Pillar 02
EMAIL MARKETING
"I'd rather have 1 new email subscriber than 1,000 more followers on Facebook."Rand Fishkin
Websites are one of the few assets you can own; your email list is the other. You can't take your Instagram followers to a new platform, but your list is yours to control.
Email marketing is a huge, oft-ignored opportunity — for lists and for better one-to-one email alike.
Step 01
The Myths
"No one reads email anymore."
Email ROI has been calculated around 4,400% — roughly $44 back per dollar spent. Everyone has email, and it's an open protocol: leaving Gmail doesn't cut you off from anyone.
"Social media is a better way to reach people."
Use social, but build the "public to private bridge" — guide interested people onto your list, where the relationship is actually yours.
"The only way to build a list is shady tactics."
Email gates turn people away and hide your best content from AI search. Brand it well and give it away; it travels further and reaches more real buyers.
Step 02
The Problems
Spam makes it harder for the good stuff to shine
Twenty personal 30-second videos sent to committee members produced three views and one reply. People are so used to blasts that genuine messages struggle to land.
Cold outreach is a tragedy of the commons
Attention is the finite resource. When a few grab "just a bit more," everyone else follows and the whole system loses value.
Experts don't cold call
If an "SEO expert" needs spam to find work, they aren't one. When you need a specialist you already know who to call — because they earned that spot, not bought it.
Step 03
The Framework
Short emails are a good thing
Don't inflate a short note with AI to sound professional. One topic per email; no one is reading your 57 news stories.
Mind who your emails are from
Trusting the sender is the single biggest factor in whether an email gets opened. Use a real human name, A/B test it, and never use "noreply."
Step 04
The Proof
There are bad ways to do this
A car dealer took an address given for a quote, added it to a newsletter, and sent from "noreply." A restaurant did the same with a QR-code payment. Both turned goodwill into distrust.
Done well, it works quickly
An HVAC company's neglected list was cleaned up and sent one short, valuable message. It brought in $50k of business almost immediately.
Step 05
The Actions
- Dust off your list and send pure value to people already expecting to hear from you.
- Focus each send on a single topic.
- Make replies come to a real person who will actually read them.
- Be consistent — once or twice a month beats once a year.