Email Marketing Trends45 statistics40 sources#Email Marketing Statistics#2026 Benchmarks#AI Automation#Personalization Trends
45 Email Marketing Trends Statistics (2026)
2026 email marketing benchmarks: AI adoption rates, automation ROI, segmentation impact, and deliverability metrics from Litmus, Klaviyo, Omnisend, and Statista.
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Key Takeaways
- 4.73 billion people worldwide will use email in 2026
- 63% of marketers now use AI tools within their email programs
- Automated emails drove 37% of all email-generated sales from just 2% of total email volume in 2024
- 43.46% average email open rate recorded across all industries in 2025, up from 42.35% in 2024
- 760% increase in email revenue reported by marketers using advanced segmentation
Email Usage and Scale
Email remains the most widely adopted digital communication channel globally, with user bases expanding and daily email volume continuing to grow. These foundational numbers establish why email marketing remains essential for reaching audiences at scale in 2026.
1
4.73 billion people worldwide will use email in 2026
Email's global user base is projected to reach 4.73 billion in 2026, representing well over half the world's total population. That consistent annual growth of roughly 100 million new users makes email the single largest addressable channel in digital marketing.
2
392.5 billion emails will be sent and received every day in 2026
Daily global email volume is forecast to hit 392.5 billion in 2026, up from 376.4 billion in 2025. That figure represents a compound annual growth rate of roughly 4%, sustained consistently despite the rise of messaging apps and social platforms.
3
56% of the world's total population uses email as of 2025
With 4.59 billion active email users in 2025, email reaches more than half of every person on the planet. No other single marketing or communication channel comes close to that level of global penetration.
4
75.1% of all internet users worldwide accessed email services as of Q2 2025
According to Statista data sourced from Meltwater, DataReportal, and We Are Social, three-quarters of the global online population used email on a monthly basis by mid-2025. The reach is even higher in specific markets, with Nigeria at 98.1% and South Africa at 96.8%.
5
88% of email users check their inbox multiple times a day
ZeroBounce's 2024 data shows that 88% of users open their email more than once daily, with 39% checking three to five times. This habitual inbox behavior gives email marketers repeated daily touchpoints that no paid social or display channel can reliably match.
6
86% of business professionals prefer email for workplace communication
Email remains the dominant tool for professional communication, with 86% of business professionals choosing it over calls, messaging apps, or social platforms. That preference makes it the most direct channel for B2B outreach and client-facing marketing programs.
AI Adoption and Impact
Artificial intelligence is now embedded across the email marketing stack, from content generation to send-time optimization and predictive segmentation. These statistics show how AI adoption translates to revenue gains and engagement improvements for early adopters.
8
63% of marketers now use AI tools within their email programs
AI adoption in email marketing has crossed the majority threshold, with nearly two-thirds of marketers using AI tools for tasks ranging from content generation to segmentation. This signals that AI has moved from early-adopter territory to standard practice across teams of all sizes.
9
49% of marketers use generative AI for static email copy in 2025, up from near zero two years prior
The Litmus and Validity State of Email 2025 report, based on a survey of 692 marketing professionals across five countries, found that almost half of email marketers now use generative AI to write static copy. Separately, the number of marketers using AI-powered image generation jumped 340% year-over-year.
10
70% of email marketers expect up to half of their email operations to be AI-driven by end of 2026
According to Litmus State of Email 2025 research, the majority of email marketers anticipate significant AI integration into their workflows within the next two years. An additional 18% predict that AI will handle between 50% and 75% of their email marketing tasks by the same date.
11
Marketers using AI for personalization report 41% higher revenue and a 13.44% increase in click-through rates
This widely cited Statista-sourced benchmark shows that AI-driven personalization directly lifts the two metrics that matter most to email marketers: revenue and engagement. The gains stem from AI's ability to analyze behavioral signals at scale and dynamically match content, timing, and offers to each recipient.
