Email Marketing: Still Delivering the Goods (and the ROI) in 2025
▼ Summary
– Email marketing remains a vital and resilient component of digital strategy, delivering substantial returns for businesses.
– Email usage continues to grow, with an estimated 4.4 billion users in 2024 and daily email volume projected to reach 428 billion by 2028.
– Email is the most commonly used channel for customer-company interactions, with 99% of users checking their email daily.
– Email addresses serve as core digital identifiers, with 51% of people maintaining the same email address for over ten years, enhancing security and personalization.
– Email marketing offers significant ROI, with an average return of $36 for every $1 spent, and segmented campaigns achieving higher engagement rates.
Rumors of email marketing’s death have been greatly exaggerated, reappearing with predictable regularity only to be disproven by market reality. Far from fading into obsolescence, email remains a vital component of digital strategy, demonstrating remarkable resilience and continuing to deliver substantial returns for businesses. Its endurance stems from its deep integration into our online identities and its consistent performance as a marketing channel.
Email’s Unshakeable Foundation
Despite the rise of numerous communication alternatives, email usage continues its upward trajectory. The Martech Intelligence Report estimates a staggering 4.4 billion worldwide users in 2024, collectively sending and receiving over 360 billion emails daily. This volume is projected to grow further, potentially reaching 428 billion daily emails by 2028.
Engagement remains high, with the AtData whitepaper noting that an impressive 99% of users check their email every day. Critically, Salesforce Research data (Figure 1 in the Martech report) reveals that email is the channel customers most commonly use (93%) to interact with companies, surpassing phone (88%), in-person (86%), and even mobile app (76%) interactions. This widespread adoption and preference solidify email’s role as a primary communication channel between businesses and consumers.
More Than Just Messages: The Digital Identifier
Email’s role extends beyond simple communication; it functions as a core digital identifier. As highlighted in the AtData whitepaper, an email address is the key required for accessing countless online services, from social media to banking to ecommerce. It acts as a digital passport, authenticating our presence online. The stability of this identifier is noteworthy: AtData found that 51% of people have maintained the same email address for over ten years. This longevity makes email a reliable, long-term channel for building customer relationships. This reliance, the whitepaper argues, enhances security through verification processes and allows businesses to personalize experiences by linking behaviors across touchpoints.
ROI and the First-Party Data Imperative
This reach, engagement, and stability translate directly into significant business value. The AtData whitepaper cites a compelling average return on investment (ROI) of $36 for every $1 spent on email marketing. This financial justification is difficult for businesses to ignore.
Furthermore, effectiveness is amplified through smart tactics. Data from HubSpot, mentioned in the Martech report, shows that segmented email campaigns achieve 30% higher open rates and 50% higher click-through rates than non-segmented sends. In an era increasingly focused on privacy and first-party data, email’s importance is only growing. As the Martech report discusses under “Data pressures,” the decline of third-party cookies and increased privacy regulations (like GDPR and Apple’s MPP which limits open tracking) are pushing marketers towards data they collect directly. An email address, obtained with consent, is often the foundational piece of that first-party data puzzle, enabling compliant, personalized communication and the building of richer customer profiles over time. Email isn’t just surviving; it’s thriving as a strategic asset.
