Every channel I use has had a bad year at some point. Search traffic fell when AI answers arrived, organic social reach collapsed a decade ago, ad costs rise every Q4. Email is the only one where the list I built in 2019 still reaches the same people.
That is the case for email in one paragraph. What has changed is that the inbox got smarter, open rates stopped meaning what they used to, and the tolerance for sending a lot has dropped.
Quick Info
Short answer
Yes, and it is now the most defensible channel you have
Why
You own the list. No algorithm sits between you and the reader
What changed
AI inbox sorting, privacy features, unreliable open rates
Metric to stop trusting
Open rate
Metrics to trust
Clicks, replies, revenue per subscriber, unsubscribe rate
Who it does not suit
Businesses with nothing to say more than twice a year
Why email still works
—You own the list. It is the only marketing asset on this list that is genuinely yours.
—No intermediary algorithm decides your reach. Deliverability matters; reach is not rationed.
—It reaches people who have already said yes, which is why it converts better than any acquisition channel.
—It is cheap. A list of five thousand costs tens of pounds a month to mail.
—It compounds. Every month of list growth adds permanently, unlike a campaign that stops when the budget stops.
Return on email is consistently the highest of any channel in the accounts I see, and it is not close. The reason is simply that you are talking to people who chose to hear from you.
What genuinely changed
The AI inbox
Gmail and others now sort, summarise and prioritise aggressively. A promotional email may be filed, collapsed into a summary or bundled before the recipient sees a subject line. Getting into the inbox is no longer the same as being read.
Open rates broke
Privacy features that pre-load images inflate opens, and inbox previews that never load them deflate them. The number is now a rough directional signal at best, and any strategy built on optimising it is building on sand.
Tolerance dropped
People receive more email and are quicker to unsubscribe or mark as spam. That behaviour feeds back into deliverability, so over-sending now has a compounding cost.
Deliverability got stricter
Authentication requirements tightened and the major providers enforce complaint-rate thresholds. Sloppy senders get filtered, and recovering a damaged sending reputation takes months.
Email did not get less effective. It got less forgiving of being treated as a broadcast channel.
Who it works for
—Service businesses with a considered purchase. Email keeps you present through a decision that takes weeks.
—Anybody who publishes. The list is how your content reaches people without depending on search or social.
—E-commerce, where automated sequences do most of the work: abandonment, post-purchase, replenishment.
—Local businesses with repeat custom. A monthly note to two hundred customers is more valuable than most local advertising.
—Anybody selling a course, a product or a place on something. Launches happen on email.
Who it does not suit
—Businesses with genuinely nothing to say. A list you mail twice a year decays into a list nobody remembers joining.
—One-off purchases with no repeat and no referral potential.
—Anybody unwilling to write regularly, because outsourced generic newsletters get ignored and damage the list.
—Businesses that bought a list. That is not email marketing; it is spam with a template.
The metrics that now tell the truth
01Click rate on a specific, relevant link. Actual intent, measurable, and much harder to fake than an open.
02Replies. The strongest engagement signal there is, and the one providers weigh most heavily.
03Revenue or enquiries per subscriber per month. The number that tells you the list is an asset rather than a cost.
04Unsubscribe and complaint rate. Your early warning that you are sending too much or the wrong thing.
05List growth net of churn, which is the health of the whole channel.
06Open rate, watched loosely as a trend and never optimised for.
If you have been reporting a 42% open rate to yourself as evidence of success, that is the number to stop looking at first.
What good email looks like now
—Plain and personal. Text-heavy emails from a named person outperform designed templates in almost every test I have run.
—One idea and one action per send.
—A consistent, honest cadence. Whatever you promised at signup, kept.
—Segmented at least crudely: customers and non-customers should not receive identical email.
—Automated where it should be: welcome, abandonment, post-purchase, re-engagement.
—Written to be read on a phone in twenty seconds.
The heavily designed monthly newsletter with six sections is the format that has aged worst. Nobody reads six sections.
Cadence, honestly
There is no universal right frequency. There is a right frequency for what you have to say.
—Weekly, if you genuinely have something weekly. This builds the strongest habit and the highest engagement.
—Fortnightly or monthly for most small businesses, which is sustainable and enough to stay present.
—Automated sequences run continuously regardless of your broadcast cadence, and they do most of the revenue work.
—More often than you can sustain is the mistake. A list mailed weekly for two months and then abandoned performs worse than one mailed monthly forever.
Where I would start today
01Put a signup form on every page of your site, saying plainly what you send and how often.
02Write a three-email welcome sequence. This is the highest-return email work available and most businesses have none.
03Set up authentication properly: SPF, DKIM and DMARC. Non-negotiable now.
04Send something useful once a month, from a person, with one action.
05Split customers from prospects and stop sending them the same thing.
06Measure clicks, replies and revenue per subscriber. Ignore open rate.
Building the list comes first if you do not have one, and the deliverability checklist matters before you send at any volume.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is email marketing dead in 2026?
No. It is the only channel where you own the audience, and its return remains the highest of any channel in most businesses I work with.
Are open rates still useful?
Only as a loose trend. Privacy features and inbox previews distort them in both directions, so optimise for clicks, replies and revenue instead.
How often should I email my list?
As often as you have something worth sending and can sustain indefinitely. Monthly forever beats weekly for two months.
Do AI inboxes stop my emails being seen?
They change how emails are sorted and summarised, which makes relevance and sender reputation matter more. They do not block legitimate mail you have permission to send.
What is a realistic return on email?
Higher than any acquisition channel, because you are mailing people who opted in. The useful measure for you is revenue per subscriber per month.
Should I buy an email list?
No. It damages your sending reputation, breaks data protection rules in most jurisdictions, and the recipients did not ask to hear from you.
Before You Go
Email is worth it because it is the only audience you own, and it has become less forgiving rather than less effective. Send less, make it personal, measure clicks and replies, and set up the automations that work while you are not writing.
If you are starting from nothing, the list-building guide is the place to begin.
Own the list. Send less. Measure clicks.
WRITTEN BY TARIQ SALLAM
Marketing Consultant. Entrepreneur. Content Creator.
I'm a marketing consultant, entrepreneur and content creator. I help businesses grow through practical marketing, websites, SEO, content and AI.
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