12
41.29% of marketers who have used AI report increased revenue as a direct result
Statista data cited by GetResponse shows that more than four in ten marketers who have adopted AI tools attribute measurable revenue growth to that adoption. This figure reinforces AI as a revenue driver rather than a cost center, making the business case for investment straightforward.
Automation and Flows
Automated email sequences and trigger-based flows dramatically outperform traditional campaign sends across all engagement and revenue metrics. The data shows that automation is no longer optional but the primary revenue engine for email marketing.
16
Automated emails drove 37% of all email-generated sales from just 2% of total email volume in 2024
Omnisend's analysis of nearly 24 billion emails confirms that automated flows punch far above their weight. One in three people who clicked an automated message made a purchase, compared to just one in 18 for scheduled campaign sends.
17
Automated emails generate $2.87 per email, compared to just $0.18 for standard campaign sends, a 15.9x difference
Revenue per email is the clearest measure of automation's financial impact. While campaigns rely on list size and timing, automated flows deliver contextually relevant messages that convert at a dramatically higher rate, making per-send economics incomparable.
18
Klaviyo flows generate $1.58 per recipient versus $0.06 for campaign sends, a 28x revenue gap
March 2026 data from Klaviyo-powered stores shows the automation advantage is even wider on that platform than the industry average. For well-optimized stores, flow revenue should represent 50 to 60% of total email revenue.
19
Abandoned cart email sequences with 3 emails generated $24.9 million compared to $3.8 million for a single-email campaign, a 6x+ revenue difference
Klaviyo's analysis makes a compelling case for multi-step cart recovery flows over single-message campaigns. Each additional touchpoint in a sequence meaningfully compounds recovered revenue, reinforcing that flow architecture, not just send volume, drives outcomes.
20
Abandoned cart, welcome, and browse abandonment emails together account for 87% of all automated email orders
Omnisend's 2025 report shows brands do not need dozens of complex flows to see automation revenue. Three core trigger types dominate automated order generation, making them the highest-priority flows for any email program to build and optimize first.
21
Automated emails see 42.1% open rates versus 25.2% for campaign sends, with click rates of 5.4% versus 1.5%
The engagement gap between triggered flows and broadcast campaigns is consistent across both opens and clicks. Because automated messages are sent in response to a specific subscriber action, they arrive at the moment of highest intent, which directly lifts both metrics.
Engagement Metrics and Benchmarks
Open rates, click-through rates, and click-to-open rates reveal how subscribers interact with email. While open rates have become less reliable due to Apple Mail Privacy Protection, CTR and CTOR now serve as the most meaningful engagement signals in 2026.
23
43.46% average email open rate recorded across all industries in 2025, up from 42.35% in 2024
MailerLite's analysis of over 3.6 million campaigns found open rates ticked upward year-over-year. However, these figures are inflated by Apple Mail Privacy Protection, which pre-loads tracking pixels regardless of whether a subscriber actually reads the email, making open rate a directional signal rather than a precise measure of engagement.
24
2.09% average email click rate in 2025, a slight improvement over 2.00% in 2024
Across 3.6 million campaigns spanning 46 industries, MailerLite found click rate edging upward. Because click rate does not depend on open tracking, it is currently the most reliable indicator of email newsletter engagement and is unaffected by Apple Mail Privacy Protection.
25
6.81% average click-to-open rate (CTOR) in 2025, up from 5.63% in 2024
CTOR measures the percentage of openers who actually clicked something, making it a purer test of content quality than open rate alone. The 21% year-over-year increase suggests that marketers who kept subscribers opening were also getting better at delivering content worth clicking.
26
Apple Mail accounts for approximately 46% of email clients, significantly skewing open rate data upward since iOS 15
Because Apple Mail pre-loads email content for nearly half of all email users, a large share of reported opens are phantom signals rather than real reads. This is the primary reason email marketers in 2026 are shifting their primary KPIs to CTR, CTOR, and revenue per email instead of open rate.
