Measure the statistical performance of your email campaigns and compare your indicators to other players in your market is inevitably important. So there's nothing like a good emailing benchmark. Unfortunately, we can't, obtaining objective statistics is no easy task.
Generally, emailing benchmarks are created by emailing tools themselves. These tools compile statistics on their customers. It is therefore important to note that each benchmark has its own specificities In short, from one benchmark to another, there can be a wide range of results. So we've decided to compile a list, just for you, a list of the best emailing benchmarks of the market!
Elements of email benchmark methodology
Before making comparisons with your own emailing statistics, it's a good idea to check a few methodological points, especially the way rates are calculated in the studies you read.
For example the meaning of the term "click-through rate" in email marketing can vary widely from one platform to another. We can talk about clicker rate, cumulative click rate, reactivity rate, CTOR (Click-to-open rate), click-rate, click-through rate, etc.
Similarly, depending on the email marketing solution, the click-through rate may or may not include clicks on unsubscribe links. Be relative to the number of emails sent or the number of emails delivered. Sometimes click rates are confused with reactivity rates (clickers/openers)...
Also, the statistics differ according to the authors of the benchmarks. Some specialize in sending prospecting emails to cold prospects. Others base their calculations on newsletters sent to active subscribers.
In short, be sure to compare apples with apples !
Finally, it is sometimes interesting to looking beyond "averages. The few studies that do use medians or quartiles are often much more rigorous in their treatment of the data. And while your statistics courses may have given you a knack for studying, it's essential to understand that statistics can provide essential insights.
Table of contents
- Elements of email benchmark methodology
- Live : Benchmark emailing 2023. Badsender gives you statistical benchmarks
- Quantitative studies: How can you compare your email campaign statistics?
- Qualitative studies: Benchmarks in email practices and usage
- Deliverability barometers
- Finally, about benchmark emails
Live : Benchmark emailing 2023. Badsender gives you statistical benchmarks
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Quantitative studies: How can you compare your email campaign statistics?
When it comes to benchmarks dedicated to the results of emailing campaignsIt's a big world out there. Unfortunately, the main studies are American, and European figures are rare and not necessarily up to date.
The idea here is to offer you the most relevant sources of information, but we may have missed the study of the year. If you have any suggestions, do not hesitate to contact us.
Benchmark of email marketing 2024 by Inxmail
About data The study is based on a total of 4.3 billion emails sent over 297,600 different campaigns by 1,061 different senders. 55.9% of these emails were sent to B2B targets, and 44.1% to B2C targets. The emails analyzed were sent between January 1 and December 31, 2023. The data comes mainly from the DACH markets (Germany, Austria and Switzerland).
Download the benchmark : https://newsletter.inxmail.fr/benchmark.jsp
Key figures :
| B2B | B2C | |
| Median frequency of mailings per month | 3 | 6 |
| Median opening rate | 22,8% | 23,5% |
| Median click-through rate | 3,2% | 3,6% |
| Median bounce rate | 0,9% | 0,3% |
The study's interesting statistic : This is an extremely detailed emailing study, with an impressive amount of data. It should be noted, however, that the data is mainly German. Its richness lies, among other things, in the clear distinction between B2B and B2C campaigns, and the wealth of information linked to business sectors. We've therefore included a comparative table based on business sectors. For the rest, download the full report.
Email Marketing Benchmark 2022 by Campaign Monitor
About data The data presented in this benchmark comes from all the emails sent by the Marigold group (of which Campaign Monitor is a member) over the year 2021. The study is based on over 100 billion emails sent. The companies in the Marigold group are highly diversified. This means that there are both small companies and large groups from all over the world.
To access the benchmark : https://www.campaignmonitor.com/resources/guides/email-marketing-benchmarks/
Key figures :
- Average opening rate: 21.5%
- Average click-through rate: 2.3%
- Average reactivity rate: 10.5%
- Average unsubscription rate: 0.1%
The interesting statistic from the study: Campaign Monitor's benchmark has the advantage of using an extremely large volume of data (even if we'd like more recent data). This gives it a good representation of email statistics by industry. But what we particularly like are the statistics by continent (in a future version, it would be nice to have a view by country).
2023 B2B prospecting emailing barometer by Nomination
About data : In this emailing barometer dedicated to B2B, Nomination analyzes the results of 1,852 campaigns sent by 182 customers in 2022, representing a total of over 3 million emails. Nomination's customers are exclusively French and run prospecting campaigns.
Download the barometer : https://www.nomination.fr/livres-blancs/barometre-emailing-btob-2023/
Key figures :
- Average deliverability rate: 95%
- Average opening rate: 16.5%
- Average click-through rate: 2.6%
- Average reactivity rate: 25%
The interesting statistic from the study: There's a lot of interesting information in this emailing barometer dedicated to B2B. Particularly noteworthy is a radar diagram showing open rates as a function of email sending times. It highlights the times when people return to work (after lunch, when they arrive at work in the morning) and at the end of the day before leaving the office.
