Are We Really Doing Our Job as Email Marketers? A Hard Look at Our Industry's Communications Shortcomings

WARNING: What you’re about to read might challenge your beliefs, shake your complacency, and make you rethink everything you thought you knew about email marketing. Consider yourself warned.

I’m not here to sugarcoat the truth or coddle fragile egos. My mission is clear: to cut through the noise, the endless chatter, and the self-congratulation that too often characterizes our industry. And let’s be real, there’s plenty of it.

Here’s a hard truth: As email marketing professionals, we’re failing to get the message out beyond our bubble. We spend so much time speaking to ourselves, huddled up at industry conferences, patting each other on the back, that we’ve neglected the bigger opportunity. I’ve done it and seen it firsthand.

I recently spoke at an e-commerce conference just outside Toronto—an event packed with business owners making over $10 million a year in sales. You’d think they’d be dialed into every marketing resource under the sun, right? Wrong. When I mentioned email marketing conferences, many of them looked at me like I had just told them unicorns exist.

These are business owners running serious operations, yet their entire view of email marketing was limited to Klaviyo. This is not a knock on Klaviyo—it’s a fantastic platform for the e-commerce space—but how is it that these successful operators didn’t know about other options? People like Chris Marriott with Email Connect, who can help identify and negotiate an ESP relationship with the best ESP for their current email marketing requirements.

The answer is simple: We’re not doing our job. We’re stuck in an echo chamber.

Stop Navel-Gazing

There’s no shortage of email marketing conferences. You can’t throw a rock without hitting one. But are we really making an impact, or are we just preaching to the choir? The same faces, the same conversations, the same recycled insights.

If we’re going to be the world’s trusted community for email marketing, we need to act like it. And that means getting our message far beyond our industry’s borders.

Let me give you another example—email newsletters. Back in the mid-2000s, we were already buying ads and executing large sponsorship email marketing campaigns leveraging third-party newsletters and doing full takeovers. Fast forward to today, and email newsletters are suddenly a “new discovery.” Really, 20 years late?

Sponsored newsletters have been around for decades, but now everyone’s acting like they’ve just invented fire. It’s laughable. - see Sponsored email [previously email list] Is email list rental coming back in style? - July 18, 2017, or my best-selling book “The Big Lies” - 2018 on the topic.

The truth is, the world is catching up to what we’ve known all along: newsletters are gold. And while people like Craig Swerdloff with Wellput, who helps businesses grow by tapping into email sponsorships and ad sales, are out there consulting and helping brands diversify their marketing strategies, there are still far too many brands that have no idea this channel exists or how to use it effectively.

Where Are the Email Marketing Experts?

We have a wealth of expertise here in the Only Influencers community—people, technology, ESPs, and SaaS tools that are second to none.

• So why aren’t we sharing this knowledge with the wider business world?
• Why are we content with talking among ourselves?

Another great example you could add is Paul Christmann with Rasa.io. When you look at relatively new startups like Daily.ai that have come along, and Paul has got deep, deep expertise as a software engineer for 30 years, this is the type of deep experience the industry needs to draw on, not necessarily the latest flavor that blows into the wind. This is the level of expertise we need more of: building from a solid foundation, rather than just being wowed by the next “big thing.”

Individuals like Scott Hardigree, founder of Email Industries, have been relentless in promoting best practices for email deliverability and expanding visibility through acquisitions like Inbox Expo, a leading international email marketing conference. Scott’s focus on tools like BlackBox and Alfred helps businesses maintain email list hygiene and improve deliverability​

Ann Handley, a widely recognized figure in digital marketing and content, is another example of someone who goes beyond traditional email circles. Ann consistently advocates for email as a powerful engagement tool, blending storytelling with practical strategies that resonate with business audiences. Her keynotes and bestselling books drive home the point that email is integral to customer engagement and long-term business success​

Meanwhile, Jeanne Jennings, CEO and Chief Strategist of boutique consulting firm Email Optimization Shop, the General Manager of Only Influencers, and Programming Chair of its annual conference Email Innovations World, is another leader who expands email marketing insights to broader business communities. Jeanne's data-driven strategies and training help businesses optimize their email programs, ensuring that they achieve measurable results​.

