Explore these 99 email marketing statistics for 2023 and discover the effectiveness of personalization, the role of AI, and gain insights into past trends and future predictions.
Key Takeaways:
- Personalized subject lines result in 50% higher open rates
- Abandoned cart emails have an 18.6% conversion rate
- AI-powered email marketing increases open rates by an average of 14%
General Email Marketing Statistics
1. Over 4 Billion Email Users Worldwide
Email remains a widely-used communication tool for more than half of the planet’s population, and total user numbers continue to grow, increasing from 4.2 billion to almost 4.4 billion in a year.
2. $38 – $42 ROI for Every $1 Spent
Email marketing has one of the best returns on investment of any form of marketing. Its relatively low cost and results are on average 4x better than any other form of digital marketing.
3. 7000% ROI for 18% of Businesses
Following on from the last statistic, approximately 18% of businesses manage to achieve an astonishingly good ROI of $70 for every $1 spent on email marketing.
4. Over 80% of B2B Marketers Use Email Marketing
Depending on the source of data used, between 80% and 93% of B2B marketers use email to distribute and share marketing content.
5. Emails Sent at the Beginning of the Week Have the Highest Open Rates
Data studying the optimal time to send email marketing found that Monday and Tuesday have the best open rates across various industries.
6. 37% of Brands & 47% of Marketers Expect Email Marketing Budgets to Increase
With email marketing still being the best performing type of marketing when it comes to return-on-investment (ROI), it should be of little surprise that roughly a third of brands and almost half of marketers expect this year’s email marketing budget to increase.
7. Email Marketing Revenue Expected to Total $10.89 Billion
2023’s email marketing revenue is expected to reach almost $11 billion by the end of the year. This is a 13% increase on last year’s end-of-year revenue total.
8. Email Marketing Revenue Projected to Reach $18 Billion by 2027
Email marketing revenues are projected to continue climbing over the next four to five years, increasing an average of $1.75 billion each year.
9. Testing Your Email Marketing Can Give 28% Higher ROI
A/B, spam, and other testing tools help to improve your email marketing performance and find best practices to get higher returns on investment.
10. Age of Email Recipient Important to Optimizing
59% of millennials use their smartphone as their primary method to check emails, while 69% of Gen-Z prefer to use their smartphones to scan their inbox and then switch to another device if they want to engage.
11. 0.17% Average Unsubscribe Rate
Once consumers have subscribed to receive email marketing, they rarely unsubscribe. Last year’s data shows that across all industries, just 1.7 in every 1000 people chose to unsubscribe to an email marketing campaign.
12. Average Spam Rate Across Industries Is 0.02%
This is the average across all industries and both B2B and B2C emails combined.
13. 58% of Consumers Begin Their Day by Checking Their Emails
When asked to choose what they first do online each day, the majority of consumers chose email.
14. Email Marketing 40x More Effective Than Facebook & Twitter Combined
Reports and studies on the effectiveness of different methods of acquiring new customers found that email marketing is more effective than Facebook and Twitter combined: 4000% better!
15. 50% of Marketers Think There Is No “Best Time” to Send Emails
These marketers believe that every person and business is different, and therefore there is no “one size fits all” day or time to send out email marketing.
16. Email Remains Consumers Favorite Way to be Contacted by Small Businesses
When surveyed about the communication method they most like small businesses to use, 55% of consumers chose email as their preferred method. Second place went to SMS with 17%.
17. Email Newsletters Are the Most Common Types of Email Marketing
Marketers send emails to different customers for different reasons. The most commonly sent emails are newsletters (81%), welcome emails (79%), and product emails (75%).
18. Apple MPP Has Increased Open Rates by 7.4%
Apple MPP lets users decide if they want their email behavior to be tracked and works by Apple automatically opening all emails. This could be why the year saw a 7.4% increase in open rates and a 0.09% decrease in click-through rates.
