37 Email Marketing Statistics to Power Your Strategy

Effective email marketing can boost brand awareness, spawn conversions, and provide a quick, cost-effective avenue for sharing vital information with customers and prospects. From knowing what types of emails to send to how to increase open and click rates, or scheduling marketing emails at the best possible time, these eye-opening email marketing statistics show you how to improve your marketing strategy.

Here are the most relevant email marketing engagement metrics for 2022:

General Email Marketing Statistics

1. There are more than 4 billion email users worldwide

In 2021, there were 4.26 billion email users worldwide—more than half the world’s population of 7.9 billion people. The number of email users is expected to increase to 4.6 billion by 2025. This number includes areas without dense or widespread technology access, so an even higher percentage of your audience has an email address if you are a marketer in a developed or tech-dense country.

2. Nearly 90% of Americans use email

89.45% of Americans over the age of 15 use email. Ninety percent of users aged 15 to 24 use email, as do 93.6% of those aged 25 to 44. At age 45 to 64, usage drops back to 90% (still by far the vast majority of U.S. adults), and at over 65, the email use rate is 84.1%.

3. 306 billion emails are sent every day

306 billion emails were sent per day in 2020, on average. In 2025, it’s projected that 376 billion emails will be sent every day. While some of these emails are unwanted or spam mails that go straight to people’s junk folders, email marketing statistics show that many more emails are wanted and welcomed communications people voluntarily signed up for.

4. 64% of small businesses use email marketing

According to Campaign Monitor’s email marketing statistics, email marketing is the second-most popular marketing strategy for small businesses, with 64.1% of small businesses reporting that they use email promotions. Only Facebook marketing beats email in popularity. These numbers validate that email marketing is useful for businesses of all sizes.

Statistics About Email Marketing ROI

5. Email marketing has a $36 ROI (return on investment)

Out of all marketing channels, email delivers the biggest bang for the buck. A dollar spent in email marketing generates a $36 return on investment in 2022, according to recent email marketing statistics by Litmus. This puts email promotions as a low-cost, high-yield marketing channel recommended for even low-budget businesses.

When you consider that many email marketing software platforms offer free plans, the potential ROI for small businesses is even higher. If you’re new to email marketing, we recommend Mailchimp. It’s intuitive and easy to use, and you can send marketing emails completely free until your list size goes over 2,000 contacts.

6. Email marketing revenue will hit $11 billion by 2023

According to Statista, the global email marketing revenue is $7.5 billion. With its current rate, it is projected to reach $11 billion by the end of 2023. Although there are new business owners who question the relevance of email marketing in 2023, the numbers strongly suggest that now is an excellent time to invest in this marketing channel to ensure a solid ROI.

Want the great ROI but not sure how to start? Learn how to use permission-based email marketing to grow your small business in a few simple steps.

7. 37% of businesses are increasing their email marketing budget

A key email marketing trend highlighted by Litmus in 2022 was that the majority of brands increased their email marketing workload for the year. Because of the steady ROI, 37% of businesses also increased their email marketing budget. In fact, only 1.3% of businesses that use email promotions are making cuts.

8. The highest ROI is seen in “Email My Cart” campaigns

The ROI for “Email My Cart” campaigns generated 54.9% more revenue per email than the second-highest converting campaign. This goes to show that although the average ROI in email marketing is at a good rate already, you can boost the return on investment even higher by optimizing the type of campaigns you have according to your product or service.

9. Top performers of email marketing achieve ROI greater than $70

For every dollar invested into email marketing, top performers achieve an ROI greater than $70. Maximizing email marketing ROI consists of email personalization, utilizing triggered email campaigns and strategies, as well as automation.

Improve your ROI with a few simple clicks using an email marketing platform like Mailchimp. On their website, you can find easy-to-use automation tools, beautifully designed campaigns, and powerful data analysis. They offer a free plan for small businesses and an option to unlock all their customization features for a monthly rate.

Visit Mailchimp

Average Conversion Rate Stats of Email Marketing

10. Email marketing has an average conversion rate of 15.22%

The average conversion rate is 15.22% for email marketing campaigns based on the number of click-throughs. This data was reported by Barilliance, which stated that they defined conversions as completed purchases in their study. This type of conversion rate highlights how effective your landing pages are, the strength of your offer, and the appropriateness of your segment audience to your products. Improving these factors will ultimately improve your conversion rate.

11. Email gets you nearly 5x more buyers than social media

Sixty percent of customers who purchase products say that they bought because of a marketing email. In contrast, only 12.5% of customers say that they considered clicking the “buy” button on a social media promotion. Social media is still important for marketing, but data shows that emails are more effective in producing conversions.

12. “Email My Cart” emails yield the highest conversion rates

The most effective triggered email type by conversion rate is “Email My Cart.” It triggers after a customer has added an item to their cart and then attempts to abandon the session. These customers have added items to their cart, clearly demonstrating purchase intent.

