Yes, and by a wide margin for most small businesses. Email is the only channel where you own the audience outright, which is precisely why it keeps outperforming platforms you rent.
Email remains the highest return channel for most small businesses because you own the list, delivery is not throttled by an algorithm, and intent is higher than on social. Start by emailing existing customers, publish something genuinely useful monthly, and add a simple welcome sequence.
Why owning the list matters more each year
Every social platform decides how many of your followers see a post, and that number has trended downward for years. An email list is a direct line you keep regardless of any platform change. If a channel disappeared tomorrow, the businesses with lists would notice least.
You already have a list
Most small businesses believe they are starting from zero. In reality there are past customers, enquiries that never converted, people met at events, and anyone who has ever paid an invoice. That is a list. It simply has not been asked for permission yet, which is the first job.
What to actually send
- Something useful. A short answer to a question customers keep asking beats a company news update every time.
- Something human. A short note about a decision you made or a mistake you fixed builds more trust than polish.
- Something specific. One clear offer or next step per email. Emails with five calls to action get none of them clicked.
The one sequence worth building first
Before any campaign, build a welcome sequence of three emails triggered when someone joins. The first delivers whatever they signed up for and sets expectations. The second shares your most useful piece of thinking. The third makes a soft, specific offer. This runs forever without further work and typically outperforms everything else you send.
Frequency and honesty
Monthly is enough to stay useful without becoming noise, and it is sustainable for a small team, which matters more than an ambitious weekly cadence abandoned after six weeks. Tell people what to expect when they subscribe, then honour it exactly.
What to measure
Open rates have become unreliable due to privacy protections that pre load images. Focus instead on click rate, replies, and how many enquiries mention something they read. Those numbers reflect genuine attention.