15 Top Email Subject Line Statistics (2024 Data)
Are you in need of a few email subject line statistics to help you craft more compelling subject lines?
In this post, we list the latest email subject line statistics the marketing industry has to offer from a few different sources, including email marketing services.
We’ve arranged the data into a few small categories, including general statistics and statistics for specific subject line tactics.
Editor’s top picks – email subject line statistics
Here are the top email subject line statistics in this post:
- 47% of email recipients use your subject line to determine whether or not they should open your email. (Startup Bonsai)
- 69% of email recipients will mark an email as spam based on its subject line. (Startup Bonsai)
- More than 60% of consumers find the use of all capital letters in email subject lines unacceptable. (MarTech)
- Email subject lines between 61 and 70 characters have the highest average open rate at 32.1%. (GetResponse)
- Emails that pair their subject lines with preheader text have an average click-through rate of 3.12%. (GetResponse)
General email subject line statistics
1. 47% of email recipients decide to open an email based on its subject line
Almost half of all email subscribers on your list, or 47%, use the email subject line to decide whether or not to open an email.
This statistic comes from a study by OptinMonster that was cited by Startup Bonsai.
Source: Startup Bonsai
2. 69% of email recipients will mark your email as spam based on its subject line alone
According to a study by OptinMonster and cited by Startup Bonsai, the vast majority of subscribers on your email list, or 69%, will mark an email as spam based on the content of its subject line alone.
Source: Startup Bonsai
3. Over 60% of consumers think an email that has no subject line is unacceptable
MarTech surveyed 1,200 consumers in order to learn more about what’s effective in email marketing.
They asked respondents about “email faux pas” they find unacceptable.
Over 60% chose “no subject line.” In fact, it was the third most popular option after spelling errors and grammatical errors.
Here was the full list of options in order of popularity:
- Spelling errors
- Grammatical errors
- No subject line
- Excessive punctuation
- Profanity
- Different font sizes
- All caps subject line
- Irregular fonts
- Slang
- Different font colors
- Verbosity
- All lowercase subject line
- Smiley faces
- Conciseness
Source: MarTech
4. Over 60% of consumers think an email subject line that uses all capital letters is unacceptable
MarTech’s survey of over 1,200 consumers also revealed that the majority of consumers, or more than 60%, find email subject lines that have all capital letters to be unacceptable.
They’re more forgiving about subject lines that use all lowercase letters.
This is good information to have when marketers test email subject lines in search of effective subject lines.
Source: MarTech
5. 18.23% of emails have subject lines that are 31 to 40 characters long
According to a study conducted by GetResponse, which involved the email marketing company analyzing 7 billion of the 30 billion emails their users sent in 2022, the majority of emails, or 18.23%, have subject lines that are between 31 and 40 characters.
41 to 50 characters was a close second at 17.98% of emails analyzed.
The least popular length was 241 to 250 characters, which represented 0.01% of all emails tested.
Here are the full results:
| Character Count | Percentage of Emails (Out of 7 Billion) |
| 241-250 | 0.01% |
| 231-240 | 0.02% |
| 221-230 | 0.02% |
| 211-220 | 0.02% |
| 201-210 | 0.03% |
| 191-200 | 0.04% |
| 181-190 | 0.06% |
| 171-180 | 0.09% |
| 161-170 | 0.11% |
| 151-160 | 0.16% |
| 141-150 | 0.26% |
| 131-140 | 0.35% |
| 121-130 | 0.61% |
| 111-120 | 1.04% |
| 101-110 | 1.71% |
| 91-100 | 2.82% |
| 81-90 | 4.56% |
| 71-80 | 7.22% |
| 61-70 | 10.88% |
| 51-60 | 14.91% |
| 41-50 | 17.98% |
| 31-40 | 18.23% |
| 21-30 | 12.95% |
| 11-20 | 5.19% |
| 1-10 | 0.66% |
Source: GetResponse
Statistics on email subject line strategies and trends
6. Email subject lines that have between 61 and 70 characters have an average open rate of 32.1%
According to email marketing benchmarks conducted by email marketing service GetResponse, if you want to improve your list’s email open rates by optimizing your subject lines, each subject line should be between 61 and 70 characters.
