Yes. Industry studies still report roughly $36–$42 returned per $1 spent, which keeps email among the highest-ROI channels available to a small business. The catch: that average belongs to permission-based lists sent genuinely useful mail, not to blasted promotions.
The ROI mechanism is simple: you already paid (in ads, work, or reputation) to earn each address. Email is nearly free re-contact with people who raised their hands. Every job it produces has almost no marginal acquisition cost.
Set expectations by list size and offer: a 500-address local list that produces one $2,000 job a quarter has outperformed that ROI stat. Track attributed jobs, not opens, and the 'does it work' question answers itself in your own books.