Despite the growth and prominence of mobile messengers and chat apps, e-mail is an integral part of daily online life. In 2023, the number of global e-mail users amounted to **** billion and is set to grow to **** billion users in 2027. Global e-mail audiencesIn 2023, approximately *** billion e-mails were sent and received every day worldwide. This figure is projected to increase to over *** billion daily e-mails in 2027. As of July 2022, Apple Mail Privacy accounted for over half of the e-mail opens, while mobile use of e-mails saw a significant decrease in their market shares. Apple MPP e-mail app was the most popular e-mail client, accounting for ** percent of e-mail opens. Gmail, the free e-mail service owned by Google, was ranked second with a ** percent open share. Malicious mailMany online users use e-mails for website and newsletter signups and brace themselves for the inevitable flood of spam and marketing communications. Whereas most unwanted e-mails are annoying yet ultimately benign, consumers are right to be wary of malicious e-mail that can be used to compromise their digital accounts and devices. In 2023, ** percent of fraud reports in the United States related to cases in which victims were contacted via e-mail.

With the internet becoming increasingly accessible, the number of e-mails sent and received globally has increased each year since 2017. In 2022, there were an estimated 333 billion e-mails sent and received daily around the world. This figure is projected to increase to 392.5 billion daily e-mails by 2026.

E-Mail marketing Despite the increasing popularity of messengers, chat apps and social media, e-mail has managed to remain central to digital communication and continues to grow in uptake. By 2025, the number of global e-mail users is expected to reach a total of 4.6 billion - an approximate six hundred thousand increase in users, up from 4 billion in 2020. Not only that, when it comes to online advertising e-mail has seen higher click-through-rates than on social media. In Belgium and Germany, these were 5.5 and 4.3 percent respectively - compared to the 1.3 percent global average CTR for social media during the same time period.

Gmail Launched in April 2004, Google’s Gmail has earned its spot as one of the most popular freemail services in the world. According to a 2019 survey, its popularity worldwide was trumped only by Apple’s native iPhone Mail app with 26 percent of all e-mail opens worldwide taking place on the platform. Millennials surveyed in the United Kingdom listed Gmail among their top 5 most important mobile apps, while a similar survey carried out in Sweden saw Gmail tie with WhatsApp for a spot among the top mobile apps nationwide.

During a 2022 survey carried out among consumers from the United States, ** percent of responding millennials stated they liked being contacted by brands via email. The same was true for ** percent of respondents from Generation Z.

In 2020, the global e-mail marketing market was valued at *** billion U.S. dollars and the source projected that the figure would increase to **** billion by 2027. The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for that period is expected to amount to **** percent.

In 2023, nearly 45.6 percent of all e-mails worldwide were identified as spam, down from almost 49 percent in 2022. While remaining a big part of the e-mail traffic, since 2011, the share of spam e-mails has decreased significantly. In 2023, the highest volume of spam e-mails was registered in May, approximately 50 percent of e-mail traffic worldwide.

During a 2023 survey carried out among email marketers from the United States, the United Kingdom, and other European countries, it was found that approximately ** percent of respondents believed that AI-supported email marketing was more effective than traditional email marketing approaches. Roughly ***percent noticed no significant difference or said they believed it was as effective as traditional approaches.

During a 2024 survey carried out among marketers in selected countries worldwide, newsletters were the most popular type of email marketing campaigns, with **** percent of professionals sending it out to existing and potential customers. The promotional e-mail campaigns followed with **** percent of professionals using it for their marketing purposes.

Recently people are spending less time reading brand emails. Data from January to August 2021 stated that in 2021 people spent on average 10 seconds reading a brand email. In 2011, the time spent reading brand emails was 10.4 seconds for each email open. In 2018, this reached 13.4 seconds per email before falling over the last couple of years.

According to a 2024 survey carried out among marketers in selected countries worldwide, **** percent shared that Tuesdays were the most preferred week day for sending out e-mail marketing. Thursday came second, with around ** percent of respondents picking them as a suitable day for e-mail campaigning.

During a survey among adults in the United States in January 2024, over **** (or ** percent) of respondents chose relevance as their number one reason to open a marketing email, meaning it offered a product they were interested in when they received the message. An email personalized to a consumer beyond just featuring their name ranked second, selected by ** percent of the interviewees. According to the same study, about ********** of U.S. adults did not want to receive more marketing messages in 2024.

In November 2023, 95 percent of internet users aged between 25 and 44 years in the United States reported using emails. Email usage interested over 93 percent of the country's population aged between 15 and 24 years, while around 86.5 percent of internet users aged 65 and above reported using this communication method.

As of April 18, 2024, the United States was the country with the highest number of emails sent daily, with almost ten billion. Germany and Ireland followed, with 8.5 billion and 8.4 billion emails daily, respectively. Overall, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and France each had 8.3 billion emails sent per day. As of December 2023, over 241 million emails were sent worldwide within one minute.

During a 2024 survey carried out among marketers in selected countries worldwide, nearly ** percent of respondents stated that their e-mail marketing campaigns had an open rate between ** and ** percent. Another **** percent shared that their open rates were above ** percent.

In 2023, the global e-mail marketing market was valued at *** billion U.S. dollars and the source projected that the figure would increase to **** billion by 2028. The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for that period is expected to amount to **** percent.

During a 2020 survey carried out among marketers worldwide, it was found that for every U.S. dollars invested in email marketing, brands earned 36 U.S. dollars. Among the presented industries, the ROI was highest in the retail, ecommerce, and consumer goods sector, with 45 dollars per one dollar spent.

In December 2024, the share of marketing emails sent over by the home and garden sector that reached the inbox of their recipients stood at ***** percent and was the highest among the industries presented in the data set. For job and career industry emails, the share amounted to ***** percent.

In 2024, around ** percent of marketing professionals from selected countries worldwide sent out more than **** of their e-mail marketing campaigns with subject line personalization included. Another *** percent of respondents did not send any e-mails with personalized subject lines.

Spam messages accounted for over **** percent of e-mail traffic in December 2023. Russia generated the largest share of unsolicited spam e-mails in 2022, with **** percent of global spam e-mails originating from the country. Spam worldwide It is almost impossible to think about e-mail without considering the issue of spam, which usually includes billions of promotional e-mails marketers send daily. As of January 2023, the United States had the highest number of spam e-mails sent daily. While many e-mail users believe such content belongs in their spam folder, marketing e-mails are generally harmless if annoying to the user. Malicious spam Phishing e-mails remain one of the primary attack vectors for cybercriminals. On average, around ** percent of businesses worldwide experience four to six successful cyber attacks in one year. Another ** percent said they became victims of more than ** bulk phishing attacks. More than half of the companies said these phishing attacks resulted in consumer or client data breaches.

According to global data gathered on an e-mail marketing automation platform in 2024, automated welcome emails sent by e-commerce players had a conversion rate of nearly ***** percent. In comparison, for automated cart abandonment emails, the rate stood at roughly *** percent.

In 2023, marketing e-mails in the financial services sector had the highest click-to-open rate, at **** percent. Publishing and communications followed, with ***** percent and ***** percent, respectively.