Hi @sofiacsousa, 

I love this question and can’t wait to hear other people’s opinions. I have recently had this conversation with a brand who wasn’t convinced about email marketing, but the proof is in the results and data. Email drives a significant amount of revenue and traffic, and can support sales across and deeper into your product catalogue. 

Another thought is permissions… Customers who don’t want to hear from you, won’t sign up to your mailing list (email or SMS).  As long as you are sending quality content, then a subscriber is going to be generally interested in your mailing. 

The rise of Substack as a way to consume media is also really interesting. It’s all email based and a way for content creators to reach directly to someone and not get lost in Meta algorithm. 

I think the days of signing up to millions of emails/sms has gone, which is why we as marketers need to ensure we only send quality content that is reflective of the brand that someone actually will open, read and click.

Looking forward to hearing from the rest of the community too. 

Vic 

Excellent question! I actually got into a really spicy debate on this a few months ago when someone tried to tell me email marketing is dead. I slapped them with the following empirical data (some might be a little dated now but the point still stands):

The Ultimate List of Email Marketing Stats for 2023

• Email ROI is an impressive $36 for every $1 spent.
• 33% of marketers send weekly emails and 26% send emails multiple times per month.
• 77% of marketers have seen an increase in email engagement over the last 12 months.

2023 Email Marketing Statistics: Facts, Trends & Figure

• Email is considered one of the most effective channels for marketing, with 79 percent of marketers placing it in their top 3.
• The global market for email marketing software was worth $7.5 billion in 2020. By 2027, it is estimated to reach $17.9 billion.
• 55 percent of consumers say email is their preferred digital channel for business communication.
• Brands made $36 for every U.S. dollar they spent on email marketing.

Why is email marketing becoming more effective in 2023?

• A growing number of consumers stating they find email brand messages useful: in 2021 the figure was just 15%, but it has now doubled to 32%.
• Consumers continue to rank email first - ahead of all other marketing channels - for receiving brand messages about discounts, offers and sales (64% rank it first); new products/services (53%); and advice, information, and reviews (44%).

;)

@sofiacsousa what a juicy question!

Besides the usual ROI points and the stuff that Victoria and Kaila mentioned (great points btw!), I always like to approach this debate from a privacy and data ownership perspective.

To date, email marketing is the only area of digital marketing that lets you process and organize OWNED data, transforming it into viable business information.

By subscribing to your email marketing program, even if no purchase was made, customers or prospects actually allow you to process an incredibly large quantity of their private data. This is along the lines of what Victoria was saying with her paragraph about “permissions”.

Where this gets 100x amplified is the demise of cookies and third-party data. Since this will become obsolete, the only type of data you’ll be able to collect are actually first-party (or zero-party) data, which is a fancy name for literally just asking people to tell you about themselves (as opposed to spying on them which is what third party data collection basically is). Email is the only marketing facet that allows you to collect this at scale, store it (in your ESP), and then use it to market your products, without any sort of paralegal or grey areas, workarounds, etc.

This makes it not only not outdated, but also future-proof and incredibly important for any business with an online component.

AND THEN, you actually make money with it!

Happy to chat further!

I really support Stefan’s answer above.

The way I like to put it is that when you spend money promoting on a social platform you are renting your audience, rather than owning them.

I remember conversations back in 2013 when people confidently predicted “email is dead”.  That never happened, and it won’t because FIRST PARTY DATA MATTERS more than ever now that the school of creepy marketing is dead (think cookies, retargeting and audience networks) Along with that email address you have the CONSENT of that user to build a profile of their behaviour.  Providing you stay relevant and respect their permissions, that profile is literal marketing gold dust and belongs to just you and your subscribers.

Run an ad on Google, FB or TikTok.  You may be able to log in to their dashboards to see how your campaign is going, but you can’t have the users or their data unless you can persuade them to click-thru and register or sign-up for email on your site.

@AlexandraPalau thought you might love to respond here ;)

Oh my… thank you for tagging me @Taylor Tarpley!

I’m always up for a juicy debate. 

I've been an email marketer for 23 years, and if I had a dollar for every time I heard "email marketing is dead," I'd be a millionaire by now. Let me tell you—email marketing is very much alive. It has simply evolved.

High ROI

In my experience, email marketing has consistently delivered one of the highest returns on investment (ROI) among digital marketing channels. For example, as a corporate email marketer with a budget of $800k per year for the email channel only, the return was over $100M. This kind of performance cannot be ignored and speaks volumes about the effectiveness of email marketing in driving sales and customer engagement.
 

Ownership and Control

While social media is a very important part of the overall digital marketing strategy, it’s volatile and building your business mostly on social media is like building your house on borrowed land. Use it to move followers and turn them to subscribers and eventually customers! Email and SMS are THE channels to maintain a direct connection with your subscribers.

Proven Longevity

It has stood the test of time. It went from the original social media (memes and video were sent by email to a long list of people that were mostly on BCC #ifyouknowyouknow) to a direct channel that connects people to your business at scale. It only keeps getting better, especially with the help of AI.

So, the next time someone claims that email marketing is dead, remember this: Email marketing isn't just surviving—it's thriving. Its unparalleled ROI, versatility, and capacity for building lasting relationships make it an essential part of the marketing mix. Email marketing has evolved, and it's more powerful and effective than ever.

Trust me, after 23 years in the field, I can confidently say that email marketing is here to stay. Cue the salsa music and let’s dance all the way to the bank!