Email Marketing Statistics 2026: Results From 590+ Agency Case Studies

Most email marketing statistics come from email platforms and surveys: average open rates by industry, the return on every dollar spent, how many marketers send newsletters. They don't tell you what an email program actually did for a client.

This page does. Every number below is counted from 595 email marketing case studies published by 121 marketing agencies, all indexed in OpenServed's directory. Each case study names a client and states the results the agency reported: email revenue, open rates, list growth, leads and sales.

Data as of November 2026. These are results agencies chose to publish, so they show what a successful email program looks like, not what an average one does. The directory keeps growing, so if you cite a number, please cite the date.

Email marketing statistics at a glance

• 595 email marketing case studies from 121 agencies, covering 107 industries and clients in 19 countries and territories.
• 87% is the median reported increase in email revenue. Half of the 77 case studies that state one fall between 40% and 177%.
• 47% is the median open rate that case studies report, across 49 case studies. 84% report an open rate of 30% or more.
• 94% is the median reported growth in subscriber list size (27 case studies), and 55% in conversions or leads (63 case studies).
• Only 46% of email marketing case studies report an email metric at all. The rest report leads, sales or traffic without saying what email did.
• Ecommerce email reports revenue; other email reports leads. 79% of ecommerce case studies include a revenue stat, against 23% of the rest.
• One in three email marketing case studies is bundled with lead generation, and 38% of those report meetings booked or pipeline rather than email results.
• 22% are about email marketing alone, and 95% of those report an email metric.
• 14% are Client-verified, more than for SEO, PPC, social media ads or content marketing, and verified revenue gains are higher.

What email marketing case studies report

Revenue is the result agencies report most. 43% of email marketing case studies include a revenue or sales stat and 29% a conversion or lead stat. Email-specific metrics are rarer: email revenue appears in 17%, open rate in 15%, list or subscriber growth in 8%, email's share of total revenue in 6% and click rate in 6%.

Only 46% of email marketing case studies report an email metric. 275 of the 595 include at least one stat that mentions email, a newsletter, an open or click rate, subscribers, flows or automation. The other 54% list Email Marketing as a service but report results such as "64 leads in 30 days" or "141% increase in average monthly revenue", with no sign of what email contributed.

68% report a business outcome. That means revenue, leads, conversions or conversion rate. Only 3% contain no number at all.

Email results are mostly percentages. 61% of result stats are percentages, about the same as for SEO (62%) and below PPC (68%). The 595 case studies carry 1,798 result stats, an average of 3.0 each. 16% of those stats are about ads, search or social media, and we leave those out of the medians below.

Email revenue statistics

The median email marketing case study reports an 87% increase in email revenue. 77 case studies state a percentage gain in revenue, sales or orders that mentions email, a campaign, a flow or automation. A quarter report 40% or less, and a quarter report 177% or more. 45% report that email revenue at least doubled.

Across all revenue stats, the median gain is 88%. 176 case studies state a percentage gain in revenue or sales, whether or not the stat names email, with the middle half between 37% and 180%.

Email's share of total revenue is reported by few agencies. 38 case studies state what share of the client's revenue came from email, with a median of 34% and the middle half between 24% and 44%. But 24 of the 38 come from one agency, Chronos Agency. Without it, the median is 26% on 14 case studies, too few to rely on.

Flows and automations get their own revenue stats. 37 case studies mention flows or automation in their results. 13 state a percentage revenue gain from them, with a median of 111%, too few to treat as a benchmark.

Email open rate, click rate and list statistics

The median open rate reported in email marketing case studies is 47%. 49 case studies state an open rate, with the middle half between 32% and 60%. These are the best campaigns agencies chose to publish, so they sit well above typical averages.

84% report an open rate of 30% or more. The full spread:

• Under 20%: 8% of case studies
• 20% to 29%: 8%
• 30% to 39%: 22%
• 40% to 49%: 16%
• 50% to 59%: 18%
• 60% or more: 27%

Open rates are a weak measure on their own. Since Apple's Mail Privacy Protection launched in 2021, many emails register as opened even when no one reads them. A high open rate says the email was delivered, not that it worked.

The median reported increase in open rate is 35%. 30 case studies state one, with the middle half between 28% and 85%.

Click rates are rarely reported. Only 6% of case studies include a click rate stat. 13 state a click rate, with a median of 10%, and 19 state a percentage increase, too few for a reliable figure.

The median reported growth in subscriber list size is 94%. 27 case studies state one, with the middle half between 45% and 213%. This includes email and SMS subscriber lists.

Email marketing lead and conversion statistics

The median reported increase in conversions or leads is 55%. 63 case studies state one, with the middle half between 25% and 153%. Taken separately, the median is 46% for leads (42 case studies).

The median reported increase in conversion rate is 47%. 29 case studies state one, with the middle half between 25% and 129%.

