100 Epic Email Marketing Statistics to Help Put Email in Perspective

Email marketing has been the most effective online marketing tool for the last decade.

When it comes to lead nurturing and customer relationship management, email marketing beats social media, SEO and content marketing hands-down. While a diverse approach to marketing is always smart, it’s no wonder marketers want control over database of email addresses rather than lists of followers or anonymous visitors. In a world of segmentation and walled gardens, email has remained free, cross-platform and device-agnostic.

When you consider that 91 percent of the world’s 2.4 billion email users check their inbox at least once each day, it’s no wonder email remains one of the most cost-effective ways for business to discover, convert and maintain customer relationships.

We took a look at a number of studies, reports and surveys to help put email in perspective. The results speak for themselves. Enjoy!

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2.4 billion Number of email users in 2013 | Source

3.6 billion Number of email accounts in 2013 | Source

2.7 billion Estimated number of email users by 2017 | Source

3.9 billion Estimated numbers of email accounts by 2017 | Source

6% Annual growth rate of email accounts over the next four years | Source

182 billion Emails sent per day in 2013 | Source

207 billion Estimated number of emails sent per day by 2017 | Source

838 billion Marketing emails that were sent in 2013 | Source

54% Emails sent by businesses that are marketing messages | Source

91% Consumers who check their email at least daily | Source

74% Online adults who prefer email over direct mail for commercial communications | Source

1.7% Average click-thru rate for B2B marketing emails in Q2 2013 | Source

60% Marketers who believe email is an ROI-producing activity | Source

66% Online consumers that have made a purchase as a result of an email | Source

71% Consumers aged 45-54 that have made a purchase as a result of an email | Source

4,300% Email marketing’s ROI | Source

48% Emails opened on mobile devices | Source

11% Marketing emails that are mobile responsive | Source

33% Email recipients that open emails based only on the subject line | Source

40% B2B marketers that rate email marketing leads as high quality | Source

80% Content marketers that use email marketing | Source

15% In-house marketers who admit their email marketing is poor | Source

23.63% Emails opened within an hour of being received | Source

49% Businesses that are testing the right day and time to send their emails | Source

2-5pm Time of day when most emails are opened | Source

10pm-9am The worst time to send emails | Source

187% Increase in average revenue per email recipient for eBags after optimizing the best times to send | Source

22.3% Open-rate increase with personalized subject lines | Source

70% Brands that don’t personalize their emails | Source

55% Companies that generate more than 10 percent of sales from email | Source

8% Companies that generate more than half of sales from email | Source

50% Marketers who say the quality of their email database inhibits successful marketing | Source

49% Marketers who clean their email lists on a regular basis | Source

26% Marketers who personalize emails | Source

20% Companies that send abandoned shopping cart emails | Source

27% Companies that don’t optimize their emails | Source

74% Companies who regularly test email strategies that report a positive ROI | Source

33% Marketers who don’t know if their emails are read on mobile devices | Source

25% Companies that optimize their emails for mobile devices | Source

90% Marketers who say they don’t spend enough time on subject lines | Source

-18.7% Decrease in click rates when the word ‘newsletter’ is used in subject lines | Source

61.8% Increase in clicks when using the word ‘alert’ in subject lines | Source

7.5% Average click rate in the Security and Law Enforcement industry | Source

4.4% Bounce rate for companies that send emails less than once per month | Source

0.5% Bounce rate for companies that send emails more than once per week | Source

13.2% Open rate of emails with personalized content | Source

12.9% Open rate of emails with personalized subject lines | Source

5.3% Open rate of emails that used both personalized subject lines and content | Source

15.8% Open rate of emails with subject lines between four and 15 characters | Source

2.6% Click rate of emails with subject lines between four and 15 characters | Source

1.6% Click rate of emails with subject lines greater than 16 characters | Source

15% Percentage of the average marketing budget spent on email | Source

92% Businesses that use email to share information and news about their company | Source

3,489 Average size of an email database for companies with annual revenue between $1 million and $50 million | Source

25% Companies with an annual revenue between $1 million and $50 million that have less than 1,000 people in their email database | Source

21% Companies with an annual revenue between $1 million and $50 million that have more than 10,000 people in their email database | Source

6% Companies that send emails to their entire list every day | Source

10% Companies that send emails to part of their list every day | Source

39% Companies that send emails to their entire list once per week | Source

64% Companies that integrate email marketing with social media | Source

74% Companies that measure email success by leads generated | Source

72% Companies that measure email success by actual sales | Source

84% Companies that use email to solicit feedback from customers | Source

28% Average goal for annual growth of email lists | Source

11% Businesses who say the cost of acquiring new email subscribers is too high | Source

50% Companies who coordinate email marketing with events like trade shows | Source

48% Companies who coordinate email marketing with direct mail | Source

34% Companies who have a team dedicated to email marketing | Source

20% Companies who have assigned email marketing to one person | Source

9% Companies who outsource email marketing to an agency | Source

43% Email recipients who mark messages as spam based on the ‘from’ address and sender name | Source

21% Email recipients who mark email as spam when they know it isn’t | Source

17% Americans who create a new email address every six months | Source

9% Increase in ROI if marketers optimized email for image blocking | Source

84% Percentage of all email that is spam | Source

$156 million Email ad revenue in 2012 | Source

10% Annual growth of email marketing spending | Source

82% Consumers who open marketing emails | Source

24% Litmus emails opened on iPhones | Source

72% People who check their email in bed | Source

87% People who check their personal and work email together | Source

17 – 22 point Recommend range of font sizes for mobile emails | Source

46 px Recommended minimum size for buttons in mobile emails | Source

63% Percentage of email lists that are inactive | Source

18.3 kilobytes Size of the average email | Source

0.25% Average unsubscribe rate | Source

82% Consumers who have signed up for email programs on brand websites | Source

53% Consumers who have given their email address to a sales clerk | Source

28.5% Consumers who have subscribed to an email program in a mobile app | Source

14.5% Consumers who have signed up for an email program via text message | Source

72% Consumers who sign up for emails to get discounts | Source

8.2% consumers who sign up for emails because they love the brand | Source

74.4% Consumers who expect a welcome email when they subscribe | Source

35.4% Consumers who unsubscribe from emails because they are sent too frequently | Source

14% Consumers who unsubscribe from emails because they are tired of the brand | Source

52.9% Consumers who never ‘opt down’ (change email frequency or type after unsubscribing) | Source

60% B2B marketers that have used video in their emails | Source

3x Email conversion rates are three times higher than social media | Source

17% Difference in value between email conversions and social media conversions | Source