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Every time a new year rolls around, dozens of experts in marketing and business tell you what trends and predictions you need to be aware of for the next 12 months.
By their definition, trends are about what’s popular now and what might stick around in the long run. It’s about betting on a channel, a tactic, a format. But the thing about bets is that they’re delightful when you get them right and potentially detrimental when you miss the mark.
For ConvertKit, marketing isn’t about trends and risks. It’s about your life, livelihood, passion, and a sense of fulfillment.
From that comes our mission: to make marketing for creators sustainable, reliable, and scalable — regardless of the changes and challenges of platforms, algorithms, and the internet.
We went all in on email marketing for creators in 2014, and we’ve never been more certain about it being the future than now.
Here’s why.
<h2>Email marketing is reliable</h2>
The conversation about building your business on “rented land” known as social media is far from new. Over the past fifteen years, a lot happened in favor of owning your audience vs. scaling it on a third-party platform.
Remember when MySpace was the coolest place to hang… until it wasn’t. Google+ is a thing of the past, and we’ve seen creators gain millions of followers on Vine, only for the platform to shut down.
Facebook pages used to reach the majority of their followers, but the <a href="https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/facebook-organic-reach-declining" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reach dropped</a> to just a couple of percent starting in 2014. Instagram’s <a href="https://9to5mac.com/2018/06/03/instagram-says-no-chronological-feed-option-coming/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">non-chronological feed</a> soon followed suit and created a similar outcome in 2016. Today, both platforms are following TikTok’s lead and prioritizing short-form videos over other types of content.
More recently, it’s worth remembering the hype around Clubhouse, an audio-only social media network that peaked during the first year of the pandemic. In 2022, its downloads <a href="https://www.protocol.com/bulletins/clubhouse-social-audio-executive-departures?" target="_blank" rel="noopener">dropped 80%</a> compared to the previous year.
And as if all of this hasn’t created enough turmoil in the creator world, there’s Twitter.
Elon Musk took over the company in late 2022, brutally laid off (or forced to resign) <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2022/11/21/23472025/elon-musk-twitter-hiring-again-ending-layoffs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">more than 4,500 people</a> out of its workforce of nearly 7,500, and reversed decisions around problematic content and banned accounts (among other things).
The result? A subsequent <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/02/technology/twitter-hate-speech.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">rise in misinformation and hate speech</a> and a decrease in online safety. Many people no longer believe that the future of Twitter is positive. A heap of celebrities have <a href="https://www.vulture.com/2022/12/celebrities-who-left-deactivated-twitter-elon-musk.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">abandoned the app</a>, and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/dec/13/twitter-lose-users-elon-musk-takeover-hate-speech#:~:text=More%20than%2030%20million%20users,takeover%2C%20according%20to%20a%20forecast." target="_blank" rel="noopener">experts predict</a> that more than 30 million people will leave Twitter in the next two years.
There are even examples of creators losing their entire following, like Alex Beadon, a launch strategist. She built a large audience on YouTube (among other channels) and <a href="https://www.alexbeadon.com/2021/04/15/im-back-on-youtube/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote this</a>:
<blockquote class="blockquote-sm">In 2017, I went to bed with a YouTube channel that had over 1.9 million views, 30,000 subscribers, and 200 videos. I woke up, and it all disappeared.</blockquote>
The reason for losing her channel quite literally overnight? An error from YouTube. And as our <a href="https://convertk.it/creator-report14" target="_blank" rel="noopener">State of the Creator Economy 2022</a> report revealed, two-thirds of full-time creators started building their audience more than three years ago.
To put it bluntly: when your audience and your relationship with it hinges on a platform you have no control over, you can lose many years of hard, consistent work in the blink of an eye.
Email marketing ensures that this relationship with your audience is truly your own.
No matter what happens to your email marketing platform of choice, you own the email addresses whose owners want to see you in their inbox. They consented to it. And with that, you’ll never have to go to sleep with the fear of losing what you’ve worked so hard to build.
<h2>Email marketing is sustainable</h2>
One of the best things about being a creator is the opportunity to focus on topics you’re passionate about and share that passion with others.
This opportunity to get personal and dive deep is one of social media strengths. Comments, replies, and DMs can kick off meaningful conversations and create the space for real connections with your audience.
That’s also its downside. It can be draining and unsustainable to have your entire creative business depend on being present in real time. <a href="https://charlimarie.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Charli Marie</a>, our creative director here at ConvertKit also runs a successful creative business, said:
<blockquote class="blockquote-sm">While it sucks to not be able to respond to everyone who messages me for advice, I’ve come to terms with the fact that if I try to respond to everyone individually, I’ll run out of energy to create content that can help a bunch of people at once.</blockquote>
<a href="https://convertk.it/creator-report14" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Our research</a> shows that 61% of creators are burnt out. The causes of their burnout span from the pressure to post content everywhere to the emotional labor of being a personal brand and having to show up authentically.
