This article analyzes key cold email statistics to give you an understanding of recent trends and benchmarks for different industries. You will get acquainted with cold email components and simple but effective practices to improve your response rate.
Would you drive blindfolded? That’s what a cold email outreach without success measurements is. Is your campaign leaving competitors behind or underperforming? There is no certain answer, with no benchmarks for navigation. In addition, it is challenging to keep up with the industry trends and interests of the target audience without seeing numbers.
To free you up from these struggles, we will discuss the main cold email statistics, starting with the rates and ending with tips. Let’s get started.
Top 10 cold email statistics you need to know
Before diving deeper into the analysis, we’ll cover the reason you’re here — top cold email statistics. Here are recent findings to help you navigate the topic:
- 23% of sales professionals believe that cold emailing is the best way to contact prospects.
- The average response rate for cold emails is 5.1%.
- The ideal unsubscribe rate is below 10%.
- Open rates decreased from 36% in 2023 to 27.7% in 2024.
- Any value below 3-5% is an acceptable bounce rate; a higher number of bounces often indicates problems with email providers.
- The average cold email conversion rate varies from 1% to 5%.
- Excluding attachments or graphic materials from cold emails increases response rates by 2X.
- Cold emailing works best with messages of up to 100 characters.
- Reaching out to 8 employees from the same company increases cold email response rates by up to 8.06%.
- A follow-up after an initial cold email increases reply rates by almost 50%.
While these statistics cover different cold email metrics, it is enough to define current trends: short body text, no attachments, timely follow-ups, and careful targeting of cold prospects.
Keep these in mind as we move to the next section about cold email campaigns that combine all elements.
About cold email campaigns
Cold email campaigns are a series of messages that marketing or sales reps send to people with no prior communication. The main benefit? A single message easily gets lost in prospects’ inboxes, while structured follow-up emails increase chances of being spotted.
Furthermore, according to Belkins, 120% more potential customers respond to offers after the first follow-up. So, not only do you ensure that cold emails reach recipients, but you also boost your response rates.
How important are subject lines in cold emails?
Personalized email subject lines outgrew their predecessors — generic and non-customized ones — and became one of the outreach pillars. Email recipients expect a solution for their pain points on the spot, and the subject line is often a deciding factor. But does personalization change the game?
Around 80% of professionals saw improved results after personalizing email subject lines.
Success in cold mailing is linked to a comprehensive view of the audience’s needs. Once equipped with this knowledge, you can adjust the industry’s best practices for your cold email strategy and make it work. The key is to keep it focused on the prospect.
Let’s now review the recommended approaches to writing effective subject lines:
- email subject lines with up to 70 characters resulted in the highest open rates of 43.38%;
- long subject lines exceeding 240 characters reached the lowest open rate result of only 23.5%;
- subject lines without emojis outperformed variants with emojis and reached a 42.23% open rate;
- email subject lines mentioning the words “invitation,” “now,” or “wanted” received an open rate of 56.76%, 52.52%, and 51.53%, respectively.
How Stripo can help
Balancing between brand guidelines and trends and constantly coming up with new ideas can be exhausting. That is when Stripo can help!
Our AI subject line generator can help create multiple subject line options based on input. How?
- Open the AI subject line generator.
- Define style, capitalization, language, and emoji usage.
- Hit “Enter” or click the ✨ icon.
- Preview, copy, improve the best variants, and never run out of ideas.
Compelling subject lines is the first step in winning prospects over, and with Stripo, finding the right words can be easier. As we move to the next section, let’s continue uncovering successful cold email campaigns.
What should you write in your cold emails?
When the first impression may be the last, precision is key. Email content must address the prospect’s pain points on the spot, and the best approach is to cut things short.
Recent research has shown that 66% of potential buyers prefer shorter emails, and only 28% of people consider length irrelevant as long as they receive personalized messages.
Most email recipients enjoy preciseness, so try to exclude complex structures to improve click-through rates. Make your intentions clear and straightforward; you won’t have to wait for the results.
What is the best time to send cold emails?
Besides the general recommendation to send cold emails during business hours, there are days that are the most and least effective. Let’s have a look at the click rates from a recent study based on over 85,000 emails:
- Monday received the highest open rate of 20%;
- Tuesday is the second most effective day for sending cold emails, reaching a 17.2% open rate;
- Wednesday is the third best day for emailing prospects, with an open rate of around 16%;
- the worst day for writing cold emails is Saturday, with the lowest open rate of less than 5%.
(Source: Siege Media)
Key performance indicators for cold emails
Properly defined key performance indicators (KPIs) are the best way to measure a campaign’s success and determine whether it is time to optimize. So, what are the KPIs to keep in mind, and what are their values?
