Email Marketing is Dead or Not? Check Out Our Analysis.

“Email marketing is dead” is a phrase that’s been whispered for years, accompanied by the eye rolls and sighs. With the rise of new platforms and shortening attention spans of consumers, where does the power of this permission-based marketing lie?

Do you think email marketing is dying and planning to shift your business’s marketing campaign to another platform?

Well, wait before you make this move, especially if you don’t want to miss out on the opportunity to win over potential customer markets.

The fact is there are 4.37 billion email users worldwide, and around 99% of users check their emails everyday, sometimes as much as 20 times a day.

It’s such a big market and that can give you the best bang for your buck, with ROI ranging from $36 to $70 for every dollar you put into it.

The truth is email marketing is not dead. Even in 2025 and persistently delivering 5 to 6 times higher click-through rates than any social media platform.

If it’s consistently producing great results, then what’s this hoax all about? Are people really saying “hasta la vista” to email marketing?

There are too many speculations causing confusion for marketers, making it hard for them to determine what’s beneficial in the long term. That’s why we’ve decided to clear up the mist if email marketing is dying or are email campaigns a versatile way to increase revenue?

Let’s dive in!

Is Email Marketing Dead?

Well, we won’t deny many people claim email marketing is outdated.

But if you only go by words, some people even say they were abducted by aliens and had vivisection performed on them! Without solid evidence, it’s tough to place trust, right?

We say the wane of email marketing is a rumor. The data actually tells a different story.

In reality, people are increasingly leaning into emails. Take a look at these figures:

Year	Number of Email Users in Billions
2023	4.37
2024	4.48
2025	4.59
2026	4.73
2027	4.85

Growth of email users from 2023-2027

Despite the growing number of email users, what has led to the rumor that mass email marketing is over?

Maybe because people found social media more intriguing for the time being.

But in a certain sense, email marketing may be considered obsolete for a specific group of people.

Why Did People Assume Email Marketing Was Dead?

Although emails were a user-friendly marketing channel with easy forward and reply options, people assumed it to be dead due to misconceptions and shifting digital trends over the years.

Here are key reasons behind this belief:

The rise of social media and other platforms: Platforms like Facebook and Linkedin became prominent marketing tools with businesses shifting budgets toward influencers and social media ads.
Spam and email overload: The early 2000s saw an explosion of spam emails, leading to email fatigue. Consumers became more selective by using spam traps and unsubscribing from irrelevant emails.
The decline of open rates: Apple Mail’s Privacy Protection and other privacy updates led to lower email open rates. Marketers misinterpreted the data, thinking that the email engagement was dropping.
The shift to instant messaging and chatbots: Businesses started using chatbots and instant messaging apps for better consumer service. However, these channels only supplement rather than replace email marketing.
Poor email practices: Brands that relied on generic and non-personalized email blasts saw diminished returns. In addition, bad email marketing practices led to consumers ignoring and opting out of email communication.

While some people assumed email marketing was over, this channel might not be the perfect fit for four types of users.

Email Marketing is Dead for Four Types of Individuals

While 50% of email users make a purchase every month from the marketing emails they receive, it’s not a slam dunk for everyone.

And those email marketers who struggle to run a successful email campaign label it as ineffective.

Here are four types of marketers who fail to get the best out of email marketing campaigns:

Those Who Have No Idea About It: They lack a customer database and send the same emails to all prospects without understanding their needs.
Those Who Focus More on a One-Time Deal: They simply want to sell their products once and have no interest in establishing a long-term relationship with customers.
Those Who Mistake It for Cold Emailing: They think email marketing is just sending emails to every email account they get their hands on.
Those Who are Rugged Individualists: They like to create email campaigns by themselves and underestimate the competencies required to do so successfully. As a result, their emails end up in spam folders.

So, you could say it’s dead for the people who can’t grasp it and, unfortunately, fail to make it work.

