Your source for the latest email marketing data
Keep your finger on the pulse of the email marketing industry—from how your peers design, build, and personalize marketing emails to what their workflow looks like and which tools they use. The State of Email Reports from Litmus are built using all of the precious data you’ve shared with us through countless surveys. If you’ve filled out any of our surveys over the past few years, you’re part of the engine that keeps these reports running. So, from marketers everywhere: thank you, survey respondents!
Dive into the latest resources and data on the state of the email marketing industry!
Most recent State of Email reports
The State of Email in Lifecycle Marketing Report
Acquisition is exciting, but lifecycle email supports retention and engagement for business sustainability. Learn how nearly 1,000 marketers use email in lifecycle marketing. Plus, get commentary from six industry experts on what to do in the year ahead.
The State of Email Innovations Report
Understand the changes and innovations that are shaping email marketing in 2024 to prepare your email program for what’s to come, including the demise of third-party cookies, new sender requirements to adhere to, and the expectation of personalization.
The State of Email Trends Report
Discover which email trends marketers are currently using—and which ones are actually effective in improving email program performance. In the first ever State of Email Trends Report, we partnered with Oracle’s Chad S. White and asked over 400 email marketers about their most effective email marketing tactics to help you identify which trends to tap into.
The State of Email Report
In the annual State of Email Report, you’ll get an overview of the top headlines of the year, and look at what they mean for your email program going forward. You’ll get insights from the email experts at Litmus who share their opinions on current trends, predictions about future ones, and tactical takeaways into how to improve your marketing emails and email programs using the report.
The State of ESPs Report
Understand the shifting landscape of email service providers (ESPs) and discover the most popular tools in use, the ones with the highest satisfaction rates, and then further splice that data by industry and even end user. We dig into the tools we use to manage email addresses, email lists, and other personal information that makes our programs run. If you’re considering re-evaluating your ESP or just wondering what everyone else is using, this is the report for you.
The State of Email Design Report
Discover what’s trending in email design and development and learn which are the most popular design methodologies, often utilized tools in the design process, and cutting-edge innovations impacting email designers and developers. Wondering how the best designers in the business are making emails? Don’t miss the latest edition of this report.
The State of Email Workflows Report
Learn how the best email marketers in the business are planning and executing their email workflows, where their frustrations lie (it’s not what you might think!), and which marketing channel is the most effective. If you have questions about marketing automation, email processes, or need solutions to common email workflow problems, you’ll want to check out this report.
Did you know?
And 58% of marketing teams send emails weekly or several times per week.
Read the new report35%
of companies see an email ROI of 36:1 or more
Use the State of Email data to…
- Advocate for program value
- Refine your workflows
- Benchmark current performance against industry standards
- Inspire innovation across the team
- Pivot strategies towards industry trends
Explore past State of Email reports
Check out the complete findings from recent State of Email surveys below.
Email Report archive
Download older State of Email reports to see the trends over time.
- State of Email 2019
- State of Email Analytics 2019
- State of Email Engagement 2019
- State of Email Service Providers 2019
- State of Email Workflows 2019
- State of Email 2018
- State of Email Analytics 2018
- State of Email Service Providers 2018
- State of Email Service Workflows 2018
Email marketing research: data and methodology
The best email marketing research requires careful data collection to deliver insights you can trust. Our email marketing research methodology gathers responses from email professionals across enterprises, mid-market companies, and emerging organizations worldwide.Â
This approach to email research helps us capture diverse perspectives from agencies, in-house teams, software providers, and industry consultants.Â
That’s what makes our State of Email reports different—full-picture insights, not just a slice of the industry.
How we conduct email marketing research
The email marketing data we use in our reports is collected in stages:
- Data collection: we survey with email pros across various industries to gather real-world email performance data, strategy insights, and technology adoption patterns. Each participant provides email marketing data from their campaigns and best pHow we conduct email marketing research
ractices. - Quality assurance and validation: every data point in our email research goes through a thorough validation process: duplicates get removed, outliers get flagged, and responses are cross-referenced against known industry benchmarks. That kind of email marketing data validation is what separates findings you can act on from ones you have to second-guess.
The result is research you can use to understand how your email program stacks up to your peers and find ways to improve.Â
How the State of Email Report improves your email marketing reporting
The State of Email Report provides the industry-wide data and insights your team needs to move from disconnected metrics to strategic reporting—giving you the context to understand not just your numbers, but how they compare.
When you build reports with peer benchmarks, you gain clarity on performance gaps and optimization priorities. Rather than setting targets blindly, you see how your send frequency, click-through rates, and ROI stack up against your industry vertical. This shifts reporting from a compliance exercise into a strategic planning tool.
Key metrics your reporting should highlight
Your email marketing reports are most powerful when they connect directly to business impact:
Open rate and industry averages
See how your median open rate compares to peers in your vertical, helping you identify where improvement is realistic and achievable.
