Do you want to use email marketing for your business? Or maybe you just want to up your email marketing game. Either way, these email marketing stats will help you get a better idea of just how powerful email marketing can be. In this case, the numbers really do speak for themselves.
General Email Marketing Stats
As of 2019, there were over 3.9 billion email users in the world. By 2023, this is expected to increase to 4.3 billion. That’s a pretty impressive mailing list!
It’s no surprise then, that in 2019 alone, US marketers spent over $350 billion on email marketing.
And if you’re speaking to a younger target audience, this one’s for you. Consumers aged 18 and upwards say email is their preferred method of communication. An Adobe survey found that millennials spend over 30 hours a week on email.
Also, if you’re on the fence about email marketing, this might change your mind. In 2020, 78% of marketers noted an increase in email engagement, a number that’s likely to grow even more by 2021.
Plus, 80% of marketers believe that email marketing increased customer retention.
Klaviyo Email Marketing Stats
As Klaviyo Experts, we had to include some data from this amazing platform. These numbers might just blow your mind a little.
During Cyber Weekend in 2020, 50,000 of Klaviyo’s customers made over $900 million in sales using channels like email and SMS marketing. Nope, that’s not a typo.
On average, brands that switch to Klaviyo enjoy a 46% increase in revenue in just 2 years.
Klaviyo has a huge range of different workflows available, but Abandoned Carts are one of their star performers. During a 3-month analysis, Klaviyo found that their Abandoned Cart emails had generated over $60 million in revenue for marketers. Wow! And speaking of ESP platforms, here are some more interesting numbers.
Email Marketing Automation Stats
50% of businesses say they use email marketing automation software to send their drip campaigns. And these often have click rates that are 3 times higher than once-off emails.
Automated emails generate 320% more revenue than non-automated emails.
Welcome emails have an average open rate of 82% and an average click-through rate of 27%. That’s impressive!
And if you want to take a deeper look at ESPs and how they perform, check out our super useful blog post.
Email Marketing Statistics - ROI
If you’re looking for an effective way to make your company even more successful, then check out these numbers. They paint a great picture of the impact that email marketing has had on the business world.
The average ROI for email marketing is (drumroll please!), a massive 4200%. Yup, you read that right. Essentially, it’s $42 for every $1 you spend. So it’s no wonder that 59% of marketers say that email marketing is their biggest source of ROI.
Also, according to one study, 60% of customers say that they have made a purchase after receiving a promotional email.
Oh, and another thing. Shoppers are likely to spend up to 138% more when they receive email marketing campaigns.
Email Marketing - Open Rate Stats
Generally, the average email open rate can be anything from 15% to 25%.
Subject lines with an emoji can improve your email open rates by up to 56%. Though this can depend on a number of factors, like the age of your demographic. That’s why it’s good to do some A/B testing just to make sure that this is the case for your specific brand.
A recent study by Campaign Monitor found that the average email open rate in 2020 was 17.8%. But here’s where it gets interesting. That number changes depending on the industry. For example, last year saw open rates for governmental organizations jump by 10.71% and 4.81% for NPOs and NGOs.
Another thing to note is that these stats may be different across different platforms. MailChimp reported an average open rate of 22.27% in 2019. They also found that Tuesday is the best day to send emails if you want great open rates. And the best send time? 8AM was the winner here.
Currently, mobile devices are used to open 50% of all emails. And the click-through rate on mobile is 3 times higher than desktop emails. That’s why it’s crucial to include mobile formatting in your email marketing campaigns.
Conversion Rate Optimization Stats
Loads of conversions are the ideal outcome for any business. But it’s something that marketers often neglect. For every $92.00 spent on acquiring a customer, most brands only spend $1.00 trying to convert them. No wonder only 22% of business owners and marketers are satisfied with their conversion rates.
However, with the right strategy in place, you could be enjoying some amazing conversion rates, too. In fact, 74% of content optimization programs have increased sales for businesses.
Once again content is king – using visual elements on a landing page can improve conversions by an enormous 86%. Plus, using a personalized call to action has a 42% higher conversion rate.