The Evolution of Email Marketing: Why it’s More Powerful Than Ever

holiday email example 1 — Email marketing during the holidays

58% of the consumers check emails first thing in the morning, according to the same study mentioned above. Moreover, email user growth is projected to be 4.89 billion in 2027.

While the landscape has changed, email marketing has not just survived, but thrived along the way.

Here’s an overview of how email marketing has changed over the years.

From Broadcasts to Personalized Conversations: An Overview

Email broadcasts have always been an integral part of email marketing. While it’s safe to say they still are, but this time, packed with email personalization techniques.

Back in the early 2000s email blasts were making their way in every customer’s inbox, leading to increased spam risks and a negative impact on the email sender reputation.

This led to the email is dead whispers because marketers lacked the knowledge to space out email campaigns or even use the right ones to target their audience.

However, with the rise of spam filters and email marketing regulations, such as the GDPR compliance and CAN-SPAM requirements made email marketing more usable and easy.

broadcast example 6 — Example of broadcast email

The Rise of Segmentation and Targeting (Mid-2000s)

Marketers began to realize the drawbacks of generic email blasts and started to shift focus on personalization and email segmentation strategies.

Email lists were divided into smaller, more targeted groups based on demographic segmentation, psychographic data, geographic segmentation, and behavioral segmentation.

This allowed for more personalized brand experiences leading to higher email marketing conversion rates.

The Importance of Permission Marketing (Late 2000s)

The concept of permission-based email marketing gained prominence, and businesses started to use opt-in emails, focusing on subscribers who explicitly consented to receive brand messages.

This step helped improve email deliverability and fostered trust between the customers and the brand.

Mobile Revolution and Personalization (2010s)

This is the time when the rise of smart phones changed email consumption habits and mobile email mar k eting gained popularity.

Personalization continued to evolve with marketers placing emphasis on targeted email marketing.

Automation and AI (2020s to Present)

Email automation best practices were laid out, making it easier for marketers to trigger emails based on specific actions, such as purchasing or signing up for an email marketing newsletter.

AI in email marketing is playing a significant role in the last few years, enabling predictive analysis, advanced personalization, and automated content creation. In addition, interactive emails and AMP technology are making email usage more interesting.

With many advancements in email marketing, it’s still normal to ask if email marketing is legit and worth it in 2025. The answer is yes, and we’ll review the reasons below.

Is Email Marketing Legit?

Email marketing is legitimate and highly effective for people who know how to use it correctly. Email marketing allows for direct communication with your subscribers, helps you measure results, and provides a platform to nurture relationships.

Is Email Marketing Worth it in 2025?

Email is still king because of the following reasons:

It’s a primary communication channel: Email marketing is a direct and personal way to connect with people worldwide, making it a primary communication channel used by billions of people.
It allows more control and ownership: Unlike social media channels where the content belongs to the platform and can vanish with it, emails put the control back with the user.
It delivers a high ROI: Email marketing costs are relatively low and deliver a higher ROI compared to other marketing channels.
It’s easy to set up and automate: Automation helps you streamline different types of email campaigns.
It’s easier to integrate with other channels: Email marketing offers a seamless connection with SMS, social media, email marketing CRM, and other channels.

Does Email Marketing Really Work?

Yes, email marketing works well for marketers who:

Embrace personalization: Use consumer data to build highly personalized and relevant email campaigns that resonate with your audience.
Focus on value: Whether it’s educational email campaigns or follow up emails, it’s critical to provide value in every email.
Use automation: Automate your email campaigns to save time and improve efficiency.
Optimize for mobiles: Ensure responsive email designs and test on different email clients for accuracy.
Stay up to date: Keep up with the latest email marketing trends and best practices in 2025.

If you’re still not convinced about email marketing thriving this year, read on for data-backed information.

The Data Speaks: Email Marketing is Thriving

Here are critical email marketing data that will change the way you perceive email marketing:

18% of companies achieve high email ROI, greater than $70 per $1 invested.
Email marketing drives 25% of the overall revenue for most businesses.
Consumers who receive emails and purchase through it spend 138% more than those who do not receive emails.
Email marketing persuades the decisions of 6 out of 10 subscribers.
Email is 40 times more effective than social media.
87% of marketers plan to invest more capital in email marketing.
80% of businesses believe email marketing increases customer retention.
Personalized emails deliver 6x higher transaction rates.

