Email Marketing Statistics: Effectiveness, Usage, Newsletters | 2024

Email is something most of us use daily, but many don’t think much about the power of email marketing.

And yet, email is among the leading tools in digital marketing, with millions of marketers reaping the benefits.

If this sounds too good to be true, it’s best that we check what the numbers say. So, here are the most relevant stats about email marketing in 2021.

Top Email Marketing Statistics | Editor’s Choice

• There are more than 4 billion email users worldwide.
• In 2020, users worldwide exchanged 306.4 million emails daily.
• 99% of adults in the US check email every day.
• Personalized experiences can influence 71% of users to interact with emails.
• Advanced personalization can increase the response rate by 10%.
• For every dollar spent, email marketing has a $42 ROI.
• 76% of marketers intend to include more YouTube videos in their emails.
• 23% of all email opens happen within the first hour after delivery.
• Automated email marketing campaigns can improve conversions by 14%.
• Email marketing is 40 times more effective at acquiring new customers than social media.

Email Usage Statistics

Email has been around for a while, and yet its popularity doesn’t decline. Moreover, the number of email users is growing each year, despite the ever-increasing popularity of social media.

Here’s what the latest surveys show.

1. More than 4 billion people use emails.

In 2020, the number of global email users officially passed the four-billion mark, with a clear tendency for growth in years to come. For instance, email marketing trends reveal that the number of users could grow to 4.6 billion by 2025.

2. In 2020, 306.4 million emails were sent and received each day.

Since 2017, the number of sent and received emails has been on the rise. Despite the adoption of chat apps and messengers, email remains the pillar of digital communication and marketing.

Moreover, the number of daily emails could increase to more than 376.4 billion by 2025.

3. According to 2020 email marketing research, 99% of US adults check email every day.

What’s more, OptionMonster reveals that many of us check email up to 20 times per day. Surprisingly, three out of four teenagers use email despite the rise of social media and messaging apps. What’s more, they consider email a “fact of everyday life.”

4. 89% of people in the US check their email daily.

According to Eleventy Group’s email marketing statistics, almost 90% of Americans check their email inbox at least once per day.

Thus, marketers should never ignore the power of email. Having such a massive user base is a golden opportunity to promote products and drive sales.

5. On average, millennials spend a quarter of their waking hours checking email.

Millennials are more attached to their emails than any other generation. Nowadays, people between the ages 25 and 34 spend 6.4 hours daily checking their email. Likewise, more than a third check their work email before getting out of bed in the morning.

Personalized Email Marketing Statistics

No one likes those generic emails that spam our inboxes day after day. However, a well-crafted email is a joy to read. Yet, not all marketers customize content or segment an audience. The following stats will illustrate the current situation in the world of email personalization.

6. 71% of users admit personalized experiences can influence them to interact with emails.

Even though most participants in the Dynamic Yield study think that personalized emails are important, most marketers don’t use this information to their advantage.

For instance, email marketing statistics for 2021 show that 75% of email users in North America feel that marketers haven’t personalized content for them.

7. 47% of email recipients decide to open an email depending on the subject line.

Simply put, the subject line is the crucial element of an email marketing campaign. For example, 69% of email recipients report emails as spam based on the subject line alone. So, advertisers should focus on optimizing subject lines to attract more readers.

8. According to email marketing response rates, advanced personalization can increase the response rate by around 10%.

Response rate is an essential metric for email marketing, and custom snippets can boost those numbers. In other words, marketers should put effort into contextualizing each email.

Namely, it’s advisable to go beyond the classic format with only the first name or the company name in the introductory part. The stats show that the response rate of emails without advanced personalization is only 7%.

9. On average, email subject lines have 43.85 characters.

A successful email marketing campaign requires paying attention to every detail. For instance, email marketing stats show that 82% of marketing experts send subject lines with less than 60 characters.

Since email clients, such as Yahoo and Google, only display around 60 characters, it makes sense to create shorter subject lines.

10. 93.1% of email subject lines don’t have emojis.

Although emojis might trigger an emotional response, only 6.9% of emails have them in their subject lines.

Besides the formation issues, some readers might find emojis inappropriate or misleading. Hence, advertisers use them mostly in social media marketing.

11. Statistics on email marketing reveal that the average number of words in an email is 434.

Experienced marketers understand the importance of sending a clear and concise message. That’s why they keep the email length at around 400 to 500 words. For instance, the average size is 434 words, which takes 3.3 minutes to read.

