Is Email Marketing Still Effective in the Age of AI and Digital Presence?
Amid the rapid growth of AI, social media, and increasingly accessible digital channels, email marketing may seem like an outdated strategy. Brands are now competing to build a strong digital presence across Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp, and AI-powered platforms.
But is email marketing effectiveness still relevant as consumer behaviour continues to evolve? The answer is yes, although its role has evolved.
Email Marketing Is No Longer Just About Promotions
Email marketing was once largely associated with newsletters, product catalogues, and mass promotions. Today, it can play a broader role as part of a customer relationship strategy.
When customers share their email addresses with a brand, businesses gain an opportunity to communicate with them directly without being entirely dependent on digital platform algorithms.
This becomes increasingly important as consumer attention on social media becomes more fragmented. Amid thousands of competing pieces of content and brands, email provides a more direct and targeted communication channel.
AI Is Changing How Email Marketing Works
The rise of AI does not necessarily make email marketing less relevant. On the contrary, AI can help brands better understand their customers and deliver more relevant communications.
With access to customer data, brands can tailor their messaging based on customer needs, behaviour, and their stage in the customer relationship.
For example, new customers do not necessarily need to receive the same communications as customers who have made multiple purchases. Understanding this context allows brands to deliver more targeted messages.
As a result, the challenge is no longer simply how many emails a brand can send, but how relevant each message is to the customer receiving it.
So, Is Email Marketing Still Effective?
Major Brands Still Use Email Marketing
Email has not lost its place in the communication strategies of major brands. In Indonesia, consumers continue to receive email communications from companies such as BCA, Traveloka, tiket.com, and Levi’s.
For brands with a large customer base, email can serve as an important channel for maintaining communication after customers discover the brand or complete a transaction.
This also shows that social media and email do not necessarily need to be positioned as competing channels. Each serves a different role in the customer journey.
Data Shows That Email Marketing Remains Relevant in Indonesia
According to GetResponse’s email marketing benchmarks, Indonesia recorded an open rate of 21.67%, a click-through rate of 1.12%, and a click-to-open rate of 5.17% in the benchmark published for 2024. These figures indicate that email continues to generate engagement among recipients in the Indonesian market.
The growing use of email can also be seen in data shared by MailTarget with Campaign Indonesia. Over a one-year period, the number of emails sent through the platform increased by 50% to reach billions of emails, while email marketing revenue grew by approximately 20–30% YoY. This growth was reportedly driven by increasing adoption across the financial, retail, and technology sectors.
A study involving 145 companies in Indonesia also found a significant relationship between email marketing and conversion rates. The study highlights email marketing as a channel that serves a different role from social media, which has a stronger association with customer engagement.
These findings do not mean that every email campaign will generate conversions. However, they indicate that email continues to play a relevant role in a multi-channel marketing strategy.
Relevance Is the Key to Email Marketing Effectiveness
Consumers today have more choices and less tolerance for communications that are irrelevant to them.
Emails that rely solely on mass promotions risk losing customers’ attention. In contrast, communications that reflect their needs and context can help brands strengthen engagement and support customer retention.
Therefore, email marketing effectiveness is not determined solely by how many emails are sent or how frequently a brand communicates. What matters more is whether the message gives customers a reason to open, read, and respond to it.
Email Marketing in the Age of AI: Dead or Evolving?
AI enables brands to manage email communications faster, more personally, and at greater scale. However, technology alone does not guarantee that a message will be relevant to its audience.
Effective email marketing still requires a personalised and segmented approach, based on customer characteristics, needs, behaviour, and the right timing for communication.
Ultimately, there is no single channel that is the most effective for every business objective. What matters is how each channel is used strategically and how they complement one another, with email marketing serving as part of a broader and more relevant customer relationship strategy.
