E-Mail-Marketing: Warum der Kanal oft unterschätzt wird

Email marketing may seem unspectacular at first glance. No new social media hype, no viral short videos, no AI-generated ad formats. Nevertheless, the channel remains one of the strongest tools in digital marketing.

Why? Because email marketing creates direct relationships, uses your own data and activates customers in the long term. While paid reach becomes more expensive and platforms change their rules, email remains a controllable owned media channel.

Current benchmarks show that email is by no means an outdated medium. MailerLite reports an average open rate of 43.46 percent and a click-through rate of 2.09 percent for 2025. At the same time, the unsubscribe rate rose to 0.22 percent, which shows that relevance, frequency and list quality matter more than ever.

In this article, you will learn why email marketing is often underestimated. You will learn what role first-party data, automation, deliverability and AI systems play. You will also receive concrete approaches for strategically connecting email with online marketing, performance marketing and CRM.

What is email marketing?

Email marketing describes the targeted sending of emails to recipients who have given their consent. Companies use the channel for newsletters, offers, product information, event invitations, transactional emails and automated customer journeys.

The most important difference compared to many other channels lies in ownership of the relationship. On social media, you reach your target audience through platforms. In search engine marketing, you buy visibility through search ads. With email marketing, you communicate directly through your own list.

This makes email a powerful owned media channel. You are less dependent on algorithms, rising click prices or short-term platform changes. At the same time, you can personalize, segment and distribute content through automations.

Email marketing now includes much more than classic newsletters. Modern strategies use welcome sequences, cart abandonment emails, reactivation campaigns, lead nurturing, after-sales communication and loyalty flows.

First-party data is particularly important in this context. This includes information that users provide directly to you. Examples include interests, purchases, clicks, downloads or preferred topics. This data helps you send more relevant content and reduce wasted coverage.

Why is email marketing important?

Email marketing is important because it combines reach, data sovereignty and customer retention. This exact combination is missing from many other channels.

Paid social is highly effective for attention. SEA is particularly suitable for specific search intent. SEO builds long-term visibility. Email marketing, on the other hand, activates people who have already had contact with your brand.

This makes the channel particularly valuable for companies that do not only want to attract new visitors. They want to develop leads, reactivate customers and encourage repeat purchases.

Another advantage lies in the cost structure. Once the list, technology and content are in place, the variable costs per contact are often significantly lower than with paid ads. That is why many studies continue to rate email as a very ROI-strong channel. In a recent analysis, Litmus reports ROI ranges from 10:1 to 36:1 for many companies.

Nevertheless, the channel often remains undervalued. One reason lies in measurability. Many companies measure opens and clicks, but not revenue, customer lifetime value or reactivation effects. As a result, email exists operationally, but remains strategically invisible.

The second reason lies in its image. Email is often seen as an “old” channel. At the same time, many overlook the fact that modern email strategies are highly data-driven, automated and AI-compatible.

The true value emerges especially in combination with online marketing, performance marketing and CRM. Email can further develop leads from campaigns, bring back cart abandoners and strategically activate existing customers.

How Email Marketing Works in Practice

Successful email marketing does not begin with sending. It begins with strategy, data structure and clear expectations for the recipient.

Step 1: Establish a solid foundation for permissions

Without valid consent, you risk legal and technical problems. In Germany and the EU, you must handle advertising consent particularly carefully.

Use clear forms, understandable value propositions and transparent double opt-in processes. Explain directly what the user receives. Examples include exclusive tips, offers, checklists, invitations or expert updates.

Important: Do not buy arbitrary lists. They damage your reputation, lower deliverability and rarely match the target audience.

Step 2: Segment your contacts

A good list is not simply large. It is relevant, up to date and meaningfully segmented.

Typical segments include:

• new leads
• active customers
• inactive customers
• abandoned Cart
• People interested in specific services
• newsletter readers with high click activity
• contacts without interaction

These segments help you send precisely tailored content. A new lead needs different information than an existing customer. An inactive contact needs different impulses than an active buyer.

Step 3: Use automations instead of just newsletters

Many companies reduce email marketing to the monthly newsletter. This is exactly where they waste potential.

Automated email flows respond to behavior. For example, they start after a sign-up, a download, a purchase or an abandoned cart.

Particularly important flows include:

• Welcome series after newsletter sign-up
• Lead nurturing after a download or inquiry
• Follow-up on the quote after the consultation
• Abandoned cart series in e-commerce
• Reactivating inactive contacts
• Cross-selling after purchase
• Feedback email after project completion

These automations often have a stronger impact than individual campaigns. They reach users at a specific moment and fit better into the customer journey.

Step 4: Pay attention to deliverability

Deliverability determines whether your email actually lands in the inbox. A high sending volume is of little use if your messages end up in spam.

Since 2024, stricter requirements have applied to large senders. Google lists SPF, DKIM and DMARC, among others, as important authentication standards. Yahoo also recommends one-click unsubscribe and a spam rate below 0.3 percent.

