Imagine you’re checking your inbox, and an email catches your eye. Why did you open it? Was it the catchy subject line or something else? The secret lies in the power of email marketing. In 2024, it’s going to be more relevant than ever! After all, with staggering ROI and jaw-dropping open rates, how can it not be?
In this blog post, we’ll share general email marketing statistics, the latest numbers, and facts to help you be convinced of its effectiveness. So, let’s begin.
Email Marketing Effectiveness Statistics
Before we dig deeper into the nitty-gritty of email marketing numbers, let’s quickly look at the biggest trends and insights based on our research. Here are some statistics to show that email marketing was and remains effective:
- Email marketing market size was $7.5 billion in 2020, which will cross $12 billion by the end of 2024.*
- 41% of marketers admit that email is their most effective marketing channel.*
- 77% of marketers have reported an increase in email engagement in the last 12 months.*
- 81% of small and medium business professionals believe that email marketing increases customer retention and helps acquiring customers.*
Email Marketing ROI Statistics in 2024
The first ever email campaign was sent in 1978 and generated $13 million in sales. Since then, companies have been riding the wave to increase email marketing revenue and returns. Here are some numbers and statistics:
- Email marketing generates, on average, $36 for every dollar spent.*
- 18% of companies generate $70 in revenue for every 1 dollar spent.*
- 59% of marketers believe email is twice as effective in generating leads than other mediums like social media and PPC.*
- Email marketing acquires 40 times more customers than Meta & X.com combined.*
What is the Average ROI for Email Marketing?
Email ROI (Return on Investment) is one of the most looked-at email marketing metrics as it clearly illustrates how beneficial email marketing campaigns are regarding financial expression. While the average ROI email marketing is high in general, average marketing ROI by industry differs:
Email Conversion Rate Statistics
At the end of the day, after all the open rates, click-through rates, reading time, etc., what marketers are interested the most in is conversions. Let’s see what statistics have to say about it:
- In 2021, the average email conversion click-through rate was 15.2%. This rate peaked in 2018 when it was converting over 18.4% and has slightly been decreasing since then.*
- Abandoned cart emails convert 3x more than other automated emails.*
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Email Segmentation Statistics
Segmentation plays a crucial role in deciding the success of email marketing campaigns. These statistics will reveal just how important it is:
- Segmented email campaigns drive 30% more opens and 50% more click-throughs than unsegmented ones.*
- 78% of marketers state that the most effective strategy for email marketing campaigns is subscriber segmentation.*
- 4 out of 5 marketers personalize subscriber profile data and 64% use customer segments.*
Email Automation Statistics
In email marketing, email automation is the best thing since sliced bread. It allows to send the right message to the right audience at the right time, every time. Let’s see how it translates to data-backed benefits:
- 87% of B2C marketers leverage automation in their email marketing strategy.*
- Automation is primarily used in email marketing to send triggered emails, drip or nurture campaigns, and segmentation.*
- Email automation campaigns (71%) are the third most effective email marketing strategy after subscriber segmentation (78%) and message personalization (72%).
- 48% of marketers said they plan to apply email marketing automation in their email campaigns.*
- Out of the three types of email, automated emails stand second behind transactional emails for unique open rates (41%), click rates (13%), and click-to-open rates (24%).*
Email Design and Content Statistics
Email remains one of the most popular ways to distribute content due to its widespread accessibility, direct communication with the audience, ability to personalize messages, and trackable metrics for monitoring engagement and effectiveness. Don’t believe in us? These statistics don’t lie:
- 87% of marketers prefer to use email marketing to promote their content.*
- Using personalization in email body may lead lead to a 28.57% increase in click-throughs (2.7% rate with tailored content vs. 2.1% without)
- Email is the third-highest owned media platform B2B marketers used to distribute content in the past 12 months.*
- 81% of B2B marketers say their most used form of content marketing is email newsletters.*
- The most effective email subject lines engage curiosity, include promotional offers, and are personalized to each recipient’s interests.*
Email Frequency Statistics
How many emails you send can have the same impact on your email marketing success as what emails you send. Here’s how:
- Consumers prefer to receive emails from their favorite brands just a few times per month.*
- 54% of brands opt to send emails 2-4 times per month, with 32% sending emails once a month. Fewer brands send emails 5-9 times per month (8%) or more frequently (6%). Interestingly, sending emails once a month had the highest open rate at 28%, with 2-4 emails a month following closely behind.
