More than 306 billion people send and receive emails each day — and this number continues to grow.

While many content marketers are turning their focus — and budget — toward other types of content, such as video campaigns and webinars, email generates $42 for every $1 spent. This is a 4,200 percent ROI.

Statistics have shown that over time, more marketers have switched their content marketing strategy toward social media over email. 

Experts say this has contributed to the belief that email marketing is “dead,” and an ineffective marketing tool — especially during the rise of TikTok and other popular video platforms.

However, according to Statista, 93.6 percent of internet users aged 25 to 44 in the U.S. use email. 

Beyond this age group, the percentages fall only slightly, with users aged 65 and older in the least-used group. And even this group clocks in at 83.1 percent.

Millennials spend an average of 6.4 hours checking email every day, with almost all of them checking their email every few hours while performing other activities such as eating or working out.

Despite email’s outdated reputation, it still is widely used among marketers and consumers alike.

According to the Content Marketing Institute, 90 percent of content marketers say email engagement is the main metric they track to measure performance.

In the B2B world, the most popular form of content marketing is email newsletters, with 81 percent using this type of marketing.

For 60 percent of consumers, email is the preferred promotion channel, according to Optinmonster, and 99 percent check their inbox every day.

However, statistics show that email marketing has a lot of room for growth, which the pandemic didn’t help.

According to Litmus, more than 40 percent of marketers saw budget cuts to email since the pandemic, even though 78 percent of marketers have seen an increase in email engagement over the past 12 months.

Despite the cuts, four out of five marketers said they would rather give up social media than email marketing.

Experts say the best tip to getting started with email marketing is to first purchase a custom email address, then choose an email service provider to begin building an email list.

Then, content marketers can start building the types of valuable content that their consumers want. 

Experts say that while most people don’t want more emails in their already-full inboxes, what they actually want is entertaining, educational content that makes them want to open the email.

Photo by Torsten Dettlaff