Click-through rate and engagement
Track which messaging resonates most with subscribers, revealing what works in your audience and where to iterate.
Conversion performance
Move beyond engagement vanity metrics to reporting that connects email activity to actual revenue, making your ROI visible to stakeholders.
Subscriber engagement trends
Spot declining segments before they churn, enabling proactive retention in your reporting cadence.
Have a question about our State of Email Reports not answered here?
Ask the communityHow often are new State of Email Reports published?
New State of Email reports are published on each subject above annually. So, you can expect one report on the State of Email Design, for example, to appear for 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, and so on. Each year’s report is based on new data, and each survey is also run on an annual basis. So rest assured you’re getting the most up-to-date information possible.
Who should read these reports?
Anyone involved in email marketing can read and benefit from these reports! Whether you’re a marketer, a designer, a developer, or a strategist, there’s something for everyone in each of these reports. Some may benefit from one report more than others—say, an email designer looking at the State of Email Design report—but overall if you work in email in any way, you’ll stand to benefit from our research.
Plus, these reports make great assets to share with your partners in demand generation, product marketing, customer or client services—or anyone else you may find yourself needing to collaborate with on essential email marketing strategy.
How can I use the stats and insights from this report?
Please use the insights in your work as much and as often as possible! Use them to advocate for the value of your email marketing program, to improve your processes and workflows, and even inspire innovations within your program. You can also use this data as email marketing benchmarks internally.
If you cite our reports, we always appreciate a link and a shout-out. Get in touch to let us know where you’ve used the data—we’d love to see how other marketers are using it!
Where is the data for the report collected from?
The data for these reports is collected from survey groups of hundreds of email marketing professionals across the globe, from a wide range of industries and organizations. We see responses from individuals at every level of their careers, at every stage of the email creation and distribution process. Want to share your insights in our next report? Subscribe to our emails and you’ll be the first to know when the next survey is live.
Do the State of Email Reports only have insights from Litmus customers?
The State of Email reports compile research and insights from hundreds of companies and brands across a wide range of verticals. In fact, roughly 61% of respondents stated they were NOT Litmus customers. Our survey respondents range from many-hats email marketers at small businesses to highly technical email specialists at some of the biggest companies in the world. Our community of email geeks ranges far and wide and certainly spans a much larger space than just our customer base.
What are the main insights or takeaways that email marketers can gain from this report?
In the State of Email marketing Reports, you’ll learn about the most impactful marketing channel (spoiler: it’s email), the marketing strategies some of the most effective email marketing teams are using to build and send emails, and take a look at some of the emerging trends in the email world. You’ll also get an insider look into how the Litmus team builds their own emails!
How can I stay updated with future reports?
The best way to stay updated with future reports and report updates from Litmus is to sign up for our newsletter. We’ll release a special launch email when new reports go live, so make sure to get your name on the list now so you’ll be the first to know when we have new data. You can also follow us on social media to get updates when reports are released if that’s more your style.
Make every send count with Litmus
Book a demo of Litmus and see how some of the best marketers in the business are creating emails!
Get startedWhat email industry trends reveal
Email marketing trends for 2026 point to a market that’s changing fast, with automation adoption accelerating, personalization deepening, and mobile-first strategies becoming non-negotiable. Our State of Email analysis shows how teams are adapting to these shifts and where the biggest opportunities lie.
The AI adoption gap: Advanced AI adopters are 75% more likely to achieve ROIs above 45:1—but adoption is uneven. The teams pulling ahead in email marketing reporting aren’t just using AI for content; they’re applying it to segmentation, subject line testing, and send-time optimization across every campaign.
Email production is speeding up: In 2024, 62% of teams took two weeks or more to send a single email. By 2026, 76% deploy within three days.
The ROI measurement shift: Multi-channel attribution and MQLs jumped 22% year-over-year as email campaign reporting moves away from engagement proxies toward revenue accountability. Bot-driven phantom engagement has made open rates unreliable, pushing high-performing teams toward revenue per email, list churn, and lifetime value as the metrics that matter.
Relationship-building emails outperform promotional blasts: The top 8% of programs—those hitting 45:1+ ROI—most commonly send newsletters and onboarding emails, not promotions. Email performance reports from these teams reflect a deliberate shift from broadcasting to relationship-building, with newsletters up 12% from 2025.
What these trends mean
The teams seeing the best returns from email in 2026 aren’t doing any magic—they’re building a stronger email foundation. They moved their email marketing reporting beyond open rates to metrics that actually connect to revenue. They’re using AI for more than a first draft. And they figured out that a well-timed newsletter builds more long-term value than another promotional blast. If your email program feels like it’s plateauing, the State of Email Report shows exactly where to start: with the benchmarks for revenue-per-subscriber in your industry, and the breakdown of what top performers are actually sending.
