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Email Marketing Benchmarks by List Size (2026 Data Guide)
Email marketing benchmarks are one of the most searched topics in marketing.
Every team wants to know the same thing:
Are our results actually good?
The problem is that most benchmark articles miss one critical factor — list size.
A startup sending to 2,000 subscribers should not expect the same performance as a company emailing 500,000 contacts. Engagement behaves differently as audiences grow, and misunderstanding this leads many marketers to believe their campaigns are failing when they are actually performing normally.
This guide breaks down realistic email marketing benchmarks by list size so you can evaluate performance accurately in 2026.
Why List Size Changes Everything
As your email list grows, engagement naturally shifts.
Smaller lists tend to include:
- Highly interested subscribers
- Recent signups
- Founder-led or niche audiences
Large lists typically contain:
- Older subscribers
- Less active users
- Broader targeting segments
This means engagement metrics almost always decline as lists scale — and that’s completely normal.
The goal isn’t chasing unrealistic numbers.
The goal is understanding what healthy performance looks like at your stage of growth.
Email Marketing Benchmarks by List Size
Below are realistic ranges observed across SaaS, ecommerce, and content-driven email programs.
Lists Under 10,000 Subscribers
These lists often achieve the strongest engagement.
Typical Benchmarks
- Open Rate: 28–45%
- Click-Through Rate (CTR): 3–8%
- Conversion Rate: 1–4%
- Unsubscribe Rate: <0.3%
Why performance is high:
- Audience relationship is fresh
- Messaging feels personal
- Segmentation is simpler
At this stage, rapid experimentation matters more than scale. Strong engagement signals product-market fit and content resonance.
Lists Between 10,000–100,000 Subscribers
Growth introduces complexity.
Typical Benchmarks
- Open Rate: 22–35%
- CTR: 2.5–5%
- Conversion Rate: 0.8–2.5%
- Unsubscribe Rate: 0.2–0.5%
Common shifts at this stage:
- Audience intent becomes mixed
- Older subscribers remain on the list
- Campaign performance varies more
This is where structured reporting becomes essential. Tracking trends over time matters far more than judging individual campaigns.
Lists Above 100,000 Subscribers
Large lists behave differently from smaller ones.
Typical Benchmarks
- Open Rate: 18–28%
- CTR: 1.5–3.5%
- Conversion Rate: 0.5–1.8%
- Unsubscribe Rate: 0.3–0.7%
Lower engagement does not mean weaker performance.
In fact, many enterprise programs generate their highest revenue at this stage because scale offsets percentage declines.
A 2% CTR on 300,000 subscribers often outperforms a 6% CTR on 5,000 subscribers in total business impact.
The Benchmark Mistake Most Marketers Make
Many teams compare themselves to generic industry averages.
This creates unnecessary frustration.
Example:
- Startup list: 3,000 subscribers
- Open rate: 24%
Compared to online “average” benchmarks, this might seem disappointing.
But relative to similar list sizes, it may actually signal under-engaged onboarding or inconsistent sending frequency — a completely different diagnosis.
Benchmarks are useful only when applied in the right context.
Which Email Metrics Actually Matter for Benchmarking
Not all metrics deserve equal attention.
Open Rate — Directional Only
Open rate helps identify trends but is increasingly unreliable due to privacy protections and automated inbox behaviour.
Use it as a signal, not a success metric.
Click-Through Rate (CTR) — Real Engagement
CTR measures intentional interaction.
If your CTR improves, your messaging, segmentation, or offer alignment is likely improving as well.
Learn how CTR works in detail here:
👉 /blog/how-to-calculate-email-click-through-rate
Conversion Rate — Business Impact
Conversion rate answers the real question:
Did your email create results?
Benchmark comparisons become meaningful only when tied to outcomes like signups, purchases, or upgrades.
Engagement Trends — The Hidden Benchmark
High-performing teams track:
- Month-over-month performance
- 90-day averages
- Engagement decay
One campaign never defines performance. Trends do.
Why Bigger Lists Often Feel Worse (Even When They Aren’t)
As audiences grow, marketers commonly experience:
- Falling open rates
- Slightly lower CTR
- Increased unsubscribe activity
This is expected.
Growth introduces passive subscribers who rarely engage but still contribute to revenue opportunities.
Healthy scaling means accepting metric compression while maintaining overall outcomes.
How to Benchmark Your Own Email Performance Correctly
Follow a simple framework:
- Compare against similar list sizes, not universal averages.
- Use consistent formulas across campaigns.
- Track performance trends instead of single sends.
- Evaluate engagement alongside conversions.
- Model expected performance as your list grows.
Instead of manually calculating benchmarks across spreadsheets, tools like Email Calculator standardise your metrics automatically and make performance comparisons easier over time.
Benchmarking becomes clearer when calculations stay consistent.
The Real Purpose of Benchmarks
Benchmarks are not targets.
They are context.
They help answer:
- Are we improving?
- Are we scaling healthily?
- Where should optimisation focus next?
Strong email programs optimise relative performance — not internet averages.
Final Thoughts
Email marketing success looks different at every stage of growth.
Small lists benefit from intimacy.
Mid-size lists benefit from structure.
Large lists benefit from scale.
Understanding benchmarks by list size prevents unnecessary optimisation cycles and helps teams focus on meaningful improvements.
When you evaluate performance within the right context, your data becomes far more useful — and your decisions become far more confident.
Related Articles
- How to Calculate Email Open Rate: Formula, Benchmarks & Tips
- How to Calculate Email Click Through Rate
- Email Conversion Rate: How to Measure and Improve It
- Email Metrics That Actually Matter (And the Ones You Can Ignore)
- How to Create an Email Reporting Dashboard Without Spreadsheets
Frequently Asked Questions
Most email programs see open rates between 18% and 35%, but the definition of 'good' depends heavily on list size, audience quality, and industry. Smaller, highly engaged lists often outperform large databases.
As subscriber lists expand, audience diversity increases and engagement naturally declines. Larger lists include more passive subscribers, which lowers average engagement metrics even when performance is healthy.
Industry averages provide context, but comparing against similar list sizes is often more accurate. A 25% open rate may be excellent for a 500,000-subscriber list but average for a 2,000-subscriber list.
Click-through rate and conversion rate are usually more meaningful than open rate because they measure real engagement and outcomes rather than passive visibility.
Calculate your metrics consistently across campaigns and compare trends over time. Tools like Email Calculator help standardise calculations so performance comparisons remain reliable.
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