New insights reveal the enduring power of email with global and industry-specific trends in email engagement and performance

Acoustic, a global marketing and customer engagement provider for B2C brands, released its “2025 Marketing benchmark report: Measure how you stack up and learn tips to improve your strategy,” offering a comprehensive analysis of the latest trends in email marketing, automation, and personalization. Despite the rise of new digital channels, the report reaffirms the importance of email as an engagement tool, with AI-driven automation and first-party data strategies reshaping the way brands connect with customers.

Email continues to be a critical touchpoint for brands, with global users projected to reach 4.89 billion by 2027. Boasting an average ROI of $36 for every $1 spent, it is also one of the most cost-effective methods for engaging with customers and realizing measurable business impact. To help brands utilize email more effectively, the “2025 Marketing benchmark report” reveals key insights, including:

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• Email engagement rises when brands personalize based on preferences and behaviors. Across every region and most industries, automated and transactional emails, which are triggered by specific actions customers take like adding an item to their cart or completing a purchase, saw higher click-through and click-to-open rates than scheduled sends (e.g., general marketing blast emails). Because these types of emails are set up to respond to an individual’s behavior and actions, they are typically more timely, relevant, and ultimately, more useful, leading to higher engagement with the content than generic scheduled emails.
• Automation boosts click-throughs but also leads to unsubscribes and bounces when not used effectively. Unsubscribe and bounce rates saw slight increases likely due to email fatigue, stricter data hygiene practices, and evolving privacy regulations. Inboxes are highly saturated — automation tools make it easier than ever for brands to send high volumes of messages. Yet customers are more likely to opt out when emails are deemed irrelevant. The introduction of new unsubscribe options from popular inbox providers like Gmail and Apple Mail make it quick and easy to opt-out, requiring brands to double down on personalized communications to remain relevant and clickable.
• As the email deliverability landscape evolves, list hygiene and sender reputation remain paramount. In many regions, scheduled sends resulted in lower bounce rates than automated sends likely driven by brands consistently updating the email lists for users who regularly interact with them. From an industry perspective, corporate industries like finance, software, and business services saw higher bounce rates, which may be due to the increasing popularity of anti-spam tools in corporate inboxes. By consistently updating sender lists and keeping up with shifts in mailbox providers’ inbox rules, brands can ensure emails reach their audience and bots do not inflate their email metrics.

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“The latest Acoustic marketing benchmark report underscores the value of highly personalized, timely communications based on customer behavior,” says Meetal Patel, Sr. Director of Customer Marketing & Success Programs at Acoustic. “Because consumers are inundated by marketing messages across channels, quality is key to standing out. As marketing resources continue to constrict, email is a reliable and powerful means to boost customer engagement and retention, particularly when brands implement behavior-based personalization.”