You have thousands of followers on Instagram. Hundreds of subscribers on YouTube. A growing LinkedIn newsletter. But if those platforms disappeared tomorrow, what would you have left?
Lydia George , digital strategist, senior social media professional at Selar, and one of the sharpest voices in the creator economy says the answer is simple: your email list. It is the only place where you truly own your audience, can take them with you anywhere, and can scale without showing up every single day.
In this episode, Lydia breaks down why email is the most underrated asset in a creator's business and what African business owners specifically are getting wrong about it.
INSIDE THIS EPISODE
1. Why Lydia calls email marketing the "chief community builder" and how it creates a different kind of relationship than social media ever can
2. How email marketing is a form of ownership and scalable IP that most creators are sleeping on
3. Why Substack is closer to a real email tool than most people realise and why LinkedIn newsletters are a trap
4. The missing link mistake that became one of Lydia's most opened campaigns ever
5. Why social media feels shiny and email feels boring and why that is actually good news for email marketers
6. How to blend personal vulnerability with product promotion to write emails people actually feel
7. Why African businesses are struggling with email and what the data about Africans and subscriptions actually shows
8. The bold creative email stunt by Chocolate City that generated massive open rates and the legal risk to watch out for
9. Why you should never use email only to sell and what to do instead to protect your deliverability and reputation
10. Rapid fire questions: The Best type of emails she likes,what makes her open emails, how email for software different from emails for creators, email myth she'll like to break.
Free Gift: Social Dive Lead Magnet ,a short guide on the mindset shifts, career steps, and advice from scaled professionals to help social media professionals level up their careers. Click here to get it👉 https://socialdive.selar.com/beyondthealgorithm
State of Email Marketing in Africa shares your experience and helps shape the report. Click here to get the link 👉 https://sapphirelearninghub.com/survey/
EPISODE TIMELINE ⏱️
[00:54] – Introduction: meet Lydia George, digital strategist and senior social media professional at Selar
[05:17] – If email had a job description: Lydia calls it "chief community builder" and explains why
[06:16] – What it means when your subscribers expect to hear from you and what that builds over time
[08:36] – Lydia's first email campaign: a Mailchimp experiment that started everything
[09:35] – The Women's Day campaign that reached 100,000 to 200,000 users and why it worked
[11:25] – Why every email , corporate or personal ,must sound like a real human being
[13:47] – Open Rates Confession: the missing link mistake that made Lydia want to cry
[15:33] – How she turned the mistake into one of her most successful campaigns using humor
[18:31] – Email marketing is a form of ownership: the scalable IP argument creators need to hear
[23:01] – Why business owners prefer social media over email and the misconception driving it
[24:42] – Substack vs LinkedIn newsletter vs traditional email service providers
[40:17] – How to blend vulnerability with promotion to write emails that convert
[42:18] – Why only emailing when you want to sell is killing your deliverability and your reputation
[46:26] – What African businesses are getting wrong about email design and subject lines
[55:08] – About the State of Email Marketing Report in Africa and what Lydia's hypothesis on the report
[56:03] – The Chocolate City email stunt that generated massive opens and the legal caveat
Here is the cleaned transcript only — copy everything below the heading:
---
**CLEANED TRANSCRIPT FOR CAPTIVATE**
[INTRO]
Dr. Ayebanoa Benwari: Hi listeners. Welcome back to Email Marketing Experiments. Today we are going to have a fun and interesting conversation — a little different from our usual, but I am definitely sure you are going to enjoy it. Our guest today is somebody I have met and known in the online space and who I have seen do so many amazing things. She is a digital strategist and social media lead at Sellar with over six years of experience in social media marketing, content strategy, and digital storytelling. Over the past four years at Sellar, she has created educational content and led visual campaigns that help creators grow, monetize their expertise, and build sustainable businesses. She has spent more than three years researching the creator economy and has worked with creators across travel, fashion, and educational industries. She holds a degree in international law and diplomacy and is passionate about helping brands and creators maximize their impact through strategic content, storytelling, and community building. Welcome, welcome, Lydia George.
Lydia George: Thank you so much. I am really excited to be here.
[ICEBREAKER]
Dr. Ayebanoa Benwari: Before we go into today's conversation, I heard that one of the things you love is fish. Why fish — not meat, not chicken, not beef?
Lydia George: I love every protein, but fish is supreme. I grew up eating bole — that is proper fish with yam, plantain, and pepper sauce — every Christmas alongside rice and stew. Those are the two things I look forward to most. And I think fish is just this protein that minds its own business while alive and blesses us so much when it is gone.
Dr. Ayebanoa Benwari: That is a very interesting angle on fish that I have never thought about. Roasted, grilled, or fried?