Email Content and Design Marketing Statistics
Data shows that the best-performing emails are beautifully designed and well-written. Pretty much exactly like the kind of campaigns we create at CodeCrew. Just saying.
Good subject lines can lead to great results. In fact, 47% of people open emails based on the subject line. What’s more, subject lines with a sense of urgency (BUY NOW, HURRY) have a 22% open rate. That’s quite a bit higher than normal. And it really does pay to get personal. Emails that have personalized subject lines are 26% more likely to be opened. Also, these can also increase click-through rates by 14% and conversion by up to 10%.
Pictures are incredibly important. In fact, over 65% of email users say they prefer their emails to contain a lot of imagery. Moreover, 72% of businesses that used GIFs or cinemagraphs in their emails noted a higher transaction-to-click rate.
When it comes to CTAs, email marketing stats show just how important it is to design an attention-grabbing CTA button. This can actually increase your click-through rates by 28%.
Dark mode is also an interesting new email design trend. In November 2019, Polar revealed that 95% of people said that they actually preferred dark mode in terms of email appearance.
Email Marketing Stats - The Complete List
- Email is the third most influential source of information for B2B audiences.
- 86% of business professionals prefer to use email when communicating for business purposes.
- CTRs are 47% higher for B2B email campaigns than B2C email campaigns.
- 59% of B2B marketers say email is their most effective channel in terms of revenue generation.
- 56 percent of brands using emoji in their email subject lines had a higher open rate, according to a report by Experian.
- Tuesday is the best day of the week to send email (according to 10 email marketing studies).
- 93% of B2B marketers use email to distribute content.
B2C Email Marketing Statistics
- While 26% of SMBs polled said they used email marketing for sales, just 7% used email as a brand-building tool.
- Only about 30% of US retail email list subscribers have actually made a purchase from the retailer whose email list they subscribed to.
- Welcome emails are incredibly effective: on average, 320% more revenue is attributed to them on a per email basis than other promotional emails.
- Consumers who purchase products through email spend 138% more than those that don’t receive email offers.
- Email subscribers are 3x more likely to share content on social media than leads who came through another channel, according to QuickSprout.
- 80% of retail professionals indicate that email marketing is their greatest driver of customer retention (the next closest channel? Social media, identified by just 44% of those same professionals).
- 77% of people prefer to get permission-based promotional messages via email (versus direct mail, text, phone or social media).
Email Marketing Device & Demographic Statistics
- Men and women are equally likely to convert from an email opened on a desktop -- but women are more likely to convert on a tablet, and men are more likely to convert on a phone.
- 73% of millennials identify email as their preferred means of business communication.
- The Apple iPhone leads email client market share with 31%, followed by Gmail at 22% as of May 2017 (calculations based on 1.29 billion opens).
- About 73% of 18-24 year olds use their phones to check email (PDF).
- When a prospect or customer who opens an email on a mobile device opens that same email again on another device, they are 65% more likely to click-through to your site/offering.
- People SAY they prefer HTML emails, but plain-text emails actually get higher open rates.
Spam & Segmentation Statistics
- 49% of digital marketers indicate that the Canadian Anti-Spam Law (CASL) has had no discernable impact on their company's email marketing program.
- The average number of legitimate business emails received each day has remained static since 2015, but the number of spam emails that bypass security filters (spam that actually hits your inbox) rose from 12 emails per day in 2015 to 16 emails per day in 2017.
- Nonprofits lose about $15k/year in donations due to spam filters blocking fundraising campaign emails from prospects' inboxes.
- Segmented email campaigns have an open rate that is 14.32% higher than non-segmented campaigns.
- Click-throughs are 100.95% higher in segmented email campaigns than non-segmented campaigns.
Email Marketing Volume Statistics
- The number of email users worldwide is forecasted to rise to 4 billion by 2021.
- The number of email users in the US was projected to grow to 244.5 million by the end of 2017 and 254.7 million by 2020.
- Over 300 billion emails are sent each day; this year, that number is expected to reach over 319 billion.
- The use of emoji in email marketing messages increased 775% from 2015 to 2016.
- The percentage of emails containing GIFs rose from 5.4% in 2015 to 10.3% in 2016.
