What a list is worth
Email is the only channel here you own outright. It is also the one where coaches most often compare themselves against numbers from a completely different industry.
Email is the only acquisition channel on this site that you own outright. No algorithm decides who sees it, no platform can change the terms, and it is the one asset that survives every change to every social network you currently depend on.
It is also the channel where coaches most often compare themselves against numbers from a completely different industry, conclude they are failing, and stop. A 38% open rate is poor against a retail newsletter and perfectly healthy against a two-year-old coaching list that has not been pruned.
The figures on this page come from GetResponse’s 2024 email marketing benchmarks, which is a real study with a real sample but is cross-industry rather than coaching-specific. That distinction runs through everything below, and it moves the numbers in a predictable direction.
This page explains what each metric actually measures, why open rates have been unreliable since 2021, what a coaching list is genuinely worth, and why the list-size revenue table further down should not be read as a growth plan.
The short answer
Welcome emails open at 83.6%, automated sequences at 45.4% with a 5.02% click rate, and newsletters at around 40% with a 2.5% click rate. These are GetResponse 2024 cross-industry benchmarks rather than coaching-specific figures, and because coaching lists are typically small, recently opted in and highly engaged, they should be read as a floor rather than a target.
- Welcome email open rateBenchmark83.6%
- Automated sequence open rateBenchmark45.4%
- Automated sequence click rateBenchmark5.02%
- Newsletter open rateBenchmark40%
- Newsletter click rateBenchmark2.5%
List size and revenue
- 0 to 500Revenue$0–$3,000
- 500 to 2,000Revenue$2,000–$8,000
- 2,000 to 5,000Revenue$5,000–$20,000
- 5,000 to 10,000Revenue$15,000–$50,000
- 10,000 and upRevenue$40,000–$200,000+
What do these email benchmarks measure?
Open rate is the share of delivered emails recorded as opened. It is measured by a tracking pixel: a tiny image loaded from the sender’s server when the message is displayed. If the image does not load, the open is not counted, and if it loads without a human reading anything, the open is counted anyway.
Click rate is the share of delivered emails in which at least one link was clicked. It is measured by redirect rather than by image, so it is substantially more reliable than open rate and much harder to inflate accidentally.
Click-to-open rate is clicks divided by opens, and it is the figure that actually tells you whether the content worked. From the benchmarks below it runs at about 11% for automated sequences and about 6% for newsletters. Those two figures are derived from the published rates rather than separately measured.
A note that changes how all of this should be read: Apple Mail Privacy Protection, introduced in 2021, preloads remote images for Apple Mail users regardless of whether the message is read. Every open rate published since then, including these, is inflated by an amount nobody can precisely quantify. Click rate is unaffected, which is why it deserves more weight than it usually gets.
The four figures worth remembering
What is a good email open rate for a coach?
The published benchmark for each email type, what it is useful for, and the derived click-to-open figure where both rates exist. Compare like with like: a welcome email and a newsletter are not the same instrument.
| Email type | Open | Click | Click-to-open |
|---|---|---|---|
| Welcome email | 83.6% | Not published | — |
| Automated sequence | 45.4% | 5.02% | 11.1% |
| Newsletter or broadcast | ~40% | 2.5% | 6.3% |
GetResponse 2024, cross-industry. Click-to-open is derived from the two published columns, not separately measured. Read these as a floor for a coaching list rather than a target.
Why is the welcome email the highest-leverage email you will send?
Because 83.6% of people open it and 45.4% open what comes next. Nothing you send will ever have that much attention again. The gap between those two figures — nearly forty percentage points — is the single largest drop-off in any email programme, and it happens between email one and email two.
Most coaches spend that attention saying thank you and attaching a PDF. It works as a transaction and wastes the asset. The subscriber has just raised their hand, is thinking about the problem right now, and will never again be this close to the decision without being sold to.