Lydia George: Definitely not fried. I do slow-roasted — wrapped in foil, seasoned properly, roasted slowly so it is still moist and the juices are all trapped inside. When you take that first bite, you get the juices, the fish, the seasoning. Let us not get into it or people will be hungry.
Dr. Ayebanoa Benwari: Too late — I think they are already hungry. We will drop your socials so people can ask for the recipe.
[EMAIL MARKETING JOB DESCRIPTION]
Dr. Ayebanoa Benwari: Let us get into today's conversation. If you were to give email marketing a job description — like a proper JD for a role you are hiring for — what would you call it?
Lydia George: Chief community builder.
Dr. Ayebanoa Benwari: Love it. Why?
Lydia George: Social media is a very noisy place. People are being swamped with content from strangers who may not share their values. But when someone opens their email, every email in there has been given permission to be there. That changes everything. It means there is an expectation. There is a repertoire. Think of Ali Abdaal — if you are subscribed to his newsletter, you know he is always going to be talking about productivity and mindset. You might not know exactly what he will say, but you know the baseline. That is community. That is why I call it the chief community builder. It is like a modern-day pen pal relationship — where you can connect with thousands of people at the same time, outside the noise and aggressiveness of social media.
[LYDIA'S EMAIL JOURNEY]
Dr. Ayebanoa Benwari: Tell us about your journey and your experience with email.
Lydia George: I ran my first email campaign when Mailchimp was the new kid on the block. I put out a small lead magnet about content creation just to see what would happen. Every week I would store up everything I was learning and write a newsletter that went out on Fridays. That was my first real experience with email.
Then in:
The way I approach writing is always with humanity. Whether I am writing as a brand voice or as myself, it has to sound like a real person. Not corporate. Not stiff. Just someone sharing their actual thoughts. That is what people respond to.
[OPEN RATES CONFESSION]
Dr. Ayebanoa Benwari: We have a segment called Open Rates Confession. What is your biggest email marketing mistake?
Lydia George: I had written an important email — a conversion email I had spent a lot of time on. I sent it out via MailerLite. A friend who had just subscribed came back to me and said she was trying to get to the offer I mentioned but nothing was working. I thought it was a glitch. I went back to MailerLite and realized I had not put a link in the email. At all. I wanted to cry.
Instead of resending the same email, I sent a follow-up with the subject line: "I made a mistake." It was a short email. I literally just put the link there — plain, blue, and bright. No long explanation. Just: "Hey, I forgot to put the link. If you are trying to get to the offer, here it is." That email got more opens than the original. People were curious. They opened it to see what the mistake was and the link was right there. It ended up being one of our most successful campaigns. Now I send every email to myself at least five times before pressing send.
[EMAIL AS OWNERSHIP]
Dr. Ayebanoa Benwari: Complete this sentence: email marketing is —
Lydia George: A form of ownership.
Dr. Ayebanoa Benwari: Tell me more.
Lydia George: In the creator economy, there is a big problem where creators do not own enough scalable intellectual property. They have social media content and YouTube links, but none of that is truly theirs. If your YouTube channel gets deleted today, you are back to square one. If your Instagram disappears, same thing. But your email list? You own it outright. You can export your subscribers, switch platforms, take them with you anywhere. It is the only audience that is truly portable. And it is scalable — you do not have to show up on camera to send an email. You can delegate the writing, review it, and have it out. You cannot scale a video in the same way. If something cannot run without you, it is not fully scalable. And if you can lose everything because one platform made a decision, you do not truly own it.
[THE CASE FOR EMAIL]
Dr. Ayebanoa Benwari: Why do business owners still prefer social media over email?
Lydia George: There is a widespread misconception that building an email audience is harder than building a social media following. And social media is shiny. It is always launching new features, always something exciting. Email looks boring in comparison — you are just writing and sending to what feels like the same people over and over. But that simplicity is the point. And honestly, I love it because it means less clutter for the people who actually commit to doing it.
[SUBSTACK VS LINKEDIN NEWSLETTERS VS EMAIL SERVICE PROVIDERS]
Dr. Ayebanoa Benwari: What do you think about Substack, LinkedIn newsletters, and traditional email service providers?
Lydia George: Substack deserves credit. It gives you most of what a traditional email marketing tool gives you — A/B testing, emails going straight to inboxes, and you can download your subscriber list. It even has a social element now with Substack Notes. LinkedIn is a very different story. LinkedIn wants everything to stay on LinkedIn. If they let you download subscriber emails, why would people need LinkedIn anymore? They would just email directly. LinkedIn newsletters are useful for reach, but you do not own that audience. Every platform's goal is to keep you from going anywhere else. Substack at least understands that email is the core and gives you that ownership. LinkedIn does not.