The median reported increase in website traffic is 91%. 56 case studies state one, with the middle half between 50% and 169%. 41 of the 56 come from case studies that also list SEO, PPC or Social Media Ads.

Ecommerce email vs other email

Email marketing is two different businesses. 211 of the 595 case studies (35%) are for online stores: retail, fashion and beauty clients, or results that mention orders, a store, checkout or a commerce platform. The other 384 are mostly B2B and service businesses.

Ecommerce email reports revenue. Other email reports leads. A revenue stat appears in 79% of ecommerce case studies, against 23% of the rest. A conversion or lead stat goes the other way: 9% against 40%. 21% of the non-ecommerce case studies report meetings booked or sales pipeline, against 1% of ecommerce ones.

Ecommerce email is measured as email. 66% of ecommerce case studies report an email metric, against 35% of the rest. The median email revenue gain for ecommerce clients is 84% (66 case studies), and the median revenue gain overall is 92% (128).

Other businesses report a median 47% gain in conversions or leads. 49 case studies state one, with the middle half between 25% and 161%. Their median reported open rate is 45% (35 case studies).

Email marketing and lead generation

One in three email marketing case studies also lists Lead Generation. 198 of the 595 combine the two. Many come from outbound lead generation agencies that win meetings for B2B clients.

These case studies count meetings, not emails. 38% report meetings booked or pipeline value, with results such as "49 qualified meetings in the first month". Only 18% report an email metric. Their results are mostly plain counts, so few have a percentage to put in a median.

Email marketing on its own

22% of email marketing case studies are about email alone. 133 of the 595 list no other service. They read very differently from the bundled ones.

When email is sold alone, it is measured as email. 95% report an email metric, against 32% of bundled case studies. 82% report a revenue stat, against 31%.

Email-only case studies report a median 92% increase in email revenue (60 case studies, middle half 57% to 180%) and a median 120% increase in revenue overall (79 case studies, middle half 57% to 230%).

Lead generation is the most common partner. Lead Generation appears alongside in 33% of email marketing case studies, PPC in 20%, SEO in 18%, Social Media Ads in 15% and Content Marketing in 12%. The average case study lists 2.3 services.

Email marketing statistics by industry

To make 107 industry labels comparable, we rolled them up into 13 groups (see methodology).

Online retailers and fashion brands are the biggest buyers. Retail & Ecommerce accounts for 20% of email marketing case studies (119), followed by Fashion, Beauty & Jewelry (13%), Professional & B2B Services (11%), Software & Technology (10%), Industrial & Manufacturing (9%) and Healthcare & Wellness (9%). Fashion is the most common single label, with 32 case studies.

Fashion and beauty brands report a median 100% increase in email revenue. Median reported gain for the two groups with at least 20 data points, with the middle half in brackets:

• Fashion, Beauty & Jewelry, email revenue: 100% (68% to 226%), 29 case studies
• Fashion, Beauty & Jewelry, revenue or sales: 100% (56% to 177%), 49 case studies
• Retail & Ecommerce, revenue or sales: 80% (32% to 180%), 66 case studies
• Retail & Ecommerce, email revenue: 44% (24% to 147%), 28 case studies

Consumer brands report email results; B2B firms mostly don't. An email metric appears in 72% of Fashion, Beauty & Jewelry case studies, 63% of Food & Beverage and 61% of Retail & Ecommerce ones, but only 22% of Financial Services and 20% of Professional & B2B Services ones.

Email marketing statistics by client size

Client size is the client's employee count. It is recorded for 230 of the 595 case studies (39%), so this section covers only those.

Small businesses are the largest client group, at 44%. Of the 230 with a known size, 102 involve small businesses (1 to 50 employees), 41 medium businesses (51 to 200), 25 large businesses (201 to 1,000) and 62 enterprises (more than 1,000).

Small businesses report a median 120% increase in revenue or sales. 29 case studies state one, with the middle half between 36% and 150%. No other size has 20 data points for any metric.

Email is measured about the same at every size. An email metric appears in 37% of small-business case studies, 41% of medium, 44% of large and 37% of enterprise ones.

Email marketing statistics by country

Country is the client's location, not the agency's. It is recorded for 348 of the 595 case studies (58%), so this section covers only those.

77% of email marketing case studies are for US clients. 269 of the 348 located case studies are in the United States. The other 79 are spread across 18 countries and territories, led by the United Kingdom (20), Canada (19) and Australia (11).

US clients report a median 80% increase in revenue or sales. 78 US case studies state one, with the middle half between 30% and 140%. The median gain is 71% in email revenue (21 case studies) and 55% in conversions or leads (39).

Clients outside the US report a median 72% increase in revenue or sales. 22 case studies state one, with the middle half between 31% and 180%. No single country outside the US has 20 data points.

How long email marketing takes: what the data can tell you

Email and lead generation case studies state a timeframe more often than those for any other service we've published statistics for. 33% of email case studies include a time reference in their results, most often "year over year", "in 30 days" or "in 90 days". The share is 22% for SEO and 12% for web design.