General Email Marketing Statistics
- 49% of businesses use some form of email automation.
- Pet and animal services has the highest email open rate -- people love their pets!
- In the UK, every one pound spent on email marketing has an ROI of 38 pounds; in the US, it's $44.
- According to the DMA, the four most important email marketing metrics (as identified by advertisers) are: CTR, conversion rate, open rate, and ROI.
- Checking email is a complementary activity. People do it while watching TV (69 percent), in bed (57 percent), and on vacation (79 percent). Bonus points if you're looking at that JCrew Gmail ad while doing all three!
- Using the word "Donate" in your subject line can reduce open rates by 50% or more.
- The average email opt-in rate across all verticals is 1.95%.
- For every $1 marketers spend on email marketing $44 is made in return, according to a study by Campaign Monitor.
- The average open rate for businesses in the Daily Deals industry is 15% - the cross-industry average? 20%.
- 28% of consumers would like to receive promotional emails more than once per week.
- A study of 1 billion emails revealed that video emails generate 96% higher CTRs than non-video emails.
- 81% of small and midsize businesses rely on email as their primary customer acquisition channel.
- 46% of emails are opened on mobile devices.
- Welcome emails have an 50% average open rate.
- In the US, 59.7% of email openers read emails while 21.7% just skim them.
- About 59% of customers say marketing emails influence their purchase decisions.
- For every dollar spent on email marketing, the expected return is over $40.
- 60% of consumers subscribe to a brand’s list to get promotional messages and deals.
- 55% of buyers do research via social media.
- The total average that each US consumer spends every year on eCommerce is $1,800.
- Companies that blog get 55% more web traffic.
- 57% of businesses have acquired a customer through their company blog.
Email marketing ROI
- According to the DMA’s Marketer Email Tracker 2020, marketers report an average return of £35.41 for every £1 spent on email marketing.
- Large businesses were more likely to see higher returns, £44.08 on average, than SMEs, which averaged £30.61.
- 59% of marketers say email is their biggest source of ROI.
- The average ROI for email marketing is 4200%. That’s a $42 return for every $1 you spend.
When should you send emails?
- The best days are the 5th, 12th and 7th, though 25th and 27th perform well too, which suggests a correlation with pay dates.
- Research into the best days to send emails saw Thursday coming out on top, followed by Tuesday and Wednesday. Indeed, there is a consensus amongst studies like this on midweek sending.
- The best times vary according to the email metric:
- 8am is the best time of day in terms of open rates.
- The best performing time for click through rates was 5pm.
- 4pm was the best time in terms of order rates.
- Taking the various metrics into account, the best overall time is 1pm.
How many emails should you send and when it is best to send them?
When sending emails, it is important not to send too many or you risk chasing your potential leads away from your business. Knowing the best time to send your emails will increase your chances of them being seen and opened.
- Best time to send an email is 10 AM or 10 o’clock in the morning.
- The highest open rate is on Tuesday.
- Businesses that send 2 emails per month results have the highest open rates.
- 49% of consumers say they like to receive promotional emails from their favourite brands every week.
Email open and click rates by sector
Thanks to Campaign Monitor, these are the average email benchmarks, using data from more than 30bn emails sent in 171 countries.
- Average open rate: 17.8%
- Click-through rate on average: 2.6%
- Average click-to-open rate: 14.3%
- General unsubscribe rate: 0.1%
- Bounce rate on average: 0.7%
Average email marketing rates
- The average email open rate is 22.15%.
- Average email click-through rate is 3.43%.
- On average click-to-open rates are 15.49%.
- Unsubscribe rates on average are 0.20%.
- The average email spam rate is 0.02%.
Email marketing and Mobile usage
- 50% of emails are opened on mobile devices.
- The click-through rate on mobile is 3 times higher than on desktop.
- 86% of mobile device users check their email account on their mobile device.
- Mobile device users check their email 3 times more than desktop users.
- 73% of Millenials prefer communication from businesses to come via email.
- 35% of business professionals check their email on a mobile device.
- 1 in 5 emails are not optimized for mobile devices.
