topic Sources for Accurate Cold Email Benchmarks in Sales Email

Sources for Accurate Cold Email Benchmarks

JMartin954 — Tue, 27 Aug 2024 16:05:52 GMT

Hi all,

I've run into some issues with a client splitting hairs over a partially completed sequence, and the advice my leadership gave me was to find some benchmarks on cold email to provide.

The problem is, when I search "cold email benchmarks 2024," or another variation on that, what I get is all marketing email performance benchmarks. Some of which are as absurd as "anything over 60% open rate is considered good."

I've looked at resources from Mailchimp, WebFX, HubSpot, Constant Contact, but so far it's only been marketing email performance.

Anyone out there know where to find metrics for actual cold email?

Re: Sources for Accurate Cold Email Benchmarks

BruceT — Wed, 28 Aug 2024 02:12:04 GMT

Hey @JMartin954

This is going to vary massively depending on a bunch of factors including industry, email domain technical setup, how brand aware your audience is, message etc. For cold outreach, the general consensus is that open rate isn't a great metric to focus on, instead optimze for positivie replies. I recommend you check out some numbers and reccomendations from platforms who are specialize in the cold outreach sequencing:

Focus on establishing your own baseline, then split test to continously improve your metrics. And don't rely 100% on email - make your sequences multichannel. We've seen a lift in over 20% engagement when layering on channels.

Bruce Tomkins

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Re: Sources for Accurate Cold Email Benchmarks

JMartin954 — Wed, 28 Aug 2024 15:13:55 GMT

Bruce,

These resources are fantastic, especially the Lavender article. And honestly, very validating as I had led with "we should develop our own baseline from the first couple of sequences"!

In the process of researching I also came across this very cool page from Gmass, where you can view real-time deliverability results on 17 test accounts using various spam filters: https://www.gmass.co/inbox

Re: Sources for Accurate Cold Email Benchmarks

QRautela — Fri, 07 Nov 2025 05:31:14 GMT

Cold email benchmarks are generally lower than marketing email statistics, with open rates often around 30 to 50 percent and reply rates between 2 and 10 percent depending on targeting and deliverability. Most benchmarks from tools like Mailchimp or HubSpot reflect opt-in marketing rather than true cold outreach. Some SMTP server services, such as SMTPmart, iDealSMTP and Mailgun allow cold email sending, but it is important to research their reliability and ensure compliance with email regulations before using them.

Re: Sources for Accurate Cold Email Benchmarks

BérangèreL — Fri, 07 Nov 2025 10:41:19 GMT

Hi @QRautela and welcome, it's a pleasure to have you here!

Thanks so much for your contribution on the HubSpot Community!

To add to all the insights on this thread, I'd like to add some resources:

- Email marketing benchmarks by industry (+ email open rate data)
- Mastering Effective Cold Sales Outreach for Startups

I hope this helps!

Have a wonderful weekend!
Bérangère