Email marketing has been the unbeaten marketing channel since its inception in the late 1970s. Today, it’s arguably more effective than social media, paid search, and SEO.
Over half—51% of consumers say email is the best way for brands to communicate with them. Further, 95% of marketers reported that their email marketing strategy was effective in meeting their business goals.
However, launching successful email marketing campaigns is not a simple process–you need many different skills. You also must stay on top of the latest email marketing statistics and trends to craft compelling marketing emails that:
- Are personalized based on customer preferences and behavior
- Reach your target audiences’ inboxes successfully
- Get opened and read—and boost conversions
Want to take your email game to the next level?
This article will cover some general email marketing statistics as well as a few specific stats for specific industries, such as the B2B and B2C industries, to guide you when crafting your email campaigns.
Importance of email marketing in 2024
If done right, email marketing can be a powerful tool for marketers to reach customers directly, build/nurture relationships with them, and establish brand loyalty.
Here are a few reasons why email is the oldest yet most preferred marketing channel by marketers and consumers.
- Data-driven insights Email marketing provides rich data on customer behavior and preferences. With the help of a reliable email marketing tool, marketers can track metrics like open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates to refine their strategies effectively.
- Unparalleled ROI: Email delivers an impressive return on investment. 75% of businesses that spend $100 or less per month on email report an ROI of $21 or more for every dollar spent, higher than any other digital marketing channel.
- Unmatched personalization and targeting: Email allows marketers to leverage the data they have on customers to launch personalized email marketing campaigns. This targeted approach enhances customer engagement, improving open and click-through rates. It also builds stronger relationships by delivering relevant, timely, customized messages directly to each recipient’s inbox.
- Boost company sales: Email enables marketers to reach and engage with potential customers directly with personalized email marketing offers and promotions. Its targeted approach and measurable results help businesses convert more leads into paying customers, which can boost company sales efficiently.
That said, let’s explore the key email marketing stats.
10 Email marketing statistics you need to know in 2024
Here is a list of email marketing statistics you need to know if you want to launch high-converting email campaigns.
1. Email marketing metrics statistics
If you send marketing emails without tracking their progress, you’re shooting in the dark with your campaigns. To improve their effectiveness, you need to keep track of key email marketing metrics like CTR and open rates.
Knowing how your campaigns measure up against industry benchmarks is just as important. So, let’s look at a few stats on some of the most essential email marketing metrics:
Click-through rate
The click-through rate shows the percentage of recipients who clicked on the links in your marketing email. It is one of the most tracked metrics by marketers, helping them understand how recipients interact with their emails.
Here are some statistics around click-through rates.
- The average email CTR for all industries is 3.25% (GetResponse email marketing benchmarks report 2024).
- The average click-through rate for newsletters is 3.84%, while triggered emails have a CTR of 5.02% (GetResponse).
- Image-based emails have a CTR of 4.84%, while text-based emails have a CTR of 1.64%(GetResponse).
- Emails with CTAs get a CTR of 3-5%(Databox).
- In 2022, Canada had the highest CTR of 7.41% on marketing emails among selected global countries in Europe(Statista 2022).
Email open rate
Email open rate indicates the percentage of recipients who received and opened a given marketing email. Tracking these metrics helps you understand how to capture subscribers’ attention through effective email subject lines and optimal send times.
- The average email open rate across all industries is 39.64% (GetResponse 2024).
- Newsletters have an average open rate of 40.08%, while that of triggered emails is 45.38% (GetResponse).
- Sending emails in the morning, right before people wake up (4-6 AM), and later in the afternoon (5-7 PM) can improve your opens and clicks (GetResponse).
- Emails with a shorter subject line (between 61 and 70 characters) get the highest open rates, 43.38% (GetResponse). This shows the importance of the subject line for maximum open rates.
- Co-marketing or sponsored emails see the highest open rates compared to other types of emails (UpCity).
- Emails with preheader text have higher average open rates, 44.67%, while those without have 39.28% (GetResponse).
- Personalized emails have higher open rates of 44.30% (GetResponse).
- A welcome email achieves an impressive average open rate of 83.63% (GetResponse).
- In 2022, about 67% of marketers globally reported an increase in open rate on their email marketing campaigns (Statista 2023).