However, 24.1% of emails that AWeber analyzed had 601 words or more. Also, as many as 11.4% had more than 901 words, requiring around 6.9 minutes of reading time.

12. 37% of readers say that personalized recommendations make emails more enjoyable.

Aside from having an ideal email subject line length and a perfect word count, marketers must also tailor the content to their target audience. By doing so, advertisers and business owners can raise awareness, boost engagement, and increase customer retention.

After all, email marketing is a powerful tool for displaying products and improving ecommerce statistics. For instance, 25% of email recipients want retailers to streamline the discovery of new products via email.

Email Marketing Effectiveness Statistics

Unlike PPC campaigns or even social media strategies, email marketing requires almost no investment. That’s why small businesses, in particular, turn to email as a cost-effective option.

But how effective is email marketing, and can it meet the needs of modern marketers and business owners? Let’s see what the stats reveal.

13. For every dollar spent, email marketing has a $42 ROI.

Even though email marketing ROI statistics show an impressive return on investment, only 55% of marketers think half of their emails are relevant to recipients.

Nonetheless, 82% of marketers expect improvements over the next year, primarily in terms of open rates, click-throughs, and email delivery. Also, 59% of marketers are confident that ROI will also increase.

14. 75% of recipients agree that discounts and offers are the most valuable types of email.

Customers worldwide love learning about discounts and promotional offers, and that’s why emails can be a valuable marketing channel.

For example, email marketing statistics reveal that 78% of marketers consider advance notice of sales the most effective email feature. Also, 61% of consumers opt for receiving e-receipts via email.

15. The average landing page conversion rate in email marketing is 3.62%.

In a way, it all comes down to conversions in digital marketing, and every marketer’s goal is to increase conversion rates as much as possible.

Yet, the study conducted by GetResponse showed that the landing page conversion rate dropped from 5.86% in 2019 to 3.62% in 2020.

16. According to video email marketing statistics, 76% of marketers intend to increase their use of YouTube in email marketing.

The latest video marketing statistics show that YouTube has a significant impact on email marketing campaigns. Precisely, video can boost click-through rates by a whopping 65%.

Likewise, marketers can increase open rates by 19% after incorporating YouTube videos into their emails. Furthermore, video can even reduce unsubscribes by 26%.

17. 59% of survey respondents admit that marketing emails influence their purchasing decisions.

Email marketing’s efficiency is among the primary reasons for its popularity in 2021. For instance, email marketing facts show that 50% of recipients buy from marketing emails once a month.

Of course, success depends on content optimization, and tools like SerpWatch can help in finding the perfect keywords and adding them to your email campaigns.

18. The words that can significantly increase open rates are: upgrade, just, and content.

Finding the right words can be easier said than done, but email marketers know that some words are more efficient than others.

Conversely, they also know that words like miss, deals, groovy, and conditions can negatively affect open rates if used in subject lines.

Email Deliverability Statistics

One of the primary drawbacks of email is the lack of feedback. In other words, you can’t always tell who read your message or the percentage of emails that went straight to the trash folder. However, savvy marketers know how to deal with these issues, so let’s see what the stats say.

19. 23% of all email opens happen within the first hour after delivery.

Email marketing offers many benefits as long as you optimize the campaigns. Namely, it’s essential to leave an impression on recipients to open the email as soon as they receive it.

For example, email marketing stats show that open rates drop below 1% after 24 hours. So, customize the subject line to grab the customer’s attention.

20. Tuesday and Thursday are the best days to send emails.

Like in many other areas of life, timing is also vital in email marketing. For that reason, marketers often automate the process and leave it to the algorithm to send emails at the perfect time.

Admittedly, the overall email open rates by day vary, but Tuesday is the best day to send emails. Saturdays also have a high open rate, and many marketers opt to send emails at the start of the weekend.

21. Emails related to hobbies and government have the highest open rates.

Most of us instantly react when we receive a government-related email, but the same applies to emails related to things we enjoy doing in our free time.

To be precise, emails from the government have a 28.77% open rate, while the average email open rate across industries stands at 21.33%. According to the same source, hobbies have the highest click rate of 5.01%.

22. 45% of recipients admit they are most likely to click through an email to purchase after work.

