Would You Believe Me If I Told You That I Could Double Your Email Revenue?

Yes, I meant what I said in the title. And I say it with confidence, not arrogance, after 25 years of email marketing and witnessing company after company, vertical after vertical, fall somewhere along the email investment spectrum.

Companies put substantial time and money in email, while others stumbled into it without making the same effort.

However, I am seeing a shift in spending away from digital marketing, which has historically been the most successful option. The foundation of that solution is email marketing.

This isn’t a widespread trend yet, but I’m concerned as I see more businesses losing focus. For example, the number of organizations using all-image emails has skyrocketed this year. This speaks to production issues and a lack of data-driven messaging.

We certainly kept our eyes on the ball throughout the peak of the COVID-19 outbreak and the years that followed. We realized that email marketing was our saving grace. However, it appears that we have got weak knees.

According to recent reports, companies are abandoning the tried-and-true in favor of the shiny new toys. Again, we are investing time and money in new, unproven areas.

This will have an impact on sales and revenue, as well as the downstream effect of email marketing, which involves acquiring consumer data and marketing to them in very relevant and convertible ways.

Much of this stems from the discussion I started in my earlier MarTech column, “How to gear up email for a strong finish to 2024,” in which I provided many strategies for raising or at least retaining funding for 2025 email marketing campaigns.

I’ll continue that discussion here with advice to assist you stem the flow of irreversible email cutbacks and rethink methods to make email even more valuable — and, perhaps, more reduction-proof — in 2025.

1. The problem is real: media spending is becoming unbalanced.

According to Gartner’s worldwide CMO survey for 2024, companies are spending less money on marketing overall. The average marketing expenditure is 7.7% of total revenue, a decrease from a high of 11% in 2020 and 9.1% in 2023. That is disheartening, but not surprising, given that corporations cut back on marketing as the epidemic took hold, but rebounded to 9.5% in 2022.

What’s more concerning is what businesses are spending money on. Paid media investment in search, social media, and digital display advertising is increasing, as is offline expenditure on event and influencer marketing, as well as television – all at the expense of marketing technology, human resources, and agencies.

To those CMOs who have delegated authority over martech to IT and other departments, and who have shifted budget away from email, I question, “Why are you spending so much money on media if the result is that the customer comes to your website but you can’t capture their intent and convert on it?”

As a decades-long victim of the rigorous budget-making process and now a consultant and counselor to businesses, this makes no sense to me. When my agency audits customers, large and small, Fortune 50 to Fortune 1000, the first thing we look at is their email foundation, which includes acquisition, promotion, attrition, and automation.

You need those four basic pieces to establish an effective email campaign, and we consistently find them to be insufficient. You may be the most advanced marketer on the globe, and I could still find methods to increase revenue and response by using best practices, cutting-edge technologies, and data-driven strategies.

We typically find that firms generate a lot of traffic, but the engagement ends there. We are not focusing on the foundations of email, which is the most profitable channel for most businesses. It’s as if we’ve regressed to the early 2000s, when everything was about the quantity of eyes, list size, and impressions. Why are we going back when we know it’s not working?

Avoid excessive paid media ad spending, which provides little potential to capture a significant number of interested people when they visit your websites or interact with you through other channels.

2. Investing in marketing automation is essential for double income.

Marketing automation—which includes journeys, triggers, and transactional email messages—has always outperformed promotional messaging. Transactional messages in a well-managed email program may account for only 4% of total email volume but generate 50% or more of email income.

If you’re the CMO or VP of marketing, inquire if your transactional programs meet that requirement. If not, you’ve got work to do. If you’re near, think of this as a benchmark that could lead to greater investment because you have the keys to the kingdom.

Promotional emails are excellent, but the ones that land are hyper-focused emails that align with your strategic goal and strategy. Furthermore, you are promoting to people who already have their wallets out, which is extremely effective.

As you analyze your opportunities, think about how your transactional programs are measuring your email success and where you may start increasing email income. I’m not saying you should prioritize those over advertising emails.

Instead, approach strategy and tactics from a comprehensive perspective. However, the title for this piece does not read, “Do all of these things and make money.” It begins with: “If I could double your email revenue, would you listen to me?”

3. Hire an email accelerator.

I’m aware that not every digital marketing agency understands email. However, if you want to boost or even quadruple your email revenue, you won’t be able to do so alone unless you have a large rockstar team that has invested heavily in email and has the time to spend only to it. Here is why.

Before you can plan out your tactics, you must first build a strategy. Are you ready for that? If not, hire someone who is familiar with email-specific techniques, can evaluate your email numbers and customers, understands email revenue, how it performs, and how consumers react, and can speed your goals by tenfold or more.

Speed to market is vital, as is generating income. However, you require assistance, which will not be provided if you or the agency with whom you are currently working believe that sending another email would suffice. A concentrated approach will produce faster outcomes.

4. Increase your email budget.

Roll your eyes all you want, but I never said you could quadruple your email revenue for free. As I stated in my earlier MarTech piece, email expenditures have always been limited. Email may be at the top of the ROI hierarchy, but it is not invested in at the same pace.

Okay, yeah. You can send a lousy email while still making money. Why take money from a pleasant place, such as influencer marketing, and put it into something that performs fine without it?

So, savvy CMO, what happens to your email sales if you invest? I’ve never met a CMO who believed they earned enough money. An fixation with mediocrity — knowing you can get by without spending money — results in a level playing field that contradicts reality. Instead of settling for mediocrity, invest in the program that will maximize your ROI.

By the way, whatever number you have in your email budget is inadequate. I’ve rarely worked in a program that is well-funded.

Wrapping up

This isn’t your typical post-summer, pre-holiday rant. I recently took part in a webinar with five great email gurus, where we explored the history of the email space as well as the financial and attention requirements required from email marketers and executives.

We know email marketers understand the benefits of investing. The executive level reduces the value of email due to a lack of investment.

My final piece of advice to you is to spend in the channel that dominates ROI rather than pursuing shiny toys that increase traffic (maybe) but do not capture intent.

If you’re the marketing team leader or CMO, ask your email team what they’d do with an extra investment. I guarantee they will discover a method, and you will be able to quadruple your email investment.