GetResponse discovered that emails with subject lines of this length have an average open rate of 32.1%, which they discovered by analyzing 7 billion emails, a portion of the 30 billion emails their users sent in 2022.
They only analyzed emails from lists that had at least 500 subscribers for best results.
They also discovered long subject lines that were 231 to 240 characters long had an average open rate of 22.9%, making it the second worst email subject line length after 151 to 160 characters, which had an average open rate of 22.87%.
Here’s how other subject line lengths fared:
| Character Length | Average Open Rate |
| 241-250 | 27.62% |
| 231-240 | 22.90% |
| 221-230 | 26.81% |
| 211-220 | 25.79% |
| 201-210 | 26.55% |
| 191-200 | 27.75% |
| 181-190 | 26.90% |
| 171-180 | 25.54% |
| 161-170 | 23.41% |
| 151-160 | 22.87% |
| 141-150 | 24.74% |
| 131-140 | 26.10% |
| 121-130 | 27.08% |
| 111-120 | 29.87% |
| 101-110 | 29.60% |
| 91-100 | 27.80% |
| 81-90 | 27.70% |
| 71-80 | 27.05% |
| 61-70 | 32.10% |
| 51-60 | 27.13% |
| 41-50 | 26.53% |
| 31-40 | 28.10% |
| 21-30 | 26.98% |
| 11-20 | 28.16% |
| 1-10 | 26.20% |
Source: GetResponse
7. Email subject lines between 61 and 70 characters have an average click-through rate of 3.62%
Email subject lines between 61 and 70 characters also performed well in GetResponse’s benchmarks for click-through rates.
They discovered emails with subject lines of this list to have an average click-through rate of 3.62%.
The 241 to 250 character length was, once again, an outlier, performing at an average click-through rate of 4.48%.
However, only 0.01% of the 7 billion emails GetResponse tested used this length, so it’s not a great representation of this length’s performance.
Given the performance of email subject lines between 61 and 70 characters across the board, you’re better off staying within this range with your own subject lines.
This range represented 10.88% of the 7 billion emails GetResponse tested.
Here are the full results from GetResponse’s report:
| Character Count | Average Click-Through Rate |
| 241-250 | 4.48% |
| 231-240 | 3.60% |
| 221-230 | 3.31% |
| 211-220 | 2.63% |
| 201-210 | 2.57% |
| 191-200 | 1.95% |
| 181-190 | 2.24% |
| 171-180 | 1.92% |
| 161-170 | 1.78% |
| 151-160 | 1.73% |
| 141-150 | 1.96% |
| 131-140 | 2.31% |
| 121-130 | 2.46% |
| 111-120 | 3.07% |
| 101-110 | 2.74% |
| 91-100 | 2.57% |
| 81-90 | 2.43% |
| 71-80 | 2.14% |
| 61-70 | 3.62% |
| 51-60 | 2.12% |
| 41-50 | 2.13% |
| 31-40 | 2.23% |
| 21-30 | 1.84% |
| 11-20 | 1.72% |
| 1-10 | 1.53% |
Source: GetResponse
8. Using personalized email subject lines boosts open rates by 50%
According to a statistic cited by Startup Bonsai, using personalized subject lines increases open rates by as much as 50%.
This is in spite of only 2% of marketers using personalization in their email marketing strategies, as Yes Lifecycle Marketing states.
Knowing this, it’s not at all surprising to learn that the majority of businesses do not use email subject line personalization.
In GetResponse’s report, 88.52% of the 7 billion emails analyzed did not use personalized email subject lines.
These emails had an average open rate of 28.89% and an average click-through rate of 2.49%.
