Email Fact Sheet

Email is a workhorse—dependable, effective, and enduring. Despite the rise of social media, messaging platforms, and mobile apps, email remains a dominant means of communication. Since the first email was sent more than 50 years ago, its use has only grown—and shows no signs of stopping. The number of worldwide email users is expected to increase to nearly 4.6 billion by 2025, according to research from The Radicati Group.

Email hasn’t just persisted. It’s also a medium that content creatives have reimagined many times over. From the advent of the drip campaign to the evolution of personalization and the new boom in newsletter subscription services such as Substack and Ghost, email is a channel that seemingly knows no bounds.

In this fact sheet, we provide helpful facts and statistics as well as trends and best practices. 

Email Trends

Email use has experienced relentless growth, and accelerated further during the global pandemic. “Mailgun, the email delivery service used by Substack and Ghost, said the online publishing industry had more than quadrupled its [email] sending volume over the last two years.”  — The New York Times

Worldwide daily email traffic continues to balloon. “The total number of business and consumer emails sent and received per day will exceed 319 billion in 2021, and is forecast to grow to over 376 billion by year-end 2025.” — Email Statistics Report, 2023-2027, The Radicati Group

Nearly 40% of senders have simplified their emails to increase authenticity and nearly a third have also adapted their tone to become more human. — Mailjet

Email has strong ROI. When it comes to email marketing, companies make an average of $36 for every U.S. dollar they spend on email marketing. Among many industries, the retail, ecommerce, and consumer goods business had the highest return on investment (ROI), at $45. — DMA Marketer Email Tracker 2021

Email remains a top marketing channel. Most effective B2B marketing channels are “in-person events (56%) and webinars (51%) as producing better results. Email (44%), organic social media platforms (44%), blogs (40%) and email newsletters (39%)…”’ – B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends: Outlook for 2024

Newsletter subscription services grow. There are now more than 2 million paying subscribers on Substack. The top 10 authors on Substack collectively make over $25M per year. — Backlinko  

Email marketing revenue continues to grow. The number of email users continues to grow each year. In businesses across the globe, email continues as a core digital marketing format. In 2024, email marketing revenue is projected to surpass 9.5 billion U.S. dollars. – E-mail marketing worldwide – statistics & facts

AI is making an impact on email. While artificial intelligence (AI) is not yet ready to fully automate your email tasks, “two emergent use cases for AI in email are shifting tones and brainstorming potential subject lines. AI tools can be used to analyze data from top-tier email subject lines—those with impressive open rates or sales conversions—and spit out a hundred good ideas.” – How AI Could Transform Email, Wired.

The role of AI in email marketing. AI can assist in email marketing in a variety of ways: “Managing campaigns: AI can help marketers understand which elements of campaigns are working… and which need improving. Content creation: Generative AI platforms can help write, outline and edit email copy. And of course, generate images as well. Brainstorming: Marketers can use AI to help them brainstorm subject lines, newsletter topics and more. Scaling output: AI can help speed up time-consuming processes, like topic brainstorming, creation and email marketing campaign analysis.” – 9 Top Email Marketing Trends (2024 & 2025)

Email Benchmarking + Best Practices

Whether you’re sending marketing emails for a Fortune 500 company, notifications for a growing SaaS product, or launching a new subscription newsletter, there are a host of best practices you can follow to make the most of every email you send. 

Personalize subject lines. Emails with personalized subject lines are 26% more likely to be opened than those without — Campaign Monitor 

Pay attention to open time. “In the United States, the most popular reading time for email is the morning. About 7% of all opens happen at 10am, and 21% of all opens happen between 9am and noon local time.” — State of Email Engagement, Litmus 

Take advantage of segmentation. Segmentation helps you convert subscribers into customers. “When you target specific audiences by segmenting them and sharing more relevant content with email segmentation, they’re more likely to convert into customers because you’re providing them with the content they need to see to spark action.” — Mailchimp

Create an automated onboarding series. Organizations large and small can (and should) do this. But setting up an automated email onboarding series is a great way for small businesses in particular to enhance their content marketing. — The Content Advantage 

“Triggered” campaigns bring results. Emails based on changes in customers’ noted behaviors, called “triggered” campaigns, can be personalized based on the action taken by targets. Such personalization in digital commerce “improves the following KPIs: Conversion rates (88% increase); Order values (41% increase); Recommendation acceptance (66% increase); Reduced cart abandonment (39% decrease).” – Email Marketing: Proven Strategies to Boost Email Conversion Success

Protect against phishing attacks. Implementation of domain-based message authentication, reporting and conformance (DMARC) is important to protect against phishing attacks and to protect brand reputation. “implementation is technically simple but requires project management skills and communications across multiple groups.” – Implement DMARC to Prevent Business Email Compromise

Mobile devices grow as common email access method. Mobile devices account for 60% of email campaign reads. Most business people, prospective employees, and others prefer checking mail on mobile phones over any other device. Ensure your email renders correctly. – Mobile Email Statistics 2023: Tap Into Trends, TechReport

Follow the law. The laws governing the use of email for marketing have changed over time and vary by country. Email marketing platforms such as Mailchimp, Constant Contact, and Sendinblue build in functionality to help ensure you follow these laws. However, you still need to understand email regulations and stay up to date on any changes. — Understanding Email Laws and Regulations, Campaign Monitor 

Bottom Line

Email is a tried-and-true way to deepen your relationships with your customers or audiences. The facts above can help you use email wisely to promote your content and advance your content strategy.