Why Newsletters Always Have Been – and Always Will Be Powerful

"Email is the original social media." – TechCrunch

Social media can be an absolute battlefield for your attention, and while social vehicles are very important platforms to broadcast your content, there's a lot of competition for your attention. And while this war rages on, e-mail newsletters have consistently been there as a way to get to more eyeballs – by invitation only.

If you look at most major publications on the web – from Inc. Magazine to Fast Company to TechCrunch – they all have huge sign-up forms for their newsletter on every page. Why is this? Because they understand the inherent value that newsletters hold – and they have the data to back it up.

There's a greater sense of intimacy and connectedness between publishers and readers in the form of an e-Newsletter and it gives publishers more control by owning their mailing list.

Now before we dissect the anatomy of why newsletters still remain the constant in a marketing strategy, let's backtrack a bit here and look at how marketers once abused their power in the first place – which led to sweeping changes in the industry.