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

Summary

Podcast Summary: The $100 MBA Show – Episode MBA2644: "Email Newsletters Are the New Social Media (Here’s Why)"

Release Date: June 30, 2025
Host: Omar Zenhom

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Introduction

In Episode MBA2644 of The $100 MBA Show, host Omar Zenhom delves into the burgeoning significance of email newsletters in the contemporary digital landscape. Titled "Email Newsletters Are the New Social Media (Here’s Why)," this episode explores why email has resurged as a powerful tool for building and monetizing an audience, outpacing traditional social media platforms.

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The Power of Email Over Social Media

[00:59] Omar begins by contrasting email with social media, highlighting the inherent challenges of relying solely on platforms like Instagram and TikTok for business growth. He states:

“Most people are chasing social media likes, but smart business owners, they're chasing email opens. Email newsletters are not just making a comeback, they're becoming the new social media.”
— Omar Zenhom [00:59]

Key Points:

• Visibility and Engagement: Unlike social media feeds, where posts can easily be missed amidst the endless scroll, emails land directly in the recipient's inbox, a “last sacred place in your digital world” where action is inevitable.

• Algorithm Limitations: Social media algorithms prioritize keeping users engaged on the platform to boost advertising revenue, often limiting the reach of business posts regardless of follower count.

• Direct Access: An email list ensures 100% deliverability, with the average adult checking their email 15 times a day, compared to much lower engagement rates on social media.

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Compelling Statistics Supporting Email Marketing

Omar reinforces his argument with compelling statistics that underscore the efficacy of email marketing:

• Open Rates: "The average email open rate is about 30 to 40%," he explains, compared to Instagram's organic reach of merely 5 to 10% of followers.

• Return on Investment (ROI): Citing a study by Campaign Monitor, Omar reveals:

  “Email Marketing has an ROI of 4200%. That's $42 for every dollar spent.”
  — Omar Zenhom [02:15]

  This staggering ROI highlights email marketing's unparalleled efficiency in driving revenue compared to other digital marketing channels.

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Three Reasons Why Newsletters Are So Effective

Omar outlines three foundational reasons why email newsletters outperform social media in building and monetizing an audience:

1. Control

   • Ownership of Audience: “You own the list, you don't own your followers,” Omar emphasizes. Unlike social media platforms, where businesses are subject to platform policies and potential bans, an email list is a business's direct line to its audience.

   • Platform Stability: “Instagram can ban you tomorrow. TikTok can disappear just like Vine did,” highlighting the vulnerability of relying solely on third-party platforms.

2. Attention

   • Dedicated Space: The inbox is described as a “sacred place” where recipients have consented to hear from the sender, fostering a more intimate and trust-based relationship.

   • Reduced Noise: Without competing against memes, cat videos, and viral rants, businesses can maintain deeper connections with their audience.

3. Conversion

   • Trust-Based Sales: Omar points out that email doesn’t require businesses to be entertainers; instead, it focuses on delivering consistent value, laying a foundation of trust that significantly boosts conversion rates when promoting products or services.

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Structuring an Effective Newsletter

Omar shares his personalized format for crafting impactful newsletters, which he refers to as a three-part framework:

1. Idea Worth Thinking About

   • Present a valuable concept that shifts the reader’s perspective, encouraging deeper engagement.

2. Recommended Action

   • Provide actionable steps, such as homework assignments, tools, or challenges, to prompt immediate application of the discussed ideas.

3. Resource for Further Learning

   • Include links to relevant posts, resources, or podcast episodes, offering readers the opportunity to delve deeper into the subject matter.

“That's exactly what I do in my newsletter. Like I mentioned, the newsletter is called Three Things Newsletter.”
— Omar Zenhom [07:05]

This structured approach ensures each newsletter delivers consistent value without overwhelming the reader.

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Building Your Newsletter from Scratch

For those starting anew, Omar outlines a straightforward three-step plan to establish a successful email newsletter:

1. Create a Lead Magnet

   • Develop a valuable incentive, such as a template or guide, that entices individuals to subscribe by offering immediate, tangible benefits.

2. Post Content That Teaches

   • Utilize social media platforms to share educational content that directs traffic to the newsletter signup, effectively using social channels as gateways rather than primary engagement tools.