The coaches who convert use the welcome email to set the frame instead: who you work with, what the work actually involves, what it costs, and what happens next if they want it. Not a pitch. A clear statement of what this relationship is, delivered at the only moment when almost everybody is reading.
What should a coaching welcome email contain?
Five elements, in this order. The whole thing should be short enough to read on a phone without scrolling twice.
Deliver what was promised, immediately
The download, the guide, the video. First line, above everything else. A subscriber hunting for the thing they signed up for has already stopped reading the rest.
Say who you actually work with
One sentence, specific enough to exclude people. "I work with founders in their first two years of running a team" tells a reader whether to stay. "I help people unlock their potential" does not.
Say what the work involves
Format, rhythm and length. Fortnightly hour-long sessions over six months is information. Transformational partnership is not, and the reader has to guess what they are buying.
Name the price, or the range
This is the one almost everybody omits, and it is the one that filters hardest. A reader who learns the range now and stays is a genuinely better lead than one who finds out on a discovery call and leaves.
Give exactly one next step
A booking link, or a reply prompt, or nothing at all. Two calls to action halve each other. If the answer is nothing at all, say when the next email arrives so the second one is expected.
What is an email list actually worth?
Associated annual revenue by list size, from practitioner reports. Read the next section before you do anything with this table, because the direction of causation is not what the table implies.
| List size | Associated annual revenue | Per subscriber, per year |
|---|---|---|
| 0 to 500 | $0–$3,000 | $0–$6 |
| 500 to 2,000 | $2,000–$8,000 | $1–$16 |
| 2,000 to 5,000 | $5,000–$20,000 | $1–$10 |
| 5,000 to 10,000 | $15,000–$50,000 | $1.50–$10 |
| 10,000 and up | $40,000–$200,000+ | $4–$20 |
The right-hand column is derived by dividing each revenue band by each list band, so it is a range of ranges and should be treated as an order of magnitude. A dollar to ten dollars per subscriber per year is the honest summary. The underlying table is a practitioner estimate.
Why should you not read that table as a growth plan?
Because it is a correlation and the causation runs mostly the other way. Coaches with 10,000 subscribers do not earn more because of the list. They have generally been publishing for years, have a defined niche, and have had time to build the audience and the offer together. The list is evidence of the work, not the cause of the income.
Buying your way to 10,000 subscribers does not produce $40,000 to $200,000. It produces a large list with low engagement, worse deliverability, and a higher bill from your email provider. The report is explicit that meaningful list income typically requires an existing audience plus three to six months of production before anything sells.
There is a second trap in the per-subscriber column. It looks like a lever: double the list, double the revenue. It is not, because the revenue per subscriber on a list of 500 people who know you is frequently higher than on a list of 10,000 who signed up for a giveaway.
Engagement is the variable that matters and list size is the one that gets measured.
Use the table to set expectations at your current size. At 800 subscribers, $2,000 to $8,000 a year from email is normal and not a failure. At 4,000 and $3,000 a year, the problem is the offer or the sequence rather than the list.
What raises opens, and what raises clicks?
Raises open rate
- Sending from a person’s name rather than a business name.
- A subject line that describes rather than teases. Curiosity gaps burn out within a few sends.
- Consistent rhythm, so the email is expected rather than a surprise.
- Removing subscribers who have not opened anything in six months. It lowers the list and raises everything else.
Raises click rate
- One link, repeated, rather than five competing links.
- Saying plainly what is on the other side of the link.
- Writing to one reader rather than to a list.
- Shorter emails. Click rate is a function of reaching the end, and most subscribers do not.
How often should a coach email their list?
There is no measured answer for coaching specifically. Practitioner reports converge on weekly to fortnightly for a newsletter, with automated sequences running more densely for the first ten days after sign-up and then stopping. That is a convergence of opinion, not a finding, and it should be read as one.
