email marketing statistics 2021

60+ Email Marketing Statistics for 2023

The article was published December 22, 2020 and updated on January 17, 2023.

We gathered the most recent and relevant email marketing statistics for 2023 – knowing them will push you to the front of the pack in the new year.

Let’s dive right in!

Email is it.

If you’re reading this, you probably have a hunch that this is true, but let me tell you there are plenty of statistics to back that up. Here’s one for starters:

The total number of emails sent and received in 2022 was more than 333.2 billion. Already in 2023, the number is at 347.3 billion.

So with all of these emails going every which way, that means a lot of people have email addresses, right?

The number of people who use email is at 4.3 billion currently.

With the total population of earth being around 8 billion, that means if you put all of the people on the planet together, more than half of them have an email address.

But, is there any room for growth? Apparently!

The number of email users is expected to be more than 4.6 billion in 2025. That’s an average increase of 100 million per year over the next 2 years.

Potential.

That’s what most marketers see when they think about the future of email marketing.

So, if your organization is not using email to communicate and market to clients, you’re missing out. And there’s no time like the present to start!

Think about the amount of time every day Americans spend just checking their email. As of 2021, people spend 321 minutes each workday. What?!?

Furthermore, according to the DMA, the average ROI for email marketing is $36 for every $1 spent.

With a ROI like that, you can see why email marketing is worthy of your attention. Because of this tremendous potential, a person sharing their email address should not be taken lightly.

The average value of an email address is $113.48.

email marketing statistics 2021
More than 4.4 billion people are expected to use email by 2024.

Why we gathered these email marketing statistics for 2023

Look, our goal at ZeroBounce is to help you land in the inbox. Our email validation service and deliverability toolkit work hand in hand to help you accomplish this goal.

Apart from that, we want to give you knowledge. To save you time and effort, we did the work for you. We gathered all the most recent, relevant email marketing statistics for 2023.

Why?

To help you clearly understand the space and how to make your campaigns more effective in the new year.

Email marketing statistics for 2023: What you need to know

As you can see, we’ve already shared some fascinating figures. Now, let’s get into more data and look at the most important changes and trends in the email industry.

What has changed in email marketing in 2023?

First, it’s worth taking a second to understand the impact on email of the pandemic, lockdowns and the Great Resignation.

Many businesses have decreased their operating hours, while some closed their walk-in spots to become strictly online. Lockdowns, increased restrictions, unemployment, and changing consumer habits have contributed to many changes to email.

Email became the main lifeline between businesses and their customers. It’s the number one channel companies used, in 2022, to share updates and important announcements.

Related: Check out these fresh Upcity stats before you make changes to your campaigns

Do you see email marketing slowing down in 2023?

I’m guessing a lot of you are thinking no. These figures and email marketing stats will help you cultivate a greater understanding of the fascinating email ecosystem.  

  • By the end of March 2020, companies in almost all industries noticed a boost in engagement compared to their previous year’s average.
  • In April, religious organizations saw a click rate increase of 143%. Restaurants followed with an increase of 60%.
  • 78 percent of email marketers observed a rise in email engagement over the last year.
  • 75% of consumers have tried new shopping behaviors due to the restrictions.
  • Open rates went up by 31%.
  • Conversion rates increased 17% in 2020.
  • Unsubscribe rates are down 50%.
  • In 2020, mobile email viewing has not changed much, in spite of people spending more time at home and having greater access to their desktops.

If you’re hesitant about trying a new email marketing tactic, now is the time to consider it. You won’t surprise anybody in 2023!

People may not go in public as much, but email engagement has jumped. Seize this opportunity to engage your audience with great newsletters and bold email campaigns.

2021 email marketing stats
Increasingly marketing emails are first seen on a mobile device.

Are we in the inbox? Deliverability could use a boost

Landing in the inbox is every email marketer’s goal. Nonetheless, many senders are struggling to arrive there, as you’ll see in the stats below.

  • According to current data from Talos Intelligence, 84.82% of all emails are spam. Russia was the most significant source of unsolicited emails. Global spam rates are on the rise again, though: in 2012, 69% of the world’s emails were spam.
  • In 202, the average spam rate around the globe was 0.01%. Keep in mind that a natural email spam rate is less than 0.1%, meaning one complaint for every 1,000 emails.
  • The average deliverability is 78.67%.  That means for every 100 emails sent, an average of 21 don’t make it to the inbox.
  • 31 billion emails bounce every day.
  • 16% of all emails land in the spam folder.

It’s a big assumption that when you send an email, it goes into the inbox. Sometimes it ends up in spam, and other times, it doesn’t get delivered at all.

Your delivery rate refers to the number of emails that reached a server, which could be either the spam or the inbox folder. Your deliverability means the number of emails that made it to the inbox.

Want to find out if your email will go to inbox or spam, or if it will even get delivered at all? Try our testing tools – they allow you to adjust for the best deliverability!

Test your inbox placement today – it’s free!

Email list hygiene statistics: How often should we clean our databases?

  • Most people have two email addresses. Also, 51% hold on to the same email address for more than 10 years.
  • Nonetheless, 22.5% of an email list becomes obsolete and risky within just one year.
  • Due to the pandemic, B2B email lists have deteriorated at a much higher pace. Did you know that almost a quarter of your B2B list may have gone bad last year?
Want to see how ZeroBounce works? Give it a try!
average open rates
Remember to validate your email list more often: up to 25% of it may have deteriorated in 2020, as an effect of the pandemic.

Open rates: How do you stack up?

Ask any email marketer and they’ll tell you the metric they care the most about is their open rate. For good reason: open rates tell you a lot about the quality of your content and also, the health of your email list.

