With 4.37 billion email users worldwide, email is one of the most powerful channels to reach your target audience. Every day, 347.3 billion emails are sent around the globe.
Additionally, email marketing has an average ROI of 3600%, making it a better marketing channel than social media and display advertisement.
In this post, let us examine the facts and figures about the number of email users, the effectiveness of emails, email usage in marketing, email ROI, mobile email marketing, personalized email marketing, B2B email marketing, B2C email marketing, usage of AI in email marketing, challenges of email marketing, etc.
Email Marketing Statistics: Top Picks (2024)
- 4.48 billion people worldwide are estimated to use email in 2024.
- 64% of marketers use email marketing to reach customers.
- 87% of marketers plan to increase their email marketing budget in 2024.
- 55% of email marketers prioritize personalization.
- The average ROI of email marketing is between $36 to $40 for each $1 spent.
- Mobile devices account for 60% of the email opens.
- Businesses earn an average of $3.45 in revenue from each abandoned cart recipient.
- 63% of marketers use AI tools for their email marketing campaigns.
- 61% of marketers state that improving email deliverability rates is one of the biggest challenges.
How Many People Use Emails in 2024?
- 4.48 billion people worldwide are estimated to use email by the end of 2024.
That will be an increase of 3% compared to the previous year. In 2023, 4.37 billion people worldwide used emails.
These numbers indicated that half of the global population uses emails.
Further, according to the estimates, the number of email users worldwide is expected to reach 4.85 billion by 2027.
Here is a table displaying the number of people worldwide who use emails.
| Year | Number of Email Users Worldwide |
| 2023 | 4.37 billion |
| 2024* | 4.48 billion |
| 2025* | 4.59 billion |
| 2026* | 4.73 billion |
| 2027* | 4.85 billion |
*- Projected Values
Source: Oberlo.
How Effective Is Email Marketing?
- Email marketing is one of the most effective forms of digital marketing.
That’s because email marketing is cost-effective, can be customized, and marketers can track its performance to build relationships with consumers.
Besides, the average email open rate is around 15% to 20%, and the average click-through rate is nearly 3%. These numbers are quite high compared to those of social media or display advertising.
Source: Forbes.
Email Usage In Marketing
- 64% of marketers use email marketing to reach customers.
- 89% of the markers utilize emails as their primary channel for generating leads.
- 87% of marketers plan to increase their email marketing budget in 2024.
- In 2023, 55% of the marketers stated that their email marketing priority was to expand the use of personalization. Meanwhile, 48% of marketers stated that their priority was to automate more aspects of their email marketing campaign.
Here is a table displaying the top email marketing priorities of professionals worldwide as of 2023.
| Top E-mail Marketing Priorities | Percentage of Professionals |
| Expand how you use personalization | 55% |
| Automate more aspects of your e-mail program | 48% |
| Refine testing e-mail measurement/performance | 44% |
| Improve ROI of the e-mail program | 38% |
| better understand deliverability | 37% |
| Streamline workflows/approvals | 36% |
| Improve data management | 36% |
| Implement design systems | 22% |
| Invest in new e-mail tools | 19% |
- 39% of people check their emails 3 to 5 times a day. Meanwhile, 27% check their emails 10 to 20 times a day, and 22% check their emails over 20 times a day.
- 58% of email users prefer to check their emails first thing in the morning.
- 14.3% of the emails either go missing or are caught by spam filters.
- 47% of larger purchases come from nurtured leads.
- 26.5% of marketers consider conversion rates to determine the success of their email marketing campaigns. At the same time, 23.8% of marketers rely on the click-through rates to determine the campaign’s success.
Here is a table displaying the metrics that marketers consider when determining the success of the marketing Campaign
| Metrics | Percentage of Marketers |
| Conversion rate | 26.5% |
| CTR | 23.8% |
| E-mail ROI | 14.8% |
| Reply/submission rate | 10.8% |
| CTOR | 3.4% |
| Other | 3.4% |
- Newsletters are the most popular type of email marketing campaign worldwide, with 16.8% of marketers sending them. Besides, the least popular email marketing campaign worldwide is Cart/browse abandonment emails. Just 5.7% of the marketers worldwide invest in it.
