Email marketing 20 key statistics

Micheli , Invited guest @ Mailrelay

A lot is said and written about email marketing and its advantages. And more than once, you may have asked yourself, “how much of that is true?

We know you will agree with this phrase: My time and budget are limited.

So it’s logical that you want to be sure that email marketing works and that you’re using it correctly to get the most out of your business.

If you have doubts and you would prefer to see data, numbers, facts, today we will give you specific figures about aspects of email marketing, such as:

1 – What is the open rate of commercial emails (this information is provided by most email marketing services)?

2 – Do my customers like or dislike receiving emails?

3 – How exactly does email marketing affect the purchase decision?

4 – What is the ROI of email marketing?

Keep reading, as today you will find a complete collection of email marketing statistics that you should know.

(Psst… are you more of a straight-to-the-point kind of person? At the end of the article, we have prepared a summary list. To go to the fast track, just scroll down)

Email marketing is a mass communication channel.

One of the main reasons for email marketing is the massive use of email as a communication channel.

If your customers have an email box, then you have the unique opportunity to reach them by and talk to them directly, face-to-face.

And email marketing statistics tell us that they most likely do: according to Statista data, 3.93 billion people, were email users in 2019, a figure that is expected to reach 4,371 billion by 2023.

The number of emails sent continues to grow as well. In 2019, 293.6 billion emails were sent every day (every day!), and statistics estimate that by 2023, this figure could reach 347.3 billion, which is 18.29% more.

That’s more than good news for email marketing. Because what these statistics tell us that email, as a communication channel, is booming.

Your customers prefer email marketing

Okay, it’s already clear that email is a massively accepted communication channel.

But email doesn’t equal email marketing, does it?

If you’ve ever wondered whether your customers want to receive commercial emails, the answer is that it will depend, of course – it depends on whether the email is valuable and attractive if it is well written, and so on.

But if you know how to be relevant, the most recent email marketing statistics would tell you that they do: they want to receive your emails.

In fact, email marketing is the channel of choice for 46% of consumers (Only Influencers/DMA). In comparison, only 26% and 24% would prefer a post or in-person communication.

But just because your customers prefer email marketing to other channels doesn’t mean they have to like everything you send. Nor does it mean that they will buy the product or service you are promoting.

That’s why it’s important to qualify this data with another key statistic: 86% of consumers say that more than half of the emails they receive are not helpful.

This figure is very high what do you think it means?

Everything points to the fact that consumers feel comfortable with email marketing, even though most of the emails they receive are highly irrelevant and were not created with their interest in mind.

Email marketers fail in the subject of usability.

But to close this point, let’s keep the positive side of things: we have a vast margin to improve the effectiveness of our emails.

The keys to boosting your open rate

The keys to boosting your open rate

One of the things that will worry us most when sending an email marketing campaigns is how many people will open it. Because only a small part of them do, and that percentage is what is known as the open rate.

The average open rate for email marketing is 22.86% (SaleCycle). But if there is something more interesting than knowing what the average open rate is, it is to understand the reasons why your audience decides to open an email or not.

And this statistic on email marketing open rates sheds some light: 64% of users would open an email simply because they trust the brand sending it.

According to the same source (MarketingCharts / Silverpop), 58% of the audience will not open the email if they don’t consider it relevant to their needs.

The subject line matters (and a lot)

We have just seen that email marketing statistics point to relevancy as one of the keys to boosting open rates.

But that means subscribers will decide whether an email is relevant or not even before opening it.

According to OptinMonster, 47% of those who receive an email decide to open it based on the subject line. Moreover, 69% would flag an email as spam for the same reason.

OptinMonster also points out the importance of personalization When opening an email. The mere fact of including the person’s name in the email subject line could increase the open rate from 10% to 14%.

Another SaleCycle study, which analyzed the open rate of 500 customers, confirmed this hypothesis and found that the best-performing subject lines are those with the person’s name on them, followed by those that include the name of the product or details related to it.

Email marketing and abandoned carts

Most e-commerce statistics reflect that the rate of abandoned carts is between 70% and 80%.

