For seasoned entrepreneurs and marketers, it is a well known fact that email is still pound for pound the best way to deliver permission-based marketing messages. However, with the rise and dominance of social networking, many new entrepreneurs put building an opt-in email list at the bottom of their things to do list behind building a Facebook page, Twitter and Linkedin account. Although it is a much harder and longer process to build a quality list of opt-in emails, it is well worth your time. Below are some statistics that prove this fact:

1.  For every Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest  Linkedin, Instagram, Google+, etc.  account that is opened, there has to be an email account associated to it.  There is absolutely no way to open an account with any of these sites without an email address.  As a result, all social media notification messages are sent to one’s email address.  Why wouldn’t you want to be in the inbox too?

2. This week, the Radicati Group released a report titled “Email Statistics Report, 2013-2017” and it states that worldwide email accounts are expected to increase to over 4.9 billion by year-end 2017. While social social networking sites will have only 4.8 billion accounts by the end of 2017.

3.  A research report from ExactTarget showed that 66% of respondents made buying decisions based on email marketing messages.  This percentage made email the #1 marketing channel followed by direct mail, telephone, Facebook, and then text messaging.

4. According to Adobe’s 2013 Digital Publishing Report: Retail Apps & Buying Habits, for people who use smartphones,  79% use it for reading email, which surprisingly represents a higher percentage than those who use it for what it is intended for…making phone calls

A beautifully done infographic from iContact reports the following researched statistics that may surprise you:

5. 72% of consumers check email more than 6 times a day

6. There are 3 times as many email accounts as Facebook and Twitter combined

7. 59% of marketers believe email is the best channel for generating revenue

8. Email marketing spurs consumers to spend 83% more money when shopping

9. ROI on email marketing $44.25 for every dollar spent