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B2B Email Marketing Stats & Benchmarks for 2024

by 

Lauren O'Bryan

Last updated: March 25th, 2024

Are you looking to refine your email marketing strategy or maybe you’re trying to secure an additional budget from marketing leadership? Either way, you must know the latest stats and benchmarks for a successful outcome.

So, what can you expect from industry trends for email marketing in 2024?

We have all the must-have B2B email marketing stats that will help you understand the direction to go in for the upcoming year. Along with stats and trend predictions, we also have a collection of industry-wide B2B email marketing benchmarks that will keep your campaigns focused.

But first, make the case for email marketing in general with these undeniable stats.

Why Email Marketing is Still a Winner

• The number of email users is expected to grow from 4.26 million in 2022 to 4.73 million by 2026.
• In 2022, around 333 billion emails were sent and received daily worldwide. This number is projected to increase to 392.5 billion by 2026.
• Email marketing revenue is expected to hit $17.9 billion in 2027, an increase of over $10 billion since 2020, showing a compound annual growth rate of 13.3%.
• In a 2022 survey, 27% of the respondents said that a brand’s regular newsletter could likely influence their purchasing decisions.
• Email marketing has the potential to provide a return of $36 for every dollar spent.
• 64% of small businesses use email marketing to reach customers.

Why Email Marketing is Great for B2B

• 77% of B2B buyers say they prefer to be contacted by email than any other channel.
• 73% of marketers use an email newsletter as part of their content marketing strategy.
• In 2023, 89% of B2B marketers increased or maintained their budget, and 70% reported an improvement in email marketing performance.
• 89% of marketers use email marketing to distribute content.
• In a 2023 survey, marketers stated that product awareness and promotions are their top email campaign goals (16%), with retention and newsletters close behind (14.6%).
• 82% of marketers make use of email automation, which results in 8 times greater email opens.
• The top two emails marketers send are email newsletters (81%) and welcome emails (79%).
• 59% of marketers consider email marketing to be more than twice as effective compared to paid advertising for generating leads.
• The best email campaign strategies are segmentation (78%), message personalization (72%), and email automation (71%).
• Detailed email segmentation leads to 30% more opens and 50% more clicks than unsegmented email campaigns.
• At least 86% of consumers say they are more than happy to share their email contact if it means they’ll receive personalized offers.
• Personalized emails are opened 82% more than generic bulk-send emails, so putting in the effort pays off.
• The top three factors marketers use to personalize emails are name, company name, or other profile data (80%), customer segmentation (64%), and past email interactions (42%).
• Including dynamic content in email campaigns can lead to a 100% increase in ROI.
• A/B split testing and spam testing email campaigns before distribution leads to a 28% higher return.
• A mobile responsive email design can increase clicks by 15%.
• The top two metrics email marketers track are click-through rate (34%) and open rate (31%).

What are Common Roadblocks Facing Email Marketers?

• Almost 50% of all emails are sent to spam.
• In an email deliverability test run by Email Tool Tester, 14.3% of all emails tested were sent directly to the spam folder.
• 67% of B2B buyers will set up a specific junk email mailbox to avoid unwanted marketing emails.
• The two main issues marketers face when establishing campaigns are building (41%) and designing them (40%).
• 78% of people will mark an email as spam because it looks like spam.
• People spend an average of 10 seconds reading brand emails.
• Around 66% of people prefer to receive shorter marketing emails.
• 44% of consumers will unsubscribe if there are too many emails being delivered.
• Most brands aim to send emails 2-4 times per month, generally not more than once per week.
• 61% of consumers say they’re more likely to check their email from a mobile device than a PC or laptop.
• 73% of companies prioritize optimizing their email marketing campaigns for mobile devices.

What Does 2024 Hold for B2B Email Marketing?

• Email marketing budgets are expected to increase by as much as 60% in 2024.
• 38% of email marketers are increasing their budgets this coming year, and only 10% indicate they’ll be reducing their budget for email marketing.
• 95% of marketers consider generative AI use in email content creation to be effective.
• Using AI to personalize email copy resulted in a more than 13% increase in CTR.
• Over 68% of marketers believe that automation improves the targeting of email messages and 80% have seen an increase in qualified leads from using email automation.

B2B Email Marketing Benchmarks to Set Your KPIs

If you’re new to email marketing, here’s a collection of helpful B2B email marketing benchmarks relative to 2024 for you to get started with.

• The average email open rate is 15.14%.
• The average CTR is 2.44%.
• The average bounce rate is 2.48%.
• The average click-to-open rate is 7.38%.
• The average unsubscribe rate is 0.24%.
• The average conversion rate from email marketing campaigns in B2B tech is 2.5%.
• The best days for email opens and clicks are Tuesday and Wednesday.

How to Improve Email Marketing Performance

With email marketing, there are a few things you need to keep in mind to give your campaigns an edge.

• Develop quality and relevant content.
• Craft catchy subject lines and inject a little urgency into the copy.
• Always split-test multiple versions of an email campaign and progress with the one that performs better.

Establish Lifecycle Emails

Create a collection of essential lifecycle emails that can be automated to send at key stages in the customer journey. These nurture your customers and target them at precisely the right point in their sales journey.

The emails we recommend include:

• Welcome emails
• Proactive support emails
• Lead sequence emails
• Unconverted trial or abandoned cart email
• Converted trial or thankyou email

Dig Down Into Email Analytics

Your email lists will be more effective when you segment your contacts based on their interests or actions. This way, you can better target your contacts with offers that will appeal to them more directly.

Also, pay attention to the number of emails you’re sending, as the general rule is no more than once a week. Sending too many puts your emails at risk of landing in the spam folder.

And finally, clean up your contacts list from time to time and say goodbye to those who no longer engage with your emails.

Wrapping Up

As you can see, email is not dead, especially in the B2B space. Email marketing is continuing to grow year on year and is consistently providing a high ROI for those who pin down the right strategy.

It can take time and sometimes a little guidance to develop the perfect demand-generation strategy. So, if you need help, we offer our services! Powered by Search can develop your demand generation strategy from the ground up. We create a comprehensive roadmap of initiatives and budget forecasts, all combined with regular consultation and guidance. Get in touch to find out more!