Title saying "What 97% of your audience is doing while you're chasing the 3%" overlaid on an image of an envelope with card and yellow forsythia flower sprig.

This is my weekly newsletter, Market Smarter, Not Harder💡posted to my blog. If you’d like to join the conversation and have it delivered straight to your inbox, click here.

I have a home + garden website that I haven't updated or posted to in 3 years. It still gets thousands of page views every single month because I’ve optimized it for SEO. Much more importantly, I get email subscribers from it every single day because I’ve optimized my site for lead capture.

My email list is about to cross 8,200 within the next week.

All of this happens in the background without me lifting a finger. That's the beauty of optimizing and automating your website.

This means anytime I want to reach out - whether it’s to let them know I have a new service, product, or just to re-engage, I have an audience of 8,000 + and growing every day available to me.

The reason I’m telling you this isn’t to yap about my list size from my 3-years-dormant site.

Instead, it’s to pound the table about the importance of including email in your marketing funnel.

— Especially during uncertain economic times.

Many business owners are surprisingly resistant to email. My POV? - this is a very expensive mistake. If they truly “got it”, they would embrace email wholeheartedly.

So in this email, (or post, depending on where you’re reading) I'm gonna make the case for email. (Buckle up, Buttercup.)

Email marketing is one of the highest-leverage levers in your entire marketing funnel.

Everyone talks about visibility—Instagram, TikTok, Google, all the ways to get seen.

Social media is great for that. It’s what’s called a discovery platform - perfect for that top of funnel brand awareness.

It’s where people find you through quick, visual, bite-sized content. It’s great for awareness and reach.

But people don’t buy after one reel or one carousel. They need more context and depth before they get to the point of having the confidence that you are the one who gets their problem and can solve it.

So my point is:

Visibility without capture is wasted energy.

If you don’t have a way to hold onto the people who find you, you’re constantly starting over - day after day, post after post, reel after tedious reel...

Email changes that because email is a relationship platform. Email marketing is the lever that turns fleeting attention into long-term connection.

When you send your subscribers an email, it lands in their inbox. They make the choice to open it or not, but it’s ready and waiting.

This means you can tell the full story, offer deeper value, link to other resources — do all the things to help someone go from “interested” to “invested.”

Compare that to Instagram where only 5% of your audience will even see your post.

(Thomas Finetto, Head of Meta Creative Social Marketing - @instagramfor business)

Inside your subscriber’s inbox, you’re not competing with dancing videos and dog memes. You have a captive moment of attention, and if you use it well, you can create real connection.

The access you get to subscribers through email as a relationship platform, can make all the difference in whether or not someone decides to work with you or go with a competitor.

Best of all - it works behind the scenes on auto-pilot to deliver your message without the social media daily content grind and fickle algorithm luck.

Minimalist line up of pink envelopes laid out on diagonal.

With just one well-placed opt-in and a simple nurture sequence, you can keep showing up for people long after they encounter your brand. (If you want to check out my free opt-ins, click here.)

And this is crucial, because:

Only 3% of your audience is ready to buy at any given time.

That’s it.

The other 97%?
They’re browsing. They’re checking out your content and your site, but they’re not yet ready to buy.

But - and this is important - they’re watching you. And while they’re checking you out, they’re also checking out your competitors.

HERE’S THE THING MOST BUSINESS OWNERS GET WRONG:

They focus only on trying to convert the 3% that are ready to buy right now…

This is a huge, expensive mistake. If you’re only focused on closing the 3%, you’re letting nearly everyone else fall through the cracks.

Email is how you keep those leads in your world—until the timing is right for them.

Because here’s the secret of what actually happens with email marketing and your 97%:

Once they opt into your list, you’ll follow up. You'll email them regularly - and they may just skim a few of your emails here and there.

But a few weeks or months down the road, suddenly the problem that brought them to your site initially as just a casual browser is more urgent, and now they're ready to take action to have that problem solved.

So they will go to their inbox and actually use it as a search engine thinking “Where was that person talking about my [insert problem I want solved]?

They will find your email, check out your offer once more, and convert. (LandingCat, Swell AI)

But for this to happen, you have to get people on your list and send them emails!

You don’t need to sell harder. You just need to stay top-of-mind.

Female service entrepreneur sitting on a tufted sofa working on email marketing on her laptop.

The case for email during economic uncertainty

Right now the case for email has never been stronger. In seasons of economic instability, buying behavior shifts.

People don’t leap—they pause.
They look for reassurance. They need more time and more trust and reassurance that their investment will be worth it.

That’s not something you can accomplish in a single Instagram reel or story.

But with email you can introduce them to your world. Share client wins. Offer depth and clarity. And most importantly—stay top of mind without being pushy.

Email gives you the time and space to guide hesitant buyers to a confident “yes”— at their pace.

The bottom line?

Email marketing isn’t old-school. It’s sustainable and smart - and can make a critical difference to your bottom line -especially during economic uncertainty.

It’s the platform that allows you to turn casual browsers into loyal clients—without burning yourself out on trying to go viral. In a nutshell - social works for getting you discovered, but email is where most of the conversions happen.

So if you're not using email marketing as a core part of your marketing funnel, you’re leaving serious money on the table. 💸

Ready to start building your email list?

I use Flodesk to design beautiful, simple emails that convert for my home and garden blog - it’s perfect for 1:1 client based service providers.

I recommend Kit for creating high-converting marketing funnels (I use it for tinaflint.com). It’s the best choice if you’re selling digital products and/or want all the funnel and analytics bells and whistles.

(Affiliate links included—because I only share what I actually use and love.)

Why Email Marketing Is Critical During Uncertain Economic Times