Email marketing can start from a lead-magnet, newsletter, or promotion, with automated email sequences that nurture & educated people.
I first found success with email marketing working in academia for The Franchise Centre, then with automation in NFP Lotteries, & later in my business.
By focussing on email marketing with valuable content & offers, entrepreneurs can build a strong foundation, foster relationships & create growth.
Why is creating an email list so valuable?
“When you have attracted a warm audience from insightful content, you become a niche audience owner!”
As your audience grows over time, they become loyal & more likely to buy from you, than a random website or social media visitor.
Contrary to what many people believe, the best digital marketing strategy for new entrepreneurs is not paid social media (FB) or paid search (AdWords).
This is due to the high costs, e.g. paid social (CPL $5-20) & paid search (CPC $5-10). SEM is best suited for mature businesses with profit to invest.
Paid social media is a big trap to avoid, as you don’t own your followers, they’re not heavily invested in your methods, & you can be suddenly banned.
Plus, the social media algorithm restricts the reach of your free posts (FB audience reach <5%) due to their monetisation tactics, until you buy it.
Ten Reasons Why Email Is The Best Digital Strategy For Entrepreneurs
Here are my Ten Reasons why I think email is the best digital strategy for new entrepreneurs.
1. Direct Communication
With email you’re able to directly communicate with a person from your audience who is interested in your methods & likely to become an ideal client.
“Email lets you talk straight to people without the noise of social media, & it builds trust over time.”
If a person takes the time & effort to sign-up, they’re interested in your information, & you have a direct line to their inbox for building the customer journey.
And conversion timeframes differ for people, so if you keep providing helpful content that educates, you will grow customers over time.
2. High Return On Investment
Email is known to deliver one of the best ROIs—$36 for $1 spent (Amra & Elma), among all paid digital channels, e.g. search, social, email, & programmatic.
When you consider the high cost of digital advertising & sponsoring posts, email marketing makes sense, as it provides low-cost message frequency.
People like, Tony Robbins, Dean Graziosi, Tim Denning, & Justin Welsh all invest in email to educate & engage their audiences.
Email marketing can be started for free & subscription to a system with automation is from AU $125.00 /mth.
3. Open Rates & CTRs
For new entrepreneurs in services, building an email list is a necessity if you want affordable growth.
And you can compare industry Open Rates & Click-Through Rates (CTR) to gauge email success.
SMEs providing services can aim for Open Rates of 32-38% & CTRs around 2%. Across industries the average CTR is 2%, so aim between 1.5% & 2.5%.
If your list is aged & these targets are being missed, try cleaning-up & validating the list, plus sharpen the service offers to provide unbelievable value.
Tip: Try adding a video embed to your emails to boost Open Rates & CTRs.
4. Relationship Building
Email newsletters & Welcome Series emails are a powerful way to build trust & deepen relationships with audiences.
Someone discovers your website one day, they enjoy the articles & sign-up, then suddenly you have a new subscriber to nurture.
As you build content & consistently share insights & solutions to problems faced, your credibility grows.
That’s when real momentum begins, & you start seeing more engaged leads with steady sales growth.
Tip: Add personal stories & anecdotes with questions to boost audience engagement.
5. Lead-Magnets & Automation
An email system with automation will enable the introduction of lead-magnets & Welcome or Follow-up Series emails for growth marketing.
Lead-magnets with valuable problem-solving content are used to attract people who sign-up to download the information, e.g. a checklist, guide, or report.
Usually the lead-magnet is immediately downloadable or delivered by email to the recipient, & it secures permission to email the recipient.
This triggers an email sequence over multiple days & weeks, that reminds recipients of the problem & unique solution with special offers.
6. Audience Segmentation
Audience segmentation is a positive by-product of email marketing.
People who have downloaded your newsletter or lead-magnet are tagged & segmented into different buckets for alternate email sequences.
This enables sending the right information, e.g. website performance information to web leads, & email performance information to email leads, etc.
Segmenting is also applied to customers who have purchased services, & to facilitate sending related information, e.g. what’s next in the journey.
7. Flexible Communications
Email can be used for a wide variety of content distribution purposes.
Anything from newsletters & lead-magnets, to event marketing & promotions, to sending event recordings, announcing product launches, & sending exclusive offers.
It’s important to cover all future email purposes in your business terms & conditions.
Ensure you have opt-in permission to send emails to recipients, & always follow SPAM & Privacy Act laws.
8. Measurable Results
Professional email systems provide detailed analytics, like Open & Click reports, allowing the tracking of open rates, CTR, & offer conversions.
Some systems pinpoint the areas & buttons with the most clicks assisting email production, like the feature image & first CTA button.
The Open & Click reports become valuable for new entrepreneurs, as you learn what email content engages & converts audiences.
Email permits fine-tuning, whereas other channels take a lot of money to do this, & you can adjust future emails to suit what’s working.
9. Customers Like Emails
I like email & I have multiple personal (Gmail) & business (G-Workspace) emails accounts.
If you’re Gen-X then you probably have multiple emails that make life easier, from storing helpful information like flight itineraries & hotel bookings, to housing newsletters.
When you get new customers, they will want to hear from you in Welcome Series emails, but make sure your email is helpful & related to their purchase.
We all get busy in life & forget our PD interests & skills gap, then boom—an email arrives from a provider about an event or sale, & your motivated again.
10. People Check Emails Daily
According to Zero Bounce’s 2025 survey—88% of email users check inboxes daily, 39% of users check 3-5 times per day, & 27% check 10-20 times per day.
Email has become a communication habit & constant for many people.
56% of respondents said they had at least three email addresses, & over time engagement will decline, as new addresses become dominant. Learn more.
Tip: When engagement drops, try targeting low-performing addresses with cross-channel SMS marketing to ask people to update their address.
Why Email Is The Best Digital Strategy For Entrepreneurs
I agree email is the best strategy for new entrepreneurs.
It delivers the highest ROI ($36 for $1 spent) of any digital channel, gives you full audience ownership & allows direct communication without relying on social media algorithms.
Email marketing is the best channel for new entrepreneurs, due to its affordability & ability to nurture warm leads into customers.
If you want to avoid the shock of being suspended or shadow-banned on social media, then email is for you.
There is no better channel than email for targeting Gen-X & Baby Boomers.
But keep in mind chat (Slack, Messenger & Telegram) has taken over for Gen-Y & Z, & they prefer to communicate this way.
Let me know how email has worked for you in the comments below.
