Here’s a fun exercise to show exactly how useless many of the digital marketing expert articles just like this can be (didn’t think we’d start there did you?)
Go to this day last year … whatever the day you’re reading this, and look up last year’s news.
Here’s what I came up with as I write this on Dec 16, 2025.
- There was an Australian heat wave.
- An Air Force base in Ohio shut down operations for four hours after the airbase reported unidentified “small unmanned aerial systems.” Fortunately for us, this is easily forgotten a year later 🙂
- There was some foreign affair stuff with a disagreement with (then) Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Minister of France.
Essentially: if you follow the news every single day, every single minute, 95% is noise and forgettable.
Relevant in the moment, maybe, but quickly expired like a perishable good. You need only read last year’s news to prove the point.
The same can be said of most marketing tips, listicles and expert advice. Re-read headlines from one year ago about the demise of Google Search, or how to game the LinkedIn algorithms and 99% of them have aged like milk. Here’s a fun article on the strategy for BeReal written in November 2022 (social network that peaked in September of 2022). Our team of Montana digital marketing experts pays attention, but is careful to get distracted.
So, Kyle, are you saying to avoid current events?
Mostly. Build a filter with a strong gate. And apply it to information from daily news to marketing advice. Let’s expand on that idea.
The Theory of the Case: Email
Avoid fragile platforms. We’re defining fragile by platforms with a low upside, but a high downside. Asymmetrical returns working in the wrong direction. If things go sideways for your BeReal investment, the time, effort and money invested is gone. Sunk cost.
Avoid fragile strategies. Growing a follower base on YouTube, only to have the YouTube algorithm change and serve recommended content vs. content your subscribers have, well, subscribed to.
Avoid fragile systems. Video is durable + robust. It’s an asset you can keep as an MP4 forever. Put on your website. Even add contact fields to your video and collect leads! You own it. A system to produce the video might be fragile. Systems that depend on a key creative to manage. You have a nice weekly video, but then your videographer quits. All of the sudden your content marketing strategy is stopped in its tracks.
Steady Email Trends:
Yes, the above argument against being hypervigilant to the daily news has led us (in a hopefully logical path) to arguing FOR the use (acquiring, nurturing, growing) of email lists.
Above: this is the Google Trends snapshot from 2004 to present day: Email is volatile on a monthly basis: steady on a yearly basis. We anticipate email marketing to be valuable and this trend to continue as long as people keep needing an email address.
We’re here to make the argument for email. Something that’s been around for 20 ish years. And we believe has staying power. As Rand Fishkin says:
“If you’re not investing in an email list, you’re almost certainly missing out. That TikTok/Instagram/Threads/Twitter/LinkedIn following you’re building? Statistically it’s better to trade 1,000 new followers for a single email subscriber. That’s how lopsided the value exchange is.”
– Rand Fishkin: Email is the most consistent reliable marketing channel on the web and I can prove it.
Risky Marketing Investments (Fragile) vs. Durable: Long Lasting Assets (Robust)
Above: the Pintler Group framework (inspired by Nassim Taleb’s book Antifragile). The goal is to create long term marketing assets that are robust.
We’ve seen it first hand. With clients we manage: the lowest of low hanging fruit starts with email. And don’t be embarrassed if you haven’t emailed your customers in a while. The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, the second best time is right now.
Interested in learning more? Book a time with us to chat more about digital marketing for your business here.