[CONTENT STRATEGY AND VULNERABILITY]
Dr. Ayebanoa Benwari: How do you advise creators to approach their email content strategy?
Lydia George: Blend personal vulnerability with product promotion. Share something real about yourself — a struggle, an experience, a lesson — and then connect it to what you are selling or sharing. Creators have forgotten how to write compelling stories for smaller audiences because they are always chasing mass reach on social media. In email, you are writing to someone who already gave you permission to be there. That is a different kind of relationship. Use it. Be honest. Be human. Tell them something they can feel.
[SENDER REPUTATION AND RELATIONSHIP BUILDING]
Dr. Ayebanoa Benwari: What is the biggest mistake people make with their email lists?
Lydia George: Only using email when they want to sell. If you disappear for months and then suddenly show up with an offer, subscribers have lost familiarity with you. Your sender reputation suffers. Your deliverability drops. They mark you as spam — not because they hate you but because they forgot who you are. You have to show up consistently with value. Lead magnets. Community updates. Things that are genuinely useful with no strings attached. That is how you build the kind of relationship where your promotional emails actually land.
[AFRICAN EMAIL MARKETING MARKET]
Dr. Ayebanoa Benwari: Let us talk about email marketing in Africa versus Western markets. What are your observations?
Lydia George: Western brands treat their email lists like liquid gold. They invest in beautiful, branded newsletters with optimized images that load instantly. Many Nigerian and African business owners, on the other hand, are sending unformatted, plain text emails with weak subject lines. But the gap is closing. Brands like Aramia Essentials are doing it beautifully. And the design matters — women are highly visual consumers. Once your copywriting is working, invest in making your emails beautiful and distinct.
The myth I want to bust is that Africans do not read emails or buy subscriptions. Africans are paying for Apple TV, Netflix, Prime, YouTube, Spotify, and social media verification. The real problem is that many African brands are copying Western email contexts without adapting them — using dollar pricing, using references that do not land locally, writing for an audience they do not actually understand. Write realistically and contextually for your audience and your results will change.
[CREATIVE EMAIL STUNTS AND LEGAL RISKS]
Dr. Ayebanoa Benwari: Tell us about the Chocolate City email stunt.
Lydia George: Chocolate City sent an email with the subject line "HR: We have to let you go." Inside, it was promoting a song by Young Jonn called "Let It Go." People opened it because they were alarmed. But the content resolved the drama in a positive, fun way. That kind of boldness gets opens. Audiences respond to daring creative choices.
Dr. Ayebanoa Benwari: Important caveat: there are legal risks to deceptive subject lines. We have covered cases where companies have faced lawsuits over misleading email claims. If you use a dramatic subject line, make sure the content resolves it positively and truthfully. Do not create false urgency or make claims you cannot back up.
Lydia George: Completely agree. The goal is excitement, not deception. A subject line that shocks but then delivers something positive and real is great marketing. A subject line that misleads and causes real harm is a legal risk you do not want.
[RAPID FIRE]
Dr. Ayebanoa Benwari: Rapid fire. What kind of emails do you love receiving?
Lydia George: Vulnerable, narrative-driven emails that lead somewhere. A strong subject line or a recognizable profile picture that makes me want to open it. And then a story that pulls me in and ends with a clear call to action.
Dr. Ayebanoa Benwari: Creator emails versus corporate brand emails — what is the difference in approach?
Lydia George: Creators have the advantage of personal stories. They can be honest and specific in a way that audiences invest in personally. Corporate and software brands have to work harder — they use hypothetical scenarios, shared audience experiences, relatable narratives about the people they serve. Both can work. The approach just has to fit who is doing the communicating.
Dr. Ayebanoa Benwari: One email marketing myth you want to bust?
Lydia George: That email marketing is harder than social media. Social media is much harder. Email is simpler, more direct, and more owned. People overcomplicate it because social media is louder. But if you commit to email, the results speak for themselves.
[SOCIAL DIVE AND LEAD MAGNET]
Dr. Ayebanoa Benwari: Tell us about Social Dive and what you are offering listeners.
Lydia George: Social Dive is my community for social media professionals who want to level up their careers. From growing into senior roles, leading teams, and building credibility in the industry. I have a free short guide available in the show notes — it covers the mindset shifts, the career steps, and the advice from professionals who have already scaled. If you are in social media and you want to go further, this is for you.
[CLOSING]
Dr. Ayebanoa Benwari: All the links — Lydia's socials, the Social Dive lead magnet, and the State of Email Marketing in Africa survey — are in the show notes. Lydia, this has been such a brilliant conversation. Thank you so much for being here.
Lydia George: Thank you. This was so much fun. Email marketing — do not sleep on it.
