Email Marketing ROI Statistics: What the Data Actually Says

ROI on email marketing is one of the statistics used often in digital marketing, but it is also one of the most confusing and misunderstood statistics. Have you ever heard the “return of $36 for every $1 spent” statistic? How true is this statistic? This guide will discuss all about ROI on email marketing and how it compares from industry to industry and company to company.

The Headline Email Marketing ROI Statistic

The most frequently cited number of ROI on email marketing campaigns has been provided by the Data & Marketing Association (DMA), stating that email produces an ROI of $36 for every dollar spent.

There are other reliable sources which cite ROI numbers close to the above one:

Litmus: $36 ROI per $1 spent (based on State of Email report 2023);
Campaign Monitor: $44 for every $1 spent (higher because of the difference in methods);
HubSpot: 38:1 ROI on average (surveyed marketers).

All of them confirm the same thing, email has the greatest ROI in digital marketing compared to paid search, social media marketing and content marketing.

Email Marketing ROI by Industry

ROI differs widely across industries. It should be noted that industries with the highest email revenue generating capacity are industries where the average transaction value and purchasing frequency are relatively high.

Retail and Ecommerce

Among the best email ROI of any industry
Email generates 25-30% of overall revenue for many ecommerce firms
Automated campaigns (abandoned carts, post-purchase) generate an excessive amount of revenue from emails
Average ROI: $45-$60 for every dollar spent

B2B

Longer sales cycles lead to low direct attributability from email campaigns
Email ROI is usually based on pipeline influence, not revenue
The use of lead nurturing can cut sales cycle duration by 23% (Marketo study)
Average ROI: Very high, the best campaigns achieve 20–40x return on investment

Financial Services

Large transaction values increase ROI
Regulatory demands hinder program complexity
Average ROI: High, particularly for insurance and investment emails

Travel and Hospitality

High seasonal fluctuation
Emails from loyalty programs offer high ROI
Booking cancellation emails prove to be very effective

Publishing and Media

Email is mostly used for subscription acquisition and retention
Email newsletters with paid subscriptions can bring high income per subscriber

Email Open Rate Statistics

Benchmarks for email open rates (2024, in any industry):

Average email open rate: 21.5% (Mailchimp industry benchmarks)
The highest open rates: Government (28.7%), Nonprofits (26.6%), Education (25.7%)
The lowest open rates: Daily deals/coupons (10.1%), Ecommerce (15.7%)

Important Note on Open Rate Measurement

The Mail Privacy Protection that was introduced in 2021 by Apple has increased the open rate for everyone due to pre-loading of pixels in emails. Open rates have become directional because of MPP since most email marketers view them as such now.

Email Click-Through Rate Statistics

Average CTR benchmark rates

Industry standard: 2.3% (Mailchimp)
B2B emails: 2-5% CTR
Ecommerce marketing emails: 1-3% CTR
Behavioral automatic emails: 5-15% CTR (much higher compared to broadcast emails)

The difference in click rates between automated and broadcast emails is one of the most convincing reasons to build automation infrastructure.

Email Automation ROI Statistics

Automated emails always outdo broadcast campaigns in all the measures. The ROI disparity is quite large.

Welcome Email Statistics

Open rate: 50-80% (compared to 21% for broadcast campaigns)
Click rate: 14-25%
Revenue generated by each email: 3 times the standard promotional emails

Abandoned Cart Email Statistics

Open rate: 40-50%
Abandoned cart recovery rate: 5-15% of the total cart abandonment rate
Revenue effect: Cart abandonment emails are the top revenue generator for ecommerce businesses

Post-Purchase Email Statistics

Review Request Emails have open rates exceeding 40%
Upsell Campaigns that are triggered 7-14 days after the purchase convert 2-4 times faster compared to Cold Email Campaigns

Re-Engagement Email Statistics

10-15% of inactive subscribers get re-activated with a great Re-Engagement Campaign
The Cost of a Re-Engagement Campaign is much less than the cost to acquire an equal number of subscribers

Email vs. Social Media: ROI Comparison

The numbers continue to support that email marketing works better for ROI.

Key Comparison Statistics

Email is 40 times more effective at customer acquisition compared to Facebook and Twitter combined (McKinsey).
Email CTRs are five times better than social media interaction rates (Campaign Monitor).
Organic reach on Facebook is only 5.2% of your fanbase; average email open rate is 21.5%.

The key difference? Email list = owned audience; social media audience = rented audience.

Email List Growth Statistics

Email lists lose up to 22.5% annually due to unsubscribes, bouncing emails, and inactive members (HubSpot).
This implies that one should increase their list by more than 22.5% per annum just to stay at the same level.
Using a series of welcome emails lowers the list attrition rate by 30-40%, compared to using a single welcome email.

Email ROI by Campaign Type

But not all emails bring in the same results. Check out the differences between campaign types:

Automated Behavioral Emails

Highest ROI of any email type
Triggered by specific actions (purchase, abandonment, inactivity)
Higher personalization = higher performance

Promotional/Sale Emails

Second Highest ROI
Flash promotions create a high amount of revenue in a short period of time
Subscribers may become trained to wait for discounts

Newsletter/Content Emails

Lowest Direct ROI but the greatest effect on building engagement on the mailing list
Engaging subscribers tend to convert better over time

Re-Engagement Campaigns

Underused by the majority of email marketing tools
10-15% conversion rate for inactive subscribers
Usually yields positive ROI after considering lower list acquisition cost and higher delivery rates

How to Calculate Your Email Marketing ROI

The Formula

ROI of Email Marketing = [(Revenue from Email Campaign – Cost of Email Campaign) / Cost of Email Campaign] × 100

Cost of Email Program Includes

ESP monthly subscription
Time of staff members (hourly rate or salary)
Copywriting and designing (internal or outsourcing)
Other paid tools used

Revenue Generated from Email

Use UTM tags in all emails to capture data in Google Analytics
Define email as an attribute in your attribution modeling
Revenue is directly tracked by ESPs in the case of automation

Example Calculation

Program cost per month: $2,500 (software + time of staff + agency)
Revenue attributed to emails per month: $35,000
Return on investment: (35,000 – 2,500) / 2,500 * 100 = 1,300%

Final Thoughts

The numbers speak for themselves regarding ROI for email marketing campaigns, and the stats will work regardless of your industry, company size, or type of campaign that you use. However, the aggregate numbers alone will not paint a full picture; the effectiveness of your program and ROI depend on your list, your segmentation, automation, and execution.

These benchmarks will help you assess your current results and find ways to improve your campaign and justify further investments in the future.