Statistics of most effective triggered email type by conversion rate.

B2B Email Marketing Stats

13. More than 85% of B2B marketers rely on email marketing

The Content Marketing Institute’s report on business-to-business (B2B) content marketing uncovered how vital email marketing was to B2B marketing in 2020. Eighty-seven percent of B2B marketers use email for content distribution, while 85% of B2B organizations use email marketing software to assist them in their overall content marketing strategy. In the same study, email newsletters were found to be the best content type to nurture leads in a B2B setting.

14. B2B feature announcements have the highest click-through rate (CTR)

In 2021, B2B marketers stated that their marketing emails for new products or new features announcements yielded the highest click-through rate. It can help to improve your campaign’s total CTR by using email promotions for B2B announcements.

15. 64% of B2B marketers achieved their business goals with email marketing

HubSpot Blog Research found that in 2021, 64% of B2B marketers confirmed that their email marketing strategy helped in meeting their business goals. This goes to show that an email marketing campaign can be key to building a strong brand presence, lead generation, conversion, and customer loyalty for B2B organizations.

Strategy-related Email Marketing Statistics

16. Newsletters & welcome emails are the most-used formats

Litmus’ 2021 State of Email report shows that the most-used forms of email marketing are:

81% Newsletters
79% Welcome emails
75% Products
72% Sales or promotions
71% Events
62% Onboarding or post-purchase
45% Customer winback
43% Blog
41% Subscriber re-engagement
35% Cart or browse abandonment
31% Birthday, anniversary, or other milestones
29% Customer satisfaction (ratings, reviews, or net promoter score/NPS)
27% Replenishment or subscriber renewal reminder
14% Back in stock or waitlist emails

17. Segmentation makes people more likely to click through

Segmenting your email contact list can massively increase open and click-through rates. One email marketing statistics study found that a segmented email campaign can get open rates as high as 94% and click-through rates of 38%, compared with a typical unsegmented email campaign with a 42% open rate and a 4.5% click-through rate.

The increase in open rate is the most commonly cited reason marketers use segmented email campaigns, with 82% of marketers touting that benefit.

Reasons Why Marketers Like Email Segmentation

18. Triggered emails perform 3x better than email segmentation/blast

Segmented emails, which are different lists based on different customer attributes, work much better than general email blasts. However, according to research, triggered emails (e.g., welcome, post-sale, cart abandonment, based on website activity, and so on) are three times better and by far the most effective at getting opens and click-throughs.

19. 80% are more likely to buy from a brand that personalizes the experience

Segmenting is the key to personalized experiences, and eight out of 10 consumers are more likely to make a purchase from a brand that personalizes the experience. To make it easier for you, 83% also say they’re willing to give you more information so you can create a personalized experience.

20. The ideal email length is 50 to 125 words

Emails with 25 words have response rates of less than 45%, while 25 to 50 words yield over 50% response rates. Fifty to 125 words yield 51% responsiveness, and then rates decline again over 125 words, according to email marketing stats.

21. The ideal subject line is 6 to 10 words

Keep subject lines short and sweet! Most mobile devices don’t display many characters, and you want to catch your customers’ attention.

Email marketing statistics show that subject lines between six and 10 words long have over a 20% open rate, while less than five words have a 16% open rate, and over 10 words will get you an even lower open rate than that. Customer names, song lyrics, or movie titles are good ways to get your customers to click when you don’t have much space.

22. The best emails are simple (third-grade reading level)

Emails that have a third-grade reading level have the best response rate—at 53%. This is followed by emails written at a kindergarten reading level, which have a 46% response rate. Email marketing statistics show that high school-level emails get a 45% response, while college-reading-level emails only get a 39% response rate.

23. Permission-based emails get opened 82% of the time

The overall open rate for emails is only 21%. However, if customers signed up for the emails, that email marketing statistic skyrockets to 82%. This goes to show the importance of adopting a permission-based email marketing strategy for your small business.

If you can get customers to sign up for your mailing list, they are much more likely to open your emails. In addition, if your subject line is personalized with the customer’s name, they are 50% more likely to open it than if it doesn’t. For more ways to personalize emails, scroll down to the trends section below.

Best Times to Send Marketing Emails

24. Friday is the best day for click-throughs

To make sales from your email campaigns, you need customers to open your emails and click through to your site. Overall, the industry rate for click-throughs from emails is just 2.13%. However, if you send your emails on Fridays, that email marketing statistics rate increases to 2.7%.

25. Tuesdays are the best days for email opens

Email marketing statistics show that Tuesdays have the highest open rates of the whole week in 2022. On the other hand, according to email marketing statistics, Tuesdays also have the highest rates of unsubscribing from emails.

