Every year someone declares email dead. Every year the data proves them wrong. After 12 years, I'll tell you exactly why email remains the highest-ROI channel in DTC — and what most brands get wrong about it.
Every year someone declares email dead. Every year the data proves them wrong.
I've been in DTC long enough to watch TikTok, Instagram, SMS, push notifications, and a dozen other channels get declared "the future of marketing." Some of them are genuinely great. None of them have displaced email.
Here's why: email is the only channel where you own the relationship. Your Instagram following can be wiped out by an algorithm change. Your TikTok can get banned. Your SMS list can get flagged by carriers. Your email list is yours.
What most brands get wrong:
They treat email like a broadcast channel. Send a promotion, wait for clicks, measure revenue. That's leaving 80% of the value on the table.
The brands doing email right treat it like a conversation. They segment obsessively. They send content that's genuinely useful — not just promotional. They use behavioral triggers (browse abandonment, post-purchase, win-back) to reach people at the exact right moment.
The best email program I ever built generated 35% of total revenue for a brand doing $30M/year. That's not a broadcast channel. That's a business.
Email isn't dead. Most brands just haven't figured out how to use it yet.