Email marketing benchmarks are a great way to see how your email campaigns compare to the competition.
By analyzing key performance metrics, you can pinpoint your email marketing strategy’s strengths and weaknesses. From there, it’s possible to optimize your email marketing campaigns.
Email marketing platforms usually let you see your conversion rates and engagement rates (e.g. opens, bounces, and clicks). But what makes a good open rate? How can you tell if your campaign performance holds up against industry standards?
To help you out, we’ve pulled together email marketing data from the latest industry benchmarks. Read on to learn more.
Table of Contents
Email marketing benchmark by metric
Email marketing benchmarks look at the industry average for the following email marketing metrics:
- Average open rate: percentage of recipients who open your email campaign
- Average click-through rate (CTR): percentage of recipients who click on a link in your campaign (based on the total number of recipients)
- Average click-to-open rate (CTOR): the percentage of recipients who both open your email and click on a link (based on the total number of email opens)
- Average unsubscribe rate: percentage of recipients who click the unsubscribe link
- Average bounce rate: percentage of email that were not delivered successfully. Soft bounces are due to temporary reasons (e.g. full inbox, large attachments). Hard bounces are caused by permanent factors (e.g. invalid email addresses).
Here’s the average email open rate, click-through rate, unsubscribe rate, and bounce rate across industries.
| Email KPI | Open rate | Click-through rate | Unsubscribe rate | Bounce rate |
| Overall rate | 21.89% | 3.96% | 0.15% | 0.51% |
Source: Brevo Email Marketing Benchmark 2023, based on campaign data of Brevo customers over 12 months (January 2022 – December 2022)
Other benchmarks have seen an average open rate of 37.72% and click-through rate of 2.00% across industries (Source: Constant Contact Average industry rates for email as of March 2024).
Email marketing benchmark by region
Email marketing metrics differ slightly across regions. Here are a few findings to keep in mind.
- North America has a lower open and click-through rate, as well as a slightly higher unsubscribe rate compared to other regions.
- Asia-Pacific (APAC) has lower engagement rates (i.e. open and click rates). However, the unsubscribe rate is also lower than in other regions.
- Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) has higher engagement rates. Unsubscribe rates are also higher relative to other regions.
- Latin America (LATAM) has higher open and click rates, plus low unsubscribe rates. That makes email a strong marketing channel in this region.
| Region | Open rate | Click-through rate | Unsubscribe rate | Bounce rate |
| North America | 20.74% | 3.06% | 0.17% | 0.57% |
| APAC | 20.32% | 2.83% | 0.11% | 0.58% |
| EMEA | 21.34% | 4.88% | 0.19% | 0.39% |
| LATAM | 23.61% | 3.29% | 0.06% | 0.63% |
Source: Brevo Email Marketing Benchmark 2023
Email marketing benchmark by industry
Email marketing metrics can also vary widely by industry. Here are the highest and lowest industries according to different industry benchmarks.
Top-performing industries
These are the top industries based on Brevo’s 2023 email marketing benchmark:
- Non-profits have the highest open rate and the lowest unsubscription rate.
- Science organizations have the highest email click-through rate and some of the lowest unsubscription rates.
- The Religion & Spirituality industry comes in second with a very high open rate and click rate.
- The Sports & Hobbies industry has the lowest email bounce rate.
- Ecommerce businesses have low bounce rates. However, they also have some of the highest unsubscribe rates.
Other industry benchmarks have found that Travel & Tourism ranks high for email campaign performance, with an average open rate of 40.02% (Source: Constant Contact Average industry rates for email as of March 2024).
Here’s more campaign performance data from some of the highest-performing industries.
| Industry | Open rate | Click-through rate | Click-to-open rate | Unsubscribe rate | Bounce rate |
| Government | 46.94% | 3.87% | 8.24% | 0.1% | 0.37% |
| Nonprofits | 46.49% | 3.78% | 8.14% | 0.17% | 0.42% |
| Religion | 44.24% | 5.11% | 11.54% | 0.17% | 0.31% |
| Blogger | 43% | 5.25% | 12.22% | 0.18% | 0.26% |
| Telecommunications | 40.52% | 4.89% | 12.06% | 0.06% | 0.18% |
Source: MailerLite Email Marketing Benchmark 2023, based on campaign data of MailerLite customers in the USA, Canada, and the UK
Lower-performing industries
According to Brevo’s email marketing benchmark, News & Politics has the lowest email performance, with the highest bounce rate and high unsubscription rates.
Another industry benchmark found that Technology Services has a low average open rate of 24.28% (Source: Constant Contact Average industry rates for email as of March 2024).
