Email marketing statistics 2017

What are the email engagement rates for small to medium businesses?

The most recent report of email marketing statistics from the 28th Dec 2017 is the Constant Contact Average Email open and clickthrough rates by industry

Each email marketing tool has its own specific data. They vary between themselves. Look at the Mailchimp data – quite huge differences between industries.

Business Type Open Rate (Total) Mobile Open Rate Tablet Open Rate Desktop Open Rate Click-Through Rate Bounce Rate Unsubscribe Rate
Accommodations (ex. hotel, inn, B&B, camp grounds) 16.88% 64.18% 19.64% 44.15% 6.17% 9.08% 0.02%
Accountant 13.14% 59.11% 16.55% 73.24% 8.56% 9.13% 0.01%
Animal Services 15.95% 64.24% 16.90% 42.90% 7.41% 6.03% 0.02%
Art, Culture, Entertainment (ex. galleries, museums, musicians, theatre, film, crafts) 16.21% 54.76% 17.05% 45.53% 6.41% 7.26% 0.01%
Automotive Services 13.56% 64.65% 14.14% 42.87% 8.08% 8.48% 0.03%
Child Care Services 18.68% 84.52% 7.57% 35.41% 5.79% 7.96% 0.01%
Civic/Social Membership (ex. associations, chambers, clubs) 23.23% 60.48% 14.17% 71.97% 7.91% 9.48% 0.01%
Consultant, Training (ex. marketing, management) 13.93% 53.18% 9.47% 69.89% 7.19% 11.58% 0.01%
Education – Primary/Secondary (ex. elementary, middle, and high schools) 23.05% 69.21% 10.64% 49.95% 7.83% 8.48% 0.01%
Education – Higher Education (ex. colleges, universities, trade schools) 18.35% 63.57% 10.85% 48.74% 7.72% 8.56% 0.01%
Financial Advisor 17.08% 57.86% 14.01% 59.48% 7.11% 11.41% 0.02%
Fitness Center, Sports, Recreation (ex. yoga studio, bowling alley, gym) 15.72% 67.84% 13.79% 35.25% 5.60% 10.03% 0.01%
Fitness/Nutritional Services (ex. personal trainer, wellness coach) 14.20% 71.66% 11.96% 33.94% 6.86% 6.93% 0.02%
Government Agency or Services 22.51% 65.58% 14.22% 73.59% 9.14% 10.05% 0.01%
Health & Social Services (ex. hospital, elder care, adoption services) 19.18% 59.02% 14.53% 71.26% 6.69% 10.20% 0.02%
Health Professional (ex. physician, dentist, chiropractor) 16.94% 63.14% 14.47% 51.29% 6.23% 10.18% 0.03%
Home & Building Services (ex. construction, HVAC, landscaping, design) 19.66% 56.00% 15.36% 59.84% 5.72% 10.87% 0.04%
Insurance 15.10% 52.55% 9.15% 84.43% 6.86% 7.63% 0.02%
Legal Services 20.61% 57.42% 9.19% 71.66% 6.80% 12.42% 0.02%
Manufacturing and Distribution 14.87% 47.65% 11.57% 71.21% 7.85% 11.90% 0.01%
Marketing, Advertising, Public Relations 10.36% 51.25% 10.38% 51.34% 5.98% 9.17% 0.01%
Other 22.50% 53.79% 15.42% 45.24% 4.69% 8.61% 0.01%
Other – Non-profit 19.71% 59.52% 15.76% 57.46% 6.86% 9.68% 0.02%
Personal Services (ex. dry cleaning, photography, housekeeping) 17.62% 59.78% 13.85% 48.66% 6.30% 9.59% 0.02%
Professional Services 17.40% 57.61% 12.02% 63.66% 7.39% 10.72% 0.02%
Publishing 14.87% 54.17% 15.80% 52.80% 12.84% 8.99% 0.01%
Real Estate 15.99% 54.14% 9.80% 55.80% 6.32% 11.89% 0.02%
Religious Organization 25.62% 71.11% 20.36% 47.80% 6.69% 7.98% 0.01%
Restaurant, Bar, Cafe, Caterer 15.66% 59.11% 17.30% 39.16% 4.22% 10.22% 0.02%
Retail (ex. brick and mortar and online) 11.51% 56.23% 19.62% 34.36% 6.70% 6.76% 0.01%
Salon, Spa, Barber (ex. nails, tanning) 13.42% 66.08% 13.81% 28.13% 3.69% 13.50% 0.01%
Technology (ex. web developer) 13.03% 43.83% 6.82% 75.20% 5.85% 11.56% 0.01%
Transportation 17.80% 64.67% 13.46% 63.32% 14.56% 10.47% 0.02%
Travel and Tourism (ex. limo driver, tour guide, reservations) 14.67% 50.50% 19.87% 53.36% 6.69% 11.22% 0.02%
Unknown 12.66% 60.79% 14.68% 49.64% 7.96% 9.82% 0.01%

Mailchimp has monthly updates of their Email benchmark stats which give a great source of comparing email response by industry. This Email response data was last updated on 1st February 2017 (no updates in 2018 when we last checked).

Constant Constant and Mailchimp send billions of emails a month for more than 10 million users. This is probably the largest global sample of email response that has been created.

What is the breakdown of market share for email clients on mobile and desktop?

Litmus, one of the best sources for Email marketing statistics 2017 regularly produce a summary of the email experience of different users – this is their start of 2018 round-up of the previous year.

This chart summarising their research shows the rise of mobile email marketing to the point that nearly half of emails are opened on smartphones and tablets. 

The top 10 most popular email clients as of December 2017 (Ranking compared to December 2016)

iPhone, 28% (+/- 0)
Gmail, 26% (+/- 0)
iPad, 11% (+/- 0)
Apple Mail, 7% (+ 1)
Outlook, 6% (+1)
Samsung Mail, 5% (NEW)
Outlook.com, 4% (+/- 0)
Google Android, 3% (- 4)
Yahoo! Mail, 2% (-1)
Windows Live Mail, 1% (+/- 0)
iPhone, Gmail, and iPad remained the top 3 email clients in 2017.
Only two percentage points separate Gmail from the most popular email client, Apple’s iPhone.
Combining Samsung Mail and other Android clients opens on Android account for 8% of market share or #4 in our top ten list.

email marketing statistics 2017