You’re busy starting or growing your business. You need to know that every dollar you invest in marketing is worth it. We get that.

You’ve probably already heard a little bit about how small businesses are using email marketing to grow their revenue, reach new customers, and better engage current customers.

But is email marketing really worth it? With more digital marketing options than ever before, including social media marketing and Google Ads, does email still hold its value when it comes to actually generating revenue?

In short, yes. Email marketing is very much worth the investment if you are trying to grow your ideas and create sustainable business. But don’t take my word for it.

Here are 10 email marketing statistics that prove email marketing is an essential tool for any small business.

 

1. Email marketing has a return on investment (ROI) of $42 for every $1 spent

Email marketing makes money. For every $1 you spend on email marketing, you can expect an average return of $42. That’s a higher return than you can expect from any other form of marketing — digital or otherwise.

While there are many benefits of using email marketing, this is the one that keeps you in business.

 

2. Billions of emails are sent every day

306 billion to be exact. And this number is expected to reach 361 billion by the end of 2024.

Even though there are more ways to reach customers than ever before, it’s clear that email is still one of the most popular modes of communication.

 

3. Email is used worldwide

According to Radicati’s 2020 Email Statistics report, email is used by over 4 billion people — over half of the world’s population.

And that number is only going up. It’s estimated that another half a billion people will be using email by 2024.

The simple truth is that your customers are actively using email. Make sure you are as well.

 

4. Email grows your business

According to 80 percent of professionals, email marketing drives customer acquisition and retention. In simple terms, that means more customers coming to you for their needs, and staying with you when needs arise again.

As the saying goes, “If you’re not growing, you’re dying.”

 

5. Email marketing is more likely to drive sales than social media marketing

Social media marketing is an important tool for growing your business, but when it comes to driving sales, it doesn’t touch email marketing.

60 percent of consumers say they’ve made a purchase as the result of a marketing email they received. Contrast that with the 12.5 percent of consumers who say they’d consider using the ‘buy’ button on social media, and it’s not much of a contest.

Social media is important, but ultimately, the gold standard of marketing still involves getting people to sign up for your email list.

 

6. Email helps you reach your customers as fast as possible

With the immediacy of social media, you might think it had overtaken email as the fastest way to reach new and current customers. But the truth is 21 percent of opened emails are opened within the very first hour of delivery.

By the end of hour three, that number jumps up to nearly 41 percent.

The takeaway: Email is a fast and effective way to reach your audience.

 

7. Automation makes email marketing even smarter — and saves you a ton of time

One of the major benefits of email marketing is the ability to utilize automation. Simple automations — like sending an automatic welcome email when someone subscribes to your list, or an email reminder to finish shopping and check out to customers who abandoned their digital shopping carts — help you find and keep more customers.

30 percent of professionals surveyed said the biggest benefit of marketing automation was the time it saved them.

 

8. Consumers want to hear from you.

61 percent of consumers enjoy receiving promotional emails weekly. 38 percent would like emails to come even more frequently.

Keep this in mind the next time you’re fretting that customers will get turned off by sending emails too often.

 

9. Segmentation and personalization make email even more effective

Email marketing with a tool like Constant Contact allows for smarter, more effective marketing through email segmentation. With segmentation, you can send different content to different segments of your contact list to make your emails more personal and relevant to your readers.

Segmented emails make readers 50 percent more likely to click on a link within the email. And more clicks means more eyes on your website and online store, which means — you guessed it — more sales.

 

10. You’ll reach a mobile audience

Email open rates from mobile devices have grown by more than 100 percent since 2011. Smartphones are here to stay and are likely carried by the majority of your customers. Marketers are scrambling for ways to reach mobile users. Luckily, email marketing remains an easy and cost-effective option.

Today, mobile devices account for about 60 percent of email opens. Email helps you reach your customers where they are — on their phone.

 

Now that you’ve seen the email marketing statistics, what can email do for your business?

These email marketing statistics prove just how valuable email can be for your business. Whether you want to increase your number of customers or strengthen your relationship with existing customers, email marketing will give you the tools you need to do so.