It’s been pronounced “dead” a half-dozen times since spam almost killed it for real in the mid-90s, and today you’ll find it trampled underfoot by hordes of inexperienced marketers eager for the Next Big Thing.

For businesses — even small ones — that’s a shame.

One longtime small business client knew their email program made the phones ring, but didn’t know the extent until we spent a year measuring their results — and discovered their four quarterly emails accounted for better than 40% of their annual revenue. (They’ve since gone monthly.)

Email refuses to die, and for good reason

In fact, email might just be the single most effective, highest-ROI online marketing channel for businesses and nonprofits alike.

When the recession landed on the economy, large marketers cut advertising and promotion budgets to the bone — yet spending on email marketing (alone among the traditional marketing channels) actually increased.

Clearly, experienced marketers recognize the ROI of email programs, especially once you integrate it with emerging social media channels like Google+, Facebook, Twitter and others (the channels that “killed” it the last time it died).

Frankly, it’s a natural fit. Here are three reasons why:

Email’s On Demand; Social Is a Stream

Email sits in that inbox until someone reads or deletes it; social media is a stream, and notices are easy to miss.

The two channels balance each other beautifully. And our friendly, versatile email is wholly capable of driving traffic to your social media channels, which isn’t exactly true in reverse.

Email Addresses Are More Valuable Than “Likes”

A customer’s email address is almost certainly more valuable than a Facebook “Like” or Twitter follow; pushing a “Like” button is a simple act, and according to this study, doesn’t signify much in terms of brand loyalty.

Plus, if the social media channel fades or the customer stops visiting, their social media contact has little value.

And should you leave that social media platform, all those hard-won customer contacts don’t go with you — the price you pay for participating in social media, which is essentially a series of walled gardens.

By contrast, a customer’s email address is yours until orphaned or unsubscribed.

Email Offers More Scope for Message Delivery

Simply put, emails can deliver a prettier and more complete messages than most social media channels, and that’s a real advantage to email marketers, especially if they’re lucky enough to sell products featuring high visual values.

It’s Not All Roses

Despite a host of new tools designed to make it easier, good email programs can be time-consuming — a real problem in smaller organizations which lack a dedicated marketing grunt.

And while many focus on the difficulties of generating content and crafting the email, that’s really on half the story.

To be effective, you need to build your email list.

Pretty much all the time.

And a lot of small organizations can’t (or won’t) bother.

That’s one reason why so many of the new online marketing consultants can’t or won’t talk about email; it’s not as easy as Facebook. (The other reason is most of them don’t know anything about email, which is not something you admit to a client.)

My Recommendations

I push my more sophisticated clients towards MailChimp; they offer a free account for lists under 2000 names, which means a client can kick the tires on an email program without the pressure of a monthly charge bearing down.

MailChimp is also relatively easy to use (it’s not the easiest, but it is the most fun), and offers excellent social media integration.

They’re always innovating new gadgets, a personal favorite being their OnStage system, which hosts prospective email campaigns online so any number of people (at least those with the right link and password) can leave comments right on the design.

(That’s the kind of timesaver that makes email people cry.)

There’s still a learning curve involved, and for those needing a little less power, I’m suggest TinyLetter, which makes sending simple bulk emails almost as easy as sending a note to your Aunt.

MailChimp recently bought TinyLetter and are continuing it as a free service, and I can’t think of a better way to introduce my less-practiced clients to the wonders (and high ROI) of email marketing.

Email isn’t dead, and certainly hasn’t been killed by social media.

It’s just sitting in the corner and quietly making money — for those who know its secrets.