- In 2023, 57.8% of marketers reported open rates of between 20 and 50 percent in their campaigns (Statista 2023)
Email conversion rate
Conversion rate in an email simply means the percentage of subscribers that take the action specified after reading an email. This is an ROI measurement metric that helps marketers evaluate the effectiveness of their email marketing campaigns in achieving their goals.
- In 2022, automated emails in e-commerce had an average conversion rate of 3% (Statista 2022).
- The average conversion rate across industries is 2.6% (Ruler Analytics).
Email bounce rate
Bounce rate indicates the percentage of sent emails that bounce back to the sender because they cannot be delivered to subscribers.
- The average email bounce rate across all industries is 2.33% (GetResponse).
- The difference between open rates and CTRs for subject lines with and without emojis is small, at 4.7% for open rates and 3.3% for click-through rates (GetResponse).
Unsubscribe rate
The unsubscribe rate measures email subscribers who opt out of your email list.
- Two of the top reasons customers might consider unsubscribing to your email list include sending too many emails in general (26%) and emails irrelevant to them (21%).
- The average email unsubscribe rate for all industries is 0.15% (GetResponse 2024).
- 59% of people in a Manifest survey said the most common reason they unsubscribe is too frequent emails.
These are some of the most common metrics marketers track to boost ROI for their marketing efforts. It’s essential to make sure you’re tracking metrics that matter to your individual marketing email campaign performance.
2. B2B email marketing statistics
Email marketing is a powerful tool for businesses to connect with their target audience directly, build brand awareness, distribute content, and nurture relationships.
Here are B2B email marketing statistics to guide your campaigns.
- Half of US B2B marketers agree that email is the most impactful tool in their multichannel marketing strategy, better than social media, content marketing, and more (eMarketer).
- In 2023, email was the fourth-highest owned-media platform 69% of B2B marketers used for distributing their content in the past 12 months (Content Marketing Institute).
- 77% of B2B consumers prefer to be contacted via email more than double any other communication channel (Sopro).
- Of B2B and B2C marketers who plan to spend on email marketing, 43.7% intend to use it for customer acquisition, 27.1% for lead marketing, and 29.3% for win-back (Sopro).
- 57% of B2B marketers say they are using AI for their campaigns (Marketing Drive)
- Email newsletters are the third-highest owned-media platform, with 69% of B2B marketers using them to distribute their content (CMI).
- Among B2B marketers, email marketing ranked as the second most effective sales and marketing lead source (with a 32% share).
- In 2022, email marketing was the third-leading marketing tactic implemented by US B2B professionals—with a 36% market share (eMarketer).
3. B2C email marketing statistics
Email is also a staple in the B2C sector. This makes sense, given the growing number of email users worldwide. Email helps companies and businesses interact with online shoppers directly and more efficiently.
Here are a few statistics for email marketing to help you implement effective campaigns for your B2C audience.
- In 2023, email was among the top-owned media platforms 61% of B2C marketers used to distribute content, and 68% of marketers used email newsletters (CMI).
- 65% of B2C organizations use email marketing software to manage content (CMI).
- Email is ranked among the top content marketing methods for 80% of B2C marketers to nurture leads.
- Email newsletters are among the top four types of content used by 74% of B2C marketers (CMI).
- 63% of B2C marketers use automated emails in their email marketing campaigns, followed by social media (Ascend2, The State of Marketing Automation 2023 Trend Report).
4. Mobile email marketing stats
It’s no secret that mobile devices are the main way for most people to check emails, owing to their portability.
Here are key stats on email marketing to help you stay ahead in a world where people read emails via mobile devices.
- 5 in 10 smartphone users prefer to receive business communications via email (Statista).
- With smartphone use increasing, 56% of marketers worldwide are planning to implement mobile-friendly email designs to cater to the large percentage of mobile device users.
Use these statistics to create emails that are easy to read on both desktop and mobile devices.
5. Email marketing ROI
Email ROI is a performance measurement metric to track the profitability of your email marketing campaigns. It takes into account the revenue generated through your email efforts versus the expenses involved. This is to help you evaluate the value your business derives from your marketing efforts.
- In July 2022, 47% of US marketing professionals listed measuring email ROI among the leading challenges to the success of their email program (eMarketer).
- In 2023, about 52% of marketers reported a double increase in ROI in their marketing campaigns (Statista).
- 51% of businesses that spend $500 or more on email marketing each month see an ROI of $31 or more on every dollar spent (UpCity).