Only 8 of the 595 record how long the engagement ran, so the dataset still can't say how long email takes to pay off. But many results are framed in weeks, not years: "30 days" appears in 25 case studies and "90 days" in 20.

If you're comparing agencies, ask for the period behind every number. An email revenue gain over the holiday season and the same gain over a full year are different results.

The agencies behind the data

Three agencies publish 23% of the email marketing case studies. Chronos Agency has 53, Outbound System 48 and MarketJoy 35. Half the agencies have two or fewer.

The largest publishers do very different work. 50 of Chronos Agency's 53 case studies report an email metric, mostly ecommerce revenue. Only 2 of Outbound System's 48 do: they report meetings and leads from outbound campaigns.

One agency supplies 39% of the email revenue data. Chronos Agency supplies 30 of the 77 email revenue data points. Without it, the median email revenue gain is 89%, against 87% with it, so the headline number doesn't depend on it.

How much of this data is verified?

14% of email marketing case studies are Client-verified. 85 of the 595, from 40 agencies, carry OpenServed's Client-verified badge, meaning the named client confirmed the results. That is a higher share than for SEO, PPC, social media ads or content marketing. The other 86% are agency-reported.

Verified revenue gains are higher. The median revenue gain is 150% for verified case studies (27 data points, middle half 67% to 251%), against 82% for agency-reported ones (149). Other metrics have too few verified data points to compare.

Keep this in mind with every number on this page. A published case study is an agency's best work, described in the agency's words. Without a client confirming it, it's a claim, not a benchmark.

What this means if you're hiring an email marketing agency

• Ask what email itself did. Only 46% of email marketing case studies report an email metric.
• Treat an 87% email revenue gain as the typical published win, not a promise. These are the programs that went well.
• Don't judge on open rates. The median published open rate is 47%, and privacy features inflate opens. Ask for clicks, revenue per recipient or email's share of revenue.
• Match the agency to your business. Ecommerce email agencies report revenue. B2B and outbound agencies report leads and meetings. Make sure the proof fits what you sell.
• Ask for the period. Email results are often framed over 30 or 90 days, which may include a sale or holiday.
• Ask whether the client confirmed it. 14% of email marketing case studies are Client-verified, and verified revenue gains are higher than agency-reported ones.

You can browse every case study behind these numbers in OpenServed's email marketing agency directory, and filter by industry, client size and location.

Methodology

• Source: all 595 case studies in OpenServed's directory that list Email Marketing as a service, as of November 3, 2026, from 121 agencies. Each links to the agency's own published case study.
• Email metrics: a stat counts as an email metric when it mentions email, a newsletter, an open or click rate, subscribers, a list, sign-ups, flows, automation, drips, nurture sequences or SMS. Email revenue is a revenue, sales or order stat that also mentions one of these.
• Result stats: each case study carries the result stats the agency published, as free text. We assigned each stat to a metric by keyword matching: email revenue, open rate, click rate, list growth, email's share of revenue, revenue, conversions, leads, conversion rate and traffic.
• Percentages only: medians of gains use stats that state a percentage change. Plain counts, dollar figures and before-and-after pairs are left out, though they still count toward what case studies report.
• Rates and shares: open rates, click rates and email's share of revenue are reported as stated levels, not changes. Where a case study gives a before and after, we use the after figure. Industry benchmarks quoted in a case study are left out.
• Other channels excluded: stats that name ads, paid media, cost per acquisition, ROAS, SEO, search or social media are not counted as email marketing results. That removes 16% of all stats.
• Ecommerce: case studies for retail, fashion, beauty and jewelry clients, or whose results mention orders, a store, checkout, average order value or a commerce platform.
• One data point per case study: if a case study has several stats for the same metric, we use the first one listed. Conversions and leads are combined, using whichever comes first.
• Median and middle half: we report the median, not the average, because a handful of very large gains would distort an average. The middle half is the range from the 25th to the 75th percentile.
• Minimum sample: we report a segment only when it has at least 20 data points for that metric.
• Missing details: client size is recorded for 39% of these case studies and location for 58%, so those sections cover only the case studies that have them.
• Bundled services: 78% of these case studies list other services alongside Email Marketing, most often Lead Generation and PPC. Results can't be attributed to email alone.
• Industry groups: we merged 107 industry labels into 13 groups for the roll-up figures. Client size uses employee count: small is 1 to 50, medium 51 to 200, large 201 to 1,000 and enterprise more than 1,000.
• Selection bias: agencies publish their wins, and the directory is not a random sample of the industry. Three agencies account for 23% of these case studies.
• Agency-reported: except for the 85 Client-verified case studies, results are as published by each agency and haven't been independently confirmed.

Cite this data: OpenServed, "Email Marketing Statistics 2026: Results From 590+ Agency Case Studies", November 2026, https://openserved.com/blog/email-marketing-statistics