It’s one of the most common pain points we hear from our customers: “I understand how valuable email marketing is, but I haven’t been given the time or resources I need to do it right. How can I convince my boss/team/executives to make email more of a priority?”

As with any strategy, the decision-makers in your company want to know what results they can expect (especially in terms of potential leads, conversions, and revenue generated) before they’ll ever commit resources to it. And when you’re talking to someone who doesn’t actually work in the email marketing space on a daily basis, it can be a tough sell.

So we’re here to help. Here are answers to four common questions you might get about email marketing, plus plenty of stats to prove why investing in email should be a priority for every business.

They say: It’s just email. Why should we spend more time and money on it?

It may just be email, but email is a much more powerful marketing tool than you might think. The ROI of email marketing is DOUBLE that of any other digital channel. Plus, it’s one of the easiest places to reach your consumers where you already know they’ll be – their inboxes. Just consider these stats:

• 94% of people say they get online to check email. It’s the #1 activity on the internet (Marketo).
• The average office worker checks their email 30 times an hour (B2B Marketing Insider).
• People spend on average 2.6 hours a day checking, reading, and sending email (McKinsey Global Institute).
• 66% of online consumers have made a purchase as a result of an email (Direct Marketing Association).

So not only is email one of the few marketing channels where consumers actually opt-in to hear more from you, people are pretty much addicted to it. Think about it: How many times have you checked your email first thing in the morning? Last thing at night? In line at the grocery store or bank? In the waiting room at a doctor’s office?

Email reaches people everywhere, all the time. And that’s huge when it comes to communicating a message and producing big-time results.

They say: Can’t we get the same results from social?

Inviting your brand into their inboxes is much more of a commitment from consumers than simply hitting “like” on a tweet. That’s a big part of why email marketing drives more conversions than any other channel, including search, and yes, social (Monetate). And the average purchase that comes from an email is more than three times higher than that of social media (McKinsey).

It’s also people’s preferred method of communication from brands: When polled, 72% said they prefer to receive promotional content through email, compared to only 17% who prefer social media (MarketingSherpa).

But, despite these things, we don’t like pitting email and social against one another. In an ideal scenario, they should work together to help you hit your goals (more on this in a sec). Plus, things like social share buttons and live social feeds can help you add more subscribers to your social channels and more social followers to your email list.

They say: How do I know it’s email driving results and not because it’s Tuesday (or some other random factor)?

You can dive into your data and see if there’s an uptick in sales and traffic whenever you send. Or, if your email service provider integrates with your e-commerce platform, you can track the actual purchases that result from each email.

But at the end of the day, email is just one part of the marketing mix. Someone might get an email with an offer but not act on it, then catch a social post or an ad from your brand that reminds them of your offer and visit the website directly. They might not have clicked on the actual link in the email, so the data doesn’t directly draw a correlation, but it certainly had a big part to play in the conversion.

They say: I get hundreds of emails every day that I don’t pay attention to. Why would I invest in that?

Those marketers are doing it wrong. And I’d be willing to bet there’s a handful of brands whose emails you ALWAYS pay attention to. That’s why it’s important to do email the right way, so your brand always sends relevant, personalized communications your audience can’t wait to open.

Over half of B2B marketers say that email is their most effective channel for generating revenue – it’s just a matter of taking the time to get to know your audience and using that data to send more timely, relevant emails. 77% of email marketing’s ROI comes from segmented, targeted, and automated campaigns… and with the right tools and a little extra time, you can do big things for your organization (and get more than a few high fives from your boss).