MBA2644 Email Newsletters Are the New Social Media (Here’s Why)

Wondering why your social media posts aren’t getting the traction you expected, while some businesses have email lists that practically print money? Curious if email newsletters are really making a comeback—and whether you should jump in before it’s too late? In this lesson, Omar breaks down why email newsletters are quickly becoming the new social media for savvy business owners. You’ll get a clear look at the stats, proof, and strategies that make email so much more powerful for building and monetizing an audience. From the right way to start your own newsletter from scratch to an easy-to-steal format that keeps subscribers engaged, Omar takes you step-by-step through what works now. Ready to leave social media’s unpredictable algorithms behind and start building lasting connections? Hit play at the top of this page and jump into this actionable lesson that could transform how you grow your business online! Watch the episodes on YouTube: https://lm.fm/GgRPPHiSUBSCRIBEYouTube | Apple Podcast | Spotify | Podcast Feed

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:28Speaker 01

  Small business owners, listen up. You started your business, but you can't do it alone. And that means you have to hire people to help. That's where Justworks comes in. Justworks is the payroll, benefits, and global hiring platform to unburden your brain from all the complicated small business stuff. They handle the things you can't afford to get wrong, so you don't have to worry. So you can focus on the parts of running a business that you enjoy, knowing everything else is running smoothly. You don't have to worry when it just works. Most people are chasing social media likes, but smart business owners, they're chasing email opens. Let me explain why email newsletters are not just making a comeback, they're becoming the new social media.

• 1:10Speaker 01

  And if you're not taking this seriously yet, you're missing out on the most powerful way to build and monetize an audience today. This episode is going to give you the full breakdown, the proof, the examples, and how you can build your own newsletter even if you're starting from zero. Welcome back to the $100 MBA Show. I'm your host, Omar Zenhome, where I deliver practical business lessons three times a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, to help you start, grow, and scale your business. Before we dive in, I want to answer the question, why email's so powerful? Well, email is not like social media.

• 1:53Speaker 01

  With social media, you just kind of thumb through your feed and you can easily miss messages, right? Usually go to social media when you're waiting for Uber or something like that. But email is something that you have to deal with. Your inbox is basically the last sacred place in your digital world. In your inbox, you have a bunch of emails and you gotta do something with them. You gotta either open them and read them, or you got to archive them or file them. You can't just ignore them. And this is why it's like a gold rush right now to get people onto their email list. Let's get real, social media platforms don't care about you as a business owner. They care about keeping people on their app, not sending them to your website, not getting you more leads.

• 2:36Speaker 01

  They are interested in keeping people busy on their app. Watch time, view time, scroll time, that's all they care about because that's how they sell their advertising. They're gonna feed their users whatever's gonna keep them there. They're not interested in showing your posts to everyone that follows you. Even if you have 100,000 followers, that doesn't mean you have 100,000 people seeing your posts. Often, it's 1 to 3% if you're lucky. Now, you know what does have 100% deliverability? Your email list, okay? People check their email more than they check any other platform. Statistically, the average adult checks their email 15 times a day. Let's go deeper into some stats.

• 3:18Speaker 01

  The average email open rate is about 30 to 40% if you're doing it right. Compare that to Instagram organic reach. It's around 5 to 10% of your followers. And that's if you're pumping out incredible content and Instagram is incentivized to share your content. But more importantly, email converts. According to a study that Campaign Monitor did, email marketing has an ROI of 4,200%. That's $42 for every dollar spent. That's an ROI I will take every day of the week and twice on Sunday. It's incredible. Just let that sink in. For every dollar you spend on email marketing, you're making $42.

• 4:00Speaker 01

  The truth is that people are actually really burnt out on social media. It's noisy, it's overwhelming, it feels like everyone is yelling at each other. But when somebody opens your email, you have their full attention, one-on-one. In 2025, we're seeing a resurgence of quality content in inboxes. Substack is absolutely We're seeing creators like Packer McCormick building seven-figure businesses just from newsletters. Big brands are treating newsletters like their own private social media channels because they are. When I launch anything, a course, a new episode of the podcast, programs, events, a webinar, it's not social media that drives revenue, it's email.