What the benchmarks do support is a structural point. Automated sequences open at 45.4% and newsletters at around 40%, so the sequence is the stronger instrument, and it is the one most coaches never build. A list receiving a monthly newsletter and no welcome sequence is leaving the highest-attention moment in the entire relationship unused.
The failure mode at the other end is less common than coaches fear. Unsubscribes rise with frequency, but the subscribers lost to a weekly rhythm are overwhelmingly the ones who were never going to buy. Compare the content and email funnel against the faster channels on the acquisition page before deciding how much of your week this deserves.
What do 1,000 subscribers actually do?
Each row applies one published rate to a list of 1,000. The rates are separate measures of separate emails, so they are not multiplied together.
| Measure | Published rate | People out of 1,000 |
|---|---|---|
| Welcome email open rate | 83.6% | 836 |
| Automated sequence open rate | 45.4% | 454 |
| Automated sequence click rate | 5.02% | 50 |
| Newsletter open rate | 40% | 400 |
| Newsletter click rate | 2.5% | 25 |
Rates from the email benchmarks on this page.
Why does the welcome email matter so much in that table?
Around 836 of 1,000 new subscribers open the welcome email, against about 400 for a typical newsletter. It is the one message almost everybody reads.
So the welcome email is where the offer, the booking link and the single next step belong. A newsletter reaches fewer than half as many people, and clicks on it are a small fraction of that.
Common questions
What is a good email open rate for a coach?
Against the cross-industry benchmarks, 83.6% for a welcome email, 45.4% for an automated sequence and around 40% for a newsletter. Because coaching lists are typically small, recently opted in and highly engaged, a healthy coaching list should meet or beat those figures, so treat them as a floor. Click rate is the more trustworthy measure: 5.02% on sequences and 2.5% on newsletters.
Are these numbers specific to coaching?
No. They come from GetResponse’s 2024 email marketing benchmarks, which measure across every industry. No coaching-specific email benchmark study of comparable size exists. The cross-industry sample includes large, old, low-engagement retail lists, which pulls the averages down relative to a typical coaching list.
Why is my open rate higher than it used to be?
Probably Apple Mail Privacy Protection, introduced in 2021, which preloads remote images for Apple Mail users whether or not the message is read. Every open recorded that way counts as an open. The inflation is real, it varies by audience, and nobody publishes a reliable figure for its size. Click rate is measured by redirect rather than by image and is unaffected.
How big does an email list need to be before it is worth anything?
Practitioner reports associate 500 to 2,000 subscribers with $2,000 to $8,000 a year, which works out at roughly $1 to $16 per subscriber. Engagement matters far more than size: 500 people who know your name routinely outperform 10,000 who signed up for a giveaway. The list-size table is an estimate and a correlation, not a plan.
What should be in a coaching welcome email?
Deliver the promised thing first, then say who you work with, what the work involves, roughly what it costs, and give exactly one next step. Naming the price is the element almost everyone omits and the one that filters hardest, because a reader who learns the range now and stays is a better lead than one who discovers it on a discovery call.
How often should I email my list?
Weekly to fortnightly for a newsletter, with a denser automated sequence over the first ten days after sign-up. That is a convergence of practitioner opinion rather than a measured finding. The structural point the data does support is that automated sequences outperform broadcasts on both open and click, and most coaches have not built one.
How many people open a coach’s welcome email?
About 83.6% on the published figure, or roughly 836 of every 1,000 new subscribers.
The verdict
Build the welcome sequence before anything else. It is the only email most of your list will ever read properly, it outperforms every broadcast you will send, and the majority of coaching lists do not have one. Everything else in an email programme is an optimisation on top of an asset that has not been created.
Then stop watching open rate. It has been unreliable since 2021, it is inflated by an unknowable amount, and it measures whether an image loaded rather than whether anyone read anything. Click rate, click-to-open and the number of replies are the figures that tell you whether the writing is working.
Treat the benchmarks here as the floor they are, and treat the list-size revenue table as a description of coaches who have been doing this for years rather than a route to becoming one.