20+ Cold Email Statistics and Insights You Should Know

Crafting a good and compelling cold email is tough, but you know what's tougher? Getting those emails opened and the response. We’ve gathered a list of some reliable and interesting insights on cold email outreach. This guide covers helpful, cold email statistics around response rates, open rates, and follow-ups to increase your response rate.

20+ Super helpful cold email statistics

This list will help you uncover the response rates, open rates, and how to follow up the right way to get that response.

Cold email open rate statistics

Here are some cold email open rate statistics you should know:

• The average open rate of cold emails is only 23.9%.
• According to Yes Lifecycle Marketing study, personalized email subject lines boost open rates by 50%.

• Subject lines with emojis have an 8% higher open rate. - Klenty

Cold email response rate statistics

Here’s how the response rate is affected by different types of email marketing tactics:

• According to Backlinko’s email outreach study, only 8.5% of emails receive a response.
• Cold outreach emails with long subject lines have a 24.6% higher average response rate. - Backlinko
• According to a Belkin’s study, C-level executives are 23% more likely to answer cold B2B emails than employees outside the C-suite.
• Personalized emails of a cold email boost response rate by 30.5%. - Backlinko’s case study
• The highest response rates of 16.5% and more mainly and mostly come from museums, non-profit, and religious institutions. - Belkins
• 70% of outreach reps stop sending emails after not getting a response from the first email. - Yesware

Did you know? : An average sales rep spends 21% of their day writing cold emails. - Hubspot

Best time to send follow-ups

If you think sending one cold email is enough, make sure to check these cold email statistics about follow-up emails:

• Following up within one day decreases the response rates by 11%, and not sending a follow-up for 5 days or more also decreases reply rates by 24%. - Belkins
• Sending the first follow-up in 3 days gives up to 31% more replies. - Data from Belkin
• According to the data from Yesware, if a reply is not received to your first email, you have a 21% chance of getting a reply to the second one.

Cold email ROI insights

Cold emailing remains a powerful sales tool, with data showing clear strategies to maximize return on investment.

• The average sales rep spends 21% of their day writing cold emails. -Hubspot
• Using animated GIFs can improve your cold email ROI by up to 105%. -Litmus
• Brands that regularly include A/B testing in their cold email programs see an 82% higher ROI compared to those that never A/B test. -Litmus
• The average ROI for email marketing is $36 for every $1 spent. -ConstantContact

Cold email subject line statistics

The cold email subject line is often the deciding factor in whether your message gets opened or ignored.

• 33% of people open emails based on the subject line. - Superoffice
• Prospect’s company name in the subject line improves cold email email open rates by 22%. - Outreach
• Questions in subject lines get a 21% increase in email open rates. - Hunterblog
• cold email subject lines including numbers get approximately 113% more email opens. -Yesware

Cold email bounce rate statistics

A high cold email bounce rate can damage sender reputation and significantly reduce campaign effectiveness.

• Any value below 3-5% is an acceptable bounce rate; a higher number of bounces often indicates problems with email providers. -QuickMail
• The average cold email bounce rate is 7.5% -QuickMail

Cold Emails by Region

Cold email deliverability varies significantly by region, with key differences in open, reply, and engagement rates across the EU, Ireland, the USA, and APAC.

• EU Cold Emails Receive a 22.1% Open Rate and a 2.2% Click-Through Rate. -GrowthList
• Ireland Leads in Email Reply Rates at 17% While the USA Lags at 5% -GrowthList
• APAC Has the Highest Engagement Rate with 22.4% -GrowthList

Takeaway

Cold emails can be hard to craft; getting them opened and responded to is even more difficult. These cold email statistics are reported from real businesses and real-life scenarios that can help you try out new content, work on improving your subject lines and find the best time to send your emails.