Email Isn’t Dying. Gen Z Just Doesn’t Speak the Language

 

The Numbers Refuse to Die

Every day, over 347 billion emails are sent and received globally — a figure projected to cross 392 billion by 2026
(Source: Statista).
That’s not a marketing channel in decline. That’s digital infrastructure.
And yet, email marketing is rarely discussed with the reverence we reserve for newer platforms like TikTok or Instagram advertising. Despite being one of the oldest digital communication tools, its persistence is often met with quiet skepticism.

Marketing teams continue to fund campaigns across TikTok marketing, Instagram Reels, and influencer advertising channels with uncertain ROI — while email quietly generates clicks, replies, lead nurturing, and conversions in the background. It's not viral, but it's consistent.

But here’s the uncomfortable part: email campaigns work — but not for everyone.

In many organizations, email marketing strategies are still treated as a checkbox task. A monthly email blast sent without much thought, often lacking audience segmentation, campaign goals, or personalization. The result is noise: impersonal content blasted to large lists with little relevance, low open rates, and no lasting impact. What was once a strategic B2B tool becomes a formality — misused, misunderstood, and underleveraged in marketing funnels.

And yet, the underlying email economics tell a different story. Email consistently outperforms social media when it comes to return on investment. According to Litmus’s 2023 ROI report, email marketing yields an average ROI of $36 to $42 for every $1 spent — a figure that remains remarkably stable across industries and markets. By contrast, WhatsApp marketing, while promising for interactive campaigns, depends heavily on opt-in rates and contact list quality. Early benchmarks show an ROI in the range of 8x to 15x, though this varies greatly based on use case and execution strategy (Source: Omnisend). Social media advertising, meanwhile, fluctuates widely. ROI is often less than $3 for every $1 invested, with outcomes increasingly shaped by ad fatigue, creative saturation, and algorithm unpredictability (Source: WebFX).

For executives focused on capital efficiency and digital marketing ROI, the takeaway is clear: email remains one of the most cost-effective and resilient marketing channels — particularly in B2B lead generation. Customer acquisition costs (CAC) are significantly lower when targeting an engaged email list or well-maintained CRM database. Running paid social ads to a cold audience might generate brand impressions, but with CPMs routinely hitting $15–$35, the economics often become unsustainable. A targeted email campaign reaching 10,000 qualified contacts, on the other hand, can be executed for less than $100 in email infrastructure costs — and in many regulated sectors like healthcare marketing, financial services, and industrial B2B manufacturing, email is not just efficient; it is often the only legally compliant outbound method for scalable communication.

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Gen Z: Digital Natives, Email Illiterates

Gen Z — despite being digitally fluent — often lacks email literacy. While they navigate smartphones, social media platforms, and short-form content with ease, their ability to use email as a professional communication tool is severely underdeveloped. For many, email is little more than a login requirement or a dumping ground for automated promotional emails they never intend to read. They rarely engage with subject lines, almost never reply thoughtfully, and skim past email newsletters as if they were spam — even when the content is relevant.

This isn’t simply about preference; it’s a digital skill gap. Older generations had no choice but to master email etiquette — they learned how to write it, read it, manage it, and convert it into action. Gen Z professionals, by contrast, skipped the learning curve. They grew up with faster, more reactive platforms and never learned how to use email strategically — whether in business development, networking, or cold email sales. Many of them have never seen a well-structured cold outreach email, let alone written one. They don’t know how to build a list, track email engagement rates, or communicate with buyer intent and contextual targeting.

And so, while they dominate on TikTok for creators and Instagram reels, their presence in inboxes is either absent — or ineffective.

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Final Advice

Email marketing effectiveness depends on a strategic, disciplined, and intentional approach. Simply distributing campaigns is no longer sufficient; marketers must possess a deep understanding of their target audience, apply thoughtful segmentation logic, and craft email messages that are timely, personalized, and contextually relevant.

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Farhad Hafez Nezami

Tech & Sports Entrepreneur | Growth Strategist

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