- Emails that display incorrectly on mobile devices may be deleted within 3 seconds and 42.3% of recipients delete emails that are not optimized for mobile devices.
- iPhone is the most popular mobile client for reading emails with 29% of all opened emails occurring on the platform. Gmail is second with 27%.
- On mobile, 34.8% of emails are opened on iPhone compared to just 8.2% on Android devices.
Retailer’s use of personalisation in email marketing
Data from Liveclicker/ The Relevancy Group finds that the most commonly used personalisation tactics are first name (used by 86%), email subject line (66%) and email body personalization (62%).
Emojis
Often, marketers will use emojis widely on social media and in email campaigns to help them stand out in a full inbox, but their effectiveness varies greatly by demographics.
- Subject lines with an emoji improve open rates by 56%.
- 6.9% of email subject lines have an emoji.
- 44% of users are more likely to purchase products advertised using emojis.
- 80% of Millennials prefer businesses to use emojis in promotional messages.
- Young women react the most positively to emojis.
Pictures
Best used in combination with good copy, they can improve the visual style of your email and help you convey valuable information to your recipients through the use of infographics. Plus they make it easier to retain information as research shows.
- 32% of marketers say visual images are the most important form of content for their business.
- 72% of businesses that use GIFs or cinemagraphs observe higher transaction-to-click rates.
- Infographics are the fourth most used type of content marketing.
- 65% of users prefer email to contain more images than text.
- Visuals increase a person’s willingness to read a piece of content by 80%.
- People that view information combined with images will retain 65% of that information up to three days later.
Videos
You can use videos to showcase your products and promote new updates to your services. Take a look at the data below to see how videos help your email campaigns.
- Adding videos to your email can increase their click-through-rates by 300%.
- An initial email with a video receives an increased click-through rate of 96%.
- 85% of businesses use videos in their marketing content.
- 92% of marketers say videos are an important part of their marketing strategy.
- 88% of marketers say that video content has a positive ROI.
- 87% of views on business related videos come from desktop and laptop.
- 66% of people prefer watching a video to learn about a service or product.
- 86% would like to see more video content from brands.
The subject line and email body
Take the time to write a compelling subject line and think about the content in your email body. Make sure not to use stop words and use emotional trigger words when appropriate. Statistics show that these elements are important for your open rates.
- 47% of people open emails based on the subject line.
- Using a recipient’s name in the subject line has a 21.2% open rate.
- Subject lines that use wording with a sense of urgency have a 22% open rate.
- Call-to-action buttons can lead to 28% increase in click through rates.
- Emails with 6-10 words in the subject lines have the highest open rate with 21%.
- 82% of marketers use less than 60 characters in the subject line.
- Email with “fw:” in the subject line have a 17% lower open rate.
- 50.2% of emails on average have 434 words, but recipients prefer shorter emails.
- The words “free”, “help”, “percent off”, and “reminder” in a subject line can negatively impact open rates.
- Emails related to hobbies, recreation, and government have the highest open rates.
- 70% of marketers have said that the highest-performing emails they've sent were from people and not a specific brand.
- 56% of brands using emoji in their email subject lines had a higher open rate, according to a report by Experian.
- 70% of people over the age of 45 were susceptible to humor in a subject line but humor is not as likely to work on younger people.
Email personalization
Personalization helps your content appeal to each potential customer and make your message feel special and unique. What's more, you can customize your email copy and your content based on the recipient's information, such as their job title, needs or their operating market.
- Customers are 26% more likely to open emails with personalized subject lines.
- Personalized email messages increase click-through-rates by 14% and conversion by 10%.
- Personalized emails have 6 times better transaction rates.
- 74% of marketers say that personalization increases customer engagement.
- 66% of marketers personalize their emails based on age data.
- 94% of customer insights and marketing professionals say personalization is extremely important.
- Email segmentation and personalization generate 58% of total revenue.
- Personalized calls to action convert twice as well as default calls to action.
- And, birthday emails generate 342% higher revenue per email than standard promotional emails.
Email segmentation
You should segment your email lists for the best results. Target potential clients by segmenting them into smaller groups based on different data points. This approach allows you to deliver your email message more accurately.
