13 Essential Email Marketing Statistics You Need to Know For 2018

For many, email marketing involves more than a little guesswork.

But it doesn’t have to.

When in doubt, look to the facts and stats.

Here are some of the top stats for email marketing today, and how they can help you create your strategy for 2018.

Email Marketing Statistic #1: As of 2017, there are 3.7 billion global email users. This number is predicted to grow to 4.1 billion users by 2021.

Thought I’d leave this right at the top.

This just goes to show that despite any naysayers or nonbelievers, email continues to be widely used.

And that number’s only going up.

Chances are, your target audience makes up a few of those billions.

Email Marketing Statistic #2: Email is the third most influential source of information for B2B audiences, behind only colleague recommendations and industry-specific thought leaders.

(Source: ImaginePub)

Again, this one’s pretty straightforward: if you don’t have one already, start brainstorming an email marketing strategy. ASAP.

But let’s break it down a little.

Think about those other two factors – colleague recommendations and thought leaders. Those are some pretty solid information sources. In fact, it’s hard not to be influenced by either of the above.

These are sources you trust, and therefore are naturally are more likely to act on their information.

And email comes in right behind them.

That says a lot about email and its ability to place your brand in a position of trust with your readers.

But to get there, you have to tread carefully. You have to build the relationship before the sale.

To do that, make sure your emails are customer-centric. Don’t rush into the sale; instead, nurture the lead.

Send them helpful resources, tips, and advice. Speak to them like you would your friends and colleagues, not your sales prospects.

Think about their pain points and ways you or your product can help (without making it sound like a sales pitch).

Email Marketing Statistic #3: CTRs are 47% higher for B2B email campaigns than B2C email campaigns.

(Source: Emailmarketingplatform.com)

This information is absolute gold for B2Bs.

In many things marketing related, it seems like B2Cs have the run of it. They can slide into social media with (relative) ease and entice customers with deals and promo codes.

But they don’t have the advantage when it comes to email. That belongs to B2Bs.

And that’s great.

But knowing you have the possibility of earning a higher CTR isn’t a strategy.

To really cash in on your high CTRs, you have to everything possible to entice your customers to complete the click through.

That means doing the following

• Crafting attention-grabbing, unignorable subject lines
• Segmenting your audience and sending targeted content
• Creating a sense of urgency with your content
• Including strong CTAs – and try to use buttons instead of links
• Using a clean, focused, and easy-to-navigate layout
• Consider including a P.S. section

Email Marketing Statistic #4: 59% of B2B marketers say email is their most effective channel in terms of revenue generation.

(Source: MyEmma)

CTRs are cool and all, but you know what’s even better? Increased revenue.

Well there’s more good news for you: email’s a proven revenue-booster for B2Bs. In fact for the majority, it’s the most effective channel for more revenue.

While there’s no perfect formula for gaining more revenue and a higher ROI, there are few ways to make sure you’re on track to a conversion.

The first – and this applies across the board – is to segment your list.

Again, you shouldn’t be going for the immediate sale with prospects who have only just signed up for your newsletters.

Instead, you should be sending welcome emails that demonstrate various aspects of your expertise to push them further down the sales funnel.

Once they are in the bottom of the funnel, you can try cross-selling in your emails to introduce them to new, related products or services you offer.

Email Marketing Statistic #5: Welcome emails are incredibly effective: on average, 320% more revenue is attributed to them on a per email basis than other promotional emails.

(Source: Wordstream)

320%? That’s a pretty impressive number.

Don’t miss out on it by making sure you have a clear plan of action for every new email you receive.

Generally, welcome emails are the first step in a drip email strategy

They’re triggered when someone signs up for a newsletter, downloads an ebook, or submits any information to your site.

They do a few things:

• Welcome new readers
• Introduce your business
• Tell them what they can expect from your emails
• Thank the new subscriber
• Share helpful resources

And a bonus stat here: 65% of welcome emails range from 50-150 words in length.

So keep ‘em short.

Email Marketing Statistic #6: Email subscribers are 3x more likely to share content on social media than leads who came through another channel.

(Source: Quicksprout)

Here’s another opportunity for you.

Social media is a great place to connect with customers, and it’s even better if you can get those customers to start talking about you without you prompting them to.

A share on social media is a modern-day recommendation. It comes from someone who you already know and whose opinion you trust and therefore goes a lot farther than an endorsement from a brand itself.

Those shares are marketing magic, and you should jump on any chance to get them.

And as the stat above proves, email’s the best way to do it.

Always include links to your social media accounts in the emails you send, and don’t forget to simply ask your recipients to share.

