Why An Email List is Your Business’s Goldmine

What would happen to your business if your social media reach dropped overnight because an algorithm shift buried your content and fewer people saw it?

Or worse, you were banned for some unknown community guideline that was accidentally broken.

Organic reach for Facebook Pages is now as low as 2–5%, and Instagram’s average reach per post recently dropped nearly 20% year over year. In other words, most of your followers don’t even see your content.

According to Statista, on TikTok alone, over 100 million accounts were removed during the first quarter of 2025 for guideline violations.

These are common occurrences, and they highlight a painful truth, when you rely solely on social media, you’re building on borrowed land.

So yes, social media gives you the ability to connect with a huge audience, but whether it’s organic reach drying up or ad costs rising, you’re still at the mercy of the platform.

Social media is a great marketing strategy to employ in your business, but with the ever-changing shifts in what viewers see, and the lack of control you have, it’s worthwhile to look into building an asset that YOU own.

While there are so many moving parts when building a business, starting an email list may be one that should be at the top of your to-do list.

Today we’ll uncover the costs of not having an email list, the numerous business-building benefits of owning one, and how you can start one yourself.

The Costs of Not Owning an Email List

Starting an email list can be an easy task to push aside when you have mountains of other tasks you need to focus on. 

Many small businesses rely on social media ads to drive traffic to their website and turn viewers into buyers.

And while your business type plays a vital role in your approach to social media ads, many people rarely go on social media with the intention of buying something right away.

Yes, you may get sales, but you may also be leaving money on the table too.

People go on social media to watch funny videos, see the latest news, and keep up with family and friends.

Visitors may stumble upon your ad and be interested in what you offer, but many may not be ready to buy just yet.

And if they aren't ready, they may end up forgetting about you and buy from your competitor once they're ready.

As consumers are becoming more risk-averse, they’re taking more time to buy because they’re more skeptical than ever.

According to Neil Patel, this is roughly the number of times consumers interact with a brand before making a purchasing decision:

Figure 1.1

And on top of that, the amount of touch points increases as the price goes up.

Like in this image from Neil Patel: 

Figure 1.2

But it doesn't stop there…

Not having an email list makes filling your future sales pipeline tough. You may constantly be engaging a cold audience, which can be an uphill battle (and costly). 

But by sending interested prospects valuable emails on a predictable and reliable basis, you can build trust and nurture them until they’re ready to take action.

The Benefits of Owning Your Own Email List

According to the Data & Marketing Association (DMA) email continues to demonstrate a high return on investment averaging at $42 for every $1 spent as of 2023.

When people sign up to your list, these are high-probability prospects because they’ve virtually raised their hand and indicated interest in what you offer.

There can be a range of reasons your customer may not be ready to buy today, so this allows you to build trust by nurturing them via value-driven emails while they decide whether you're the right option for them.

Having an email list is a great marketing asset and a terrific marketing strategy because when you launch a new promotion, product, service, etc. you already have a list of engaged leads that you can promote your offers to.

You’re not consistently engaging a cold audience every time you launch a new product or promotion.

Think of it like this: instead of climbing up the hill to get to the other side every time you launch a promotion, you start at the top each time.

It makes filling your future pipeline of sales a lot easier when you have a tribe of past customers you’ve nurtured (and sold to) in the past.

Like Allan Dib, author of The 1-Page Marketing Plan, said: “These kinds of prospects make up the majority of all prospects and are crucial to filling your pipeline of future sales.”

How You Can Start Your Own List

Setting up and driving traffic to your email list is a relatively simple process to get started.

There are multiple ways to do this. Here are a few options to get you going:

• Set up a subscribe box on your website.

• Offer a lead magnet aka a freebie aka an opt-in offer.

• Create ads on social media promoting your free lead magnet.

• Promote your signup links on social media.

The goal here is for your ideal audience to raise their hand and indicate interest in what you have to offer so you can then nurture them, build trust, and sell them.

Give before you get. That’s the name of the game when it comes to email marketing.

Also, you should use an email service provider because personal emails aren’t designed for bulk sending and can cause deliverability issues or account flags which can result in your email getting shut down.

Here is a short list of email service providers you can use to help get you started.

Popular Emailing Services You Can Use

Each of these different providers have loads of features that are worthwhile depending on your business type, so it’s good to research and see which fits your business best.

Here are some of the top-rated email list platforms you can use to start generating some leads:

• Kit aka Convertkit (I use this one and they've been great). Kit is best for creators, bloggers, YouTubers, artists, writers, course creators, etc.

• ActiveCampaign (best for small to medium size B2B and e-com businesses)

• Klaviyo (best for B2C brands)

• Omnisend (best for e-com businesses)

They all range in pricing so do your research as to which fits your budget and business best.

There are many other alternatives than those that are listed here, but be wary because some may be less expensive, but can oftentimes be worse in performance (deliverability to the primary inbox) and customer service.

Wrap Up

While your approach to social media depends on your business type, an email list should still play a vital role in your marketing strategy.

Owning your email list, is owning your future sales pipeline.

It gives you direct access to the people most likely to buy from you and the sooner you start building it, the sooner you’ll have an asset that grows in value over time.

Social media is a great place to drive traffic, but one that can be costly when it comes to being the primary source of sales. 

But with that being said…

While there are many benefits of owning an email list, there are also challenges that come with it such as:

• Getting your emails delivered to a primary inbox instead of the spam folder

• Getting your email opened

• Getting your email read

If you’d like help creating a lead magnet and writing emails that get opened and drive more sales, reach out to me through my contact page.