Here’s more campaign performance data from some of the lower-performing industries.
| Industry | Open rate | Click-through rate | Click-to-open rate | Unsubscribe rate | Bounce rate |
| Business and Financial services | 39.48% | 1.1% | 2.79% | 0.17% | 0.27% |
| Ecommerce | 38.58% | 2.08% | 5.4% | 0.25% | 0.31% |
| Marketing and Advertising | 33.62% | 2.02% | 6% | 0.18% | 0.21% |
| Games | 32.02% | 3.75% | 11.7% | 0.15% | 0.16% |
| Construction | 32.48% | 4.55% | 14.01% | 0.3% | 1.31% |
Source: MailerLite Email Marketing Benchmark 2023
Email marketing benchmark by day of the week
When you send out your email marketing campaigns can also have an impact on performance.
- Best days to send an email campaign: Monday and Tuesday have the highest open and click-through rates.
- Worst days to send an email campaign: Saturday and Sunday have the lowest open and click-through rates.
Here are a few email performance metrics by day of the week.
| Day | Open rate | Click-through rate | Click-to-open rate | Unsubscribe rate |
| Sunday | 20.3% | 2.1% | 10.1% | 0.1% |
| Monday | 22.0% | 2.3% | 10.6% | 0.1% |
| Tuesday | 21.8% | 2.4% | 10.8% | 0.1% |
| Wednesday | 21.8% | 2.3% | 10.7% | 0.1% |
| Thursday | 21.7% | 2.3% | 10.7% | 0.1% |
| Friday | 21.6% | 2.2% | 10.1% | 0.1% |
| Saturday | 20.5% | 2.1% | 10.1% | 0.1% |
Source: Campaign Monitor 2022 Email Marketing Benchmarks Report
Further reading: Best Time to Send an Email: Day, Hour, Industry [Data Study]
Email marketing benchmark by deliverability
Different factors can determine whether your campaigns end up in the inbox or the spam filter. Here are the main email deliverability statistics, relative to the total number of emails sent.
- Inbox placement rate: percentage of emails delivered to the inbox
- Spam placement rate: percentage of emails delivered to the spam folder
- Missing rate: percentage of emails that did not arrive in the inbox or spam folder
Email deliverability by mailbox provider
Mailbox providers can also have a big impact on email deliverability. Here’s where campaigns tend to land according to the top email clients.
| Inbox | Spam | Missing | |
| Gmail | 88.1% | 3.8% | 8.1% |
| Microsoft | 82.5% | 6.6% | 10.9% |
| Yahoo! | 87.4% | 3.8% | 8.8% |
| Apple | 66.3% | 22.9% | 10.8% |
Source: Validity Email Deliverability 2023 Benchmark
Note: Apple introduced Mail Privacy Protection in September 2021, which made it harder to track open rates.
Further reading: How to Prepare for Gmail and Yahoo! Sender Requirements
Email deliverability by region
Email deliverability rates also vary by region. There are also significant differences between countries within the same region. Here are a few insights to keep in mind.
- Europe has among the highest inbox placement rates in the world. This is due in part to the GDPR, which wrote several digital marketing best practices into the law.
- North America deliverability rates differ between countries. Canada has higher inbox placement rates than the US. However, this is starting to change with recent US privacy laws (e.g. CAN-SPAM, CCPA).
- APAC deliverability rates also vary greatly within the region. Australia and China have much higher inbox placements compared to India.
| Inbox | Spam | Missing | |
| North America | 84.6% | 6.3% | 9.1% |
| Europe | 91% | 2% | 10.9% |
| APAC | 78.2% | 3.6% | 8.8% |
| LATAM | 87.4% | 6.4% | 10.8% |
Source: Validity Email Deliverability 2023 Benchmark
How to optimize your email marketing metrics
Are your campaigns falling short of email marketing benchmarks? Improve your email strategy by following these best practices.
- Use double opt-in. This will help you avoid collecting invalid email addresses and comply with data privacy regulations.
- Do regular email list cleaning. Remove inactive subscribers at least once or twice a year.
- Send tailored campaigns with email list segmentation. That way, you’re sure to send relevant content to your target audience.
- Run A/B tests. Boost opens and clicks with email subject line testing. You can also A/B test call-to-actions (CTAs) and email content.
- Send personalized emails. Adding a name to the subject line or preview text will help you grab attention in a crowded inbox.
- Schedule campaigns with marketing automation. Brevo’s Best time feature lets you send campaigns at the best time for each individual recipient.
Stack up against email marketing benchmarks
It’s not always easy to get good email marketing rates. That’s why you need the right email marketing platform.
Brevo gives you the tools you need to make your email marketing strategy a success. Use it to send both transactional emails and marketing campaigns. Or go beyond email with Brevo’s multichannel features, from landing pages to social media.
Optimize your email strategy with BrevoFree plan includes access to all core email features, 300 emails/day, 40+ email templates, and customizable signup forms to grow your email list. |