This also means email marketing was still an effective outreach channel in the era of social media and paid ads. Yet, emails could not be replaced by either.

Why Social Media and Paid Ads Cannot Replace Emails?

The main reason emails were not and could not be replaced is the ownership and control. Social media platforms own your followers and content and paid ads only boosted temporary visibility.

Marketers realized the only long-term and cost-effective solution was email marketing. Emails helped brands implement storytelling in sales, share valuable resources, and offer email coupons and discounts.

How the Advent of Social Media Affected Email Marketing

When social media was first introduced, it was quickly embraced by users because these platforms are inherently more about showcasing users’ lifestyles than anything else, and that’s what makes them so addictive.

Then, one after another, new social media platforms with text, images, and videos appeared, and people welcomed all of them with open arms.

This led to rumors that email marketing would be replaced by some other channel.

This idea was so well hyped and parroted by novices often over the years that it was accepted as gospel, but the truth is far from this.

Telling a different story, there’s concrete data.

Check out this mind-blowing info to know the truth:

99% percent of email users check their emails daily;
Around 30 percent of US social media users find it hard to put their trust in social media for business purposes;
Facebook business posts are only visible to 5.2% of followers, while 80% of emails land in the right inbox;
67% of people actually prefer getting brand messages through emails.

All these statistics prove email marketing is still relevant. Even for creating or recovering social media accounts, you need an email.

Where there are people, there is a market, and where there is a market, there is a marketing campaign. So email marketing will always be here.

Now that you know it has worked in the past and will continue to be a valuable marketing channel in the future, let’s explore where it stands in the current year.

Email Marketing in 2025 – The Role of Privacy and First-Party Data

Email marketing is not very different from the previous years. However, email marketing success hinges on how you handle customer privacy and follow email marketing regulations.

Here’s a breakdown for a better view.

The Privacy Landscape in 2025

Email marketing has switched from being a generic broadcast tool to refined information sharing resource. This means stricter email unsubscribe laws and global regulations, such as GDPR and CAN-SPAM Acts.

Based on your industry, you can expect differing email regulations. For example, your laws can change if you send HIPAA secure emails which have sensitive health information or a regular promotional email.

Users are more aware of how their data is being used and third-party cookies are phased out by the browsers.

The Rise of First-party Data

First-party is the information you collect directly from the users with their consent. This includes data from website interactions, purchases, sign-ups, surveys, and more.

Since it’s direct from the audience, it provides valuable insights, helping you fine tune your email campaigns for added efficiency and emotional depth.

You can use interactive content such as email surveys, quizzes, or polls to collect information or send loyalty program emails to track consumer progress.

Email Marketing in 2025: A Brief Overview

The email marketing landscape will undergo tremendous changes in 2025, including the use of:

Personalization that respects privacy.
Segmentation for targeted campaigns.
Build consumer trust through transparency.
Obtain explicit customer consent.
Implement robust data security.

More Data on Why Email Marketing Still Works

A survey was conducted in the US, finding that 35% of email users use more than one email, and 28% of them use more than four email accounts!

You may wonder how this is beneficial to your business.

Well, let’s understand it this way.

Imagine there are two destinations, A and B. A has three roads leading to it, while B has just one. Which one do you think is easier to reach, even if something goes wrong? Destination A, right? You’ve got options with roads 2 and 3 if road 1 is blocked.

Now, globally, 68.75% of people use more than one email account.

So, you would have higher chances of reaching email users, which number over 4 billion.

This is what makes email marketing more effective and cost-effective than any other marketing channel.

Despite all the rumors about email marketing going extinct, it is rapidly growing in 2025.

