• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, August 18, 2025

Publishers and small businesses trying to connect with readers should skip the search engines and go straight to the source — via email.

That’s the view of Dave Charest, director of small business success at Constant Contact.  

Instead of worrying about Google not sending traffic, they can eliminate the middleman and own that audience. “With Google, you are relying on somebody else to get in front of your customers,”  Charest argues. 

But how do you leverage email and make a direct connection?  Charest points to the fact that two publications -- Wired and The Verge — have both launched more personalized email newsletters as part of a rethinking of their reader engagement strategies.  

The Verge recently unveiled an email feature that allows readers to follow individual writers. And Wired is also connecting readers directly with writers.  

Engagement is not “not dedicated by an algorithm, but by a deeper connection,” Charest says. And this means there are many email versions — not just one.

All this is leading to what Charest calls “the resurgence of email.”

Constant Contact’s most recent survey found that 44% of  businesses see email as their most effective tool — almost double that of the prior year.  

“One of the reasons email works is that it’s an opt-in channel,” Charest says. “People are raising their hand — they want to get future updates from you.”

Another benefit of email newsletters is that they can “get advertising in front of the right people,” whereas the social channels might not do that, Charest adds. “If you can’t drive traffic to the web site, you’re missing on advertising opportunities as well.”

But there are two challenges in creating email newsletters. The first is content. Small businesses often don’t know “what to write about, and what to not write about,” Charest says. 

AI can help businesses craft what the content should be and relieve them of mundane chores so they can focus on that. 

“The other piece is data,” Charest continues. “AI can take a lot of data and recognize patterns, You can use ai to look at who are the most engaged people—“these are the most, these are the least.” 

Of course, Constant Contact claims it can help businesses “create contact, look at that data and segment those audiences.” 

The company’s latest report is not out yet. But it shows that email senders are using the new capabilities to “make email faster and smarter,” Charest concludes.