Email Should Be the Centerpiece of Your Marketing Strategy

During a recent nightly Instagram scroll, I noticed something annoying that I’ve seen before. Much of the content from the brands I follow was outdated. For instance…

• A restaurant promoting “tonight’s special’ – from 3 night ago
• A sale – which had ended a week ago
• A featured wine discount – from the previous weekend

Some posts were just a couple of days old. Others were from last week or earlier. The scrolling left me realizing that I had actually missed out on things I was really interested in.

Three important things to note:

1. These were organic posts from brands I already follow.
2. These brands did nothing wrong.
3. I’m subscribed to email for several of these brands, if not all.

Their messages didn’t reach me in time because of social media algorithms, which means both the brand and I missed out.

Making the Case for an Email-First Approach

Yes, I’m biased. I’ve been working in email since 2001, and I love it. But this isn’t just about one channel being better than the others. I 100% believe that social media plays a crucial role in brand awareness. The problem is that algorithms control your reach with organic posts, which means you are not in control.

With email, you control the message and the timing. You own your list. And when done well, email shows up in your subscribers’ inboxes at exactly the right moment.

The morning after my Instagram scroll, I checked my inbox to see if those same brands had emailed me. Some had, and in those cases, I saw their promotion in time. Others hadn’t sent anything at all, which means I completely missed the offer. That’s a big marketing miss; and a strong case for leading with email.

Let Email Content Lead Your Marketing

Email should lead your marketing strategy, not play second fiddle to social media. Use email to deliver timely, valuable messages to people who want to hear from you. Repurpose that content for social media, where it can extend your reach and attract new subscribers.

Shifting your mindset and process to make email your main channel doesn’t require major changes. It just needs a clear plan. I believe in step-by-step frameworks, so here’s my recommendation for how brands should structure their marketing with email at the center.

1. Start every campaign with email in mind. Define your core message, audience segment, and the action you want people to take.
2. Repurpose your email into social content, not the other way around. By making this change, your important messages reach your audience directly, instead of getting buried by algorithms.
3. Leverage your email content for efficient social creation. For example, if your email features four key items, use the copy you already wrote to create four social posts. Take it a step further: send your email on day one, then use email engagement analytics to identify your best-performing content. Turn those into social media stories and reels. If you're struggling to write your social media content, consider repurposing your email content and using AI to format it for social media.

Use Your Social Reach to Grow Your List

I often say: Your Instagram followers like you. Your email subscribers trust you. The people on both? They love you.

If that’s true, then your best move is to turn social followers into email subscribers. Yet so many brands forget to link to an email signup form on their social profiles. It’s a simple yet strategic shift that can have a big impact.

Yes, I’ve made purchases directly from Instagram. However, time and again, email proves to be the more effective channel.

The Conversion Numbers Speak for Themselves

According to a January 2025 blog post from EmailToolTester*, the average email conversion rate is 8%, compared to just 3% from social media. That stat alone makes the case for email even stronger.

If your goal is to move people from like to trust to love, email is where that happens. Now is the time to lead with the channel you control and build strategic, thoughtful campaigns that start in the inbox.

Photo by note thanun on Unsplash