The short answer: no, and the UK's own 2026 numbers settle it. The DMA's Marketer Email Tracker 2026 puts UK email marketing ROI at roughly £41 for every £1 spent, up from £38 the last time the DMA measured it, in 2021. Email is not dying. It is quietly the highest-return channel most local businesses already have permission to use, because they already have a list: their own past customers. We set email up properly for £199, once. Here is what the 2026 data actually says, why it works even better for a small business than a national retailer, and the UK law that makes emailing your own customers easier than emailing anyone else.
Key takeaways
- UK email marketing ROI reached roughly £41 per £1 spent in the DMA's Marketer Email Tracker 2026 (250 UK marketers surveyed, launched 25 March 2026), up from £38 in the DMA's previous tracker in 2021.
- Since 2021, post-purchase email use is up 24 percentage points and customer service use up 22 points on the same tracker. Email now works across the whole customer relationship, not just cold acquisition.
- UK law already favours you here: PECR's "soft opt-in" lets a business email past customers about similar products or services without fresh consent, provided it collected their details while selling to them and gave them a way to opt out. That is exactly the list every local business already holds.
- Our price: £199 setup, once. Run it yourself after that, or we run campaigns at £99 a month. It is bundled into the Growth plan at £449 a month with social media and AI search.
- We do not promise you a return percentage. The £41 figure is an industry average from the DMA's own survey, not a guarantee for your list.
Where the "email is dead" idea comes from
The claim usually comes from three real things blurred into one. Inboxes are more crowded than they were five years ago. Spam filters are stricter, so more mail never gets seen. A wave of headlines about AI summarising or triaging inboxes also makes it sound like a human reading a full email is now rare. All three are true in some form. None of them mean email marketing stopped working, and the same body that has tracked UK email performance since the mid-2000s, the DMA (Data & Marketing Association), published the opposite finding in March 2026.
What the 2026 data actually shows
The DMA's Marketer Email Tracker 2026, sponsored by ActionRocket and based on 250 UK marketers surveyed across sectors, found the channel gaining ground rather than fading:
| Measure | 2021 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| ROI per £1 spent | £38 | £41 |
| Post-purchase email as a use case | baseline | up 24 percentage points |
| Customer service email as a use case | baseline | up 22 percentage points |
| Automated (triggered) sends as a share of volume | 25% | 34% |
ActionRocket's own writeup of the launch, where they sat on the panel alongside the DMA, confirms the ROI move from £38 to £41 and puts it plainly: "Email is an owned channel with staying power, and the industry knows it." The post-purchase, customer service and automated-send figures come from Marwick Marketing's breakdown of the same tracker. The direction of travel across every one of those figures is the same: businesses are using email more, for more of the relationship, and getting more back for it.
Why it works even better for a local business than a national retailer
A national retailer's "past customer" is often someone who bought once online and never had another interaction. A local business's past customer is a different thing entirely: a real person who sat in the chair, had the job done, or booked the appointment, and would book again if reminded at the right moment. That is a warmer, smaller, more specific list than almost any national brand has, and it is exactly the use case the DMA's tracker found growing fastest: post-purchase reminders and ongoing customer relationships, not first-time acquisition.
A salon reminding regulars before a quiet Tuesday, or an accountant nudging clients ahead of a filing deadline, is not competing with a stranger's cold inbox. It is talking to someone who already said yes once.
The law that makes this easier than you think
Most business owners assume they need a fresh opt-in from every past customer before emailing them again. UK law says otherwise, through a rule the ICO calls the "soft opt-in". Under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR), you can email a past customer about your own similar products or services without asking for fresh consent, as long as all of the following are true:
- You collected their contact details yourself, not from a bought-in list.
- You collected them while selling, or negotiating to sell, a product or service.
- You are only marketing your own similar products or services.
- You gave them a chance to opt out when you first collected their details.
- You give them a chance to opt out in every email since.
A dentist emailing a patient about a check-up reminder, or a salon emailing a client about a seasonal offer, sits squarely inside this rule. It is not a loophole. It is the ICO's own published guidance, built for exactly this relationship.
What a proper setup actually includes
The DMA data above only pays off if the setup underneath it is done properly. Our £199 covers a platform on your own account (so the list is yours, not ours), a branded template that matches your site, a welcome sequence for new signups, and signup wired directly into your pages and booking flow, all with the opt-out and consent record-keeping PECR requires. After that, you can send campaigns yourself, or we run them for £99 a month, drawn from your real offers, reminders and reviews rather than generic filler.
How to check what you have now
If your site does not currently collect an email address anywhere, that is the first gap to close. Run it through our free scanner at buildmydigital.co.uk/scan, which checks for a working signup path alongside 35 other technical, SEO and trust checks. The report shows instantly, no email required.
Common questions
Is email marketing actually dead?
No. The DMA's Marketer Email Tracker 2026, surveying 250 UK marketers, found ROI rising to roughly £41 per £1 spent, up from £38 in 2021, with post-purchase and customer service use both growing. The industry's own annual measurement shows the opposite of decline.
Do I need a big list for this to work?
No. The relevant unit is not list size, it is relevance. A hundred real past customers who already trust you will outperform a bought or scraped list of thousands every time, and PECR's soft opt-in only ever applies to people you dealt with directly anyway.
I don't have an email list yet. Where does one come from?
Your booking system, your till, and your website. We wire a signup box into your existing pages so every new customer joins automatically, and we can import what you already hold from past bookings or invoices, with proper consent record-keeping from day one.
What does the £199 actually include?
Platform setup on your own account, a branded template, a welcome sequence written and wired in, and signup connected to your site. After that you send yourself, or we run monthly campaigns for £99.
Is this worth it if I already do social media?
Yes, and it is cheaper as a pair than most people expect. The Growth plan at £449 a month bundles email with social media and AI search, which works out less than buying social media management alone plus email on top. Full prices are on the pricing page.
Want the version of this with your name on it?
Run the free scan on your current site, 50-plus checks including AI search, no charge, or ask for your free website: we build it first, then the systems that get you booked. £39 a month keeps it online once it’s live, and there is no obligation either way.