If customers are most likely to be annoyed on Tuesday mornings, you might not necessarily want your email to be at the top of their inbox. That said, the unsubscribe rate on Tuesdays is still much lower (0.2%) than the open rate (18.3%), so don’t worry too much about it.

26. 10 a.m., 2 p.m. & 7-10 p.m. are the peak times for email opens

Most people open emails in the morning, when they are getting ready to work or in the middle of getting things done, specifically at 10 a.m. At 2 p.m., many office workers will start opening emails again as the afternoon lull hits and they look forward to finishing the workday. This is a great time to send emails if you are targeting office workers as your audience.

Then again, in the evening, between 7 and 10 p.m., people will often open promotional emails on their own time as they relax and wind down, do some online shopping, and chill on their phones before bed.

27. Abandoned cart emails are most effective within 20 minutes

Customers abandon online carts all the time. Seventy-seven percent of online shoppers who put items in their shopping cart on a website will then click away from the website without checking out. That is a huge loss of sales, and it can mess up your sales by making your inventory appear lower than it actually is, preventing other customers from buying those items.

Fortunately, following up by email is highly effective at getting customers to come back and check out their carts. Sending an abandoned cart email within 20 minutes has a 5.2% conversion rate, and that email marketing stat goes down the longer you take to send out your triggered email.

Mobile Email Marketing Stats

28. More than 70% of people read emails on their phones

While the number of people reading emails on mobile devices was less than 50% in 2019, that number is now over 70%, according to campaignmonitor.com. Of these, most check their email in the mornings on their phones.

29. The device matters for your subject line

Only the first 30 characters of your subject line are visible on the iPhone email app, so make sure the first 30 characters count. You don’t have to get the whole message across in that short a space, but you need to catch their attention so they’ll click on it.

30. Emojis in email marketing subject lines are good

Gone are the days when emojis were considered unprofessional. Nowadays, including emojis in your subject line can increase your open rates by as much as 56%, per email marketing statistics posted by OptinMonster. Emojis can grab readers’ attention, set the tone of the email, and convey a sense of fun.

Industry-specific Email Marketing Statistics

31. Media & entertainment have better stats than most other industries

When you divide the email marketing statistics up by industry, media and entertainment have strong opening rates (22.49%) and click-through rates (4.98%), and the lowest unsubscribe rates (0.18%). These numbers are a compilation of data from Mailchimp, HubSpot, Campaign Monitor, and GetResponse, via Kinsta.

What Industries Have the Highest email Open Rates

32. Government-related emails have the highest open rates

The highest open rates of all industries in 2022 are for government organizations. In fact, government-related emails have an open rate of 28.77%, followed by hobby brands with a 27.74% open rate.

33. Emails from hobby brands yield the highest click rates

Despite having slightly lower open rates than government-related emails, hobby brands have the highest click rates for email marketing campaigns. In 2022, the average click rate for hobby-related emails is 5.01%.

Stats Point to Email Marketing Trends

34. The COVID-19 pandemic significantly changed email marketing

55.5% of marketers sent more emails than before the pandemic, and 49.1% increased the frequency of marketing email sends vs 14.9% who said they sent fewer emails and 29.6% who said they sent the same. The pandemic also impacted the effectiveness of marketing emails:

Email open rates for March/April 2020 were 4% higher year over year
Email click rates grew, even more, increasing from near 0 to 20% from February to March 2020
During the same two-month time period, the click rates for restaurant emails went through the roof, increasing from about 8% to over 70%
The growth rate of direct-to-consumer (DTC) ecommerce increased with the onset of the pandemic, and with that, a massive uptick in DTC email marketing

35. 45% of marketers say keeping lists engaged is a top challenge

With an ever-increasing reliance on email marketing for brand communication, 45% of marketers say their biggest challenge is maintaining an engaged list. Among the other priorities marketing professionals are working on now are:

37% Reducing spam complaints
34% Increasing email contact list size
33% Achieving measurable ROI
29% Integrating email data with other software and systems
28% Successfully leveraging email personalization
22% Mobile optimization

36. Top factors used in email personalization

Nine out of 10 marketers surveyed in Litmus’ 2021 State of Email report said personalization is a must-have, not a “nice to have.” Email personalization is known to increase open, click, and conversion rates, but what personalization tactics are on the rise?

The tactic with the largest percentage of increased use is customer or prospect segmenting, which rose from 49% to 64% from 2020 to 2021. The most-used personalization tactic for email marketing is an identifier, such as a name, company name, or other profile data.

37. 41.5% say email marketing is essential for brand success

In 2019, just over 32% of marketers said email was a must-have for company success. That number rose to 39.8% in 2020 and 41.5% in 2021, per Litmus’ 2021 State of Email report.

Bottom Line

Email marketing is a profitable investment that can help you grow your business. Consider these email marketing stats as you build your small business email marketing strategy or to improve future campaigns.