Average Email Marketing Statistics by Country & Region
19. Oceania
| Oceania | |
|---|---|
| Open Rate | 37.93% |
| Click-Through Rate | 2.15% |
| Click-to-Open Rate | 5.68% |
| Unsubscribe Rate | 0.17% |
| Spam Rate | 0.01% |
| Bounce Rate | 2.44% |
20. North America
| North America | |
|---|---|
| Open Rate | 31.02% |
| Click-Through Rate | 2.96% |
| Click-to-Open Rate | 9.56% |
| Unsubscribe Rate | 0.09% |
| Spam Rate | 0% |
| Bounce Rate | 4.92% |
21. Europe
| Europe | |
|---|---|
| Open Rate | 30.69% |
| Click-Through Rate | 2.34% |
| Click-to-Open Rate | 7.61% |
| Unsubscribe Rate | 0.13% |
| Spam Rate | 0.01% |
| Bounce Rate | 2.07% |
22. Africa
| Africa | |
|---|---|
| Open Rate | 19.12% |
| Click-Through Rate | 1.16% |
| Click-to-Open Rate | 6.08% |
| Unsubscribe Rate | 0.08% |
| Spam Rate | 0% |
| Bounce Rate | 0.86% |
23. Asia
| Asia | |
|---|---|
| Open Rate | 19.14% |
| Click-Through Rate | 1.46% |
| Click-to-Open Rate | 7.64% |
| Unsubscribe Rate | 0.06% |
| Spam Rate | 0% |
| Bounce Rate | 2.17% |
24. South America
| South America | |
|---|---|
| Open Rate | 22.87% |
| Click-Through Rate | 1.25% |
| Click-to-Open Rate | 5.48% |
| Unsubscribe Rate | 0.1% |
| Spam Rate | 0.01% |
| Bounce Rate | 2.95% |
25. The Netherlands Has the Highest Open Rate in the World.
The Netherlands has an average open rate of 45.68%, a full 5% better than second-placed France (40.27%), and 15% higher than the U.S. (30.74%).
26. Canada Has a 7.41% Click-Through Rate
A click-through rate this high comfortably puts Canada at the top of this table, with Belgium (4.5%), Germany (4.18%), Netherlands (3.61%), and Poland (3.22%) filling out the top 5.
27. 20.1% Click-to-Open Rates in Canada
The click-to-open rate in Canada (20.1%) is almost double that of the country with the second-best rate, Belgium (12.98%).
Email Marketing Click-Through & Open Rate Statistics
28. Average Email Open Rate Is 15% – 33%
There are some variations in how this data is collected, which is why the average open rate across all industries isn’t more specific. Regardless of the data method used, the high open rate makes email marketing one of the most reliable marketing methods.
29. Email Click-Through Rates Average 2.69%
2.69% is the average across all industries, so your industry may have a slightly different average; however, anything between 2% and 5% is considered good.
30. Personalized Email Subject Lines Improve Open Rates by up to 50%
While copy-paste email subject lines may be the fastest and easiest way of reaching as wide an audience as possible, personalizing email subject lines can boost the open rates of those emails by as much as 50%.
31. 3 – 5 Word Subject Lines Have Best Open Rates
Studies on how the length of an email subject line affects open rates found that longer subject lines will have fewer opens. The optimal subject line length is between 3 and 5 words.
32. Email Open & Click Rates More Important Than Social Media Analytics
Email marketing is so popular and has such a good ROI that 83% of marketers consider email open rates and click-through rates to be more important than conversion rates and social media analytics.
33. Communications & Non-Profit Organization Industry Emails Have Best Open Rates
Communication organizations have an industry average open rate of 48.8% and non-profit organizations have a 39.7% open rate.
34. Internet Marketing Industry Has the Worst Open Rate
Considering email marketing relies on the internet in order to be effective, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the internet marketing industry would have a better open rate than they do: at 21.9% the industry places dead last across 19 studied industries.
35. Healthcare Industry Has Second-Worst Click-Through Rate
At just 1.72% the healthcare industry would have the worst click-through rate of the 19 industries studied if it wasn’t for the 1.68% click-through rate of the internet marketing industry.
36. The Travel Industry Has a 6.83% Bounce Rate
Out of 19 industries studied, the travel industry had the worst bounce rate at 6.83%. Retail was the second worst but had a much more respectable 3.7% bounce rate.
37. 20.4% of Marketing Emails Are Opened Within 1 Hour
1 out of 5 emails are opened within the first hour they are received, and 50.4% are opened within 6 hours. This means you should see a spike in openings within the first few hours and then a gradual tapering off.
B2B Email Marketing Statistics
38. Subject Lines Using “Free” Have 10% Higher Open Rates
Simply using the word “Free” in the subject line of B2B email marketing makes B2B marketers more likely to open the email.
