Across the events industry, email engagement rates are down. 

Open rates are unreliable, click-through rates are generally low and inconsistent, and campaigns that would have comfortably hit targets 3 years ago are no longer performing… 

When these numbers land in a report, the knee-jerk reaction is concern. Do we have problems with our data? Are our customers choosing our competitors instead? Are spam filters suddenly not letting our emails through? How can we trust the metrics if we know bots are opening our emails and maybe clicking on them too?

Sometimes there are tactical issues to address. Data quality matters. Segmentation matters. Deliverability matters.

But increasingly, even with accurate, relevant data and a strong value proposition, email simply is not performing in the way it once did. 

This isn’t a crisis in competence or a reflection of a weak product, but rather a shift in buyer behaviour that event businesses need to acknowledge and respond to.

To understand why this feels so uncomfortable, it helps to understand how email earned its position in the first place.

Email became central to event marketing because it worked. For years, it was the engine that powered growth. It was also far more accessible than other marketing channels, with teams writing and deploying campaigns without needing specialist technical knowledge and/or infrastructure.

The email metrics were intuitive and performance felt controllable. Leadership teams could see the numbers move and - at a glance - understand what they meant.

For a long time, the ‘email marketing formula’ was reliable. A well-curated list, a clear call to action, and a consistent cadence translated into commercial results. Registrations moved steadily and sponsorship inventory sold earlier in the cycle. 

Email was familiar, it was trusted, and it became ingrained in winning event marketing approaches and the architecture of every events business.

The difficulty now is not that email has stopped working entirely, it’s that the conditions that once allowed it to operate almost independently have changed. Buyers are exposed to more information, more platforms, and more competing events than ever before.
 

The Hard Truth

Email still matters - a lot. It remains one of the most effective owned channels available to event organisers, especially for the most engaged customers and prospects.

You should be using it.

You should be segmenting your lists properly.

You should be sending relevant, targeted messages.

You should be investing in strong copy (and avoiding AI-slop-creep…!)

You should be monitoring deliverability and data hygiene. 

You should be using AI tools carefully and intelligently where appropriate.

But here’s the hard truth. Email alone (or as a key focus) is no longer enough.

But don’t panic! Lower email engagement doesn’t automatically mean your marketing team is underperforming.

If your marketing team is actioning the points above, declining email engagement is likely a reflection of marketing evolution rather than underperformance. 

Buyers’ attention is fragmented across platforms and devices, and relying on a single channel in this new environment will not lead to sustainable growth or a defensible market leadership position.

The businesses that are growing aren’t doing what worked 3 years ago. They’ve adjusted to more complex customer journeys.
 

The Funnel Has Evolved

Marketing is often described as a funnel. 

Awareness at the top.
Interest in the middle.
Purchase at the bottom.

In reality, buyers rarely move through that path in a clean, sequential way - especially in events.

Buyers move forwards and backwards. They pause. They research independently. They validate through multiple sources. They involve colleagues and budget holders. They revisit decisions weeks or months later. 

In B2B events especially, purchases aren’t impulsive. They carry financial and reputational risk and often require internal approval.
 

As marketers, we don’t refer to “multichannel campaigns” because they sound exciting. They’re a necessity! If your event is only visible in one environment, it’s absent during much of the buyer’s decision process. 

For event businesses, this means building coordinated capability across paid media/PPC, organic search, AI optimisation, retargeting, website conversion architecture, advocacy, and of course, high quality email. The objective is not to be everywhere for the sake of it, but to ensure consistent presence and coherent messaging across the environments where buyers spend their time.

What CEO’s should be asking their event marketers

• Beyond email, what marketing channels are we using?
• How are our channels working together?
• Where are we visible during the full customer journey?
• Are we investing enough in strategic capability, not just execution?
• Is our website optimised for AI-discovery and to convert effectively?
• Are we measuring contribution to revenue, not just open rates?
• Are we using PPC and paid media intelligently? 

 

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To find out how MPG can help you build a marketing capability that is not reliant on email, get in touch.

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