We’ve already mentioned that timing affects the open rates and the overall success of email marketing strategies. So, marketers should know that many people use the time after work to go through their inboxes.

Therefore, marketers should send emails later in the day if they want to increase email marketing success rates. The stats show that only 22% of recipients are likely to purchase from an email received during work hours.

23. Automated email marketing can improve sales conversions by 14%.

Nowadays, marketers have a wide range of tools and apps at their disposal. As expected, automated emails are among those services, allowing marketers to schedule and send messages at specific intervals.

For instance, many choose to set the program to send emails around 6 PM or 10 AM.

24. On average, an email marketing ROI of around 15%–25% is considered a success for an email campaign.

Although many people question email relevance in 2021, it’s clear that emails are among the most potent weapons in digital marketing.

After all, only a few marketing channels can help generate such an impressive return on investment. As long as you optimize subject lines, deliver relevant content, and send emails at the right time, the recipients are likely to have a positive reaction.

B2B Email Marketing Statistics

In the B2B world, email is still king. Since the late 1990s, companies worldwide have relied on email to communicate with customers, coworkers, and other organizations.

As it turns out, not much has changed in 2021. But, to be sure, let’s see what the numbers say.

25. 51% of companies use marketing automation.

For most B2B companies, email is the primary channel of communication. That’s why more than half of B2Bs automate the process by using an email marketing tool.

Moreover, B2B email marketing statistics for 2021 reveal that 58% of companies plan to adopt automation technology. Likewise, 75% of B2B organizations use at least one type of email marketing tool.

26. For B2B content marketing, the two most used mechanisms are analytics tools and email marketing software.

B2B organizations need all the help they can get if they want to survive in the modern business world. Hence, 85% of respondents in a recent survey use email marketing software. Additionally, 81% said they use email newsletters to distribute content and establish brand authority.

27. According to business email statistics, B2B emails targeting nine to five office workers have the best email open rates when sent mid-week around 10 AM.

Office employees typically check their email at the start of the workday. Also, most business deals and purchasing decisions happen mid-week, and savvy email marketers make the most of this.

On the other hand, executives and entrepreneurs open emails frequently, so the time or day of the week matters less.

28. Email marketing is 40 times more effective at acquiring new customers than social media.

Thanks to low email marketing costs, marketers worldwide keep coming back to email. In essence, the reason lies in the ROI that email marketing campaigns generate.

Campaign Monitor’s survey revealed that email marketing generates $38 in ROI for every $1 spent.

29. Mid-size businesses can expect to spend $9–$1,000 per month on email marketing if they self-manage the campaigns.

If you need a cost-effective marketing platform, email could be the solution. With that said, the overall email advertising cost will depend on the scope of the project. The longer the mailing list and the more target groups you have, the higher the price.

For instance, small businesses can even run the campaign manually or opt for free email marketing tools, depending on the customer base. However, mid-size companies could expect to pay $300–$500 a month if they hire an agency.

Email Newsletter Advertising Rates

Email newsletters provide marketers with a vast range of benefits, and the options are limitless as long as they keep on being creative. Thus, without further ado, let’s see what the statists reveal regarding email newsletters in 2021.

30. 31% of companies reveal that newsletters are the highest-performing medium for nurturing leads.

As your brand grows and the awareness expands, it will be necessary to nurture leads. That’s when email newsletters step onto the scene. More precisely, a nurture campaign delivers targeted information to guide leads through the buying process.

31. According to newsletter statistics, the average unsubscribe rate is 0.17%.

As expected, some people will not like the content you create, or they might try to de-clutter their inbox. In any case, marketers must provide a visible and easy-to-use unsubscribe button.

Nowadays, unsubscribe rates under 2% are within the industry standard. But, of course, experienced marketers use the unsubscribe rate like a check engine light to tweak the content and improve the email quality.

32. In 2020, the global email sending volume increased by 45%.

Although email marketing statistics by industry vary, the outbreak of COVID-19 had a profound impact on newsletter campaigns worldwide. After all, newsletters were among the few remaining options for companies to interact with the customers.

As a result, ecommerce orders via email tripled, showing that email newsletters can be an effective marketing tool. In addition, with more and more people working from home, emails are a hassle-free option for ordering products or learning about new ones.

The Importance of Email Marketing | The Takeaway

Given that the average cost of email marketing campaigns is relatively low, it’s clear why businesses still rely on this advertising channel. With email marketing, companies can send special offers, promote products, and engage with customers. Plus, model email marketing tools can automate the process and deliver a personalized message to each reader.