39. B2B Marketers Think Email Newsletters Are Most Successful
The email newsletter is the best way to drive customer engagement and boost sales according to almost half of B2B marketers.
40. B2B Email Marketing Is Primarily for Lead Generation
Most B2B marketers (78%) believe the primary use of email marketing is to generate new leads that they can then nurture and move along the sales funnels toward a purchase.
41. Average Open Rate of B2B Emails Is 15.1%
B2B email has a lower open rate than B2C email marketing; however, it enjoys a higher click-through rate.
42. Email Marketing Responsible for Half of B2B Marketers’ Revenue
Surveys of B2B marketers found that they believe effective email marketing is a key driver of 49% of their revenue.
43. Up to 71% of B2B Marketers Use Email Automation
The majority of B2B marketers agree that email marketing automation is essential to streamlining costs, finding the most promising leads, and delivering the right type of content at each stage of the sales funnel.
44. Personalized CTAs Improve Conversion Rates by 200%
Those Calls-to-Action (CTAs) are as important as your email content. Making them more personal has been shown to produce 2x higher conversion rates than non-personalized ones.
45. 8 out of 10 B2B Professionals Prefer Email Content
Email is still the preferred channel for B2B professionals to receive valuable content.
46. 15.8% of B2B Emails Go Missing
The most common cause of missing emails is that they are being caught by spam filters, so make sure you run spam filter tests to get the best results.
B2C Email Marketing Statistics
47. 69% of Customers Use the Subject Line to Determine if an Email Is Spam
A well-thought-out subject line should be a primary concern for marketers, as a little over two-thirds of customers will report an email as spam based solely on the subject line it contains.
48. “Newsletter” in the Subject Line Damages Open Rates
Research shows that if the word “newsletter” appears in an email’s subject line, it is 18.7% less likely to be opened.
49. Emails Without a Subject Line Perform Better
A study of over 200 million emails discovered that emails without a subject line were opened 8% more than those with one. Although it is worth noting, that this is an average taken across all industries and the number of emails with bad subject lines does heavily skew the data.
50. Over 80% of Retail Professionals Think Email Marketing Drives Customer Retention
Email marketing is the primary way of keeping customers interested in your brand and products for approximately 80% of professionals in the retail industry. For comparison, just 44% thought the same for social media.
51. 59% of Consumers Say Email Marketing Influences Their Purchasing Decisions
When surveyed, almost 60% of shoppers say that email marketing does have an influence on their purchasing decisions. It drives approximately 50% of shoppers to purchase something each month.
52. B2C Emails Sent on the Weekends Have Lower Open & Click-Through Rates
Studies show that B2C emails sent on the weekends can have as much as 5% lower open rates and 0.5% lower click-through rates than the same email sent on a weekday.
53. 91% of U.S. Adults Want to Receive Promotional Emails
Specifically, they would like to receive promotional emails from the companies and brands they already do business with. 86% want to receive them every month, and 61% would like to receive them weekly!
54. Consumers Want to Receive More Emails from the Brands They Love
Continuing on from the U.S. specific statistic above, 49% of consumers globally would like to receive more information about the brands and products that they love more regularly.
55. B2C Welcome Emails Have a 68.6% Open Rate
The welcome email has an exceptionally high open rate. Perhaps this shouldn’t be surprising since these emails are only sent out to customers or subscribers who are new, and they typically have the highest levels of interest.
56. B2C Emails with Social Share Buttons Have a 158% Higher Click-Through Rate
Adding social share buttons (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) improves the credibility of your email content, ensures it’s seen by more consumers, and has been shown to improve click-through rates by more than 150%.
57. 7.5X Increase in Revenue with Segmented B2C Email Campaigns
Not only do segmented email campaigns have better open and click-through rates, but they’ve also been proven to increase revenue by up to 750%.
58. 63% of Businesses Send Emails Based on Customer Engagement Levels
This means that if a customer has low engagement levels, close to two-thirds of businesses will reduce the number of emails sent to that consumer.
59. Consumers Spend an Average of 10 Seconds on Brand Emails
The time consumers spend reading brand emails peaked in 2011 at 13.4 seconds. Since then, it has steadily fallen to the 10 seconds it stands at today.
60. 67% of Consumers Are More Likely to Buy from Emails Containing a Discount
Including a personalized discount code or coupon within marketing emails will make two-thirds of consumers more likely to buy from your email.