Open rate
Open rates are the direct result of the performance of cold email subject lines — the first line of defense. Here are the average results to expect from campaigns, depending on the number of prospects, according to Woodpecker:
- 11–50 prospects: The average open rate for personalized cold emails is 62%;
- 50–200 prospects: The open rate to expect from larger sequences is 49%;
- 201–1000 prospects: Campaigns with up to 1,000 contacts typically reach 38% open rates.
(Source: Woodpecker)
If your open rate is below the campaign values or an average of 27.7%, you need to optimize the subject lines. How? A/B testing is the best way to check multiple theories simultaneously and detect the personalized subject lines that perform best.
Click-through rate
The average click-through rate for cold emails is around 3.67%. Not the result you expect to see? There is an explanation: Sales reps do not always include tracking links, as they negatively affect deliverability, and prospects are careful with links from unknown senders.
Whether to include a tracking link or not is entirely up to you, but consider using branded links if you are positive about trying. These are safer options if clicks are the metrics you track.
Reply rate
Instead of discussing an average value, let’s explore reply rates based on the personalization level, starting with no personalization and ending with advanced variables. Here are the cold email statistics on replies from the same report:
- no personalization: Cold sales emails with no personalization only reached a 9% reply rate;
- basic personalization: The mention of the company or prospect’s name received a 14% reply rate;
- advanced personalization: Cold emails with advanced personalization reached an 18% response rate, proving that effort pays off.
(Source: Woodpecker)
Personalization creates a sense of effort and makes email recipients feel more valued. Most realize that emails are automated, but they still expect messages to be customized.
Conversion rate
The conversion rate is often a measurement of success, as it shows the business opportunities that cold mailing offers you. While the average values are low and vary between 1% and 5%, there are a few proven ways to improve yours:
- a strong call to action: A call to action button is a powerful email element that encourages conversions and improves overall engagement;
- structured follow-ups: A good follow-up email strengthens the initial message. The key is to keep all the messaging aligned and timely sent;
- social proof: The common downside of cold emails is minimal trust between the target audience and the brand. Social proof builds your credibility and may increase conversions by up to 80%.
Bounce rate
A recommended bounce rate for cold emails is below 3-5%. If your campaign shows signs of a rate increase, it is best to stop outreach and check email deliverability. What should you pay attention to?
- sender reputation: Sending high volumes from the start will likely get you flagged by email providers. The emails will fall right into spam folders, past the inboxes;
- list quality: Invalid or incorrect emails bounce, so ensure to clean the contact lists with email verification tools;
- content quality: Poor quality content increases the chances of not getting through spam filters. Try limiting the usage of spam words and making your email sound authentic.
Unsubscribe rate
The unsubscribe rate for cold emails differs from a warm outreach, where you normally aim at under 3%. Cold email marketing statistics suggest that the unsubscribe rate may go up to 10%, but the lower, the better.
Higher rates often result from misaligned content, aggressive selling, or unethical email frequency. So, what are the top approaches to revive your email sequence?
- segment prospects: Yes, it may be cold outreach, but that doesn’t mean generic emails work for everyone. Consider the contact’s current position, industry, pain points, or benefits;
- introduce a pause: Ideally, you win leads over with the first email, but the reality is different: 44% of recipients unsubscribe due to high frequency. People may need time to consider, so flooding them with emails is invasive.
Industry benchmarks for cold outreach
The golden rule of metrics tracking is never to compare one industry with another. Why? The audience dictates the benchmarks: Each sector works with particular prospects, so the results differ.
Let’s review benchmarks for reply and conversion rates in the top five industries:
|
Industry
|
Reply rate
|
Conversion rate
|
|
Software
|
0.5%
|
1.5-3%
|
|
Marketing
|
4.3%
|
2-5%
|
|
eCommerce
|
4.8%
|
2.5-4.5%
|
|
Healthcare
|
4.9%
|
1-3%
|
|
Finance
|
4.8%
|
1-2.5%
|
Is a 2% conversion rate in eCommerce a troubling sign? Yes, but is it a problem in finance? No. These nuances are crucial to understanding progress and are the only way to measure it.
Instead of comparing the eCommerce sequence with finance, compare your results with industry averages.
Wrapping up
Cold outreach is not about bombarding prospects with messages or cold calls but about delivering a solution. The true value starts before sending cold emails — with proper strategy, planning, writing subject lines, and warming up mailboxes.
The key to winning is knowing your audience, tracking results, and constantly optimizing campaigns. It will take more than a day writing cold emails to master these, but you won’t have to wait long for the expected “Yes.” Good luck!
Create cold emails that warm hearts with Stripo