The following table displays the leading types of email marketing campaigns used worldwide.
| Type of Email Marketing Campaign | Percentage of Marketers |
| Newsletter | 16.8% |
| Promotional | 15.3% |
| Lead nurture | 11.6% |
| Welcome | 11.6% |
| Surveys | 8.2% |
| Feedback | 8.1% |
| Cold e-mail | 7.8% |
| Seasonal | 7.6% |
| Onboarding | 7.3% |
| Cart/browse abandonment | 5.7% |
Sources: Luisa Zhou, Statista, Campaign Monitor, Statista.
Email Marketing ROI
- The average ROI of email marketing is between $36 to $40 for each $1 spent.
- According to 30% of marketers, email marketing has the highest ROI of all digital marketing channels, while another 43% stated that email marketing has a medium ROI.
- The average ROI of email marketing is 3600%.
Sources: Luisa Zhou, Optin Monster.
Mobile Email Marketing Statistics
- Mobile devices account for 60% of the email opens.
- 67% of GenZ stated that they primarily use their emails on mobile devices.
- 41.6% of the emails are opened on mobile devices compared to 40.6% of the email opens recorded on webmail and 16.2% of the open rates recorded on desktop.
- 56% of marketers use mobile-friendly emails in their email marketing strategy.
- 46% of the smart users stated that they prefer to receive email communication from businesses.
Source: Luisa Zhou, Email Monday, Hubspot, OptinMonster.
Personalized Email Marketing Statistics
- 94% of marketing professionals believe that email personalization is extremely important.
- Emails with personalized subject lines with first names are 26% more likely to be opened.
- 55% of email marketers prioritize personalization.
- 96% of the marketers stated that personalization improves the success rate of email marketing campaigns.
- As of 2023, 64.7% of email marketers had personalized the subject line of over 50% of their marketing campaigns. On the other hand, 8.8% of marketers did not personalize the subject lines in their email marketing campaigns, and 26.5% of the marketers personalized the subject lines of less than half of the email marketing campaigns.
- 71% of the consumers expect personalized interactions from the brands through emails.
- 76% of the consumers stated that they get frustrated when they do not receive personalized interactions from a business.
- 80% of consumers stated that they are more likely to purchase from a brand that invests in personalization. Hence, companies that have invested in personalization earn 40% more than other companies.
- 72% of the consumers exclusively engage with personalized messaging.
- Personalized emails have 5.7 times higher revenue.
- The acquisition cost can be reduced by 50% by including personalization in the emails.
- The marketing efficiency can be improved by 10% to 30% by adopting personalization.
Source: Mailmodo, Sender, Campaign Monitor, Optin Monster.
B2B Email Marketing Statistics
- 77% of B2B marketers say they prefer to be contacted by a business through email over other channels.
- 89% of B2B marketers reported increasing or maintaining their email marketing budget in 2023.
- Email marketing budgets in the B2B industry are expected to increase by up to 60% in 2024.
- The B2B marketing emails have an average open rate of 15.14% and an average CTR of 2.44%.
- 38% of email marketers reported that they are looking forward to increasing their budgets in 2024, while only 10% stated that they will reduce their budgets.
- 50% of the B2B marketers stated that email marketing was the most impactful channel in their multi-channel marketing strategy.
- Nearly three-fourths of B2B businesses utilize newsletters as a content marketing strategy.
- 71% of B2B marketers stated that email engagement is the most important metric they consider when analyzing the performance of their emails.
Source: Powered By Search, Insider Intelligence, Optin Monster, Content Marketing Institute.
B2C Email Marketing Statistics
- B2C emails receive 47.8% more mobile device opens than B2B marketers.
- 59% of the consumers stated that marketing emails they received had influenced their purchasing decisions.
- 8 in 10 marketers believe email marketing is one of the most important consumer retention tools.
- Businesses earn an average of $3.45 in revenue from each abandoned cart recipient.
- 1 in 2 people purchase emails at least once a month.
- 87% of B2C email marketers use automation to level up their email marketing strategy.
- 1 in 3 consumers are likely to make a purchase from the emails sent as a part of marketing.
- On average, the open rate for B2C emails is 20.94%, while the click-through rate is 2.57%.
- 59% of the people reported that they had purchased based on the email they received.