- For 38 marketers, measuring return on investment (ROI) is the most effective way to evaluate the performance of their email program (Ascend2 email marketing strategies, tactics & trends).
These ROI statistics are an eye-opener for businesses that are hesitant to leverage email fully in their marketing.
6. Email engagement statistics
When you send emails to subscribers, you expect them to engage with your email and its content. What if they don’t?
Here are some crucial email engagement statistics to guide you in building and maintaining an engaged email list.
- 44% of people in the US and Canada check their email inboxes one to three times a day (Statista).
- Increasing engagement is the leading barrier to the success of email programs for 59% of enterprise marketers (Ascend2).
- 83% of B2B and 81% of B2C marketers say email engagement is the second most important metric to track their content performance (CMI).
- 62% of US B2B and B2C marketers have increased email marketing budgets to increase engagement (eMarketer).
- Data collected from January to August 2021 shows that, in 2021, people spent an average of 10 seconds reading brand emails (Statista).
7. Email marketing demographics
Understanding your audience’s demographics can help you tailor your emails for business success. Here are a couple of email marketing statistics to guide you.
According to Market.us, the percentage of Americans who use email in the United States as of November 2021 by age group is as follows:
- 25-44 years old-95%
- 15-24 years old-93.4%
- 65+ years old-85.5%
Gmail usage, according to Enterprise Apps Today, is as follows:
- 25-34 years old-33.87%
- 18-24 years old-23.35%
- 35-44 years old-19.37%
- 45-54 years-11.88%
- 55-64 years old-7.43%
According to Statista, around 6 in 10 U.S. Millennials have used emails for online shopping. Additionally, 53% of Gen Z users entering the working world have used emails to exchange information and communicate at work.
8. Email segmentation & personalization
Personalization matters more today than ever because customers have tons of options. 71% of consumers expect brands to offer personalized communication, and 76% get frustrated if brands don’t personalize.
But how do you personalize your emails? 51% of marketing professionals say email list segmentation is the most effective way to achieve that.
Here are key segmentation and personalization statistics to open up your eyes.
- About 65% of marketing professionals have sent out campaigns with personalized subject lines (Statista).
- 78% of marketers use personalization to create more relevant messages for their subscribers (Statista).
- Most marketers (66%) use demographic data such as gender and age to personalize their emails (Statista).
- 54% of enterprise marketing professionals plan to personalize emails beyond the first and last name (OMI).
Use these stats to guide you in crafting segmented email campaigns for your business.
9. AI email marketing statistics
AI is transforming the sales and marketing landscape by leaps and bounds. Let’s take a look at some insightful statistics that demonstrate how marketers are adopting the technology into their marketing strategies.
- 36% of marketing professionals plan to leverage AI to craft personalized newsletters. (Ascend2)
- The top 3 areas marketers are using (or plan to use) AI in email marketing are email retargeting (55%), content/message personalization (53%), and subject line optimization (44%) (Ascend2 email marketing & AI 2023 trend report).
- 51% of respondents in a survey conducted among email marketers from the US, UK, and other European countries believe that AI-supported email marketing is more effective than traditional marketing techniques. (Statista)
- Marketers who have used AI for personalization report an increase in email marketing revenue by over 40% and a click-through rate of 13.44%. (Statista)
- According to GetResponse data, emails generated with AI have a higher click-through rate than those created from scratch.
- 41.29% of marketers who have used AI have seen increased revenue. (Statista)
From the email marketing stats above, it’s clear that AI can be a game-changer. The introduction of tools like AI email generators into modern email marketing software is also making it even easier for marketers to leverage this technology.
10. Email marketing automation
Email automation is a powerful tactic marketers use to enhance the effectiveness of their campaigns. Primarily, the tactic is used in email list segmentation, triggered emails, and drip or nurture campaigns.
Let’s look at email marketing statistics demonstrating how marketers leverage email automation campaigns.
- The latest Ascend2 2024 statistics show that 48% of marketers plan to include email automation in their email programs.
- According to a GetResponse survey, marketers use automation for several emails, including multi-step welcome emails for new contacts(47%), promotional sales-focused campaign emails (46%), transactional emails (28%), and more.
Conclusion
Successful email marketing is more than just getting messages into your subscribers’ inboxes. It involves reaching your target audiences and providing them with relevant, personalized content.
To achieve all this, you need to constantly stay on top of the above list of email marketing statistics.