- In the B2C sector, some studies suggest trying frequencies as high as 10-19 times a month for potentially higher sales, though this might not suit every audience. For B2B communications, most companies find emailing twice a month optimal, as increasing the frequency to more than once a week significantly boosts the unsubscribe rate.
Open Rate & Click-Through Rate Statistics
When thinking about an email marketing campaign, the first question everyone has is — “How many people will open the email?”. Well, we’ve got some insights.
Here are the latest statistics that tell you a lot about open rates and click-through rates for top-of-the-funnel emails:
- 47% of email recipients open an email based on the subject line alone, and 69% of email recipients report email as spam based solely on the subject line.*
- Emails with preheaders get an open rate of 32.95%. Personalized emails have an open rate of 30.26%.*
- Out of the three types of email, automated emails stand second behind transactional emails for unique open rates (41%), click rates (13%), and click-to-open rates (24%).*
Click-Through Rate Statistics
The click-through rate tells how many people clicked any of the links within your email. If you’re serious about link clicks, here are some statistics:
- Internet marketing has the lowest average click-through rate (CTR) at 1.68%.*
- Communications as an industry has the highest average CTR at 5.77%.*
- In March and April 2020, CTR of promotional emails in the food and beverages industry increased from 1.68% to 2.78%. Travel, hospitality, and leisure saw a decrease in its CTR, from 1.44% in March to 1.31% in April.*
- Emails linking to invoices and payments had the highest CTR at 25.7%. Link to a resource, such as a blog, had a CTR of 6.7%. Both links to offer and link to poll stood at 2.8%.*
Also read:
Email Deliverability Stats
Nearly 1 in 7 marketing emails never make it to the inbox, emphasizing the need for strategic email practices to enhance deliverability. Here are some useful statistics to rethink about deliverability:
- In 2023, the average email deliverability rate was 85.7%.*
- 61% of marketers say improving email deliverability rates is a big challenge.*
- 14.3% of emails never reach the intended inbox. 6.3% of emails land in spam folders, and 8% of emails are undelivered.*
- North America leads the globe with an 87.9% deliverability rate.*
- The UK and Australia top the country-wise data with deliverability rates as high as 98.8% and 98.7%, respectively.*
Types of Emails Marketers Send
When it comes to email marketing, marketers send a variety of emails to their subscribers. Here are the most common types of emails sent by marketers:
- Newsletters are the most popular email type, used by 81% of marketers.*
- Welcome emails follow closely at 79%.*
- Product emails highlighting specific products or features are used by 75%.*
- Sales or promotions emails make up 72% of all emails sent by marketers.*
- Event announcements are sent by 71% of marketers.*
- Onboarding or post-purchase emails are used by 62% of brands and marketers.*
Brands are also known to utilize customer winbacks, blogs, re-engagement, and cart abandonment emails throughout the buyer’s lifecycle.
