Why Email Is Still the Queen of Digital Marketing
Why is email still important to marketing?
Email is still one of the most effective marketing channels because if offers a direct, personal, and measurable way to reach audiences in 2026 — often with the highest ROI of any digital tactic.
Nineteen years before Al Gore allegedly created the internet, Ray Tomlinson sent the world’s first email message (to himself) in 1971. Email predates Windows, Apple and the entire web itself.
Today, marketing emails are an essential tool for any industry’s marketing strategy.
After more than five decades of having the technology, the world sends billions of emails every day. Although this might seem like a firehose of communication, it’s still easy for businesses to stand out and provide value in the inbox.
Here in the age of social media, email is the most private and personable medium for businesses to connect with contacts. Unlike social media, the inbox remains a comfort zone of tailored information.
It’s the original source of permission-based marketing, where anyone (from auto dealerships to healthcare clinics) can not only talk to contacts but also learn from them in real-time.
As Google, Facebook, TikTok and other platforms constantly tinker with their algorithms, email remains a reliable, direct connection with people in your database.
Email Marketing Builds Relationships
There’s a reason every form you fill out online requires an email address. Email acts as the intermediary between your online experience and your house.
With receipts, confirmations, bills, reminders, deals, newsletters and more — email still fills an important, trusted role in our online shopping experience.
As leads and customers interact with your business in real life, that long-term relationship is sustained through effective marketing emails. This is why your business needs to have a clear and understandable email marketing strategy.
Email Marketing Offers Segmentation
It’s important for marketing managers to stay on top of their email marketing strategies — email marketing isn’t just about blasting out your best offer to every contact in your system.
Email allows your business to automatically segment, clean, and qualify your database. And even though email is the elder digital marketing tactic, it’s still the best way to send relevant offers to people at the right time.
Email Marketing Still Sees Great Returns
Email still saw an average ROAS of $36 in 2025.
Email tools are usually pretty cost-effective, and so with such little investment it’s easy to see how email marketing returns could be so high!
How can you find out your ROAS?
Attribution isn’t easy. A lot of marketers struggle to determine which channel(s) helped a customer decide to buy.
Attribution tools can help with supporting your marketing decisions, and provide a visual representation of the journey your loyal subjects are taking, both with and without emails.
Email Marketing Gets Your Message Out Directly
When done right, an email is a cost-effective, fast, and simple way to keep customers informed and excited about what your company has to offer.
With email marketing tools such as HubSpot, MailChimp or SharpSpring — or even your CRM — the process for contacting customers and leads is simplified and affordable, allowing for greater automation and customization.
What Emails Should You Send?
In our experience, many folks are sending:
- Personal, one-to-one emails to active leads
- Lists of regular monthly incentives, sales or offers
- Product overviews
- Blog post notifications (for subscribers)
- Reminders for appointments
These things are all essential to an email marketing strategy, but — as with any queen — the real reigning happens behind the curtain.
For example:
- Does your store follow up with engaged leads?
- Do you send specific offers to active shoppers?
- Do you qualify contacts based on website shopping?
Here are a few ideas inspired by an auto dealership’s email marketing strategy to get the right message in front of the right people:
- Segment Your Emails – qualify contacts based on what they click. For example, an auto dealership often sends out emails to unqualified contacts (people who haven’t indicated an interest in a specific unit or model) to gauge their interest and learn from their browsing behaviors. We then follow up with more relevant emails specific to their needs.
- Send a Welcome Email – get in front of newly converted contacts with the offerings and values of your business right away. (In our experience, this is the most commonly missing piece of a business’s email marketing strategy.)
These are just a couple of tactics your business could use to better qualify your database over time and provide a more delightful experience for your contacts.
Start Sending the Right Emails with 9 Clouds
With this clear understanding of how important email marketing still is today, you’re probably wondering what the next step is.
We suggest checking out our other free email marketing resources or reaching out to our team to see what’s possible for your business.
Go forth, and take advantage of all the potential that email marketing can provide for your kingdom. Long live the queen!
LEARN MORE ABOUT EMAIL MARKETING WITH 9 CLOUDS »
