Media’s Most Important Platform: Email

Every few years the media industry falls in love again with email.With the current popularity of Substack and the creator economy, email is ascendent once again.But it is not new. Long before The Skimm became popular, the Daily Candy was emailing the same demographic. And before Sara Fischer’s weekly newsletter covering the media industry, paidContent was the go-to source for industry scoops.

It’s not that there’s anything new, but rather that some newsletters are capitalizing on what has always made email an effective medium. Yes, email is simple and personal, but the most successful email campaigns reflect these nuances that have been present since the dawn of the internet.

What makes email so powerful and why has it endured? Most people will agree that they are simple and that they can be personal. It doesn’t take long for an individual to start an email newsletter even before Substack, there was paper.li) and there are certainly great tools to connect with an audience.

But like any enduring trend, there are nuances with email that set apart those that “get it right” and those that miss the full opportunity it presents.

Here are a few email subtilties with email that many don’t appreciate:

• Push – Outside of app notifications, email is one of the true push platform publishers have at their disposal. Want to become part of a new daily habit with your readers? You can’t rely on them remembering to visit your site or content. A push platform allows you to control the pacing and cadence of outreach with your audience. A media company can nurture them along and potentially dictate timing of use. It can be the difference between developing an engaged super user vs. serving a one-time reader.
• Data – In the privacy era, first-party data is the name of the game and one of the largest opportunities that media has seen in decades. Email is personally identifiable – each message goes to a single email address. It also allows savvy media companies to identify individual users across different devices. Open an email on your phone and laptop? Tracking helps us know that the devices are attached to the same person and that behaviors on each go to a single profile. This ultimately helps media companies provide more personalized content and more relevant advertisements. 
• Demographics – In the B2B media world, readers are very receptive to giving trusted publishers not only their email address but also their name, company, and job title when subscribing to an email newsletter. You don’t get an opportunity to ask for this level of detail anywhere else. Knowing your audience beyond an address allows you to serve them better and opens up the opportunity or need to grow in a certain direction.
• Action – Email requires action. For each message, a reader has to read, delete, or file an email away for later. One small interaction often leads to the next. An open can easily become a click which turns to a visit and potentially a purchase. There is nothing passive about email and, for publishers with passionate audiences, it provides outsized opportunities.
• Flexibility – Email supports all business models and has proven to be the foundation for any product launch. Want to start a new virtual or physical event? Your most effective promotion will be an email. Want to drive subscriptions? A personal email will be the biggest step. What is the most effective digital ad? What drives affiliate sales? Email.
• At the end of the day, a digital audience is the active ingredient for any media expansion or pivot. In today’s world that means email.
• Control – Most importantly, email is a platform that a media company completely controls. Too often over the last twenty years, media has built businesses on 3rd party platforms only to have it blow up in the end. Upworthy’s explosive growth and ultimate demise on Facebook is a good example.
• With email, we aren’t held hostage to whims of an algorithm. A “partner” can’t unilaterally change the financial terms on us. We can’t suddenly be cut off from our audiences. There is nothing more powerful for a media company than that. 

Every 3-4 years, a new technology comes along that will be the “email killer.” It’s been social media, RSS feeds, Google Wave, chat bots, and now Slack. Too often, media companies look for the next new platform. But the one that will endure is already here and email’s subtleties will always be there.