Look at how it’s stirring the market:

People are expected to shoot around 392.5 billion daily emails this year;
28% of people would like to receive promo emails twice to thrice a week.
59% of marketers believe emails are twice as effective as generating leads than social media and PPC ads.
Most consumers still prefer emails to learn about companies and their product launches.

This shows how relevant and beneficial email marketing is today, and not having it in your marketing plan could prove to be a big mistake.

Why You Should Consider Sending an Email Marketing Campaign

Sending email campaigns is a smart move for businesses of all kinds and sizes, here’s why:

They are a direct relationship building tool: You no longer need to rely on algorithms to connect with your audience. Email campaigns allow for a personal connection and immediate acknowledgement of action, such as a transactional email after purchase.
They improve engagement: Tailored email campaigns lead to better open rates, click-through rates, and conversions.
They help you track information: You can understand the email performance by tracking different email campaign metrics.
They help send diverse content: Email campaigns help you mix up diverse content, such as blog posts, interactive elements, videos, GIFs, or similar formats.

The added benefit is its cost-effectiveness in acquiring customers through email campaigns, which can be particularly advantageous depending on your industry.

Check the following data to find out which industry has the highest and lowest CAC.

Industry	Estimated Customer Acquisition Cost
Travel	$1-10
Retail	$5-20
Financial	$100-200
Insurance	$200-300
Software Technology	$300-400

Estimated customer acquisition cost (CAC) per industry

More Reasons to Opt For Email Campaigns

Every day, we see more people glued to their smartphones for everything, from communicating with clients to making purchases.

Today 85.95% of the world’s population uses smartphones and it has been found in a study that smartphone users trust emails more than other channels when it comes to brand marketing and conducting business transactions.

Numerous industry experts have forecasted that as time progresses, an increasing number of individuals will prefer using smartphones for business purposes and communication. Given that smartphone users commonly view emails as a secure mode of communication, the demand for email marketing is expected to surge organically in the future.

So, it’s the right time for businesses to invest in email marketing.

Additionally, it provides an ROI up to 3600%, which is the highest ROI offered by any marketing channel. But this does not mean the other channels are obsolete either. Email marketing is a versatile tool which provides better results when combined with other marketing channels.

Integrating Email Marketing With Other Digital Strategies

To truly maximize email marketing potential, you must integrate it with other marketing channels.

You can make the magic happen by the following ways.

Social Media Synergy

Social media and email marketing is a powerful combination to improve overall user experience.

You can implement the following strategies to increase its effectiveness:

Cross-promotion: Promote your email list on social media. You can offer special incentives for people signing up via social handles or include social sharing buttons in your emails.
Content repurposing: Share snippets of your email content on social media to pique interest.
Social listening: Use social media to understand the latest marketing trends and industry pain points.

Website Integration

Here’s how to integrate website into email marketing:

Prominent sign-up forms: Place sign up forms strategically; near the footer or header to let people easily sign up.
Offer lead magnets: Provide valuable resources like e-books, blog posts, or whitepapers to incentivize visitors to join your email list.
Personalize website experiences: Use data from email marketing lists to improve the appearance and content on your website.

Content Marketing Alignment

Content marketing is another versatile strategy which can improve email marketing performance. Use emails to promote latest blog posts and other content.

You can also curate content in your email newsletters, which will keep subscribers engaged and provide additional information.

Use emails to nurture the audience; send them a series of content pieces that effectively guides them through the email marketing funnel.

The Future of Email Marketing Beyond 2025

It’s exciting to think about where email marketing is headed. Expect the following major changes in 2025:

The rise of hyper-personalization: Dynamic content blocks will become a game-changer and AI will simplify content creation and email personalization.
The importance of interactivity and gamification: Email gamification will empower most email campaigns and more interactive elements like quizzes and polls will be added.
Live-content will become normal: Countdown timers and live updates will become the norm in email marketing in 2025.
The growth in predictive sending: AI powered automation workflows will streamline complex email sequences and predictive sending will rise.
The rise in enhanced privacy and trust: Email marketing regulations will become stricter and user data will be handled with more caution.
Green email marketing and inclusive design: Email accessibility will be the core of marketing with more focus on sustainable practices.
The evolution of email design: Emails will incorporate more personalized visuals and implement minimalist aesthetics to grab attention.