Email Engagement Statistics
Email marketing is effective in reaching diverse audiences, engaging them, and achieving significant ROI. Here are some statistics to illustrate it:
- Average email deliverability is at 81%, with abandoned cart emails converting 3 times more than other automated emails.*
- Mobile devices account for 43.5% of all email opens.*
- Personalization improves email open rates: emails with personalized subject lines see a 20.66% open rate compared to 19.57% for non-personalized ones.*
- The average open rate across various industries shows variation, with faith-based organizations leading at 44.11% and technology services at the lower end with 18.34%;
Email User Behaviours Statistics
How do your email subscribers behave when it comes to reading and engaging with emails? We’ve got some answers. Have a look:
- 61% of all emails are read for 8 seconds or more. Almost a quarter (23.5%) of all emails get skimmed (an engagement of 2-8 seconds), and 15% of all messages get less than 2 seconds of their readers’ attention.*
- 38% of active users want emails to include product ratings, and 35% want to see offers based on past purchases.*
- 28% of email users check their email inbox more than 10 times a day, and 4% – less than daily. Overall, 65% of respondents noted checking their email more than 3 times a day.*
- 67% of consumers would provide an email address in exchange for free shipping or a 5$ gift card.*
- 77% of users report boredom as the main reason for checking emails.*
- 70% check their email in bed and almost equally as many immediately when waking up.*
- Of customers who opt-in for brand emails but mostly ignore them without unsubscribing, 37% are waiting for the right offer, and 24% say they plan to buy from the brand again.*
- The average time spent reading an email increased from 10.4 seconds in 2018 to 13.4 seconds in 2020.*
- As of 2023, the average email bounce rate is 2.3%.
Personalized Email Marketing Statistics
Personalization is a big trend in the world of generalized marketing. Using dynamic content in emails is the top tactic used by email marketers.
- Message personalization is one of the top tactics to optimize emails.*
- Research shows that personalized emails generate 6x higher transaction rates compared to non-personalized versions.*
- 55% of marketers reveal that expanding the use of personalization is their biggest priority in the next 12 months.*
- 80% of customers are more likely to purchase after a personalized experience.*
- 90% of marketers believe personalization is crucial for their business and marketing strategies.*
- 4 out of 5 marketers personalize using subscriber profile data and 64% of marketers personalize using customer segments.*
B2B Email Marketing Statistics
For the B2B industry, emails are really important as it’s an effective medium to distribute content. Here are some important statistics:
- Email is the third-highest-owned media platform B2B marketers use to distribute content.*
- 69% of B2B marketers use email to distribute content in the last 12 months.*
- Email engagement is the fourth most important metric for B2B marketers for measuring B2B content performance*
- 81% of B2B marketers say their most used form of content marketing is email newsletters.*
- 14.3% of all emails go missing or have been caught by popular spam filters.*
- B2B marketers say that new product and feature announcement marketing emails have the highest click-through rate.*
- B2B buyers and consumers feel overwhelmed by the volume of emails, and 67% set up a junk email account to dodge unwanted emails.*
- The biggest blockers marketers face during email production are building (41%), designing (40%), and testing (39%).*
B2C Email Marketing Statistics
For ecommerce, D2C, and other B2C businesses, emails are one of the most engaging platforms considering open rates, click rates, and conversion rates. Here are some insights:
- 87% of B2C marketers leverage automation as part of their email marketing strategy.*
- Your audience will reward you with higher open and click rates if you don’t send more than five newsletters a week.*
- 60% of retail, ecommerce, and consumer goods and services companies are personalizing emails based on past purchases, versus 38% in 2019.*
- More than 8 out of 10 people will open a welcome email, generating 4x as many opens and 10x as many clicks as other email types.*
- 4 out of 5 marketers personalize emails with profile data, and 64% personalize them by segment.*
- Nearly 21% of all email campaigns are opened within the first hour of sending.*
- 60% of respondents say that marketing emails have influenced their purchases.*
- 64% of B2C marketers consider accessibility when creating their emails.*
Ecommerce Email Marketing Statistics
As an ecommerce business owner or marketer, these statistics are not just interesting, but directly relevant to your business:
- 34% of consumers are more likely to purchase from email marketing.*
- 59% of people say that email marketing affects purchasing decisions.*
- 60% of consumers made a purchase thanks to a marketing email they received.*
- 51% of US online shoppers prefer email channels over other options (in-app notifications, SMS, and push notifications) to receive discounts.*
- Around 62% of B2C and B2B marketers in the US increased email marketing budgets in the past 12 months, more than any other channel, including social media (62%) and influencer marketing (50%).*
- Open rates for cart abandonment email flows come in at 49.89%, bringing an average revenue of $3.58 per recipient (nearly 2x of the average revenue across all campaigns – $1.91).*
Mobile Email Marketing Statistics
People open their emails on mobile more than on desktops. Here are some more interesting revelations:
- Apple is the most used email client in the world with 66.83% market share as of November 2023, followed by Gmail with 22.82%.*
- 75% of Gmail users use their mobile device to access their accounts.*
- One out of every 3 clicks in an email is registered on a mobile device.*
- 60% of people check their emails first thing in the morning on their smartphones.*
- iPhone email app accounted for 29% of email opens. Gmail was ranked second with a 28% open share.*
Email Marketing Stats: Key Takeaways
As a business, you must pay attention to email as a marketing channel when 41% of marketers vouch for its effectiveness. When thinking of emails for marketing, remember the following:
- Create engaging content with exciting and eye-catchy email subject lines to increase engagement;
- Use a reputed email marketing service with a proven track record to ensure your emails land in your inbox;
- Personalize your emails with the help of audience segmentation and custom tags;
- Use responsive templates when designing an email campaign to optimize your mobile emails.