• 4:42Speaker 01

  Let's break down the three reasons newsletters are so effective. Number one, control. You own the list. You don't own your followers, okay? You have to remember that, that you are kind of working on borrowed land when you're on social media. But when you have an email list, that list, that contact list, is in your control. Instagram can ban you tomorrow. TikTok can disappear, just like Vine did, or be banned in a country, your country, right? Your email list is your direct line to your audience. You need to have control over that, and that's why email rocks. Number two, attention. The inbox is a sacred place.

• 5:23Speaker 01

  If someone gives you their email address, they're giving you permission to show up in their world on their terms. You can build a real relationship with them. They can build trust with you. And when you're not competing with memes and cat videos and political rants, you have a lot more of a deeper connection with them. And that leads me to number three, conversion. You don't need to be an entertainer, you just need to be valuable when it comes to email. If you can deliver value consistently in someone's inbox, when the time comes to offer them something that they need, like a product or service, they'll buy because they already trust you. You've already built that foundation. But what about social media? Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying stop posting on social media.

• 6:08Speaker 01

  Use social media to build your newsletter, to drive traffic to the opt-in to get onto your email list. That should be the only job of social, to be honest with you, to turn the attention from social media to your email list. So in my opinion, my advice, your TikToks, your Reels, your YouTube Shorts, those are just trailheads. They're just ways to get people down the path, a path that leads to your email list. Because your newsletter is where the real relationship begins. Through your newsletter, you're going to build deeper connections. You're going to go deeper with people that actually value what you have, rather than trying to kind of gather a crowd of people that are going to forget you two seconds later. That's social media.

• 6:51Speaker 01

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• 8:36Speaker 01

  So what should you actually send in your newsletter? I'm gonna give you my format, my three-part format. You could just steal it from me and you can actually sign up for my newsletter. I'll tell you later about that. And you can just take a look at how I do it. But I use this format, you should use it too. One, you can send them a quick idea worth thinking about. Something valuable that shifts their perspective. Number two, give them some sort of recommended action, some homework, a tool, a step, a challenge that they can try this week. Number three, something to learn. A link, a post, a resource, a podcast episode, for example. That is something that is useful for them to dig in and learn further from you. That's exactly what I do in my newsletter, like I mentioned.

• 9:21Speaker 01

  The newsletter is called Three Things Newsletter, not a fancy name, right? It's designed to help business owners grow without any kind of fluff or overwhelm. If you want to sign up, just go to 100mba.net. Sign up for any of our freebies or guides and you'll be part of the newsletter automatically. You'll get it every single week and you could take a look at my format and just use the same thing. What if you're starting absolutely from scratch? Then you're in the perfect position. Here's a three-step plan for that. You want to create a lead magnet, a step one, something valuable enough for people to pay for it, like a template, like a guide, something that allows them to get a win quickly. Two, post content that teaches. Use social media to help people and point them to their newsletter. Make that link in your bio, your newsletter. And then be consistent.

• 10:06Speaker 01

  Send something every week, your newsletter, even if it's just one idea. Build trust and consistency with your audience. Another good example of a great newsletter is Seth Godin's newsletter. It's very short, it's very sweet. Sometimes his newsletter is like three sentences, but it's impactful. If you want to build a real business, not just a personal brand that fades with the algorithm of the day, you need to build your email list. Email is not dead, it's just quietly powerful. Think of it like compound interest. The more you invest in your email list, the more you send out great content, the more you are investing in your business. And listen, this is going to take some time. You won't see massive results in one week,

• 10:47Speaker 01

  but in a year's time, you're gonna start seeing a list of thriving buyers, not just followers.

• 10:54Speaker 01

  Before I go, I want to leave you with this. Anytime you start something new, like a newsletter, it's going to be hard. It's just the truth. That's how it is, right? You're starting from zero. But guess what happens? The next day you work on it, it gets a little bit easier. You're not starting from scratch anymore. You wrote your first newsletter. You have a few emails on your email list. And then a month later, you have 100 emails on your email list. And you've sent a few newsletters and you're getting some momentum. You're starting to feel more confident. Getting started, just that initial traction is the hardest part. So just take one step forward and take my advice. Do the steps I shared with you today.

• 11:33Speaker 01

  Thanks again for listening to the $100 MBA Show. Again, if you want to sign up for my Three Things Newsletter to see my newsletter as an example, just go to 100mbadotnet, sign up for any of our free guides and you'll get access to the newsletter automatically. Thanks again. And until next time, keep moving forward, keep taking action. That's how you build confidence. That's how you start believing in yourself. You could do this. Take care.

• 12:04Speaker 02

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