The importance of email marketing in 2021 can’t be understated. They say that for every subscriber you have, you should make $1 every single month.

As a blogger with over 10,000 email subscribers, I can say those numbers aren’t far off.

Still, so many people either DON’T have an email list or they don’t believe in the power of one. This is the craziest thing I’ve ever heard. People have been warning of the end of email marketing since 2016 when I got started as a writer. Guess what? The importance of email marketing has never been stronger as algorithms change and platforms like Medium give less organic reach than ever before.

It’s time to make an email list.

Here’s 10 reasons the importance of email marketing can’t be undervalued.

1. Before Algorithm Changes

The biggest driver of traffic for my blog posts is my email list. Here’s a snapshot of how many clicks I drove in a recent newsletter:

I sent something to a segment of 6,651 recipients and drove 590 clicks on one of my blog posts.

590 CLICKS.

That’s a heck of a lot of traffic to drive all at once. My friend Niklas Göke is convinced that driving a spike of traffic to a newly written post can jump-start its search ranking performance in Google.

On a place like Medium, you can make money from the amount of read time you generate, so if you send more people to read your article, you make more money!

2. You Can Sell Products

For me, the biggest reason to start an email list is to sell products with it.

If you want to start selling digital products online like ebooks, online courses, or even coaching sessions, you won’t get far without an email list.

If you don’t have an email list, who are you going to market a course to? Your LinkedIn audience? Your Medium audience? You’ll be lucky to send 1% of the people who view your blog post to a sales page. With an email list, you’ll likely drive 5-10% click through rates to a sales page.

Would you rather send 100 people to a sales page, or 1000?

3. No Algorithm Problems

The importance of email marketing can be boiled down to a handful of important points. One of them is you get to skip funky algorithm changes on platforms that you have no control over.

Over the last few months, many Medium writers have reported rampant decreases in their organic reach.

Meaning they’re getting less views than normal. Sometimes views are even getting slashed in half.

Before Algorithm Changes:

After Algorithm Changes:

This is a common occurence when publishing on social media platforms. With your email list, though, you control the algorithm. You don’t need to deal with algorithm changes and less organic reach. You’re almost always going to get 30-40% open rates on your emails.

This stability can be a game-changer for content creators.

4. You Can Win Book Deals

If you ever want to be a published author, it might be shocking to realize book publishers like to work with writers who have gigantic email lists.

Like, 60,000 people gigantic.

You probably won’t win a book deal these days if you don’t have an email list with serious numbers.

5. You Can “Warm Up” Your Audience

This gets back to selling products. The importance of email marketing also lies in how much you can develop a relationship with your audience.

Imagine you’re best friends with someone a grade older than you in Middle School. Great, now imagine next year they graduate and go off to High School. Is your relationship going to suffer or get better?

Obviously less interaction will take a toll on your friendship.

You don’t want to have someone all excited to read more of your writing and then never see you again because of an algorithm change. Email lists help you endear yourself to an audience more. The more they see and read you, the better the relationship will get.

6. Get Feedback On Ideas

I never see anyone talk about this. I’ve sent my email list numerous opportunities to win a quick $20 Amazon gift card. In exchange, I only ask them to help me fill out a survey for a future product.

I ask them what product ideas they like the most, they get a shot to win a $20 gift card, and I get data on a future online course.

Using your email list to get quick feedback on ideas is a perfect example of the importance of email marketing.

7. Help Out Your Friends

You’re probably going to make friends in your niche as you keep creating content online. An email list shoutout is a great way to help out your friends and it’s something they’ll most likely reciprocate when the time comes.

Getting a bump from someone’s 10,000 person email list can be a game-changer.

8. Practice Your Writing

A little extra writing practice doesn’t hurt, right? You can see how many folks are opening and clicking on your links, so you’ll become a better copywriter over time.

9. Grow Your Other Social Media Accounts

Right when someone signs up for my email list, I send them links to my other social media accounts. This grows my LinkedIn following, Instagram following, and Twitter following automatically.

10. Capture People Who Are Already Reading You

The importance of email marketing can be summed up in one sentence: You capture people who are already reading your work.

You get their email address and now you can send them a message any time you want. Instead of the social media platforms deciding who gets what blog post from which writer, now YOU get to decide, and this power is significant.

Everyone who reads your blog posts clicks in, reads, then clicks out never to be seen again. Don’t you want to build a relationship with them? If you don’t capture their email address, you’re saying goodbye to them without a promise they’ll ever read you again.

Start your email list today. The importance of email marketing cannot be understated.