- Segmented email campaigns have a 14.31% higher open rate, than non-segmented email campaigns.
- Segmented email campaigns have 100.95% higher click-through-rates compared to non-segmented email campaigns.
- Marketers say that email list segmentation (51%), personalized emails (50%) and drip campaigns (45%) are the most effective email marketing tactics.
- Segmented campaigns drive 760% increase in revenue.
- 33% of companies segment their customers by demographics and use only email marketing.
Email Marketing Automation
Marketing automation tools help you personalize and scale your email outreach. Take a look at these statistics and see how automating part of the email marketing process can save you time, money and help your conversion rates.
- 50% of small and medium-sized businesses use their marketing automation software to send email drip campaigns.
- Drip Campaigns have 3 times higher click-through rates than one time emails.
- Automated emails drive 320% more revenue than non-automated emails.
- Triggered emails perform 3 times better than nurture and batch emails.
- The average open and click-through rates for welcome emails are 82% and 27% respectively.
- The most effective automated emails for eCommerce brands are cart abandonment emails and welcome emails.
- Sending 3 abandoned cart emails results in 69% more orders than just one email, which helps you reduce order form abandonment.
Email engagement
- The top three reasons people choose to unsubscribe from an email list—too many emails (59%), information is no longer relevant (43%), or do not remember signing up (43%).
- Email subscribers are almost four times more likely to share your content on social media.
- 54% of marketers say that increasing email engagement rate is a top priority.
Social proof statistics
Social proof is a psychological phenomenon where people conform to the actions of others by having the assumption that those actions are reflective of good behavior. And there are a ton of ways that social proof can improve your brand presence, including when it's used as tactic for conversion rate optimization.
- 81% of consumers trust the advice of family and friends over businesses.
- 90% of people who recalled reading online reviews claimed that positive online reviews influence their buying decisions.
- Customer testimonials and case studies are considered the most effective content marketing tactics.
- Product reviews are 12x more trusted than product descriptions and sales copy written by manufacturers.
- Nearly 70% of online consumers look at a product review prior to making a purchase.
- 85% of people trust online reviews written by other consumers as much as they trust recommendations from personal contacts, which is up from 84% in 2016.
SEO statistics
- 72% of online marketers describe content creation as their most effective SEO tactic.
- Google receives over 77,000 searches per second.
- 67% of clicks go to the first 5 results displayed in search engines.
- 90% of web pages get zero organic traffic from Google.
- 50% of search queries are 4 words or more.
- 12% of search queries have a Featured Snippet box on Google.
Online shopping statistics
- Men spend 68% more money online than women.
- 1.66 billion people shop online each year.
- 56% of shoppers say that they will leave a site before purchasing if they're presented with unexpected costs.
- 79% of US consumers said that free shipping would make them more likely to shop online.
- Nearly half of all US small businesses don’t have a website.
- Generation X shops online more than baby boomers and Millennials.
- 50% of consumers say online live chat is the most convenient way to reach a business.
- Industries with the highest cart abandonment rates are finance, nonprofit, and travel, with retail coming in 4th.
Conversion rate optimization statistics
- The average number of fields on lead generation forms is 11.
- Using visual content like videos on landing pages can improve conversions by 86%.
- What's more, marketers spend $92 on acquiring a customer, but just $1 trying to convert them.
- 74% of conversion rate optimization programs increase sales.
- 68% of small businesses don’t have a structured or documented conversion rate optimization (CRO) strategy.
- Only about 22% of business owners say they are satisfied with their conversion rates.
- Another key point - personalized Call to Actions (CTAs) convert 42% more visitors than unpersonalized ones.
- A/B testing is the most used method of conversion rate optimization.
- A 1-second delay in your site speed can reduce conversions by up to 7%.
- Multi-step forms in WordPress can lead to 300% more conversions.
- Asking for a phone number has the worst impact on conversion rates.
Fomo Statistics (Fear of Missing Out)
- 69% Millennials experience FOMO, the most of any age group.
- 40% of Millennials overspend or go into debt to keep up with their friends
- Also, about 27% of people head to social media right when they wake up.