<div id="attachment_45093" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-45093" decoding="async" loading="" class="wp-image-45093 size-full lazy" data-src="https://media.convertkit.com/post/future-creators-marketing-email-01.jpg?fm=pjpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1031" data-srcset="https://media.convertkit.com/post/future-creators-marketing-email-01.jpg?fit=scale&amp;fm=pjpg&amp;h=412&amp;w=600 600w, https://media.convertkit.com/post/future-creators-marketing-email-01.jpg?fit=scale&amp;fm=pjpg&amp;h=704&amp;w=1024 1024w, https://media.convertkit.com/post/future-creators-marketing-email-01.jpg?fit=scale&amp;fm=pjpg&amp;h=528&amp;w=768 768w, https://media.convertkit.com/post/future-creators-marketing-email-01.jpg?fit=scale&amp;fm=pjpg&amp;h=406&amp;w=590 590w, https://media.convertkit.com/post/future-creators-marketing-email-01.jpg?fit=scale&amp;fm=pjpg&amp;h=240&amp;w=349 349w, https://media.convertkit.com/post/future-creators-marketing-email-01.jpg?fit=scale&amp;fm=pjpg&amp;h=1056&amp;w=1536 1536w, https://media.convertkit.com/post/future-creators-marketing-email-01.jpg?fit=scale&amp;fm=pjpg&amp;h=1408&amp;w=2048 2048w, https://media.convertkit.com/post/future-creators-marketing-email-01.jpg?fm=pjpg 1500w" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" />The causes of burnout for full-time creators. <a href="https://convertk.it/creator-report14" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Image via State of the Creator Economy 2022</a>.</div>
In the same survey, we uncovered that the majority of full-time creators are parents and have a partner—another factor working against the “be present online at all times to keep growing your business” requirement.
To build long-term trust and lay the foundation for a successful business, you need a sustainable way to show up for your audience, build a connection with them, and say the right thing at the right time without <a href="https://convertkit.com/creator-burnout" target="_blank" rel="noopener">burning out</a>, even when you’re low on energy or short on time.
That way is email, and that’s thanks to segmenting, automations, and smart triggers that make sure the people on your list get exactly what they need. Nothing more, nothing less.
<h2>Email marketing is strategic, predictable, and scalable</h2>
In theory, having thousands of social media followers is a fantastic business asset. It means you can reach many of them instantly and potentially reach their followers if you compel them to share your posts.
But as it turns out, even millions of followers may not be enough to turn numbers into revenue. Take the example of Billie Eilish, one of the most popular musicians today, whose 100+ million followers weren’t enough to sell <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/07/books/social-media-following-book-publishing.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">more than 64,000 copies</a> of her book.
Or, even more importantly, the infamous case of an Instagram creator <a href="https://www.insider.com/instagrammer-arii-2-million-followers-cannot-sell-36-t-shirts-2019-5" target="_blank" rel="noopener">who failed to sell just 36 t-shirts</a> during her clothing line launch, despite having over 2.6 million followers.
Social media is amazing. It’s the discovery engine that can put your work in front of people who deeply care about the same topics that you do—and that you can influence through the content you create. Newsletters, and email marketing in general, don’t have that built-in discoverability that comes with social media.
But when it comes to building a deeper connection or launching a product, social media isn’t enough. You can never be certain about how a specific tweet, TikTok video, or Instagram post will do. It’s hard to have a strategy and set realistic goals when social media is all you rely on—the influencer that couldn’t sell a t-shirt to even 0.001% of her fans would probably agree with that.
On the opposite end of social media’s volatility and unpredictability sits email marketing. From week to week, you can count on consistent open and click-through rates; if their trajectory changes, you can reach out to subscribers to learn why that’s the case.
Many creators report converting between 2% and 5% of their total subscribers into customers every time they launch a product. This makes email marketing strategic and scalable and lets you predict your launch outcomes based on the state of your email list rather than a hunch. 
It also lets you grow your number of subscribers ahead of the launch to set yourself up for more success.
And the best part is that <a href="https://convertkit.com/small-email-list" target="_blank" rel="noopener">you don’t need a giant email list to have a successful launch</a>. Many of our creators have had four- and five-figure launches with small email lists—Corey Haines made $7,000, and Samar Owais made $15,000, both with only a few hundred subscribers.
<h2>Crave stability in your creative business? Email marketing is the way forward</h2>
Email is where relationships are built. It’s where most of your sales happen. And it’s where you’ll be able to scale your creative business and earn more from all the hard work you’ve done so far.
Yes, social media is how you’ll get in front of the people you want to connect with. But don’t forget that social networks come and go—email is what will bring you the closest to your fans and give you control, ownership, stability, and fulfillment.
Don’t leave your future to fate. Take control of it today and own the relationship with your audience with an email list.

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