Why email is now identity and deliverability infrastructure | MarTech

"According to Gartner's 2025 CMO Spend Survey, email accounted for 7.4% of total digital marketing spend - making it the only owned or earned channel to grow its budget share year over year, even as overall marketing budgets remained flat at 7.7% of company revenue."

"Research from Litmus from Validity found that 65% of email programs generate between 10x and 50x ROI. That kind of consistent, attributable performance is rare in a media environment where measurement is getting harder, not easier."

"There are now an estimated 4.73 billion email users worldwide generating approximately 392.5 billion messages per day, according to the Radicati Group's Email Statistics Report, 2024-2028. Every one of those messages is competing for attention - and many of them never make it to the inbox at all."

"Despite widespread adoption of email authentication standards, the average inbox placement rate is roughly 83%. That means about one in six marketing emails never reach their intended recipients, according to EmailToolTester's deliverability testing."

Email marketing maintains its budget share at 7.4% of digital marketing spend, the only owned or earned channel to grow year-over-year despite flat overall marketing budgets. This growth is justified by strong ROI data: 65% of email programs generate between 10x and 50x return on investment, making email exceptionally measurable compared to other channels where attribution becomes increasingly difficult. However, the email landscape faces mounting challenges. With 4.73 billion email users generating 392.5 billion messages daily, inbox competition intensifies significantly. Deliverability has emerged as a critical concern, with average inbox placement rates around 83%, meaning approximately one in six marketing emails fail to reach recipients. Nearly half of email marketers identify spam folder avoidance as their primary challenge, creating substantial business consequences despite sophisticated segmentation and timing strategies.

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