Ecommerce Email Benchmark by industry 4th quarter 2022 by Klaviyo
About data : Unfortunately, there is little information on the methodology used to collect and process the data in this study. All we know is that the data are averages for their 100,000 paying customers. This should guarantee a good level of representativeness. Our customers Klaviyo are almost exclusively active in ecommerce. Finally, Klaviyo operates internationally, but North America must be over-represented in the data.
To access the benchmark : https://www.klaviyo.com/marketing-resources/email-benchmarks-by-industry
Key figures :
- Average opening rate: 58.61%
- Average click-through rate: 1.51%
- Average conversion rate: 0.10%
- Average revenue per recipient: 0.12 $
The interesting statistic from the study: What's particularly interesting in Klaviyo's study are the figures by industry (apparel, automotive, electronics, health, jewelry, ...) crossed with campaign typology (campaigns, welcome scenarios, cart abandonment, post-purchase scenarios, ...). The data includes not only traditional open rates and click-through rates, but also conversion rates and average revenue generated per recipient. Below you'll find the table for all campaigns:
Emailing barometer of ecommerce 2022 by Kiliba
About data The emailing statistics presented in this barometer are based on all the emailing campaigns sent by Kiliba's 467 customers in 2021. These customers are all French e-tailers.
To download the barometer : https://www.kiliba.com/blog/barometre-2022-decouvre-chiffres-emailing-pour-e-commercants
Email routing business in France 2023 by DMA France
About data This study, carried out since 2010 by DMA France (formerly SNCD), combines data from the association's members. The study is based on 145.57 billion emails sent in 2023 by DMA France members (up 2.33% on the previous year).
To download the study : https://www.dma-france.org/lactivite-routage-email-en-france-chiffres-2023-2/
Quantitative emailing studies that have outlived their usefulness
Rather than completely removing the oldest studies from this article, we preferred to keep them for the archive:
- Marketing Benchmark Study 2018 by IBM Watson : It was undoubtedly the most comprehensive study of email marketing performance. But no longer updated since 2018.
- Email Marketing Benchmark 2021 by Mailpro : Interesting study for its analysis of email typologies, but doesn't seem to have been updated since 2021.
- Global email benchmark report 2018 by Sendgrid The latest Sendgrid benchmark dates back to 2018.
- Email Marketing Benchmark by Mailchimp Mailchimp's barometer figures date back to 2019, although they are still used by many brands to compare themselves with their competitors.
- State of Engagement 2021 by Litmus In the past, Litmus published a study on engagement, but since 2021 this has no longer been the case.
Qualitative studies: Benchmarks in email practices and usage
Average open rates are great! But it's also essential to understand how your recipients perceive email, to perceive trends in the sector, to know the conditions under which messages are opened... It's therefore necessary to leave a little room for qualitative studies, and not just quantitative ones.
Marigold report on consumer trends in Europe to 2023
About data The report is based on responses from 7392 consumers in the UK, Germany, France, Spain, Denmark, Sweden and the Benelux countries. Consumers represent a diverse range of ages, genders and income brackets. Data was collected between October and November 2022.
Download the report : https://info.selligent.com/fr/consumer-trends-hub-2023
Key figures :
- 48% of European consumers made a purchase directly from an email received during the year
- 58% of European consumers are willing to pay more to buy from their favourite brands
- 78% of consumers prefer brands that use their data responsibly
- 22% of consumers feel that their favourite brand "understands" them
The interesting statistic from the study: Among a wealth of relevant information that will give you a better understanding of what consumers expect from your communications actions, we have selected these figures relating to what is annoying or appreciated in brand marketing actions. They show that what brings value (personalization, reminders, etc.) is much better perceived than what is suffered and generates more marketing pressure (retargeting, geolocation, voice recognition, etc.).
Email Client Market Share and Popularity June 2023 by Litmus
About data : This study is in fact rather quantitative, but it clearly reflects email practices and usages. It has the advantage of being updated every month. At the time of writing, data for June 2023 is available, based on 1.4 billion opens by users of Litmus' analytics solution.
