Without a good newsletter, you don’t own a list.

I’m all for social media. I use social media and am dependent on it for the reach and the level of engagement it enables.

I also have a website, and am dependent on it for how it presents my products and services to an interested audience.

Finally, I have an e-newsletter, which is as important to me as either my social media pages or my website.

But a lot of companies and freelancers online don’t have an e-newsletter. Among these, some have never had an e-newsletter and others had one once, but have let it go.

I think these companies are making a big mistake. Some think that their blog is now their new “e-newsletter”, so they have stopped publishing. Others think that social media can do everything an e-newsletter can do, and more.

They are all wrong.

Here are 3 reasons why, whatever else you do, you need an e-newsletter.

Reason #1: With an e-newsletter you own the list.

When you have an e-newsletter list, you own it. You can back it up and download it to your hard drive at any time you like. This is a list of people who have raised their hands and said they are interesting in hearing from you on a regular basis.

Your e-newsletter list is a business asset you own.

This is not the case when it comes to your audience on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or Google+. They own your audience, not you. They have the rights to your content, not you. Anyone of them can cancel your account and remove your page at any time. You can have an audience of 20,000 people on your Facebook page today, and log in to find that your page has been removed tomorrow. It happens.

Your audience on social media is not a business asset you own.

Reason #2: With an e-newsletter you can build a loyal audience.

When you publish a quality newsletter on a regular basis you build a loyal following. Your subscribers will recognize your From line and Subject line and, for as long as the quality and value are there, they will open your newsletter.

When they start reading each issue of your newsletter, you will have their full attention. Their monitor is filled with your newsletter. They won’t see a dozen other updates, tweets or posts, all competing for their attention. Their attention is yours, and a percentage of them will click on one or more of the links you provide.

The quality of attention and loyalty created by a newsletter is far stronger than its equivalent on social media. If you don’t believe me, track and measure the clickthrough rates from your social media content, and then compare it to the clickthrough rates of a quality e-newsletter.

And if you are trying to sell something, compare the percentage of people who buy via social media with those who buy via your e-newsletter.

Reason #3: With an e-newsletter you drive interaction on your website or blog.

More and more engagement and interaction is being driven through social media.

I am not saying that’s a bad thing. But it often reduces the level of engagement you achieve through your own website or blog.

Remember, you own your website and your e-newsletter list. You don’t own your social media pages.

Let’s say you write a great post and publish it to your blog. You then link to that post from your Facebook page. 20 people make comments. But where are those comments published? On your blog or on your Facebook page? More often than not, they will appear on your Facebook page, adding very little or no value to your blog.

However, when I link to a post from my e-newsletter, my audience clicks through to the post and then adds comments on my page, at the end of the post. Now they are adding value…in the eyes of other readers, and the search engines.

Wrapping it up…

E-newsletters are not hot and trendy. It’s old technology. There is barely an app for that.

But if you want to build and own a loyal following of readers and buyers, who will stick with you for years to come, e-newsletters are hard to beat.

E-newsletters are not an alternative to social media or your blog or website. They are part of the overall marketing mix.

But they are part of the mix that too many people ignore.

You can sign up for my own weekly e-newsletter here…

About the author: Nick Usborne is an online writer, copywriter, author and coach. Read more…