27
Segmented email campaigns generate 30% more opens and 50% more click-throughs than non-segmented campaigns
Mailchimp's benchmark data consistently shows that targeted sends outperform batch-and-blast campaigns on every core engagement metric. For marketers looking to improve CTR without redesigning their emails, audience segmentation remains the highest-leverage tactic available.
Segmentation and Personalization
Segmented and personalized campaigns consistently outperform generic broadcasts, with revenue lifts ranging from 23% to over 700% depending on segmentation strategy. Personalization at scale is now powered by AI and behavioral triggers rather than manual effort.
31
760% increase in email revenue reported by marketers using advanced segmentation
Campaign Monitor's research found that segmented campaigns can generate up to 760% more revenue than non-segmented ones. This is the ceiling of what behavioral and demographic segmentation can unlock when executed consistently across a full email program.
32
Segmented email campaigns produce 30% more opens and 50% more click-throughs than unsegmented sends
According to HubSpot's 2025 State of Marketing Report, segmentation delivers measurable lift at every stage of engagement. More opens and more clicks translate directly to higher downstream revenue, making list segmentation one of the highest-return tactics in email marketing.
33
Behavior-triggered emails generate 10x more revenue than standard marketing emails
Omnisend's platform data shows that emails sent in direct response to user actions, such as cart abandonment, browse activity, or post-purchase signals, dramatically outperform scheduled campaign sends on a per-email revenue basis. This makes behavioral triggers the single highest-yield automation investment for most email teams.
34
96% of marketers say personalized experiences directly increased sales
HubSpot's 2025 State of Marketing Report found near-universal agreement among marketers that personalization produces measurable sales impact. The finding reflects how deeply personalization has moved from a differentiator to a baseline expectation across both B2B and B2C email programs.
35
Personalized email subject lines increase open rates by 26%
Campaign Monitor data shows that simply tailoring a subject line to the recipient lifts open rates by 26% compared to generic subject lines. This remains one of the lowest-effort, highest-impact personalization tactics available to email marketers at any list size.
Deliverability and Authentication
Inbox placement depends increasingly on authentication, engagement signals, and sender reputation rather than volume or subject line tactics. These metrics reveal critical thresholds for maintaining deliverability and avoiding spam folders in 2026.
39
83.5% global average inbox placement rate means roughly 1 in 6 legitimate marketing emails is never seen
According to Validity's 2025 Benchmark Report, the global average inbox placement rate sits at 83.5%. This gap between server-level delivery and actual inbox reach is where most senders silently lose campaign performance and revenue.
40
Only 60% of emails reached a visible mailbox location in 2025, despite a global deliverability health score of 86 out of 100
Unspam's analysis of millions of email tests throughout 2025 found that approximately 36% of emails were filtered into spam folders. The finding reveals that technical delivery metrics now overstate real inbox reach by approximately 40%, making inbox placement testing a critical diagnostic tool.
41
Global DMARC adoption surged 64% between 2023 and 2025, rising from 29.1% to 47.7% of top domains
EasyDMARC's 2025 adoption report, covering 1.8 million domains, found that enforcement-level DMARC policies grew by 50% over the same period. However, more than 80% of domains globally still have no DMARC record or use a non-enforcing p=none policy, leaving the majority of email infrastructure exposed to spoofing.
42
In 2024, 53.8% of senders used DMARC, an 11% increase from 42.6% in 2023, driven by Google and Yahoo bulk sender mandates
Mailgun's State of Email Deliverability 2025 survey of 1,100 global senders found DMARC adoption rising sharply after Google and Yahoo made it mandatory for bulk senders in February 2024. Among senders who made changes due to the new requirements, nearly 80% updated their email authentication practices.
43
Fully authenticated domains using SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are 2.7x more likely to reach the inbox than unauthenticated domains
Despite this clear inbox advantage, only 7.6% of domains across the top 10 million internet domains currently enforce DMARC, per Fortra Q2 2025 data cited in B2B deliverability research. The gap between authentication's proven value and actual adoption remains a major deliverability vulnerability for most senders.
Sources
All statistics on this page are sourced from the following 40 references.