Now that you know how big email marketing numbers are, check out top tools to amp your email marketing game:
- 14 Best Email Marketing Platforms in 2024 (Software Review)
- 15 Free Email Template Builders (HTML + Drag-and-Drop Editor)
*Sources:
- https://www.barilliance.com/email-marketing-statistics/
- https://emarsys.com/press-release/emarsys-survey-finds-smbs-quickly-adapting-omnichannel-paradigm-compete/
- https://www.emailtooltester.com/en/blog/email-marketing-statistics/
- https://www.emailtooltester.com/en/blog/email-deliverability-statistics/
- https://www.emailtooltester.com/en/blog/spam-statistics/
- https://www.emailtooltester.com/en/blog/ecommerce-email-marketing-statistics/
- https://www.litmus.com/wp-content/uploads/pdf/The-2023-State-of-Email-Workflows-Report.pdf
- https://www.litmus.com/wp-content/uploads/pdf/The-2023-State-of-Email-Report.pdf
- https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/B2B_2022_Research.pdf
- https://emt.gartnerweb.com/ngw/globalassets/en/marketing/documents/digital_iq_email_marketing_benchmarks_2022.pdf
- https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/growth-marketing-and-sales/our-insights/why-marketers-should-keep-sending-you-emails
- https://abmatic.ai/blog/power-of-personalization-in-email-marketing
- https://www.constantcontact.com/blog/email-marketing-research-and-statistics/
- https://www.getresponse.com/resources/reports/email-marketing-benchmarks
- https://www.statista.com/statistics/812060/email-marketing-revenue-worldwide/
- https://www.hubspot.com/state-of-marketing
- https://www.brafton.com/blog/email-marketing/the-history-of-email-marketing/
- https://sopro.io/resources/whitepapers/the-state-of-prospecting-23/
- https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/articles/b2b-power-content-marketing-research/
- https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/hubspot-blog-marketing-industry-trends-report
- https://www.gartner.com/en/marketing/research/digital-iq-email-marketing-benchmarks
- https://truelist.co/blog/mobile-email-statistics/
- https://www.pathwire.com/research/accessibility-email-inbox/
- https://backlinko.com/email-marketing-stats
- https://www.litmus.com/email-client-market-share/
- https://www.litmus.com/blog/infographic-the-roi-of-email-marketing/
- https://www.salecycle.com/blog/featured-en-us/18-essential-email-marketing-statistics/
- https://www.emarketer.com/insights/email-marketing-personalization-trends/
- https://www.sequeldm.com/directmailreport/
- https://www.klaviyo.com/marketing-resources/email-benchmarks-by-industry
- https://www.campaignmonitor.com/resources/guides/email-marketing-new-rules/
- https://www.getresponse.com/resources/reports/email-marketing-benchmarks
- https://www.drip.com/blog/email-marketing-statistics
- https://snov.io/blog/email-frequency-best-practices/