Emails that did have personalized subject lines had an average open rate of 22.17% and an average click-through rate of 1.29%.
This is an interesting contrast to advice that encourages using personalization more often.
Source: Startup Bonsai, GetResponse
9. Adding emojis to email subject lines increases open rates by 56%
You can also experiment by adding an emoji to your next email subject line.
According to email subject line statistics from Experian, which were cited by Startup Bonsai, using emojis in email subject lines could boost your open rates by 56%.
However, according to GetResponse’s study, which involved analyzing 7 billion emails sent in 2022, emails that used emojis in their subject lines had an average click-through rate of 1.95% and an average open rate of 26.42%.
This is in comparison to emails without emojis in their subject lines, which performed slightly better. These emails had an average click-through rate of 2.4% and an average open rate of 28.26%.
Source: Startup Bonsai, GetResponse
10. Emails that use preheader text next to their subject lines have an average click-through rate of 3.12%
According to GetResponse’s analysis of 7 billion emails, emails that used preheader text next to their subject lines had an average click-through rate of 3.12%.
They had an average open rate of 32.95%.
Emails that did not use preheader text next to their subject lines had an average click-through rate of 1.97% and an average open rate of 25.72%.
Preheader text is special text you can add to marketing emails (with the help of email marketing software) to control the preview text that gets displayed in your subscriber’s email app.
GetResponse’s numbers prove that optimizing this text improves click-through and open rates by quite a bit.
The company also discovered that only 34.23% of the emails they analyzed contained preheader text. This means the majority of marketers aren’t taking advantage of this tactic.
Source: GetResponse
Performance of common phrases in email subject lines
11. Emails with the word “update” in their subject lines have an average open rate of 42.84%
When GetResponse analyzed 7 billion emails, they discovered that emails that had the word “update” in their subject lines had an average open rate of 42.84%.
They had an average click-through rate of 4.67%.
Source: GetResponse
12. Emails with the word “events” in their subject lines had an average open rate of 42.76%
According to GetResponse’s report, emails that had the word “events” in their lines had an average open rate of 42.76%.
They had an average click-through rate of 3.93%.
Source: GetResponse
13. Emails that use the word “news” in their subject lines have an average open rate of 37.98%
According to GetResponse’s study, subject lines featuring the word “news” have an average open rate of 37.98%.
They had an average click-through rate of 4.93%.
Source: GetResponse
14. Emails with the word “newsletter” in their subject lines have an average open rate of 37.25%
GetResponse discovered that emails that use the word “newsletter” in their subject lines have an average open rate of 37.25%
They have an average click-through rate of 5.88%.
Source: GetResponse
15. Emails that contain the word “prize” in their subject lines have an average open rate of 35.07%
GetResponse’s report revealed that emails that contain the word “prize” in their subject lines have an average open rate of 35.07%.
They have an average click-through rate of 1.99%.
Here’s how similar phrases performed:
| Phrase | Average Open Rate | Average Click-Through Rate |
| bonus | 34.14% | 1.97% |
| sale | 27.74% | 1.82% |
| offer | 27.01% | 2.02% |
| discount | 25.82% | 4.9% |
| exclusive | 24.89% | 1.73% |
| free | 23.17% | 2.24% |
| special | 22.51% | 1.3% |
Source: GetResponse
Sources
Final thoughts
The email subject line statistics in this post contain quite a bit of data, well enough to help you create catchy subject lines for your next few email marketing campaigns.
One trend we noticed is that it’s best to avoid long subject lines that use all capital letters. Keep your subject lines between 61 and 70 characters instead.
It’s also best to pair attention-grabbing subject lines with optimizing preheader text to give your subscribers a better idea of the content inside of each email you send.
Finally, determining the right subject line for your audience will take some work.
Use an email marketing service provider that offers A/B testing to test different tactics against one another. You’ll find some subject lines work better than others and will be able to determine which tactics work best for your individual audience.
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