That is to say, about 3/4 of those who add a product to their cart in an online store leave it without actually buying it.

That is where the crucial role of email marketing comes into play.

Salecycle puts the average open rate for abandoned cart recovery campaigns at 40.14%. This figure rises to as high as 43.15% for online stores in the fashion sector.

What does this data tell us? If you remember the statistics we saw about open rates, only emails that are considered relevant will be opened.

Such a high open rate indicates that these types of emails are (clearly) relevant.

But keep in that, according to the same source, timing is crucial for this type of campaign: the perfect time to send a cart recovery email would be exactly 1 hour after the customer left the virtual shop.

Do you want to take advantage of this opportunity and don’t know where to start?

We have articles on our blog with templates and other information for this kind of email marketing campaign.

Yes, email marketing works

We are approaching the climax. Here email marketing statistics should give us great answers to essential questions:

    1 – Does email marketing really work?

    2 – How does it affect buying decisions?

    3 – What can I expect if I invest in email marketing?

According to a report by McKinsey, email marketing is 40 times more effective than Facebook or Twitter for reaching a target audience.

And according to a study by SaleCycle, email marketing affects the purchase decisions of 59% of users.

In fact, more than half of them would make purchases directly related to email marketing at least once a month.

Of course, these percentages can change dramatically depending on the relevance of the email.

And here again is a keyword that we have already seen: personalization.

71% would be more likely to buy if the email was tailored to their tastes and preferences, according to Silverpop’s study.

In addition to that, Experian notes that personalized emails would drive 6 times more transactions compared to non-personalized emails.

The ROI of email marketing

The ROI of email marketing

When it comes to email marketing performance, in the end, there is one metric that matters most: email marketing ROI (Return on Investment).

Well, according to one of the most influential sources on the subject, DMA, the ROI of email marketing is 32 €.

So if you’re left with just one email marketing statistic, let it be this one. For every euro you spend on newsletters, you get back thirty-two.

Summary of email marketing statistics

To remember or summarize. Here is a list of the 20 email marketing statistics we’ve looked at in this article:

1) In 2019, there were 3.93 billion email users (Statista).

2) In 2019, 293.6 billion emails were sent on average every day (Statista)

3) 46% of consumers prefer email marketing as a channel for comercial communication in a variety of contexts (OnlyInfluencers/DMA)

4) 86% of consumers believe that more than half of the emails they receive are unhelpful (OnlyInfluencers/DMA)

5) The average open rate is 22.86% (SaleCycle)

6) 64% of users would open an email simply because they trust the brand sending it (MarketingCharts/Silverpop)

7) 58% of users would not open an email if they don’t think it is relevant to their needs (MarketingCharts/Silverpop).

8) 47% of those who receive an email decide to open it based on the subject line alone (OptinMonster)

9) 69% of email recipients would flag an email as spam based on the same reason (OptinMonster)

10) Including the person’s name in the subject line raises the open rate from 10% to 14% (OptinMonster).

11) The best performing subjects are those with the person’s name (SaleCycle).

12) The second best performing subject lines are those that include the product name or other details related to it (SaleCycle)

13) The average open rate for abandoned cart recovery campaigns is 40.14%. This figure is even better in the fashion industry, 43.15% (SaleCycle).

14) The perfect time to send an email to recover customers who abandoned the cart would be exactly 1 hour after the customer left the page. (SaleCycle)

15) Email marketing is 40 times more effective than Facebook or Twitter in reaching your target audience (MacKinsey)

16) Email marketing affects the buying decisions of 59% of recipientes (SaleCycle).

17) More than half of the recipients would make direct purchases directly related to email marketing at least once a month (SaleCycle)

18) 71% would be more likely to purchase if email content was tailored to their likes and dislikes (MarketingCharts/ Silverpop)

19) Personalized emails would drive 6x more transactions compared to non personalized (Experian)

20) The ROI or Return On Investment of email marketing is 32 €. (DMA)

In conclusion: email marketing works, and the statistics prove it

Did you like this content and want to read more? Learn all about email marketing and find out how to generate more sales with your email marketing campaigns on our blog.

Translated by Micheli.

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