Email isn't dead - your tactics are
Email open rates are higher than every social platform combined. The reason it feels dead is because most teams send the wrong things.
"Email is dead" is a thing people say at marketing conferences sponsored by social platforms. The actual numbers - open rates, click-through, attributed revenue - say email is the most effective channel most brands have. By a wide margin.
Why it feels dead
Most teams send the wrong things. Too frequent. Too generic. Too eager to sell. The list churns because subscribers stop trusting the inbox.
What works
Send less. Once a month with something genuinely useful beats once a week with announcements.
Write to one person. The newsletter is a 1:1 conversation that happens to scale. "Hi everyone" is the wrong opener. "Wanted to share something I noticed this week" is the right opener.
Make it useful before it's promotional. Three-quarters of the email teaches or entertains. The last quarter optionally promotes. If the read alone is worth opening, the promotion lands.
What to measure
Open rate is half-broken in the post-Mail-Privacy era. Reply rate is the real signal. Forwards. Links clicked. Unsubscribe rate as a quality check. If those move, the list is alive.