Email Marketing Statistic #7 and #8: Segmented email campaigns have an open rate that is 14.32% higher than non-segmented campaigns, and click-throughs are 100.95% higher in segmented email campaigns than non-segmented campaigns.

(Source: MailChimp)

Yeah, segmentation’s still important.

Very important.

In fact, email segmentation was one of the most effective email strategies of 2017.

Like we touched on before, segmenting your lists ensures that you’re sending the right content to the right prospects.

No one wants to continuously receive information they don’t want or need, and doing will lead to unsubscribe, or worse: a spam flag.

For example, if you own a multi-store company and are hosting a daily deal for your San Diego location exclusively, you don’t want to be sending that information to your St. Louis subscribers.

That will just cause confusion and a few heated conversations.

Instead, segment your list by location.

Or, depending on your industry and strategy, segment by:

• Demographics and Profile (age, gender, social status)
• Psychographics (lifestyle, Attitudes, Interests, and Opinions)
• Behavioral (Purchases, email opens, click-throughs, website browsing, etc)

For more on how to segment your audience successfully, check out my guide here.

Email Marketing Statistic #9: Including video in an email can lead to open rate increases of 19% and click-through rate increases upwards of 50 percent!

(Source: Adelie Studios)

Think video’s just for social media and YouTube?

Think again.

Video is hot across the board, and email’s no exception.

One thing to know about video in email: most email clients don’t yet support the technical requirements needed to play a video in the actual email.

But clearly, that hasn’t stood in marketers way.

Take this example from Wistia.

They tested the following emails against each other, and found that 282 people clicked on version A (with the video thumbnail), and only 200 clicked on version B (the static image).

That’s a 40.83% higher engagement rate for the email that included the thumbnail.

For brands, that means they need a way to integrate their videos strategy with email.

Hopefully, you’ve already started experimenting with video. Whether it’s a product video, company introduction or expert take on an industry-related subject, including them in your emails will not only increase engagement but gain more exposure for your videos in general.

Email Marketing Statistics #10, #11, & #12:

80% of consumers are more likely to do business with a company if it offers a personalized experience.

By 2018 (as in, now) over 50% of companies will redirect investments towards customer experience innovations

81% of consumers want brands to understand them better and know when and when not to approach them.

(Source: Epsilon)

Personalization is no longer an option. It’s a must.

These days, customers expect you to cater to them. They expect that you know who they are and what kind of information they want.

Why? Because it’s part of the customer experience. And, according to Frost & Sullivan, customer experience will overtake price and product as the key brand differentiator by 2020.

Delivering on that experience starts with personalization. Personalized experiences delivered in an authentic way resonate with customers. They make them feel valued and appreciated.

And, (in case you’re wondering how all this fits into an article about email), email is one of the best places to put that personalization to use.

This goes beyond just including their first name in the subject line. It means building full customer personals and catering to each one.

To do so, you have to start with a plan. Most email software will help you sent targeted emails to the right people.

Beyond that, often the best way to really get to know your customers is to ask them.

Include forms and questionnaires in your sign-ups and throughout your website and emails. Ask them why they visited your site or became a user, and what problems they’d like to see addressed.

Beyond that, you can set up automated emails triggered by certain behaviors. These will help you send appropriate reactions to how your customers are acting in real time.  

Email Marketing Statistic #13: 8 in 10 emails users will likely access their email accounts over mobile devices in 2018.

You knew this one was coming.

The move towards mobile has been in full swing for a few years now, and it’s now overtaken desktop as the number one way readers receive emails.

As marketers, that means all your emails need to be mobile friendly.

So make sure your emails:

• Have short subject lines – typical desktop subject line displays around 60 characters, while mobile devices show only 25-30 characters
• Use a single-column template
• Have a large font type
• Have smaller images – this will decrease load times

Key Takeaways From These Email Marketing Statistics

We’ve covered a lot here, so here’s a quick rundown of what the above stats mean for your marketing in 2018:

• Build relationships before sales. Focus on rapport, customer service and trust in your initial emails
• Integrate your email strategy with other aspects of your marketing like social media to form a cohesive plan
• Always segment your audience to send the most relevant topics and information to the most qualified recipients
• Add in wow-factors like video to increase your click-throughs
• Personalization is a must. Form a strategy for collecting information about your subscribers and how you can use it in your messaging

Conclusion

And there you have it.

The must-know statistics to help you update and execute your email strategy.

Remember, audiences and how they receive information is changing. To keep up, your strategy needs to change as well.

Want even more tips and tricks? Check out my full webinar, full of actionable strategies to improve your email marketing.