Here’s what statistics say:

  • The average open rate across all industry types is 21.33%.
  • Government-related emails lead the pack at a 28.77% open rate.
  • Emails relating to hobbies follow at 27.74%.
  • Emails about religious matters come in third place at 27.62%.
  • Germany has the most engaged subscribers. The country’s average email open rate is 40.67%.
  • Companies sending one newsletter a week can expect an average open rate of 33.40%.
  • Plain-text emails tend to get higher open rates than HTML emails.

With all of this in mind, remember there are things that can help increase your open rate.

Bonus tips: Make sure the content you send is resonating with people. Also, finding your best sending frequency is crucial. Finally, email hygiene is a must for maintaining a good sender reputation and landing in the inbox. If your bounce rate is higher than 2% and your opens are low, you know it’s time to give your list a scrub.

We break for click rates

Your click-through rate (CTR) is another significant metric to keep an eye on. The CTR is the percentage of your email subscribers who clicked your content at least once. It means they not only thought your email was worth opening, but something you communicated compelled them to click.

Knowing the average CTR is valuable knowledge.

  • The average click-through rate across all industries is 2.3%.
  • Education emails get the best click-through rate at 4.4%.
  • Real estate and design related industries do especially well at 3.6%.
  • Outdoor related industries, like agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting, also get a respectable CTR of 3.4%.
  • Construction, contracting, and manufacturing get a rate of 3.2%.
  • Smaller lists perform better. Email lists of 1,000 to 2,499 subscribers have the best click-through rate: 3.98%. Databases of 2,500 – 4,999 people come second with a CTR of 3.35%.
2021 email marketing statistics list
People tend to place the most orders via email on the 29th day of the month.

Order rates for email offers

When should you send your best offers? It’s worth knowing when your customers are most likely to buy.

Here we go:

However, if you want to know the real money-maker:

  • The 29th day of the month tends to be the leader in terms of average order rate from email.
  • Automated emails can lead to an average of 6 times more orders per email than bulk emails.

Emails and marketing, partners in profit

Marketers know the inherent value of email marketing. Most of them would rather not use other channels than to give up on email.

email list validation
Most marketers prefer email over social media marketing.

Segmenting your list pays

Why send an email that doesn’t pertain to a certain part of your list? Segmenting your campaigns yields better results: opens, clicks, and revenue are higher when your emails cater to one specific audience.

Take a look at the stats below:

  • Overall open rates are 14.31% higher for segmented email campaigns.
  • Also, marketers that send segmented campaigns noticed click rates are usually 100.95% higher.
  • Marketers that segment their email lists see an increase in revenue of 760%.

Personalization boosts engagement

9 out of 10 email marketers believe using personalization increases the engagement of the emails they send, an increase from previous years.

  • 80% of customers are more likely to make a purchase because of personalization.
  • Personalized subject lines make recipients 50% more likely to open it.
  • Personalizing your emails generates a 122% median ROI.

Based on what is appropriate for your audience, and keeping privacy in mind, personalizing emails can be very valuable. Birthdays are in particular meaningful to most people.

  • Birthday emails can generate 3.42 x more revenue.

Here’s an interesting correlation:

  • Brands that use third-party analytics tools (like Google Analytics) can increase their ROI by up to 16% as opposed to only using the metrics of your email service provider.
email stats 2021
Personalizing subject lines can generate 50% higher open rates.

Email marketing workflow: How can we improve?

The majority (60%) of  companies have at least four people involved in the email review and approval process. That’s up from 52% in 2019.

Anytime you have even two or three people working together, using a system that works is important. In fact, making email workflow efficient was important for more than half of the people involved.

Are people satisfied with the email marketing approval process?

  • 30% said the approval process was a sticking point and felt it was a burden.
  • Almost ¾ of email marketers feel that email is important to the company’s success.
  • However, 1 in 3 marketers don’t feel that email is integrated with the other parts of the company’s marketing programming.

To alleviate the fatigue of so many steps, streamline your email workflow using our integrations with the most popular platforms.

Connect ZeroBounce to your favorite platforms

Email marketing statistics for 2023: Sending emails during the holidays

The holiday season is a time most brands increase their email marketing efforts. How can you make the most of these days and engage more subscribers and customers?

Use these stats below as a guide.

  • Email volumes can go up by up to 122% during the holidays.
  • The best day to send an email during the holiday season is Thursday, Oracle found while studying campaigns from 2018 and 2019. That’s when the researchers observed a spike in responder rates.
  • On the other hand, Fridays saw a dip in engagement.
  • The days after important holidays are good days for sending campaigns. As competition drops, people are more likely to engage with your emails.
  • Christmas Day has the lowest engagement, so consider pausing your campaigns on December 25th.
verifying emails
46% of emails are opened on mobile.

General email marketing statistics for 2023

  • The average email opt-in rate is 1.97%
  • Rolling on the floor with laughter tears is the most popular emoji.
  • 61.9% of all emails are opened on mobile, according to Upland Adestra.
  • 69% of people decide whether to open on email just by scanning the subject line.
  • Email newsletters are the best way to nurture leads, say 31% of B2B marketers.
  • Email is the greatest source of revenue for 59% of marketers.
  • 61% of consumers say email is their preferred channel to be contacted by brands.
  • Also, 61% of consumers say they’d like to hear from a brand at least once a week, and 86% would like to receive a marketing email at least monthly.
  • However, run your own tests and find your sweet spot, because 45% of people feel annoyed when brands send too many emails.
  • On average, marketing emails have 434.48 words and take 3.3 minutes to read.

Talk about a lot of email marketing stats! We hope they help you in 2023 and beyond, and stay tuned – we’ll update this article regularly!

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