Email Marketing Benchmarks
Which email marketing benchmarks matter, how they vary by business model and how to interpret them responsibly.
Which email marketing benchmarks actually matter?
Email marketing benchmarks are useful as directional context, but most published benchmarks are too generic to be actionable for your specific business. Industry averages combine companies of vastly different sizes, maturity levels and business models into a single number. An ecommerce company with 500,000 engaged subscribers and a B2B company with 5,000 opted-in leads should not be measuring themselves against the same benchmark.
The most important benchmark is your own historical performance. How did this campaign perform against the last five campaigns with the same objective? How did this month's lifecycle revenue compare to last month? How is deliverability trending over time? Your own trajectory is more meaningful than any industry average.
This guide explains which benchmarks are worth tracking, how they vary by business model and lifecycle stage, why common metrics like open rates are unreliable and how to build a benchmarking framework that actually helps you improve.
Why most email benchmarks are misleading
Open rates became unreliable after Apple's Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) launched in 2021. MPP pre-fetches email content, including tracking pixels, which inflates open rates for Apple Mail users. Some lists see a substantial share of opens attributed to MPP. This means open rates now measure Apple's caching behaviour as much as recipient engagement.
Click rates remain more reliable but are incomplete. A high click rate on a promotional email doesn't tell you whether the click led to a purchase, whether the purchase was incremental (would they have bought anyway?) or whether the customer subsequently churned.
Industry averages compound these problems. A '21% open rate' across all ecommerce companies tells you nothing about how your specific audience, in your specific market, at your specific stage of maturity, should perform.
Benchmarks that are actually useful
Your own historical benchmarks are the most valuable. Track these metrics over time and compare each campaign or flow against your own baseline:
- Revenue per email sent — the most direct measure of email's business value
- Click-to-conversion rate — what percentage of clicks lead to the desired action
- Unsubscribe rate — a signal of list health and content relevance (healthy programs keep this very low per send)
- Deliverability rate — the percentage of emails that reach the inbox (the vast majority of sent emails should reach the inbox)
- List growth rate — net new subscribers minus unsubscribes and bounces
- Flow performance by lifecycle stage — welcome, onboarding, recovery, retention, win-back
How benchmarks vary by business model
Ecommerce benchmarks are driven by purchase frequency, product price point and customer lifecycle. A fashion brand with weekly new arrivals will have different email cadence and performance than a furniture brand with seasonal purchases. Cart recovery rates vary by product category. Post-purchase email performance depends on whether the product is consumable or durable.
SaaS benchmarks are driven by trial length, product complexity and pricing tier. Onboarding email performance should be measured against activation rates, not open rates. Expansion email performance should be measured against upsell conversion. Churn prevention emails should be measured against retention rates.
B2B benchmarks are driven by sales cycle length, deal size and number of stakeholders. Email open and click rates are less meaningful than pipeline progression rates. A low click rate on a B2B nurture email that leads to a significant deal is more valuable than a high click rate on a B2B newsletter that generates no pipeline.
Building a responsible benchmarking practice
Step 1: Establish your own baseline. Pull 6-12 months of data for the metrics that matter for your business model. Calculate averages, identify trends and note any anomalies (seasonality, sends to unengaged segments, platform changes).
Step 2: Segment your benchmarks. Don't benchmark your entire list as one number. Benchmark by lifecycle stage, customer segment, email type and campaign objective. Welcome emails will have different performance than promotional emails. That's expected and healthy.
Step 3: Track trends, not absolutes. A 2.5% click rate that's trending up from 1.8% over six months is more meaningful than a 2.5% click rate compared to a 3.1% industry average. Direction matters more than position.
Step 4: Use benchmarks to ask questions, not draw conclusions. If your click rate dropped, the benchmark tells you something changed. It doesn't tell you why. Diagnosis requires looking at your specific sends, segments, content and timing.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good open rate for email marketing?
Open rates are no longer a reliable benchmark after Apple Mail Privacy Protection inflated them. Focus on click rates, click-to-conversion rates and revenue per email instead. If you must benchmark open rates, treat them as directional only and compare against your own historical data, not industry averages.
What is a good click-through rate?
Click-through rates vary significantly by email type, business model and list quality. Promotional emails typically see a small fraction of recipients clicking through. Lifecycle automations (welcome, recovery, retention) often see higher engagement. B2B emails typically see lower but higher-value clicks. Your own historical trend is more meaningful than any industry average.
How often should we benchmark our email performance?
Review key metrics monthly against your own baseline. Conduct a deeper quarterly review of lifecycle flow performance, segment performance and deliverability trends. Annual reviews should assess overall program growth, platform fit and strategy alignment.
Why do my email metrics differ from industry benchmarks?
Industry benchmarks combine companies of different sizes, maturity levels, business models and audience types. Your specific audience, content quality, send frequency, segmentation sophistication and platform all affect your metrics. Use benchmarks as context, not targets.
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