Four More Major Reasons to Implement Email Marketing Now

2025 makes it the perfect time to implement email marketing if you haven’t already, here’s why:

Secure: In a survey, it has been found that people feel three times more secure when transacting with domain-based emails than with any active social media account.
Large User Base: Most email users kick-start their mornings by checking emails.
Potent: Email marketing has proven extremely effective for retailers, with 81% of them using it as their primary channel to acquire customers.
Get More Sales: It drives 66% more conversions in high-ticket sales compared to any other marketing channel.

To leverage email marketing campaigns, it’s a wise move not to be a rugged individual and seek the assistance of professional email marketers.

The Advantage of Consulting a Seasoned Email Marketing Firm

The way you start a campaign determines whether it will be a success or a failure.

If you’re not an expert email marketer, it’s best to hire one to guide you.

Half-knowledge is a dangerous thing; it can sabotage your marketing campaign before it even begins to yield results, and we are sure you don’t want that.

An expert email marketer can assist you in the following ways, for example, they can:

Segment your audience and craft emails to keep them engaged;
Stay aware of the latest trends and align them with customer preferences to entice them;
Study customer behavior and accordingly send promotional offers that drive more sales;
Constantly create and test email programs in an effort to achieve improved results with each new email;
Build a data-based system that can consistently provide you with high returns in the long term.

So, you need an ESP that can help you reap all the benefits that an email campaign can possibly provide:

At Campaign Refinery, we are happy to put our decades-long experience to work for our clients, helping them reach their maximum potential in email marketing, and we offer support every step of the way.

Related reading:

Why Choose Campaign Refinery For Your Email Marketing Needs?

Campaign Refinery is a reliable email marketing platform offering the highest email deliverability on the market. This means, our premium email marketing solutions such as the integrated email list cleaning tool, engagement rewards feature, evergreen flash sale feature, and the Audience Groups Segmentation tool allow users to achieve higher email marketing revenue.

Our strict email security protocols have helped us consistently maintain a remarkable 76.37% open rate as our clients say, which dramatically improved their deliverability and thus — revenue.

In fact, one of our clients managed to generate a staggering $3.6 million in revenue within the first 12 months of employing our services!

Campaign Refinery user reviews — Campaign Refinery client reviews

And we are committed to replicating that success for all our valued customers.

Here’s how we make it happen for businesses with our unique premium features:

Our integrated email list cleaning tool automatically removes harmful emails, increasing sender reputation and inbox placement.
Our advanced engagement tools like the gamification feature allow you to set points for each action subscribers take on your emails, increasing engagement.
You can pick from a rich email campaign template library, saving you valuable time.
Our expert service is available 24/7 to provide the best client experience tailored to your needs.

The best part is that Campaign Refinery’s cutting-edge deliverability technology allows you to send mass emails, clean the list, and implement gamification techniques on autopilot with our range of automated features, so you can focus on promoting your brand.

Interested in hearing more? Apply to use our services here.

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These strategies are now available in bite-sized content, for FREE! — Grab the Lead Magnet Multiplier now. The course will help you increase up to 7.56x more subscribers.

Let us know how our resources helped in increasing your sales!

If you need proper email marketing assistance and premium growth tools, apply to become a customer and our team will be in touch.

Written by Nikhil Gupta

Updated by Divya Shakthi

FAQ

Are email marketing agencies dead?

No, email marketing agencies are not dead. While some businesses turn their attention to social media, email marketing agencies are still highly relevant.

Will email marketing die?

Email marketing is unlikely to die because of the following:

It owns the audience,
It has the highest ROI,
The content is more engaging and relevant,
Many industries, including B2B and e-commerce depend on it.

Social media marketing is dead?

Social media marketing is alive, but has evolved significantly. In 2025, there’s AI-driven content optimization, short form video dominance, and community building.