The Real Cost of Not Sending Regular Emails
If you’re reading this, it’s probably because you have an email list. You’ve been carefully growing it. Maybe you even spent real money on Facebook ads to build it. Or added a popup for that promised some version of “weekly tips, tricks, and techniques.” You may have spent hours in Canva crafting the perfect lead magnet for it.
Soooo, when's the last time you actually emailed them?
If you just felt your stomach drop, you're in the right place.
Most business owners know they should email their list. It's right up there with "drink more water" and "stop scrolling TikTok in bed" on the list of things we're always meaning to do better.
But here's what's wild: an email list that sits dormant isn't just a missed opportunity. It's actively costing you money, relationships, and possibly sanity. And unlike the gym membership I’m you’re also not using, this one has compound interest working against you.
Let's talk about what your email silence is really costing you. (Spoiler: It's probably more than you think.) And then I'm going to give you two actually doable ways to fix it because in this house, we don’t talk about problems without offering solutions.
What Your Email Silence Is Actually Costing You
The $12K You're Not Making
I know that subheader seems a little dramatic. But it’s real: email marketing has an average ROI of $36-$42 for every dollar spent. Not $2. Thirty-six to forty-two US dollars.
Let's say you have 1,000 subscribers and the average order value of your product or service is $100. If you send regular emails and get even a modest 1-2% conversion rate per month, that's $1,000-$2,000 in revenue. Per month. From hitting "send" a few times.
Over a year? That's $12,000-$24,000 you're just... not making.
And that's conservative math. I'm not even counting:
People who buy later because you stayed top of mind
Referrals from happy customers who were reminded you exist
The lifetime value of a customer you nurtured properly
Every month you don't email is a month you're leaving doll hairs on the table.
Why Your Subscribers Don't Remember You (And Why That's Expensive)
I’m going to hold you hand when I say this: your audience forgets about you shockingly fast.
You know how you can barely remember what you did last Wednesday? Your subscribers have that same memory about your business. Except they're also getting emails from your competitors, their inbox is a disaster, and their attention span has been rotted by Meta. (No judgment — I’m right there with them.)
So when you finally do send an email after months of silence, you know what happens? Mass unsubscribes. Not because your email was bad, but because people literally don't remember signing up. They see your name and think "Who is this? Delete."
The rotten irony is that you probably stayed silent to avoid bothering them, and your silence made them way more bothered when you finally did show up!
Inconsistency can also be interpreted as something worse than just forgetfulness. Some people will interpret your lack of emails as a sign that you’ve abandoned ship. Or maybe your business isn't doing well. Or even that you’re unprofessional. None of this is true, of course, but what’s that saying about perception being reality?
List Atrophy
Even if you did nothing, email addresses naturally decay at 22-25% per year. People change jobs, abandon email accounts, or just stop checking the inbox for the email they signed up with. (I used to religiously open emails from a company that sells embroidery patterns and supplies but I unsubscribed when I realized I was never going to have enough space for all my craft aspirations.)
When you're not emailing regularly that decay accelerates. Because inactive subscribers become genuinely inactive. They move on. Their needs change. The problem you solve becomes less urgent. Or they solved it somewhere else.
Plus — and this is the technical bit that matters — email deliverability is kind of a popularity contest. When you send to a list that hasn't heard from you in months, your engagement tanks and ISPs (internet service providers) notice. Suddenly your emails start landing in spam, even for the people who do want to hear from you.
You're essentially training Gmail to think you're not that important.
Your Competitors Are In Their Inbox Every Week. You're Not.
Question: When your ideal customer is ready to buy, whose name do they think of first? QUICKLY.
Hint: It's probably whoever's in their inbox consistently.
While you've been "not wanting to bother people" or "waiting until you have something really good to say," your competitors have been showing up. Building trust, sharing helpful stuff, making offers. Being remembered.
They're not smarter than you. They're not better than you. They're just present.
And when your subscriber finally has budget, needs help, or is ready to make a decision, guess who gets the business? Yep, the person who stayed in touch.
This isn't personal. It's just how people work. We remember the people who show up.
The Guilt That's Costing You More Than Money
This might actually be the worst part of not emailing the people on your list.
The low-grade guilt that nags at you when you put off emailing til [insert time in the future] is like an open mental tab that’s always in the background whispering "you're not doing enough.” And it's exhausting.
Every week you decide "maybe next week" is another week of decision fatigue. Procrastination guilt. Feeling like you're not quite running your business properly.
The mental energy you spend not emailing your list — thinking about it, feeling bad about it, making excuses about it — is probably more than it would take to just send a dadgum email.
What Regular Emails Actually Buy You
Okay, let's flip this around. Instead of just wallowing in what you're losing (though honestly, wallowing is underrated), let's talk about what regular emails actually do.
What Regular Emails Actually Do for Your Business
In addition to making sales (which they do) regular emails are also doing invisible work that compounds over time:
They keep you top-of-mind during the long consideration phase. Most people don't buy the first time they hear about you. They need 7, 10, maybe 40 touchpoints before they're ready. Your emails are those touchpoints.
They warm up your audience so they’re more likely to buy. Someone who downloaded your freebie six months ago might not have been ready then. But maybe now their situation changed. Maybe they got the budget. Maybe they finally hit their breaking point. Your email showing up at the right time could be exactly the reminder they needed to take action.
They drive repeat purchases from existing customers. The easiest sale is to someone who already bought from you. But if they bought once and never heard from you again, you're just another transaction they forgot about.
