "on" than I wanted during school holidays.
I also noticed something else. My people were tired. Their energy was lower, their kids were home, and they were not in the mood for a hard push or a big launch. They still wanted support, but in a softer, more reflective way.
At the same time, I was thinking a lot more about email marketing as a whole. Because my business revolves around online events, I am always asking, "What happens after the event ends?" How do I keep nurturing folks who have just joined my world?
So I decided to combine a few things I love:
Bringing in fun, smart collaborators
Talking about email marketing in a practical, non-scary way
Making things feel light, both for me and for my audience
The result was a new experiment: a collaborative email series I called "Sign Up to Sale".
The Idea: A Collaborative "Sign Up To Sale" Email Series
The core idea was simple. I wanted to create an email series focused on what to do with your email list after an event, whether you were hosting or participating.
I wanted it to:
Teach practical, actionable tips
Give different perspectives, not just my own
Run on autopilot all August while I was mostly offline
And because I love collaboration, I decided I did not want to write all the content myself.
Who I Invited
I reached out to some of my favourite copywriter friends. These were people I had already:
Collaborated with in previous events
Chatted to in DMs or on Zoom
Seen share really smart takes on email marketing
So the invite was warm and friendly, not out of the blue. I also knew they would create genuinely useful, thoughtful content for my people.
This topic felt aligned with my own niche too. I support online course creators and service providers who host collaborative events, and email marketing is such a big part of making those events actually pay off.
The Simple Brief I Gave Collaborators
I kept the framework very light. Here is what I asked for:
One actionable tip related to email marketing
Something that would help people after hosting or participating in an event
That was it.
Behind the scenes, I did have vague ideas for each person, based on what I knew of their style and strengths. For example, something they do interesting or different around emails or list nurturing.
But when I sent the invite, I just said, "Share a tip that feels aligned with you and would help my people move from sign up to sale."
I also gave them full creative freedom over:
The angle of the tip
The length
Any resources they wanted to link to
Everyone said yes which made it even easier on me!
Light Logistics And Pre-Scheduling
To keep things simple for myself, I:
Asked everyone to send their tip by the end of June
Used that timeline so I could pre-schedule the whole email series
Sent just a couple of gentle reminder emails
Once I had all the tips, I slotted them into my August calendar, wrote my short intros, and set the dates.
Pre-scheduling meant that August could roll around and I did not have to touch a single email for the series. My audience still heard from me, but my brain was mostly on summer mode.
How The Email Series Worked Week To Week
The structure of the email series was simple and repeatable. I wanted people to know what to expect, without it feeling stale.
The Weekly Rhythm
I sent two emails each week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays which included:
One guest email marketing tip
One clear next step (a free or paid offer from my collaborators)
This kept the rhythm familiar, but each email still felt fresh and useful. It also meant the series did not feel like me just nattering on about email marketing. There were other voices, other styles, other stories.
Why The Topic Landed So Well
Picking a great topic for your event is as much of an art as it is a science. So I used the same framework I teach inside my free Timely Topics audio course to pick a focus that I felt my audience would be eager to hear about.
I had a hunch that email marketing was on people’s minds, and the response confirmed it.
Many online sales channels do not work like they used to. Algorithms change. Platforms shift. People burn out. Email feels steadier and more personal, especially for online course creators and service providers.
So a series focused on practical, post-event email tips landed at the right time. People replied, clicked, voted in polls, and stayed engaged. Unsubscribes stayed normal, even with the extra volume of emails.
It felt like I had picked a topic that was top of mind for both me and my audience - which makes all the difference with how collaborative events like this turn out!
Adding Gentle Sales To The Mix
I am a big fan of providing lots of value, but I also believe businesses should still sell, even in quieter seasons.
So I added a subtle sales layer to the email series. Each week, I:
Picked one of my existing product or offer
Added a small box at the top of both emails
Framed it as “this week’s summer special” with a short-term discount
That was it. No extra emails, no follow-up, no full campaign. Just a little highlight twice a week, tucked into something value-first.
I did not expect huge results, and that helped me keep my expectations realistic.
Even so, I made a couple of sales each week from those tiny mentions.
It is a pretty delightful feeling to be fully offline, doing something non-work-related, and see sales come through from a series that is already set up.
Plus, I’d joined my collaborator’s affiliate programs so when my readers went on to purchase something from them after reading their email, I earned a small commission on those sales!
Why This Low-Lift Collaboration Worked So Well
This format felt like a cousin to a full collaborative event. It used the same bones, but with far less pressure.
Here is what it shared with my usual events:
I reached out to collaborators with a clear ask
I highlighted what was in it for them, like exposure to a new audience and links back to their own offers
I gathered all the content, then built the experience ahead of time
I also made sure the free event was high-value and easy to access for my audience
But there were also some key differences that kept it low-stress:
No live sessions
No tight timelines for the audience
No hard “you must sign up by this date” deadline
It felt far simpler than putting together a bundle or a summit, while still scratching that collaboration itch.
The Biggest Benefits I Saw
From my side, this experiment delivered on exactly what I hoped it would.
Some of the key benefits of hosting an Email Exclusive Event:
I nurtured my list during a month when I was far less available
I added a few new subscribers who signed up for the series itself
I did not see any strange spikes in unsubscribes
I strengthened relationships with my collaborators
I made sales without a full launch
I walked away with useful market research and clearer messaging
It was a small, contained project that gave my audience value, gave my collaborators exposure, and gave me data and revenue.
Try Hosting Your Own Collaborative Email Series
Inside my self-paced course Email Exclusive Events, I teach you how to design small but mighty email only events just like this one, so you can grow your list, warm people up, and sell in a way that feels generous.
If you are an online course creator, service provider, or host online events, this kind of email series can be a gentle way to experiment with collaborations. It’s also proven to be a fantastic way to love on your email list while you take time off!
Plus, if you want to scale up into hosting larger events like summits and bundles, this lower-lift strategy is a great set of training wheels.
Wrapping Up: Staying Present While You Rest
This August email series did exactly what I hoped it would. It gave my audience helpful, timely support. It helped me collect data and make a few sales. Most importantly, it let me protect my time in a month when family life needed to come first.
If you are heading into a quiet season, or you are curious about collaborations but not quite ready for a full summit, a smaller collaborative email series like this can be a great middle ground.
I would love to hear if you try something similar. If you do, share it with me so I can cheer you on and, when it fits, shout it out to others who are also trying low-lift collaborative experiments.
