The most valuable media channel of 2021 that brands own and control themselves has an average click-through rate around 100 times higher than most ads. It’s not a page on the latest social media platform, a digital screen network, or a brand activation zone. It’s bigger than Facebook, trusted, brand-safe and personalised. But marketers need to respect – and better leverage – its value. Because hot channels rarely equate to valuable channels.

As all marketers know, being at the forefront of what’s new this year is a stimulating part of the job and within any organisation there is relentless pressure for the marketing function to be in-the-know when it comes to what’s hot in the consumer and communications world.

However, without wanting to be a party pooper, hot channels rarely equate to valuable channels. There is a myth that the latest is indeed the greatest. History has proven time and time again that hot channels can quickly crash and burn with no audience, no trust and no returns. The super hot audio platform Clubhouse is already showing signs of being a shooting star. And as anyone who remembers MySpace, Google+ or Vine will attest, new is fun but not always effective.

As marketing guru Seth Godin recently said,

So the most valuable owned media channel of 2021 is not a page on the latest social media platform, it is not a digital screen network, it is not a brand activation zone, it is the channel that epitomises connection and trust: it is…email.

Email is the safe, personal place where your customers want to hear from you directly, one-to-one. They have opted into receiving messages from you (a brand they feel connected with) and they trust that you will deliver content they value.

Highly valued asset

As we know, customer value = monetary value and email is consistently valued the highest of all owned media channels, averaging at $187K for a solus email with modules, tiles, imagery and content:

Why so high?

Leveraging email’s media value

Email’s media value should be recognised internally to ensure that rather than spamming cluttered emails out to a large base on a regular basis, they are seen as an integral part of a carefully considered relationship management plan.

External to the business, email media value can be leveraged with partners for direct or indirect revenue in several ways:

1. Charging vendors/suppliers for promotion of their products
2. Recognising the media value in brand partnerships deals
3. Charging partners to feature their offers and benefits

With automated email technologies, sophisticated algorithms now ensure that whilst customers receive the same type of email (e.g. ‘your weekly offers’), they include completely different messages tailored to individual interests based on purchasing behaviours or pre-stated preferences. This level of sophistication carries a further premium in value as the partner gets zero audience wastage which is something hard to find in paid media channels.

Many businesses have harnessed the power of email to great effect for themselves and their commercial partners. For example, American Express Offers is leading the world when it comes to optimising its email programme with external partners. It knows what each cardmember wants and tailors offers to their needs, which delivers a win for the customer, the merchant partner and itself. By communicating the value of its owned media with partners American Express has attracted more offers and increased the offer size.

The future

GDPR and tightening privacy regulations will require organisations to recontact their customer database to ensure acceptance, but this is the perfect opportunity to ask customers what they actually want to receive in their inbox!

Email is your most valuable asset, we ask you treat it with the respect and attention it deserves. Nurture it, observe it, measure it and learn from it. Do that and it’ll deliver significant returns for your business and your partners.