Zeta Global Teams Up with Fireworks to Unveil New Specialized Athena Inference Models Using NVIDIA NemotronRead News
Email and SMS benchmarks tell marketers more than how a campaign performed. They help teams understand where customer engagement is changing, how their results compare with the broader market, and where to focus their next test.
In the third quarter of 2026, email open rates declined year over year in four of the five U.S. industries analyzed. At the same time, unique click rates rose overall, showing why marketers need to look beyond a single metric when evaluating engagement.
The results also reveal different patterns across promotional and triggered email. Promotional unique click rates increased year over year, while triggered unique click rates declined. As AI changes how messages appear in the inbox, clear subject lines, deliverability and relevant content remain important considerations.
SMS results tell another part of the story. Unique click rates increased year over year, while opt-out rates also rose, underscoring the importance of giving subscribers a reason to engage and managing message frequency carefully.
The Q3 report analyzes email and SMS performance from July 1 through September 30, 2026, across retail, travel and hospitality, financial services and insurance, media, and food and beverage. It also includes European email benchmarks to help marketers understand performance in a different regulatory and measurement environment.
Discover how AI-driven inbox features from Gmail, Yahoo, and Apple are reshaping email deliverability—and what strategies marketers must adopt to stay ahead.
Forrester has named Zeta a Leader among email service providers in the Q1 2026 EMSP Wave. Learn more.
Discover why Zeta’s Bryan Seltzer believes email marketing is the future of customer acquisition, powered by identity, intent data, and AI.
The Zeta Marketing Platform features industry-leading ESP, CDP, data + identity to enable omnichannel activation at scale. With the ESP, you can create enhanced email and mobile customer experiences with AI-powered personalization.