3. Maintain Consistency

   • Commit to sending out newsletters regularly, even if it’s just one idea weekly, to build trust and reliability with the audience.

Omar highlights the success of prominent newsletters, like Seth Godin’s, to illustrate the impact of concise and meaningful content.

“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 are investing in your business.”
— Omar Zenhom [07:50]

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Overcoming Initial Challenges

Acknowledging the daunting nature of starting a newsletter, Omar offers encouragement:

“Anytime you start something new like a newsletter, it's going to be hard. It's just the truth.”
— Omar Zenhom [08:25]

He reassures listeners that perseverance leads to momentum:

• Initial Struggles: The first steps are often the hardest, but consistent effort results in gradual growth.

• Building Confidence: Each sent newsletter builds confidence and strengthens the foundation for a thriving, engaged email list.

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Conclusion

Omar Zenhom wraps up the episode by reiterating the paramount importance of email newsletters in modern business strategies. By prioritizing email over social media, businesses can achieve greater control, engagement, and conversion rates. He urges listeners to take actionable steps towards building their email lists, emphasizing that the investment of time and effort will yield substantial long-term benefits.

“Keep moving forward. Keep taking action. That's how you build confidence. That's how you start believing in yourself. You could do this.”
— Omar Zenhom [11:45]

For those interested in witnessing his strategies in action, Omar invites listeners to subscribe to his own "Three Things Newsletter" via his website, 100mba.net.

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Notable Quotes

• Omar Zenhom [00:59]:

  “Most people are chasing social media likes, but smart business owners, they're chasing email opens. Email newsletters are not just making a comeback, they're becoming the new social media.”

• Omar Zenhom [02:15]:

  “Email Marketing has an ROI of 4200%. That's $42 for every dollar spent.”

• Omar Zenhom [07:05]:

  “That's exactly what I do in my newsletter. Like I mentioned, the newsletter is called Three Things Newsletter.”

• Omar Zenhom [07:50]:

  “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 are investing in your business.”

• Omar Zenhom [08:25]:

  “Anytime you start something new like a newsletter, it's going to be hard. It's just the truth.”

• Omar Zenhom [11:45]:

  “Keep moving forward. Keep taking action. That's how you build confidence. That's how you start believing in yourself. You could do this.”

---

Final Thoughts

Omar Zenhom’s insightful episode underscores a pivotal shift in digital marketing strategies. By advocating for the strategic use of email newsletters, he provides listeners with actionable frameworks and compelling evidence to prioritize email over fleeting social media trends. This episode serves as a comprehensive guide for entrepreneurs and business owners seeking sustainable growth and meaningful audience engagement in an ever-evolving digital world.

Transcript

[A]

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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. 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 foreign welcome back to the $100 MBA show. I'm your host Omar Zenholm 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 so powerful? Well, email is not like social media. With social media you just kind of thumb through your feed and you can easily miss messages, right? Usually go to media when you're waiting for your 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 got to do something with them. You got to 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. 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 going to feed their users whatever's going to keep them there. They're not interested in showing your post to everyone that follows you. Even if you have 100,000 followers, that doesn't mean you have a hundred thousand 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. 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 4200%. 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 marketing, you're making $42. 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 booming. We're seeing creators like packing 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. 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. 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. 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, 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. If you want to start a business, that's great. That's amazing. It's ambitious and of course a huge step. But you also want to keep your personal information secure. That's where Northwest comes in. They're the partner you need to have the privacy you deserve. In just 10 clicks and 10 minutes, you'll form your business, create a custom website and set up your local presence wherever you need it in an all in one easy to use account. You can even protect your identity and keep your home address private by using Northwest's address on your formation documents. And I love this about Northwest they have this premium mail forwarding service. It gives you a physical business address separate from your private information. 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[D]

So what should you actually send in your newsletter? I'm going to 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. 1. 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, 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 100- MBA-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 can 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 as 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. 2. 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. 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, but in a year's time you're going to start seeing a list of thriving buyers, not just followers. 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 on your email list, and then a month later you have a hundred 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. Thanks again for listening to the $100 MPA Show. Again. If you want to sign up for my three Things newsletter, to see my newsletter as an example, just go to 100- MBA-NET. Sign up for any of our free guides and you'll get access to 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.

[B]

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