The Most Underestimated Workhorse in Marketing? Hint: It’s in Your Inbox.

In a world obsessed with TikTok trends and Instagram-perfect campaigns, there’s a quiet achiever that keeps showing up, punching above its weight, and rarely getting the credit it deserves: email.

Yes, email! The “boring” channel that marketers tend to overlook. But the hard truth? Email isn’t boring, you might just be doing it wrong! Ingredient’s Sr. Campaign Manager and email expert, Kelsey Goin, breaks down why email has stronger strategic staying power than any other digital marketing channel, and how marketers can use it to break through the noise and turn their consumers into brand loyalists.

What does email have that other digital marketing channels don’t? 

Everyone wants the flash, but email brings the cash! Social media gets the likes, influencers get the hype, and paid media burns through the budget — but email consistently delivers ROI. (Think: onboarding that actually converts. Winbacks that work. Loyalty programs that don’t feel like an afterthought.) 

According to Litmus, every $1 spent on email marketing generates $42 in return. Email doesn’t care if you’re an early-stage startup or a legacy brand — it scales, it builds relationships, and it drives loyalty. The very nature of email puts it in a different league from other digital channels. 

• It’s permission-based. Unlike a random digital ad, for example, email requires a sign-up. It’s coming from a place of interest and intention, not interruption — you have their attention from the very first, “Welcome!”

• It’s consistent. Newsletters, product updates, personalized recommendations — these are all the digital versions of “checking in.” Email lets you show up in a reliable way, building brand awareness and trust over time.

• It’s personal. With data and segmentation, email can be tailored to individual behavior, preferences, and timing. It’s not “Dear Valued Customer.” It’s “Hey Kelsey, here’s something you might love.”

• It’s conversational. The best emails feel more like a two-way dialogue than a blast. With feedback loops, surveys, replies, and even preference centers, email invites engagement and listens back.

• It’s long-term, not transactional. The relationship doesn’t end at confirmation of purchase. Email keeps the conversation going with order updates, how-tos, loyalty perks, and re-engagement. 

• It builds loyalty through value. When emails consistently offer helpful, entertaining, or exclusive content, you earn your place in the inbox — and in your audience’s routine. Over time, that breeds brand affinity (and repeat business).

While email and social media — along with push, SEO, video, paid, affiliate, and influencer marketing — are all valuable parts of an omnichannel marketing campaign, too many brands approach email like a checkbox. It’s the tactic they know they need yet don’t really want. But with smart segmentation, valuable creative, and a solid data strategy, email can become the personalized powerhouse in your marketing toolbox. 

Let’s dive into personalization a bit more. How does email marketing deliver on this in ways other digital marketing channels don’t? 

Before algorithms stalked consumers’ every move, one-to-one email was getting up close and personal. And when done right, it still is. From real-time behavioral triggers to tailored lifecycle journeys, email is the closest thing marketers have to a direct, one-on-one conversation at scale. With so much noise and clutter vying for consumers’ attention, marketers have to get smarter. That means delivering the right message, to the right person, at the right time with highly relevant and personalized content — and that’s what email does.

To be clear, “personalized content” means more than putting someone’s name in the email subject line. It means truly understanding your key audience — what have they engaged with or purchased in the past, for example, and how does that translate into how you show up in their inbox? It means gathering and analyzing your consumer data and working with your team to determine which message will resonate the most, and then tailoring your email with the right content to convey that message. It also means tracking and analyzing the results, seeing which trends emerge, and then acting accordingly. In other words, once you capture your audiences’ attention, what are you going to do to build on the relationship and make it stick? Email is the proven workhorse here. 

AI has obviously started playing a stronger role in all things digital marketing. How do you think AI can be useful when it comes to developing effective email campaigns? 

It all comes back to personalization! The tools we use on a daily basis, like Salesforce, help us predict, understand, and segment our audiences. It can also help us map the customer journey more efficiently to ensure the best experience possible. But it’s important to remember that AI is not 100% accurate and we’re a long way from it taking over. It can only be as good as the data that you put into it over time. If your data is subpar, AI is going to give you subpar results. But as long as you are thoughtful about your approach, you can lean into AI tools to make your data work harder for you, ultimately bolstering your email campaigns. 

What advice do you have when it comes to making email work with other digital marketing channels.

Email is obviously a powerful and effective channel on its own. But because it’s also the backbone of the customer journey, integrating it into your omnichannel approach can harmonize your audience’s experience and provide you with a more comprehensive, long-term picture of their preferences and interactions. You not only see how all of your elements work together, but get a deeper understanding of who your consumer is — how they are behaving now and even how they will behave in the future. 

The key to making an omnichannel approach work is understanding the purpose of each channel and how to effectively leverage each one to build your strategy. Email doesn’t work the same as social, and social doesn’t work the same as push. Push messages, for example, are thoughtful when done right. But they can also be interruptive for some audiences. With email, however, your consumers have already surpassed a few barriers to get to you. They are interested in your brand and have intentionally said, “Here’s my email address, tell me more!” which opens up a world of opportunities. So it’s critical to understand the different ways “in” for each channel and how to tailor the voice and tone of your message to achieve the results you want. 

What’s the key to measuring the success of an email campaign? 

Brand awareness, conversion, engagement, KPIs (like open and click-through rates) and ROI are all important measurements. But did you prove that you understand purchase behaviours and reinforce brand loyalty? In a world where there is always something else, some other distraction or shiny object, this is a true mark of success.

Analytics are also huge, but they don’t just come in at the end of a campaign — they are a key component throughout the whole journey. That’s why they are my favorite! I love that analytics allow you to identify consumer patterns as well as test and refine messages. It’s scientific. You do your discovery work, create your hypothesis, then launch and monitor results. In other words, you test your claim and let the data guide you in future decisions in order to get the best results.

Also, it’s important to keep in mind that needing to adjust your strategy along the way does not mean that your hypothesis was wrong. That’s why it’s a test-and-learn approach! The results can give you learnings that weren’t on your radar, like an underutilized audience, for example. Based on those findings, you can pivot and make new data-driven decisions that lead to a more successful outcome. You can always go back to the analytics to prove why or how something happened in the past or what needs to happen in the future. At the end of the day, you can’t argue with the numbers. 

With the right mix of strategy, expertise, and analytics, Ingredient knows what it takes to build a frictionless experience and execute one-to-one email campaigns that make a measurable difference. [Insert mic drop here.] Want to talk more? Reach out today!