- Plus, 60% of Millennials make reactive purchases because of FOMO.
- Facebook most commonly contributes to FOMO (72%), followed by Instagram (14%), Twitter (11%), and Pinterest (8%).
- The biggest things that create FOMO among Millennials are travel (59%), parties and events (56%), and food (29%).
- 56% of people say they’re afraid they’ll miss out if they don’t stay on top of what’s happening on social media.
Covid-19 Statistics
- Open rates significantly increased as we moved deeper into the pandemic, and from March 16 to April 26, year-over-year open rates increased by nearly 32%.
- Email click rates: Click rates saw the opposite effects of COVID, realizing a decrease of just over 17%. Like with open rates, you can see how click rates suddenly decreased as the pandemic unfolded. In fact, during an 18-day stretch from March 12 to March 29, many days saw a 30% and 40% drop in click rates before ultimately rebounding.
- Email conversion rate: Email marketing continuously drove revenue and increased conversion rates during the pandemic. Year-over-year conversion rates increased by 17% and saw a nearly 23% year-over-year lift from March 16 to April 26.
Best of Stats
- Email is the third most influential source of information for B2B audiences, behind only colleague recommendations and industry-specific thought leaders.
- 81% of small and midsize businesses rely on email as their primary customer acquisition channel.
- 50% of email opens happen on mobile devices.
- For every dollar spent on email marketing, the expected return is over $40.
- Companies that blog get 55% more web traffic.
- Large businesses were more likely to see higher returns, £44.08 on average, than SMEs, which averaged £30.61.
- The average ROI for email marketing is 4200%. So for every $1 you spend, you get $42 in return.
- The best days for sending emails are the 5th, 12th and 7th, though 25th and 27th perform well too, which suggests a correlation with pay dates.
- Best send time varies based on metrics:
- 8am is the best time of day in terms of open rates.
- The best performing time for click through rates was 5pm.
- 4pm was the best time in terms of order rates.
- Taking the various metrics into account, the best overall time is 1pm.
- A study looked into the best days to send emails, with Thursday coming out on top, followed by Tuesday and Wednesday. Indeed, there is a consensus amongst studies like this on midweek sending. Marketers are also advised to avoid Mondays.
- Businesses that send 2 emails per month results have the highest open rates.
- Mobile device users check their email 3 times more than desktop users.
- iPhone is the most popular mobile client for reading emails with 29% of all opened emails occurring on the platform. Gmail is second with 27%.
- On mobile, 34.8% of consumers open emails on an iPhone compared to just 8.2% on Android devices.
- Subject lines with an emoji improve open rates by 56%.
More Best Of Email Marketing Stats
- 44% of users are more likely to purchase products advertised using emojis.
- 72% of businesses that use GIFs or cinemagraphs observe higher transaction-to-click rates.
- Also, 32% of marketers say visual images are the most important form of content for their business.
- Adding videos to your email can increase their click-through-rates by 300%.
- 87% of views on business related videos come from desktop and laptop.
- Using a recipient’s name in the subject line has a 21.2% open rate.
- Emails with 6-10 words in the subject lines have the highest open rate with 21%.
- Call-to-action buttons can lead to 28% increase in click through rates.
- Email segmentation and personalization generate 58% of total revenue.
- Plus, segmented email campaigns have 100.95% higher click-through-rates compared to non-segmented email campaigns.
- Segmented campaigns drive 760% increase in revenue.
- The top three reasons people choose to unsubscribe from an email list—too many emails (59%), information is no longer relevant (43%), or do not remember signing up (43%).
- 90% of people who recalled reading online reviews claimed that positive online reviews influence their buying decisions.
- Customer testimonials and case studies are considered the most effective content marketing tactics.
- 79% of US consumers said that free shipping would make them more likely to shop online.
Wrapping Up
As they say, the numbers don’t lie. Also, while open rates, sending times and subject lines may vary, one thing remains the same. Email marketing works. And as the data shows, it works incredibly well. As long as you follow the right processes with awesome strategy and gorgeous content.
If you’d like to see some amazing numbers in your own business, give us a shout. We’d love to hear from you.