- Nearly half of the consumers stated that they prefer to receive promotional emails from their favorite brands weekly.
- 72% of digital marketers use email marketing software to accelerate their email campaigns.
- On average, the open rate for abandoned cart emails is 45%. Meanwhile, the average click-through rate is 21%, and the purchase rate is 10%.
- 6 in 10 ecommerce, retail, and consumer goods businesses reported that they personalize their emails based on the consumers’ past purchases.
- According to 81% of retail industry marketers, emails are a great medium for customer acquisition, and 80% of marketers admit that they are a great medium for consumer retention.
Source: Salescycle, Emarsys, Mailmodo, Content Marketing Institue, Moosend, Litmus.
Usage of AI in Email Marketing
- 63% of marketers use AI tools for their email marketing campaigns.
- 57% of enterprise marketers prefer to use AI to increase the effectiveness of email campaigns.
- Marketers saw a 41% increase in revenue and a 13.44% increase in click-through rate after using AI to personalize emails. At the same time, another 26% of marketers reported that they will use AI in email marketing campaigns in the near future.
- 43% of the marketers utilizing generative AI consider it very helpful in creating emails.
- 58.3% of the email marketers stated that they believe AI can improve their email newsletters.
- 50.7% of email marketers in the US and Europe believed that adopting AI in email marketing is more effective than traditional marketing approaches. On the other hand, 10.4% of email marketers stated that there is no significant difference.
Here is a table displaying the effectiveness of AI adoption in email marketing according to the marketers in Europe and the US.
| Effectiveness | Percentage of Marketers |
| AI adoption in email marketing is more effective than traditional approaches | 50.7% |
| There is no significant difference | 10.4% |
| Artificial intelligence (AI) in email marketing is as effective as traditional approaches | 9% |
| Uncertain about the effectiveness | 29.9% |
- According to 39.7% of marketers in the United States and Europe, automatic content and image generation are the most interesting AI features in email marketing.
Here is a table displaying the AI applications in email marketing that marketers in Europe and the United States found interesting.
| AI Applications in Email Marketing | Percentage of email marketers that consider feature most interesting |
| Automatic content & image generation | 39.7% |
| Personalized content & newsletters | 33.9% |
| Determining the optimal time to send emails | 13.2% |
| Filtering contacts & databases | 13.2% |
- Nearly 3 in 10 email marketers utilize generative AI for generating email content.
- AI improves the click-through rate of emails by 13.44%.
- 1 in 10 email marketing teams prefer to use AI to generate email marketing copies.
- On average, the senders that use AI reported an average order value of $145.08 compared to $138.00 for the businesses that do not use AI.
- Automated emails generate 320% more revenue compared to nonautomated emails.
- According to 3 in 10 marketers, using automation in email marketing saves time, while 22% stated that it helps in lead generation. Additionally, 17% said that the adoption led to an increase in emails.
- 64% of B2B businesses utilize business automation techniques.
- 95% of marketers stated that using generative AI in email marketing is ‘effective,’ while 54% stated that it is ‘very effective’.
Source: Statista, Statista, G2, Marketing dive, Campaign Monitor, Email Monday, Get Response, Hubspots State of generative AI.
Challenges of Email Marketing
- 61% of marketers state that improving email deliverability rates is one of the biggest challenges. 14.3% of the emails never reach the intended inbox, 8% are left undelivered, and 63% end up in spam folders.
- 66% of consumers unsubscribe from the brand or businesses if they receive irrelevant emails.
- 34% of the consumers mark irrelevant messages as spam.
- 61% of the consumers stated that they have unsubscribed from three or more brands as they send too many marketing emails.
- 80% of consumers are more likely to delete an email if it is not user-friendly.
Source: SendX Email Marketing, Sender.
Conclusion: Email Marketing Returns $36 On Average For Every $1 Invested
In 2023, over half of the consumers purchased directly from emails, and emails outperformed SMS marketing and brand ads by 108%.
Plus, consumers are more likely to check their email than social media ads, so emails are more likely to outperform social media ads by 11% and social media posts by 13%.
Besides, 18% of the companies generate an ROI of over $70 per $1 invested.
Hence, email marketing is one of the most preferred marketing channels due to its high ROI and cost-effectiveness.