Email Marketing Personalization Statistics
61. Personalized Emails Can Deliver Up to 6x Higher Transaction Rates
The number of transactions that a consumer makes with a brand or company can be boosted by 600% simply by personalizing the emails they receive.
62. Three-Quarters of Marketers Say Personalization Boosts Engagement
74% of marketers agree that customer engagement with emails is increased when using personalization and think businesses provide more resources and attention to improving personalization further.
63. Segmented Email Campaigns Increase Open Rates by 14.3%
Breaking email marketing campaigns down to focus on specific groups with similar interests, needs, and desires can produce open rates that are 14.3% higher than email campaigns that are not segmented.
64. Dynamic Email Content Improves Click-Through Rates, Too
Dynamic email content uses the customer data that you’ve collected to adapt parts or all of an email to better match the customer’s personality. Studies show that adopting this technique could improve your click-through rates from 13% to 73%!
65. 75% of Business Leaders Think Email Personalization Is Critical to Success
The majority of business leaders believe that personalization is a key ingredient in the overall success of a business.
66. 72% of Consumers Only Engage with Personalized Emails
Personalization has become so widespread that most consumers now expect to receive personalized email content, and three-quarters of them will ignore non-personalized content completely.
67. Email Marketing Containing Relevant Offers Makes Most Consumers More Likely to Shop
Brands that send relevant offers and recommendations through email are seen as more trustworthy by 91% of consumers.
68. 80% of Marketers Use Profile Data to Personalize Emails
The most common way that marketers build personalized email marketing experiences is through collected user profile data. Other popular methods use customer segmentation (64%) and past email interactions (42%).
69. Using the Recipient’s Name Improves Open Rates by 2.6%
Studies have shown that adding a recipient’s name to the email subject line can improve open rates from 15.7% (without a name) to 18.3%.
70. Consumers Spend 36% More When Receiving Personalized Experiences
According to 80% of business leaders, personalized experiences cause consumers to spend an average of 36% more than non-personalized experiences. This begins with personalized email.
Email Marketing Engagement Statistics
71. Emojis in the Subject Line Can Boost Open Rates up to 60%
When done well, emojis in an email subject line can increase open rates by 60%. However, it’s worth noting that poorly-used emojis can cause emails to go unopened.
72. Email Video Content Can Increase Click-Through Rates by 600%
Video content is just as useful in email marketing as it is in social media marketing. Studies have shown using the word “video” in your subject line increases open rates by 6%. Video content can also boost click-through rates by as much as 600%.
73. Automated Birthday Emails Should Always Be Sent
Automated birthday emails containing personalized greetings and offers help create a sense of exclusivity and care. Perhaps that’s why they have higher transaction, open, and click-through rates than other promotional emails.
74. 73% Higher Click-to-Open Rate with Interactive Emails
Incorporating interactive elements (polls, quizzes, image carousels) in emails boosts engagement and encourages the recipients to interact with the content.
75. Social Proof Can Increase Conversion Rates by 15%
Adding social proofs such as customer testimonials and reviews, expert opinions, and influencer recommendations boost conversion rates by an average of 15%.
Email Automation Statistics
76. Automated Emails Generate 320% More Revenue
When combined with personalization, automated email marketing can generate anything up to 3.2x more revenue than non-automated emails.
77. 80% of Businesses Report Increased Numbers of Leads with Email Automation
8 out of 10 businesses agree that when email automation is used effectively alongside other marketing such as personalization, the number of quality leads they receive is increased.
78. 63% of Marketers Use Email Marketing Automation
Close to two-thirds of email marketers say that they use email marketing automation tools to help them, showing that automation tools have become standard practice within the industry.
79. Automated Welcome Emails Have a 91.4% Average Click-Through Rate
As we saw earlier, welcome emails have a fantastic average open rate of over 80%, but click-through rates are even better at over 90%!
80. Automated Abandoned Cart Emails Have an 18.6% Conversion Rate
Automating cart abandonment emails is a great way to generate more revenue, as the latest data shows they have an open rate of 45% and an average conversion rate of close to 20%.
81. Automated Drip Campaigns Can Generate 50%+ More Sales
A well-made drip campaign that guides leads through the sales funnel has been shown to increase sales by 50% (in some cases by as much as 80%!) and reduce marketing costs by 33%.
