Why email remains marketers’ quiet power play

Despite the rapid rise of programmatic, social media, and newer digital formats, email advertising in India is proving its staying power. Once dismissed as a legacy tool, the channel continues to attract strong marketer interest, thanks to its cost-effectiveness, precision, and measurable returns. For many brands, email is less about mass reach and more about engaging high-intent audiences in a fragmented digital ecosystem.

According to Statista, ad spending in India’s email advertising market is projected to reach $236.79 million in 2025, with the category expected to record a CAGR of 2.98 per cent between 2025 and 2030, touching $274.24 million by 2030. While the United States will remain the largest market at $3.58 billion in 2025, India’s growth trajectory is being fuelled by its expanding digital ecosystem, rising internet penetration, and tech-savvy consumer base. On average, ad spending per internet user in India is pegged at $0.23 in 2025.

This steady rise shows that email advertising is far from over. In fact, it is still witnessing incremental growth, quietly defying the perception that the format has lost relevance.

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Akhil Kamalasan, Associate Director - Marketing, bigbasket said, “Approximately 12 per cent of our CRM budget is allocated to email marketing each month, which translates to around 1 per cent of our overall digital channel spend.” Kamalasan added that they have observed a significant increase in engagement from the email channel over the past few years. Email has proven to be highly effective in driving customer retention, particularly among those who regularly engage with our communications. 

According to him, email allows them to successfully re-engage a large segment of dormant customers - a challenge we often face with other CRM channels.

Meanwhile, for Financial Software & System (FSS), which is a global payments processor offering advanced solutions in Issuance, Acquiring, ATM, Reconciliation, Security & Real-Time Payments, email marketing accounts for 10 and 15 per cent of their total digital marketing funds.

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Arunima Mehta, Global Marketing Director (India, Middle East, Europe, North America and Africa) at FSS, says email remains an important part of their digital strategy, even though it does not receive a major part of their budget. In comparison to events, social media, and customer engagement their email marketing budget is modest. However, she mentioned that the true advantage of email is its return on investment. “Our email open rates average around 30 per cent while our CTOR is in the range of 40 per cent,” she added. 

The company has witnessed a consistent rise in ROI from email marketing in recent years. Enhanced automation, sharper personalization, and region-specific communication have significantly boosted campaign effectiveness. In the fintech space, personalized campaigns are delivering higher conversion rates, reinforcing email’s position as one of the brand’s most effective engagement channels.

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Gopa Kumar Menon, Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer at Theblurr, explained how email is consistently winning the ROI game and stated, “While programmatic display might give you broad reach, email consistently delivers 3-4x better conversion rates. For Indian brands operating on tight margins, that math is impossible to ignore.”

He added that combined with iOS privacy changes wreaking havoc on Facebook and Google attribution, email's first-party data becomes even more precious.

Category perspective

From a category perspective, e-commerce, BFSI, and travel continue to be the heaviest investors in email advertising. Experts also highlight the rise of D2C brands, which are often email-first by design, building entire customer relationships through the channel by blending content, service, and data. The travel and hospitality sector likewise uses email effectively to drive engagement and conversions.

Nahush Gulawani, Co-Founder at creative agency Wit & Chai Group, said, “E-commerce uses email for cart recovery and flash sales, BFSI leverages it for personalized offers and compliance-driven communication, and travel sees it as a conversion-led channel. Together, these three account for nearly 60 per cent of email ad spends in India.”

Gulawani noted that while Statista projects India’s email ad spends to reach $236.79 million in 2025, the real driver remains return on investment. According to Litmus, an email marketing platform, an email delivers $36 for every $1 spent. Yet, on the ground, many marketers argue that as a proactive acquisition channel, email has “died,” with only a handful of brands actively demanding standalone campaigns.

Even so, the format has steadily shed its “legacy channel” tag. Marketers increasingly view email not as a numbers game but as a precision-led medium that offers measurable engagement, access to high-intent audiences, and clear attribution. In an environment where marketing budgets face constant scrutiny, email has emerged as one of the most resilient and ROI-driven levers in the digital mix.

Subscriber bases

In India, email subscriptions have evolved into a powerful touchpoint for brands across categories, with strategies ranging from promotional campaigns to value-driven engagement. E-commerce players like bigbasket leverage subscriptions to share cart recovery reminders, flash sales, and personalized product suggestions, while BFSI companies use them for policy updates, compliance alerts, and targeted offers. 

According to Menon, reliable numbers are scarce since brands track subscribers differently, but major consumer players in India typically manage lists ranging from 50,000 to 5 million. Growth has stabilized at 15-20 per cent annually, shifting focus from volume to quality. Brands are realizing that a clean list of engaged subscribers outperforms inflated databases, driving adoption of better list hygiene, progressive profiling, and behavioral segmentation , even asking customers what they want to hear.

Data from leading brands reflects this momentum. Bigbasket’s subscriber base stands at 15 million, growing 15–25 per cent annually. FSS has been expanding its list by about 10 per cent each year, with a high-value audience of senior decision-makers, partners, and fintech professionals. The company also reports unsubscribe rates well below industry norms, highlighting both relevance and trust. Performance metrics further reinforce email’s effectiveness: FSS campaigns see open rates of around 30 per cent, while bigbasket consistently crosses 20 per cent, with unsubscribe rates of less than 0.05 per cent.

Menon added that the mobile factor can't be ignored either. “With over  70 per cent of emails being opened on mobile devices in India, brands that crack mobile-first email design are seeing outsized returns. It's not just about responsive templates anymore - it's about thumb-friendly CTAs, scannable content, and loading speeds that work on patchy 4G networks,” he said. 

In the travel sector, brands rely on email lists to push seasonal deals and conversion-led campaigns, whereas edtech platforms tap subscriptions to deliver course recommendations and learning resources. For many marketers, building and nurturing opt-in subscriber bases has become central to retention, re-engagement, and creating a pool of high-intent audiences.

For Mehta of FSS, email has emerged as one of the most effective ways for the company to connect, from telling its brand story and sharing product updates to keeping its community of employees, partners, and clients engaged. “Email also helps us build loyalty by giving customers useful updates and case studies that strengthen trust over time,” she added. 

Bigbasket’s Kamalasan added to this by saying, “While the primary objective of our email channel is to drive high open rates, the nature of our communications is largely informational and educational.”

Ultimately, email continues to prove its relevance in a marketing mix dominated by programmatic and social. As Gulawani neatly summed up, “email isn’t dead; it’s just moved from the main stage to the VIP lounge: quieter, but still very much in business.”