What Makes Email a Time-Tested, Powerful Channel for Owned Audiences?
Email has consistently defied predictions of its decline. It acts like the Swiss Army knife of marketing—versatile and reliable. While marketers grapple with challenges like the “cookie apocalypse,” AI-powered search, and unpredictable social algorithms, email remains steady. It provides direct engagement and valuable data ownership.
The inbox is personal and persistent. More importantly, it offers marketers what they want most: control and consent. Unlike social platforms or ad networks, email enables brands to build direct, permission-based relationships with their audiences. It’s not only about reach but also about resilience.
Devin Reed, Founder of The Reeder, says, “Everyone has an email address. It’s not going anywhere.” He calls email “the most obvious investment marketers should make” because of its low cost and high return on investment (ROI). Its value lies both in access and consistent business results.
ROI, Reach, and Relevance
Email offers an exceptional cost-to-impact ratio. OptinMonster reports a 3600% ROI on email marketing, and global email users are expected to exceed 4.5 billion by 2025. This scale provides unmatched opportunity. In an age of ad fatigue and rising CPMs, email offers a direct and dependable line to customers—one they anticipate.
Liviu Tanase, CEO of ZeroBounce, notes that 93% of consumers check their email daily, often seeking offers or brand messages. Doug Darroch from Renaissance Digital Marketing adds that in B2B, email often remains the only reliable way to reach decision-makers.
But reach is just the starting point. How brands use email is evolving alongside the technology.
From Broadcasts to Conversations
Email has moved beyond being a simple broadcast tool. It’s now a two-way communication channel. When used effectively, it connects brands and customers throughout the entire customer journey. It also complements other owned and paid marketing channels.
Dave Charest of Constant Contact explains that email builds trust and drives results when aligned with social and SMS efforts. Christina Pavlou of Moosend sums it up: “Email is no longer just for informing, it’s where you actually communicate.” This shift from pushing messages to engaging in dialogue is reshaping email’s role.
Email's Evolution: Strategic, Not Static
Email isn’t surviving by chance—it’s evolving. As automation saturates other channels with noise, email’s permission-based nature stands out. Marketers who treat email as a strategic asset—not just a checkbox—see the best outcomes.
In 2025, winning brands focus on three principles:
- Respecting access, not abusing it
- Investing in storytelling and segmentation
- Using technology to amplify, not replace, human connection
Email has earned its spotlight through resilience, strong ROI, and increased intelligence. But survival doesn’t guarantee success.
The Trust Paradox: Battling Inbox Noise and Redefining Engagement
Email marketing struggles less because it’s ineffective and more because it’s overused and often executed poorly. Automation tools intended to boost efficiency sometimes contribute to fatigue, deliverability issues, and eroding trust.
Baruch Labunski, CEO of Rank Secure, points to automation as a culprit behind rising unsubscribe rates: “People are overwhelmed and ignore most emails.” Joanna Wyganowska from Octopus Deploy notes that spam filters block mass emails more aggressively, hurting visibility and performance.
One common pitfall is relying on misleading metrics, especially open rates.
When Metrics Lie: The Open Rate Illusion
Open and click-through rates remain common metrics but don’t paint the full picture anymore. Email filters, privacy protections, and bot activity distort these numbers.
Phil Newton from G2 observes, “Opens and clicks are becoming less reliable.” Marketers should shift focus to real behavioral signals like site visits, conversions, and replies. This shift is a strategic necessity: without accurate insights, marketers risk amplifying the wrong messages to the wrong people.
Over-Automation Is Killing Connection
AI and automation tools make scaling easier but can backfire when overused. Ashley Binford, a B2B demand generation expert, warns that heavy reliance on templated sequences leads to robotic, disconnected messaging.
Anna Ledford, Marketing Director at Marketri, agrees: “People can sense when something is mass-produced,” which can tank even well-timed campaigns.
Laura Sundberg, CMO at Inspire11, calls email’s crisis “existential”: customers expect email to be irrelevant, automated, or manipulative. Even when marketers get it right, trust remains low.
Fixing this isn’t about sending more emails—it requires a mindset shift. If trust is the bottleneck and personalization the goal, AI should be the accelerator, reshaping how teams build and scale smarter email campaigns.
AI's Role in Smarter Email Campaigns and Strategic Partnerships
AI is now integral to email marketing—not as a magic fix, but as a tool to enhance human strategy. Experts agree AI-powered tools work best when guided by humans.
Christina Pavlou says, “AI isn’t here to help us write faster. It’s here to help us send smarter.” The best tools give marketers control rather than just features.
Anna Ledford adds, “Tech should never replace thinking. We treat these tools as creative partners, not substitutes.” The goal is to elevate creativity, not offload it.
Where AI Adds the Most Value in MarTech Stacks
Top email platforms use AI to streamline:
- Audience understanding: segmenting by behavior, buying patterns, and tone preferences
- Message creation: crafting subject lines, refining CTAs, and optimizing copy per segment
- Scheduling: predicting optimal send times for each subscriber
- Performance visibility: spotting trends, suggesting improvements, and highlighting top content
Devin Reed highlights how segmenting and customization have become easier, enabling faster delivery of relevant content. Doug Darroch points to tools like Klaviyo, HubSpot, and Mailchimp evolving rapidly with predictive analytics and personalization.
Dave Charest shares that AI can suggest copy, create templates, and recommend send times in about 90 seconds—letting small teams run sophisticated campaigns without heavy tech stacks.