To access the study : https://www.litmus.com/email-client-market-share
Key figures The whole study looks at the distribution of open rates by email client. This gives us an idea of which e-mail clients are the most important to invest time and quality control work on during the email template development. Don't forget that these figures vary considerably from one target to another. The ideal is toanalyze the distribution of email customers on your own target. Here are the top 10 in June 2023 (feel free to go to their site for the latest results and see the evolution curves):
- Apple : 58,55%
- Gmail : 28,17%
- Outlook: 4.33%
- Yahoo! Mail: 2.75%
- Google Android: 1,56%
- Outlook.com: 0.64%
- Thunderbird: 0.25%
- Samsung Mail: 0.15%
- Windows Live Mail: 0.05%
- QQ Mail: 0.05%
Global Messaging Engagement Report 2022 by Sendgrid
About data Sendgrid's Email (and SMS) Engagement Report is made up of both quantitative and qualitative data collected in Brazil, France, Germany, Japan, the UK and the USA. A 20-question questionnaire was sent to 800 people in each country, for a total of 4,800 respondents. Respondents were evenly distributed in each country across four age groups: Generation Z (18-24), millennials (25-35), Generation X (36-50) and baby boomers (51-65).
To access the report : https://sendgrid.com/resource/2022-global-messaging-engagement-report/
Key figures :
- 52% of respondents say they would unsubscribe if a company sent them emails every day.
- 20% hate to see grammatical or spelling errors in email boxes.
- 57% say that personalization would strongly or somewhat influence whether they find an email memorable.
- 43% of millennials say they are open to receiving a daily email from a brand, compared with only 35% for Generation Z.
The interesting statistic from the study: There's so much information in Sendgrid's study, it's hard to sort it all out. So we've chosen this graph, which asks what factors make an e-mail memorable. We can see that discounting continues to play a major role (73% of influence). What's also interesting to note is that the wording of the message, the fact that it's catchy and/or amusing, has an influence of 64%.
Email & Responsible Digital 2022 survey by Dolist
About data The survey is based on the responses of 275 decision-makers and operational staff who were questioned on subjects related to eco-design, accessibility and data minimization. They come from a wide range of business sectors, with an over-representation of communications agencies and companies with B2B targets.
To download the survey : https://www.dolist.com/ressources/guides-livres-blancs/enquete-email-numerique-responsable-2022/
Key figures :
- 73% of respondents say they have or want to act on theeco-design of their emails.
- 71% claim to have fully or partially integrateddigital accessibility to their emails
- 86% fully or partially implement a data minimization strategy
The interesting statistic from the study: In this study on digital responsibility in France, we have chosen a graph on the selection policy for marketing partners and solutions. It's a question that's coming increasingly to the fore when it comes to select an emailing tool or any other marketing solution. The question asked by Dolist in the survey is: "When it comes to your policy for selecting marketing service providers, do you require:"
Qualitative emailing studies that have outlived their usefulness
Rather than completely removing the oldest studies from this article, we preferred to keep them for the archive:
- Email Marketing Attitude 2019 by DMA France The two Email Marketing Attitude (EMA) studies examined how consumers and professionals perceive email marketing.
Deliverability barometers
A special category in this list of email marketing benchmarks since email deliverability is an important and very special topic in the world of email marketing. The word deliverability experts is relatively rare in in-depth studies. So make the most of it.
Email Deliverability Report 2023 by Validity
About data Validity's deliverability report unfortunately doesn't specify which data volumes the figures presented are derived from. All we know is that they are derived from the data generated by their deliverability monitoring toolnamely Everest.
Download the report : https://www.validity.com/resource-center/2023-email-deliverability-benchmark-report/
Key figures :
- Over 15% of legitimate emails (with consent) are not delivered to the inbox.
- Europe is the region with the highest inbox placement rate at 91%
- 33% of emails sent by Business Services, Telecoms, Finance and Insurance are placed in spam boxes or are missing.
- MAGY" destinations (Microsoft, AOL, Google, Yahoo!) have a higher deliverability rate with 86%.
- Deliverability problems cost an average of $15,000 a year per million emails sent
The interesting statistic from the study: There are many statistics we could have highlighted, but once again we've opted for a sector-by-sector view. Even if we have to take into account the local specificities of deliverability, as destinations are not the same from one market to another. The two sectors with the best deliverability performances are real estate and media.
2nd quarter 2023 barometer by Signal Spam
About data Signal Spam publishes a quarterly barometer that summarizes the main findings of the spam complaints collected. For the second quarter of 2023, it is based on over 7 million reports. These data are almost exclusively French.
To access the barometer : https://www.signal-spam.fr/barometre/
Key figures :
- The most reported item is "Professionals, take advantage of free installation".
- 30% of spam comes from the USA, 23% from France
- 64% of alerts are marketing emails, 36% are cybercrimes
- The domain hosting the most phishing pages is storage.googleapis.com
Finally, about benchmark emails
The great challenge of this page on emailing barometers is to keep it up to date! So don't hesitate to call us to order on a regular basis. by contacting us. Don't hesitate to share your favorite emailing benchmarks in the comments, as they'll be a great way of enriching what's been set out above. In other news, the emailing consultants Badsender also carries out internal benchmarks for its customers within the framework of our emailing coachings and our emailing audits ! We look forward to hearing from you!