Ryan Sager, through Who Sponsors Stuff and The Newsletter Conference, is focused on helping media brands grow their revenue via newsletter sponsorships. His efforts are critical in educating brands on the value of newsletters, especially as they experience a resurgence as a high-value marketing channel​

Additionally, Jordie van Rijn with EmailMonday, an email and eCRM consultant, actively helps companies integrate email marketing into their broader digital strategies, ensuring businesses understand the landscape and how email can drive revenue growth​

Let’s not forget Ryan Phelan with RPEOrigin, a thought leader with over 25 years in the industry. Ryan consistently pushes businesses to take a deeper, more strategic approach to email marketing. Named Thought Leader of the Year in 2023, Ryan speaks at a wide range of events, ensuring email marketing is understood as a key component of digital success, beyond just the email marketing community​

AND THE PRIZE GOES TO - Jay Schwedelson's Guru Conference is another powerful example of breaking the mold and reaching beyond the traditional audience. With over 20,000 attendees at the 2023 event, Jay brings email marketing education to a larger scale through his innovative approach that blends "edutainment" with actionable insights. By mixing fun—like interactive contests and celebrity interviews—with deep tactical knowledge, Jay is doing exactly what we need to do as an industry: engaging audiences and expanding the reach of email marketing beyond its traditional borders​

Let me guess: too many of us are busy chasing the next shiny object. Yesterday’s TikTok guru is today’s AI expert, and tomorrow's email newsletter guru? Who knows. I’ve seen this pattern over and over, and I’m done with it. The truth is, email marketing isn’t some passing trend—it’s the backbone of digital communication, and it’s high time we started acting like it.

After all these years, are we still clinging to the "gold standard" of a $40 ROI for every dollar spent on email marketing? Sure, we’ve been quoting the Data and Marketing Association’s (formerly DMA) ROI stats for ages—$36, $40, maybe $42 per dollar—but is that really all there is? ROI has become a stale, overused metric, plastered across articles, ads, and every so-called "expert" pitch. Yes, I run a business; I understand ROI matters. But if ROI alone were the measure of success, then hey, maybe Facebook ads would trump email marketing, right? Wrong. Why? Because I don’t own my Facebook audience and neither do our clients —it's a rented space where any algorithm change could erase my reach overnight. In contrast, my email list is an asset, a direct line I control. So the conversation needs to go deeper than ROI; we should be asking about ownership, data privacy, and long-term sustainability.

If, as email marketers, all we’re doing is flaunting the ROI figure, then we’re missing the point. We’re not comparing apples to oranges—we’re stuck selling apples to apples against other platforms and tactics. And if that’s our only pitch, then we’re probably making it harder for our clients to see the true value we bring. Email marketing is about ownership, longevity, and trust—not just a quick ROI stat to stack up against rented platforms. Let's shift the conversation to what really matters.

Time for Action

Here’s the bottom line: It’s on us, the real email marketing experts, to get our message out. We need to get out of the trenches and onto the battlefield where businesses live and breathe. And I don’t mean just talking to our peers—I mean getting in front of the e-commerce giants, the SaaS founders, the corporate marketers who don’t even know what they’re missing.

This isn’t about conferences or panels. It’s about breaking down the walls we’ve built around our industry and showing the world that email marketing is not just a tool—it’s the ultimate competitive weapon.

I’m tired of complacency. I’m tired of seeing opportunities slip by because we’re too busy admiring ourselves. It’s time to put in the work, spread the message, and help businesses across the board realize the potential sitting right in front of them.

We have the email tools. We have email experts. We have email marketing best practices. Now it’s time to share them, far and wide.