Despite these efficiencies, leaders caution against overreliance. Ashley Binford says the best results come when technology amplifies a smart strategy rather than just increasing send volume. Naomi West emphasizes that AI’s value depends on the quality of the prompt behind it. Skilled marketers are needed to guide AI effectively.
In short, AI doesn’t fix broken strategies; it scales the good ones. It amplifies precision and builds stronger signals for audience engagement.
Driving Performance: Strategic AI for Deeper Engagement
The true promise of AI in email marketing lies in precision. AI helps brands understand individual preferences, predict intent, and personalize at a micro-level without sacrificing efficiency.
Robin Emiliani, Co-founder of Catalyst Marketing, explains how her team uses AI to map characteristics, buying behavior, personality traits, and the tone that works best. This insight enables messaging that feels personal, not generic.
Doug Darroch’s team uses AI to generate hyper-personalized content, predict send times, and A/B test subject lines at scale. These tactics are no longer optional but standard practice.
Ashley Binford notes how AI sharpens messaging by aligning subject lines and CTAs with user intent and tailoring copy by segment. For her, AI removes friction between message and result.
AI’s impact goes beyond personalization and timing—it’s changing how content is planned, created, and analyzed.
Operational Power: Beyond the Inbox
AI is transforming how teams create, repurpose, and measure content. Baruch Labunski mentions AI helps identify new audiences, organize campaigns, and build content more likely to succeed.
Laura Sundberg highlights AI’s value before messages are written—segmenting audiences, modeling journeys, and aligning creative with buyer behavior.
Anna Ledford sees AI as a creative partner that analyzes subject line performance, engagement timing, and content resonance across segments. Christina Pavlou uses AI tools like Audience Discovery to predict behavior and preferences.
Efficiency means creating content that matters—not just more content. AI supports this by becoming a content team’s backbone.
Repurpose, Reuse, Refine
Top teams don’t use AI to replace content creation but to scale and reshape existing assets. At ZeroBounce, Liviu Tanase says their emails remain 100% human, with AI handling light tasks like spellchecking.
Joanna Wyganowska’s team transforms long-form assets like webinar recordings into newsletters or blog posts, extending content impact without overburdening creators.
AI acts as a content multiplier, not creator. The best marketers treat AI as a strategic teammate—predicting, optimizing, and extending content while staying rooted in storytelling and emotional intelligence.
The G2 Take
Data from hundreds of user reviews shows email marketing is evolving. Software is judged not just by send volume but by intelligence, integration, and ROI.
Tech Is Accelerating ROI and Reinforcing Email’s Value
Alanna Iwuh, Sr Research Analyst at G2, states, “Email marketing isn’t dying down anytime soon. It continues to grow as a channel consumers value and businesses rely on.”
From 2023 to 2025, the average ROI window for email marketing platforms has nearly halved. This acceleration is driven by intelligent automation, personalization, and integration.
Embedded AI Is Driving Results
Among over 500 reviews in G2’s Email Marketing category, 86% mention AI, automation, or intelligent workflows. Users link these features to real gains:
- “Saves hours every day through intelligent outreach automation.” – Instantly user
- “AI predicts the best time to send to each contact.” – Klaviyo user
- “Helps reduce bounce rates by improving list hygiene.” – Apollo.io user
Platforms with AI built into workflows—not just added on—earn higher satisfaction and recommendation scores.
Pain Points Persist, Especially Around Analytics and Authenticity
Reviewers highlight common challenges:
- Analytics that don’t provide deep insights for leadership
- Confusing onboarding and setup
- Automation that feels cold or impersonal
Even powerful tools need to feel natural and human, or they risk being ignored.
Buyers today seek performance partners who offer ease of use, quick setup, and seamless integration. These features outrank advanced testing or segmentation capabilities.
SMBs Lead the AI Charge, Mid-Market Is Catching Up
G2 reviews show small and mid-sized businesses adopting AI-powered email tools most actively. Enterprises take a slower approach, modernizing legacy systems gradually. SMBs are pioneering AI-first email strategies, setting the pace.
Where Email Marketing Is Headed: Insights and Signals
The rise of AI presents a paradox: more powerful tools require more human-centered strategy. Greater technology demands intentional, empathetic marketing.
Key Takeaways for CMOs and B2B Leaders
- Email is now a first-party data asset and strategic competitive advantage, not just a retention tool
- Trust is the bottleneck—focus on what earns an open, not just what triggers a send
- Legacy metrics are fading—invest in tracking behavioral signals
- Treat AI as a strategic partner, not a plug-and-play tool; consider custom GPTs or prompts to maintain brand voice
- Empower teams to detect issues early—deliverability, list hygiene, content fatigue
- Use newsletters to test tone, storytelling, and cadence
- Repurpose content strategically to fuel ongoing engagement
- Audit platforms carefully—do they offer true AI-assisted optimization or just automation?
- Choose tools that integrate seamlessly and deliver fast ROI
- SMBs are setting the pace; personalization at scale is now the baseline
What Wins? Simplicity, Speed, and Human-Like Storytelling
Marketers aren’t just choosing vendors—they’re choosing performance partners. Email is now a strategic tech layer. The tools that succeed combine smarter automation, faster ROI, and frictionless integration.
However, the core challenge remains: building authentic trust and genuine connection with audiences wary of generic, automated communication.
The future of email marketing depends not just on technology but on how skillfully marketers use it to create valuable, empathetic, and relevant experiences. Brands that balance AI-powered efficiency with human engagement will earn their place in the inbox—and in the customer’s mind.
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