The email marketing industry is evolving constantly. One day, it’s a regulatory update, and the next day, it’s spam filter modifications.
As a marketer, you must adapt to such dynamics and upgrade your strategies.
So the question is, are you on top of the latest patterns and movements in the email marketing scene? Are your strategies up-to-date based on email marketing trends and statistics in 2024?
Data-driven insights have helped me discover key metrics that benchmark performance and boost inbox engagement. So, I’m going to share the top trends and stats in email marketing today.
So, let’s dive into the world of numbers and strategies to make 2024 a successful email marketing year for your business.
Email Marketing Statistics 2023-2024
In 2023, 4.4 billion people used emails, and the number is expected to reach nearly 4.5 billion by the end of 2024.
So how will you reach this massive audience? Let’s take a look at some of the essential email marketing statistics in 2023-24 and analyze them.
1. About 83% of marketers have succeeded in driving the highest ROI through email. Email drives the highest ROI, i.e., $36 earned from every $1 spent.
Most marketers prefer email marketing to other channels, even social media. With over 300 billion emails exchanged in 2023, email campaigns can drive unparalleled reach.
2. Marketers consider email engagement one of the primary metrics to evaluate content performance (71% B2B, 81% B2C).
You’ll need advanced email marketing software to monitor opens, clicks, and subscribers. Use emails and tools for content distribution, email digest drives, etc.
3. The average time readers spend going through a newsletter is 51 seconds. Only 19% of receivers read the full newsletter.
You have less than a minute to grab a reader’s eyes – with hyper-personalized emails for each segment.
Make scannable content with short paragraphs, white space, etc. Your time starts now!
4. 47% of receivers choose to open emails based on the subject line. 17% read emails that have subject lines with 61-70 characters.
The open rate of emails is 36.5%.
You can boost yours with personalized and catchy subject lines. Also, keep them short so that they don’t get cut off, especially on mobile displays.
Here are two examples from my inbox:
Udemy (45 characters):
Asus (31 characters):
5. 62% of marketers use hyper-personalization through dynamic content in emails.
Send targeted emails to each recipient. It can be a data-backed recommendation for a segment based on their activities, a welcome note, or just addressing the recipient in the subject line.
Check out this example by Linkedin Learning, using the user’s name while creating excitement:
6. 41.9% of emails are opened from mobile devices. The email engagement rate from mobile devices is 60%
Optimize your email content and layout to adapt to different mobile screens. Pay attention to elements like a single-column layout, responsive design, minimal scrolling, etc.
7. Embedding videos in emails boost the CTR by 200%-300%.
Videos are captivating, engaging, and shareable. So, embed videos using HTML5.
Or, add your video link to a GIF or static image with a play button. You can also use an animated play button.
8. 90% of marketers have found the use of generative AI for email creation effective.
By replacing time-intensive content creation and optimization with generative AI, you can transform your email marketing game. Use it to generate effective body copies, subject lines, etc.
Email Marketing Statistics 2023-2024
If you look at the current practices, you’ll find several key trends that are set to shape the future of email marketing. Let’s take a quick look at such trends:
1. Hyper-Personalization and Strategic Segmentation
Tailoring messages to reach out to subscribers on a personal level is not only trendy but also necessary. Brands leverage data to provide tailored messages to make subscribers feel seen.
Take a look at this email from Udemy that mentions the recipient’s name right in the subject line of the welcome email:
To fine-tune personalization, it’s also important to focus on segmentation. Your recipients can be categorized on the basis of activities, tastes and preferences, location, and more.
In 2024, message tailoring will be data-backed and precise to make them more relevant. As a result, you will see open and click-through rates rise dramatically.
Here’s an email marketing tip from Shantanu Pandey, founder of Tenet
To improve your email marketing strategy, start using AI for better personalization. AI allows you to quickly analyze customer data, enabling personalized messaging that resonates with each recipient.
It can generate engaging subject lines, send customized emails, and restructure campaigns for maximum effectiveness. Additionally, AI helps maintain clean email lists by removing inactive subscribers and boosting engagement rates.