82. Email Automation Can Save Businesses 200+ Hours of Work per Year
Email automation has the potential to free up employees by as much as 2 hours per day (240 hours/year).
83. 80% of Marketers Using Automation Software See an Increase in Lead Generation
The majority of marketers report that using automation tools has increased the number of leads they generate, and those leads are of a higher quality.
84. 150% Higher Click-Through Rates for Behavioral Emails
Behavioral email (also referred to as trigger emails) uses consumer behavior and actions to trigger automated emails designed for a specific event. These types of emails have the potential to increase click-through rates by roughly 150%.
AI Email Marketing Statistics
85. 67% of Email Marketers Use AI to Create & Personalize Content
The main benefits of AI within the email marketing space are that it helps generate new ideas, makes writing and research quicker, and (according to half of marketers) makes content better and more personal.
86. Email Personalization Driven by AI Can Have 14% Higher Click-Through Rates
AI can help you deliver email subject lines and content that is more relevant and tailored to the recipient, which drives higher engagement and click-through rates.
87. Email Subject Lines Built with AI Assistance Show Improved Open Rates
AI tools can help generate personalized email marketing, which in turn will improve open rates. The actual improvement it makes is a little hard to quantify, but some studies suggest that AI-built subject lines can improve open rates by 29%.
88. 63% – 66% of Marketers Believe AI Is Crucial for Email Marketing
When asked how important AI tools are to their job, approximately two-thirds of marketers said that they are essential to the success of an email marketing campaign.
89. 95% of Marketers Using AI for Email Rate It as “Effective”
Surveys that asked email marketers already using AI for email, “How effective is AI for email marketing?” found that 95% rated it as “effective” or higher, and 54% rate it as “very effective”.
Mobile Email Marketing Statistics
90. 46% of All Emails Are Opened on Mobile Devices
Customers will rarely open an email again on a different device if it doesn’t work on a mobile screen the first time. That’s why it’s important to optimize your email marketing to work on mobile screens.
92. 75% of Gmail Users Access Their Accounts on Mobile Devices
Just 41.2% log into their Gmail accounts using a desktop device, whereas 75% access their accounts using mobile devices. This is another example of why it’s important to first optimize emails for mobile.
93. Mobile-Optimized Emails Increase Unique Click Rate by 15%
Failing to properly optimize your email marketing to suit various mobile screen sizes could result in you missing out on 15% more interested consumers.
94. 64% of Consumers Admit Changing to a Competitor After a Poor Email Experience
Survey data shows that approximately two-thirds of consumers have changed to a competitor because of a poorly optimized email.
95. Approximately 20% of Email Marketing Campaigns Are Not Mobile-Ready
Recent studies show that 1 out of every 5 email campaigns fails usability and readability tests on mobile devices.
Benefits of Email Marketing Statistics
96. 80% of Businesses Rely on Email Marketing for Finding & Retaining Customers
Small and mid-sized businesses overwhelmingly report that email marketing is essential in the customer acquisition process and that it helps them retain customers into the future.
97. Email Subscribers Are 3.9x More Likely to Share Content on Social Media
Convincing your readers to subscribe to an email newsletter can be beneficial to your business since they are almost 4x more likely to share your content on social media than those who aren’t subscribed.
98. Personalized Emails Can Improve Open Rates by 14%
Tailoring your email marketing to the individual should be a key concern for businesses, as studies and data show it can improve open rates by 14%.
99. 41% of Businesses Believe Email Marketing Is “Very Vital” to Company Success
Close to half of business leaders and decision-makers think that email marketing is “very vital” to a company’s success. This is up by 30% since before the COVID pandemic began in 2019.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Is the Average Email Open Rate?
The average open rate across industries is 33%; however, industry open rates can vary greatly.
What Is the ROI of Email Marketing?
The average ROI of email marketing is $40 for every $1 spent
Is Email Marketing Effective?
Email marketing is considered by the majority of marketers to be the most effective form of acquiring and nurturing leads through a sales funnel.
When Should I Send My Email Marketing?
Industries, businesses, and individuals all have different optimal times to receive email marketing; however, on average, Monday and Tuesday have the best open rates.
Sources
Statista, HubSpot, Content Marketing Institute, Smart Insights, Sales Cycle, Get Response.
