Email Marketing

Email Marketing: Your Business's Most Powerful Conversation Starter

Remember when they said email was dead? Meanwhile, it's quietly delivering an average ROI of $42 for every $1 spent, according to the Data & Marketing Association. For solo entrepreneurs, email marketing isn't just alive—it's your secret weapon.

The Intimate Advantage

Email marketing expert Joanna Wiebe of Copyhackers calls email "the most intimate form of digital marketing." Unlike social media, where you're shouting into the void, email is a direct line to your prospects' and customers' attention.

As a one-person business, this intimacy plays to your strengths. You can write emails that feel like they're coming from a real person—because they are.

The Permission Asset

Seth Godin, who literally wrote the book on Permission Marketing, explains that the value of your email list isn't in its size but in the permission you've been granted. "The privilege of delivering anticipated, personal, and relevant messages to people who want them," he writes.

For solopreneurs, this means:

Earning permission: Never buy lists or add people without consent
Respecting attention: Every email should deliver value
Building relationships: Focus on engagement, not just opens

The Welcome Sequence: Your Digital Handshake

Email strategist André Chaperon emphasizes the importance of first impressions. Your welcome sequence—the series of emails new subscribers receive—sets the tone for your relationship.

A well-crafted welcome sequence should:

Deliver on the promise that got them to subscribe
Introduce your core values and mission
Set expectations for future communications
Include a small win they can achieve quickly

Email marketing expert Val Geisler calls this "making deposits before making withdrawals"—building goodwill before asking for anything in return.

Segmentation: The Solo Entrepreneur's Superpower

According to email marketing platform Mailchimp, segmented campaigns get 14.31% more opens and 100.95% more clicks than non-segmented campaigns.

For one-person businesses, even simple segmentation can be powerful:

Segment by how they found you
Segment by expressed interests
Segment by past purchases or engagement

Email expert Brennan Dunn has built his business on "progressive profiling"—gathering information over time to send increasingly personalized emails.

The Power of Storytelling in Email

Donald Miller's StoryBrand framework applies perfectly to email marketing. "People don't buy the best products," he writes. "They buy the products they can understand the fastest."

Your emails should:

Position your reader as the hero
Clearly identify the problem you're solving
Provide a simple plan for success
Call the reader to action

As author Ann Handley puts it, "Good writing isn't just writing that sells. It's writing that tells."

The Automation Advantage

For time-strapped solo entrepreneurs, automation is a game-changer. Email marketing expert Ryan Deiss of Digital Marketer recommends creating "machine" emails that work for you 24/7:

Onboarding sequences for new customers
Abandoned cart recovery
Re-engagement campaigns for dormant subscribers
Educational sequences that nurture leads

The Metrics That Matter

While open and click rates are important, ConvertKit founder Nathan Barry suggests focusing on metrics that directly impact your business:

Revenue per subscriber
Lifetime value of an email subscriber
Conversion rate from subscriber to customer

"Email marketing is not about blasting your list," Barry writes. "It's about delivering value to the right people at the right time."

The Relationship-First Approach

Email expert Henneke Duistermaat emphasizes that good email marketing feels like a conversation, not a broadcast. "Write as if you're writing to just one person," she advises.

For solo entrepreneurs, this human touch is your advantage over larger, more impersonal businesses. Your authenticity shines when you write emails that sound like they came from a real person—because they did.

Remember, as marketing legend Dan Kennedy says, "The business that can spend the most to acquire a customer wins." With email marketing's unmatched ROI, mastering this channel gives your one-person business a competitive edge that's hard to beat.