Email Strikes Back

Why building your database and newsletter is more important than ever

The best time to build an email newsletter was 20 years ago.
The second best time is today.

Things have seriously changed since social media started. What worked ten, five or even two years ago really won’t work next year. If your success depends upon you trying to “figure out” LinkedIn, or going viral on TikTok, you’re already toast.

Maybe even croutons.

Let me explain.

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Build Relationships to Build Success

It’s worth repeating: You’re in a relationship business. If you don’t build the relationship, you can’t even begin the sale — let alone close one. People don’t just wake up and “buy” you in an instant. Your product is complex, the process sophisticated, and the stakes are high.

Your sale requires trust. Trust comes from relationships. Period.

That’s Why I Substack

“To Substack, or not to Substack,” the Bard might have written.

What he meant was: You better have a way to directly reach your audience and build trust. Database, address book, Rolodex, whatever. Something you control, that contains a direct way to nurture relationships. You only need three pieces of data to do it:

1. A phone number (people still answer it)

2. An email address (people still read it)

3. A mailing address (people still love notes)

And sure, any other channel you think might reach them. But at the very least, these three matter most.

When Social Media was New

Years ago, when social media was “new” I encouraged a “change” in marketing strategy alongside many others. We called it “social networking” back then. It seemed like an amazing gift. And it worked! There’s no doubt these platforms helped many of us reach more people, make more contributions, and drive more business than anything offered at the time.

And that’s the key: At the time.

Back in 2010, the options to gather, manage and reach thousands or millions of potential clients were limited, hard, and expensive. Some people don’t remember the Cole Directory or even a phone book. Or prices to search Dun and Bradstreet. Or compete for SEO placement. Or a secretary filtering your calls. Or voicemail. Or expensive newspaper ads and mass mailing postage prices.

So when social networking promised to get us in front of our prospects’ eyes, it was tantalizing, almost too good to be true.

And it was, at the time.

Until it wasn’t.

Social Media isn’t Enough

In reality, social media has always been another form of media channel. But social media platforms don’t really like media: They like you. Not sure what I mean? Try to get Facebook or LinkedIn to show a post that includes a hyperlink and you’ll understand. Instagram won’t even make hyperlinks live in text.

Anything that reroutes people offsite - to your offer, your website, your office - is demoted beyond existence.

That’s not very nice networking.

Go Directly to Success; Do Not Pass Go.

Today’s social media is simply not good enough.

It’s no longer social networking: simply social “mediated” advertising, like a newspaper mediated our access to an audience. Only, not as good.

A newspaper offered an equal chance of being seen by all readers. Today’s algorithms instantly restrict you using an unknowable formula. It’s not even one algorithm - it’s dozens - and nobody knows how they work together.

This means most of your content doesn’t stand a chance of being seen anymore.

Reconnecting with your Connections

I’m not saying give up on social media.

I believe we’ve reached another inflection point in marketing.

It’s no longer acceptable to hope a black box of unknowable decisions will share your content. I’m saying you have to fortify your efforts with something that can reach all those people you collected socially, who have been algorithmically prevented from seeing you ever since.

Just count up your results. How can you have thousands of followers and connections but less than ten liked your last post? Are you really that bad — is the bar really that high — for content? Of course not.

It doesn’t add up — on purpose.

I have 3,500 Facebook friends - similar to my Substack readership. After 2 hours, less than 21 likes and 4 comments; I can’t even “see” who shared to thank them.

It’s time to change marketing strategies.

“Many are surprised to discover that… only a small percentage of your connections see the post, usually 6% to 7.5%.” says a report on LinkedIn’s algorithm. It averages 10-12% for Facebook users and lower for a Facebook Business Page (around 9%).

The advertising guru Bob Hoffman said back in 2014, "It's not about how many likes or followers you have; it's about how meaningful those interactions are."

But people have to see your posts before they can attempt to interact.

“In 2024, marketers will spend over $650 billion on online advertising. A substantial proportion of this - perhaps in the hundreds of billions - will be completely wasted.”
- Bob Hoffman

That’s a lot of money, for so little engagement.

Email Strikes Back

“But you could just pay…” to get more visibility. You can, and you should. Advertising is advertising. An important cost of doing business. I’m simply saying: It’s not your only option.

Because email still exists.

A fifty-plus-year-old technology that costs nearly nothing and is easy, fast, and most of all:

It’s direct.

Email gives you direct access to the people who drive your success.

Direct matters, because the platforms aren’t giving up on dis-inter-media-ting you. (See LinkedIn’s “newsletter” push to compete with email-based platforms like Substack).

Direct also matters because there’s a generation of salespeople who are passively waiting to “go viral” and too avoidant of direct sales tools like the phone. Texting and TikTok might work someday — if you’re part of the lucky fraction of billions spent on advertising.

For the rest of us, this stat matters more: 60% of real estate salespeople don’t make it past 1 year in the business, and 90% don’t make it past 5 years.

The Direct Answer to Your Growth Plans

Imagine if you produced direct content as frequently as you produce social media content. But rather than 1% or 10% of people seeing it, it gets received by 100% of your audience. Got your attention?

Here’s how you do it:

• Every day get contact information for three people into your database. Make sure you can directly reach anyone in your sphere without third-party permission.

• Send one email to five people daily. Simple, helpful, and short. You know — network with them again — like social networking used to be.

• You have the time: Halt the time you spend on social media and send emails instead. Five a day, twenty-five a week, 100 a month will certainly spark conversations and appointments.

• Write one newsletter weekly — and use a cool CRM like Moxiworks or Substack to get it directly into 100% of your database’s inboxes. Message received!

• Use the same ideas, images, and videos you used on social media. Even if you posted them before. Remember, nobody saw them anyway!

Take Control Over Your Success

A year ago, I started making email the most important part of my marketing again. In twelve months I grew my direct database to as many people as I collected on Facebook in a decade. I’ll let the numbers tell the rest of the story, using last week’s newsletter:

So go direct to your peeps. It’s going to pay off.
Because we need to hear from you.
And it’s time for technology to serve.

—M

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