40+ Email Marketing Statistics for 2017 From New Researches

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This article was last updated on September 1, 2020

Looking for some current email marketing statistics? We’ve put together over 40 useful email marketing statistics to help you stay up-to-date. These 2017 stats will help you readjust and update your email marketing strategy according to the current state of the industry and the expectations of your audience. Let’s start!

According to a research by Epsilon, transactional emails generated only 2,7% of total email volume in the first quarter of 2017. This number was lower in comparison to the same period for 2016 (3.0%) and the last quarter of 2016 (5.4%). (Source)
The same research showed that the open rate of transactional emails for the first quarter in 2017 was 69% higher than regular email marketing campaigns for the same period. This number has increased from 67.9% which was reported in the last quarter of 2016. (Source)
Regarding click-throughs, transactional emails generated 164.6% higher click rates than regular campaigns. However, this result was lower in comparison to the same period last year (241.3%). (Source)
According to Data & Marketing Association (DMA), transactional email campaigns in 2017 have generated 6.5% click rates, whereas usual email marketing campaigns – only 1,6%. (Source)
Monday has the highest open rates now of 13.3% and Friday has the lowest (11.9%) according to Data & Marketing Association. (Source)
In contrast, Yes Lifecycle Marketing research found out that for the first quarter of 2017, Friday has generated the highest open (18.2%) and click-through rates (10.8%). (Source) Go figure…
The same research states that B2B companies generated the lowest open rates of 11.5% but the highest click-through rates of 19.3%. (Source)
The most effective email marketing strategies are email list segmentation and personalized messaging. (Source) If you are interested in this topic, check out Email Marketing Campaign Strategy: 8 Smart Tactics for High ROI.
94% of insurance industry uses email marketing for promotional email campaigns which makes it the industry with the highest usage of commercial email. (Source)
Insurance industry is also the leader in generating the highest engagement rates among all examined industries. (Source)
So far in 2017, 30% of email marketers have combined their Welcome campaigns with a 10% discount incentive to engage their new subscribers. (Source)
Welcome emails are the most effective type of transactional emails, as they generate 4x more opens and 5x more clicks than regular email marketing campaigns. (Source)
Subscribers who receive a Welcome email show 33% more engagement with the brand. (Source)
Despite these numbers, just 57.7% of brands send Welcome emails to their newly subscribed users. (Source)
50% of Welcome emails are sent immediately after the user has subscribed. (Source)
According to a report collecting data from May 2016 to April 2017, about 55% of all email opens happened on mobile devices including smartphones, tablets, and e-readers. Another 28% – via webmail clients, and only 16% – via desktop software. (Source)
Compared to 5 years ago, email opens on mobile grew with 26%, whereas it decreased wit 9% for webmail and 19% for desktop email software. (Source)
About 79% of the examined email opens on mobile happened on Apple’s iOS. Compared to 5 years ago, this percentage decreased with 6 points. (Source)
The mobile email opens on Android increased with 6%, accordingly. (Source)
Gmail is the leader among webmail services with 59% of all web email opens occurring there. This number has grоwn with the significant 53% since 2012 when it was just 6%. (Source)
Hotmail/Outlook.com usage dropped from 25% to 18% for the same period of time. (Source)
Yahoo has drastically lost popularity over the course of the last 5 years. In 2012 the email opens happening on this webmail service were 37%, and in 2017 – only 5%. (Source)
Regarding desktop email clients, the leader with the highest email opens is Apple Mail, according to the same research from May 2016 to April 2017. About half of desktop email opens happened on this software. Outlook comes in second with 41% of desktop email opens. Thunderbird generated only 3%. (Source)
A recent research by Yes Lifecycle Marketing revealed that the most important factor for 92% of people who make a decision whether to buy from a marketing email campaign, is a discount offer or sale. (Source)
The reputation of the brand is important to 90% of the same group of people, the ease of transaction – 88%, and the easy online purchasing generated 74% as a factor of importance. (Source)
The transactional emails with the highest average order value are abandoned cart emails, followed by Welcome email campaigns, according to a research by Klaviyo. (Source) Want to learn more about abandoned cart emails? Here are 10 Abandoned Cart Email Examples & 20 Insightful Tips To Win Your Clients Back.
The research also showed that segmented campaigns generated higher open rates (18.3%) and click-through rates (2.2%) in comparison to the campaigns sent to all users (12.9% and 1,3%, accordingly). (Source)
Average email click-through rate is 3.4% and it varies from industry to industry, according to a research by SmartInsights. (Source)
Top 3 industries generating the highest click-through rates are Hobbies (5.1%), Media and Publishing (4.7%), and Government (3.6%) according to the same research. (Source)
The industries with the lowest CTR are Restaurant (1.25%), Restaurant and Venue (1.3%), and Public Relation (1.6%). (Source)
Regarding open rates, the leader industry with the most email opens is again Hobbies (28.5%), followed by Arts and Artists (27.2%) and Religion (26.5%). (Source)
In contrast, the industry with the lowest open rate is Daily Deals and eCoupons (15.2%). E-commerce comes in the second with 16.8%. The third place is for Vitamin Supplements (17.3%). (Source)
Regarding the unsubscription rate, the industry with the lowest number of unsubscribes is Daily Deals and eCoupons (0.10%), followed by Media and Publishing (0.12%) and Government (0.13%). (Source)
Construction is the industry with the most unsubscribes (0.43%), followed by Restaurant and Venue (0.42%), and Photo and Video (0.40%). (Source)
CampaignMonitor research among U.S. audience revealed that 52.7% of the correspondents check their emails more than 10 times a day. (Source)
According to the same research, 66% of the correspondents said email is their preferred way of communication with retail brands. (Source)
Regarding entertainment brands and travel & hospitality, email was still the leader with 55% for both sectors. Digital media & publishing brands generated 56% in favor of email, and non-profit brands – 53% accordingly. (Source)
The research also shows that 76% of the correspondents agree that retail brands are sending them relevant content, followed by entertainment industry (63%) and travel & hospitality (59%). (Source)
Overall, the preference of email personalization from brands across industry is high: 87% for Media and Publishing, 85% for Entertainment, 84% for Traveling, 83% for Non-profit, and 79% for Retail brands. (Source)
In terms of generation, the research shows that millennials prefer more personalized content than baby boomers regarding received emails from brands across all industries. (Source)
Millennials are far more likely to take action based on a brand’s email across all industries in comparison to other age groups, according to the same research by CampaignMonitor. (Source)

We hope you’ve found these email marketing statistics useful. If you have done some testing and research yourself, you are more than welcome to share your observations in the Comments’ section below.

Meanwhile, enjoy these 60+ Little Email Marketing Tips for Your Big Email Marketing Success.