Shantanu Pandey, founder of Tenet, a growth marketing agency.
2. Privacy Protection
The majority of people believe businesses ask for way too much information. So they often stop doing business if they’re concerned that their privacy is not respected.
For instance, I contacted a jewelry company recently. Soon, it bombarded me with several survey emails asking for personal information.
I was so uncomfortable that I unsubscribed.
- Your emails must ensure recipients that their data is protected.
- Gather only essential information and allow options to change preferences.
- Make sure they comply with the GDPR.
3. Intriguing Feedback Surveys
Speaking of surveys, I must share with you this interesting email from Social Media Examiner: Michael Stelzner:
This is a section from a newsletter on scalable sales strategies.
It explains how my feedback is going to help ME! It also uses an eye-catching illustration for a pop of colors.
Feedback surveys can help your business understand your subscribers better. And when you ask for it, make your audience realize how valuable their opinions are.
Notice how the invitation above gives recipients a sense of authority and choice. Also, consider open-ended and detailed answers through feedback forms rather than giving options to choose an answer.
4. Illustrations and Animation
Gone are the days when emails had nothing but boring text in the body. It’s time to amp up your email marketing game with images, GIFs, videos, etc.
A noteworthy example is Samsung’s email. It used animation to notify people about its upcoming product, the Galaxy AI.
It packs all the required information into a concise, attractive email with a clear CTA. In fact, the emails that followed this also used nothing but illustrations to share the required information.
Images and videos make the content brief and scannable. Remember, you have little time to communicate through this channel – and visual storytelling is a great tool to keep them intrigued.
5. Mobile Optimization
Make your emails mobile-friendly with just a few simple tweaks. Short and compelling subject lines in 25 characters can go hand-in-hand with succinct body copies.
I recommend bulleted lists, short paragraphs, and single-column layouts. Don’t forget to use abundant white space for better scannability on the go.
Also, remember to test the campaign of different divides to check how it looks on phones and tablets. That includes checking the size of images or videos you place.
6. Sense of Urgency and FOMO
Curate emails to grab your recipient’s attention – and do it fast. For that, you can offer exclusive and limited-period offers and deals.
If you can create a sense of fear of missing out in your email, you may see greater engagement. For that, highlight the value you’re offering, and how it can go away quickly.
Here’s an example:
By giving a reminder of a discount that will only last one more day, Udemy surely intrigued me to check out its courses at shaved rates.
7. Email Deliverability
Is your email reaching your target audience at the right time? Is it able to go past advanced spam filters to catch your audience’s eyes and generate the desired response?
Advanced email marketing and automation tools don’t just ensure that drip email campaigns are on schedule. They also enable you to test and monitor deliverability.
New tactics to improve email deliverability include permission-based list building. Email designs optimized for inboxing are also becoming a standard practice.
8. Data-Driven Campaign Strategization
Modern email marketing does not rely on the instincts and experiences of marketers. It incorporates data-driven insights and takes into consideration metrics like open rates, CTRs, ROI, etc.
The emphasis is on analytics to measure the success of an email campaign. They can reveal what works and what doesn’t.
Accordingly, you can structure future email campaigns.
Use email marketing tools to draw data on KPIs like opens, clicks, conversions, and more. Don’t be afraid to experiment in various ways to refine your programs.
9. AI Integration
Generative AI has taken the world of marketing by storm. You can leverage this unique advancement to explore new opportunities in email marketing.
You can use it for repetitive and creative tasks like generating ideas for tailored copies or subject lines. Intelligent assistants are gradually gaining popularity as a tool to enhance personalization.
Machine learning algorithms are powered to analyze data. So, you can use it wisely to zero in on the optimal send time, product recommendations, content customization, etc.
Conclusion
Based on the latest statistics and trends, you can craft campaigns to suit different subscriber segments. When you refine your strategies based on these, you can cater to various consumer preferences
So it’s time to gauge where email marketing is headed – and implement your learnings to build connections that will serve you in 2024 and beyond!