So, if you want to maximize the effectiveness of marketing strategies, combine SerpWatch with email marketing software. In short, SerpWatch can help in rank tracking and keyword research, but it also offers email notifications and other exciting features. Before you know it, email conversion rates will increase.

Frequently Asked Questions | FAQ

How many people use email?

Invented in the 1960s and 70s, email messaging did not go viral until the 1990s, when the rise of the internet changed the world forever. For instance, the user base grew from 55 million in 1997 to 400 million in 1999. In essence, people recognized the convenience and other benefits of email, so the number of uses kept growing over the years.

As a result, there are slightly over 4 billion email users worldwide today. Moreover, the number could reach 4.6 billion within the next four or five years.

How many emails does the average person receive per day?

With the adoption of social media and messaging apps, the average number of emails we send and receive daily decreased. Yet, email remains the dominant communication channel for businesses and other organizations.

For example, studies from 2019 revealed that office workers received 121 business emails per day. Likewise, they sent around 40 emails per day. But, of course, experts predict further growth in years to come. For instance, the outbreak of COVID-19 boosted the number of sent and received emails, emphasizing the importance of email communication.

What’s a good email open rate?

Since millions of emails are sent and received daily, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. If dozens of companies bombard your inbox, the chances are you won’t even open all emails.

That’s why the email open rate in today’s marketing industry is 15%–25%. Likewise, the average click-to-open rate remains at around 20%–30%. So, from a marketer’s perspective, the more recipients open the email and interact with the content, the better. For that reason, content optimization and other techniques are crucial for improving the email open rate.

How much does an email list cost?

Email marketing is among the most effective advertising tactics, but it requires time and effort to yield the best results. For that reason, many marketers turn to email automation. Likewise, many aspiring businesses buy mailing lists.

As expected, the price depends on various factors, primarily the number and importance of people on the list. As a rule of thumb, a consumer list costs between $100 and $400 for a thousand emails (CPM). On the other hand, a business list typically costs $600 to $1000+ for a thousand emails.

What is a successful open rate for an email campaign?

These days, email campaigns are one of the pillars of digital marketing, so the competition is fierce. As a result, most people receive too many emails, and they don’t even open most of them.

So, besides preparing the content and sending the message, marketers should also monitor the open rate metric. Generally, an acceptable rate is 20.94%, but it all depends on a range of factors. For instance, the average open rate for the electronics industry is only 19%, while education boasts an impressive 25%.

What is the ROI of email marketing?

Even though ROI in digital marketing can be hard to measure, it’s important to track it to see the results of a campaign. Email marketing is cost-effective, and setting up an email blast doesn’t require massive investments. Plus, many email marketing tools are free, reducing the expenses further but delivering top-notch results nonetheless.

However, the median ROI on email marketing campaigns is 122%, four times higher than any other channel in the digital marketing world. What’s more, it continues to grow year over year.

What is a good click-through rate for email?

Every marketer wants people to open and read emails, interact with the content, and take meaningful action. That’s why the so-called click-through rates are an essential element for measuring the efficiency of email marketing campaigns. In essence, the click-through rate represents the percentage of people who clicked on the link(s) in the message.

Of course, click-through rates vary across industries and the type of email, but the most common CTR is 2.69%. Therefore, as long as the campaign keeps the CTR at around 2.5%, there’s no need to raise the alarm.

What percentage of small businesses use email marketing?

Small businesses need to use every trick in the book to increase visibility and attract more customers. But, at the same time, SMBs must also invest time and effort in nurturing the existing relationships with customers and improving loyalty. Thus, email marketing provides small companies with an ideal advertising channel for effective communication with consumers.

Believe it or not, more small businesses use direct mail than Instagram or Twitter. To be precise, the latest email marketing statistics reveal that 64.1% of small businesses use email marketing.

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Sources: AWeber, Campaign Monitor, Campaign Monitor, Campaign Monitor, Campaign Monitor, CNBC, Content Marketing Institute, CoSchedule, DMA, Dynamic Yield, Eleventy Group, Email Monday, GetResponse, Hubspot, MailChimp, Mailer Lite, Marketing Profs, OptionMonster, OptionMonster, SaleCycle, Statista, Statista, SuperOffice, WebFX, Woodpecker