In practice, this means:

• set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC correctly
• Use a clear sender domain
• consistently remove hard bounces
• do not continuously send to inactive contacts
• offer a simple unsubscribe option
• clearly separate transactional and promotional emails

Deliverability is not a minor technical issue. It directly determines reach, revenue and brand trust.

Step 5: Measure more than just the openings

Open rates are helpful, but no longer sufficient. Privacy features such as Apple Mail Privacy Protection can distort opens. That is why you should focus more on clicks, conversions and revenue.

Key metrics include:

• Click-through rate
• Click-to-open-Rate
• Conversion rate
• Revenue per recipient
• Churn rate
• Bounce rate
• Spam complaints
• Reactivation rate
• Repurchase rate
• Customer lifetime value

These metrics show whether your emails are truly having an impact. It becomes particularly interesting when you connect email data with CRM, web analytics and shop data.

Tools and methods for better results

• For simple newsletters: MailerLite or Mailchimp
• For simple newsletters: MailerLite or Mailchimp
• For technical sending routes and transactional emails: Mailgun or SendGrid

However, more important than the tool is the system logic. You need clean data, clear goals and regular testing.

Useful tests include:

• Subject lines
• Preheader
• Shipping time
• CTA text
• Segmentation
• Offer logic
• Email length
• Personalization
• landing page after the click

You should place internal links strategically. A blog article about email marketing can link to your pages on online marketing, email marketing and performance marketing.

This not only creates a better user flow. You also strengthen thematic connections for search engines and AI search systems.

Opportunities and Risks of Email Marketing

Email marketing offers great opportunities when you manage the channel professionally. At the same time, there are risks if you use it incorrectly.

The greatest opportunity lies in the direct customer relationship. You can reach people without platform filters. You can personalize content and support customers over a longer period of time.

Another opportunity lies in first-party data. Many companies are losing tracking depth due to cookie restrictions and platform changes. Email helps build and better understand your own data relationships.

Email is also becoming indirectly more important for AI search systems. Good newsletter content can strengthen topical authority, encourage return visits and guide users to high-quality website content. This creates better signals for brand, expertise and trust.

Risks mainly arise from poor sending practices. Too many emails, irrelevant content or unclear consent lead to unsubscribes and spam complaints.

Another risk lies in false expectations. Email is not a substitute for building reach. Without a list, there is no leverage. That is why email works best as part of an overall system consisting of SEO, SEA, social media, content marketing and conversion optimization.

Frequently Asked Question: Is email marketing still relevant today?

Yes, email marketing is modern and relevant when you use it in a data-driven and user-focused way. The channel no longer works as a simple mass mailing tool. It works as a personalized system for relationship building, activation and customer retention.

Frequently Asked Question: Why do users log out?

Users usually unsubscribe when they receive too many, irrelevant or unclear emails. That is why you need segmentation, clear frequencies and a preference center. There, recipients can manage topics and frequency themselves.

Frequently Asked Question: Which is better, newsletters or automation?

Both serve different purposes. Newsletters are suitable for regular communication. Automations are suitable for specific moments in the customer journey. In many cases, automated flows deliver greater strategic value.

The Future of Email Marketing

The future of email marketing will be shaped more strongly by data quality, AI, automation and trust. The channel remains relevant, but the requirements are increasing.

The BVDW points out in its 2026 guide that AI consumer agents analyze, filter and prioritize content more strongly. This makes it more important to structure emails clearly, logically and machine-readably.

For companies, this means: emails must not only convince people. They must also be interpreted correctly by systems. Clear senders, unambiguous content, structured data and consistent brand communication are becoming increasingly important.

AI will also improve production. Subject lines, segment ideas, product recommendations and variants can be created faster. Nevertheless, artificial intelligence does not replace strategy. It strengthens good systems and accelerates testing.

Another trend is the stronger connection between email and performance marketing. Email data helps to better understand target audiences. At the same time, campaigns from SEA and social media can generate leads that are then developed via email.

Accessibility is also becoming more important. Clear language, strong contrasts, a logical structure, alt texts and mobile optimization improve the user experience. They help people and machines alike.

The future does not belong to the loudest inbox. It belongs to the brands that send relevant communication at the right time.

Conclusion: Email marketing is underestimated when it is viewed solely as a newsletter

Email marketing is not strong because it is new. It is strong because it combines direct relationships, owned data and long-term customer retention.

Many companies underestimate the channel because they view it only from an operational perspective. They send newsletters, measure opens and then assess success based on that. However, the real value lies in automations, segmentation, CRM integration and clean measurement.

When you use email marketing strategically, it supports your entire online marketing structure. It nurtures leads, strengthens customer retention, improves repeat purchases and makes performance marketing more sustainable.

The channel is particularly suitable for companies that do not just want to buy attention. They want to build relationships and grow more profitably in the long term.

If you want to improve your email strategy, it is worth taking a closer look at data, automations and deliverability. Media Beats helps you combine email marketing with SEO, SEA, content and performance marketing into a powerful integrated system.

FAQ on Email Marketing