They create "I was just thinking about this!" moments. You know that feeling when you're thinking about something and then you get an email about exactly that thing? Synchronicity, baby!
Two Paths: Choose Your Fighter
So now the question is what to do to relieve the guilt and start getting the benefits of a healthy email list.
I'm going to give you two options. Both work. Both will solve this problem. The only wrong choice is choosing neither and hoping it magically fixes itself. Because I regret to inform you but it won’t.
Path 1: DIY with Systems
This is for you if: You like writing, you really want control over your voice and message, and you have 1-3 hours per week you can actually dedicate to this.
The problem with "just email regularly" advice is that it's usually missing a system. Of course you haven't been consistent — that’s what happens when you start from scratch every single time!
Here's what you actually need:
A content calendar. Not a fancy one. Just a simple list of themes or topics for the next 4-8 weeks. Whatever makes sense for your business. The point is you're never staring at a blank screen wondering what to say. I wrote about how to plan your emails for the month in 30 minutes and you can read it here.
3-5 email templates you can reuse. I don't mean "copy/paste the exact same email." I mean frameworks. "Story → Lesson → CTA." "Question → Answer → Offer." "Myth → Truth → Invitation." When you have a structure, you just fill in the blanks instead of stressing about how to start.
An idea bank. A running list of email ideas for when inspiration is playing a cute little game of hide and seek. Customer questions. Content you've already created. Things that annoyed you this week. Observations about your industry. When you capture ideas as they come, you never have to generate them under pressure.
A workflow. Literally: "Monday at 9am, I write emails for 45 minutes. Wednesday at 2pm, I schedule them." Put it in your calendar. Treat it like a client meeting. Or maybe you literally block it off with something like “meeting with future revenue.”
This is where the Inbox Intensive comes in.
Imagine if you could sit down for one focused, intensive session and walk away with:
A complete content calendar for the next 3 months
5 plug-and-play email templates customized for your business
A workflow that actually fits your schedule
An idea bank full of email topics so you're never stuck
Those are all things we can do in an Inbox Intensive.
Path 2: Hire It Out
This is for you if: You've tried DIY -ing it and for whatever reason, it didn't stick. Writing isn't your zone of genius. You'd rather spend your time serving clients or working on other parts of your business. Or you just really, really don't want to write emails. You might have even tried getting a team member or VA to do it.
All valid. No judgment.
Here's the thing about delegation: It only works if it actually gets done. Hiring someone to write your emails but then leaving the strategy, scheduling, sending, etc. for later/for someone else to do is just DIY with extra steps and extra cost.
What actually works is a retainer where:
Emails get written and sent consistently. Whether you're slammed with client work, on vacation, or just having a week where you can't brain. The emails go out, your list gets nurtured, your revenue keeps revenuing.
You get professional copywriting that converts. Not just "here's some words in an email shape," but strategic writing that nurtures relationships and makes offers without being gross about it.
There's actual strategy behind the sends. It's a mix of nurture, education, and selling that makes sense for where your business is and what you're trying to accomplish, not just random “hmm, what should I say?” content.
You review and approve, but don't create from scratch. You get drafts, you give feedback, you make sure it sounds like you. But you never have to stare at blank screens or wrestle with writer's block.
This is where the email marketing retainer comes in.
Here's what it looks like:
4-5 emails per month (you pick the frequency that makes sense)
Strategic planning for launches, promotions, and ongoing nurture
Written, edited, and scheduled — you just review and approve
Monthly check-ins to review what's working, plan upcoming launches, and make tweaks
Outsourcing your email marketing gives you back your time and the mental clutter of having it on your to-do list. You also get consistency and a growing relationship with your list that actually generates revenue.
Which Path Is Right for You?
Still not sure? Here’s the TL;DR:
Choose the Inbox Intensive if:
You actually enjoy writing when you have a system
Budget is tight right now and you want to invest in infrastructure, not ongoing cost
You want full control over how, when, and what content goes out to your list
You genuinely have 1-3 hours per week available and you'll actually use them
You've never had a system before and that's why you've been inconsistent
Choose the Email Marketing Retainer if:
Writing is not your zone of genius and you resent every single minute you have to spend doing it
You've tried DIY and it didn't stick (or it worked for two months and then fell apart)
Your time is legitimately better spent serving clients, creating products, or growing other areas of your business
You want guaranteed consistency without having to think about it
The mental load of "should I be emailing?" is affecting your wellbeing
Both paths work. I've seen both create incredible results. The only version that doesn't work is the one where you keep telling yourself you'll "just be more consistent" without actually changing anything. (I’m sorry — it’s said with love!)
The Cost of Waiting
Listen, I get it. You're busy. There's always something more urgent. Emailing your list might feel like something you can put off "just one more week."
But every month you wait is another month of lost revenue. Another month of relationships fading. Another month of your competitors being in your subscribers' inboxes while you're not. Another month of nagging guilt.
The best time to start emailing consistently was last year. The second best time is today.
Whether you build the system yourself or you hand it off completely, the version where you're emailing regularly will always outperform the version where you're not.
Ready to Fix This?
If you’re still not sure which path makes sense for you, send me a message here or a DM and tell me where you’re stuck. I'll give you honest advice about which direction makes the most sense — with no sales pitch and no pressure. I’ll give you feedback about what will actually work for your business.
Babe, I just want you emailing your list. However that happens is fine by me!