Email is the only marketing channel a coach genuinely owns. No algorithm decides who sees it, no platform can change the terms, and nobody can take the list away.
It also has published benchmarks, which almost nothing else in coaching marketing does. The figures below come from GetResponse 2024 and are cross-industry rather than coaching-specific, so treat them as a floor: a focused coaching list should beat them, and a list that does not is telling you something.
The most useful finding is about one specific message. The welcome email opens at roughly double everything else, it is sent once per subscriber, and it is almost universally wasted.
The short answer
The welcome email is the highest-performing email a coach sends, opening at 83.6% — roughly double a newsletter. Automated nurture sequences open at 45.4% and click at 5.02%, and regular newsletters open at around 40% with a 2 to 3% click rate. Most coaches waste the welcome email on a thank-you note.
Email is the only channel you own outright. These benchmarks are cross-industry, so treat them as a floor rather than a target.
Best email tactics for coaches at a glance
The welcome email83.6% open
Automated nurture sequence45.4% open
Regular newsletter~40% open
1The welcome emailOpens at 83.6%. Nothing else you ever send gets that attention. Most coaches waste it on a thank-you and a PDF.83.6% open
2Automated nurture sequenceOpens at 45.4% and clicks at 5.02%.45.4% open
3Regular newsletterAround 40% open, 2 to 3% click.~40% open
4Re-engagement to past clientsThe cheapest revenue available, and the least used.Not benchmarked
Sources · GetResponse 2024 benchmarks. Cross-industry, not coaching-specific.
Every entry, in detail
1
The welcome email
83.6% open
The welcome email opens at 83.6%, roughly double a newsletter and far beyond anything any social platform delivers. It is the highest-attention moment in the entire relationship.
It is also, overwhelmingly, wasted. The standard welcome email thanks someone for subscribing and attaches the thing they signed up for, which spends the best attention you will ever have on an administrative message.
What it should do is set the terms: who you help, what they will receive, what to do if they want more than a newsletter. Nothing you send afterwards gets read this carefully.
Open rate83.6%
Versus newsletter~2×
SentOnce per subscriber
Usually containsA thank-you
Best for
Every coach with a list. This is the single highest-attention message you will ever send anyone.
Where it falls down
You get one. There is no second welcome email, and the attention does not carry over to the next one.
2
Automated nurture sequence
45.4% open
Automated sequences open at 45.4% and click at 5.02%, meaningfully better than a regular newsletter and, crucially, they run without you.
That is the whole argument. A sequence built once continues to warm every new subscriber while you are coaching, sleeping or on holiday, which is not true of anything else in your marketing.
Its limitation is blindness. A standard email tool sees opens and clicks and nothing else, so a sequence cannot acknowledge that the recipient is halfway through a programme or attended a session last week.
Open rate45.4%
Click rate5.02%
SentAutomatically
BuiltOnce
Best for
Coaches who want the work of nurturing a lead to happen without them present, which is most of them.
Where it falls down
It only knows what people clicked. A sequence cannot reference a session someone attended, because the email tool has no idea it happened.
3
Regular newsletter
~40% open
A regular newsletter opens at around 40% and clicks at 2 to 3%, which is the weakest performance of the three formats here and still better than most channels.
Its value is not conversion, it is presence. Coaching is frequently bought months after the interest starts, and a newsletter is what keeps you in view during that gap.
The failure mode is publishing because it is Tuesday. A newsletter with nothing to say trains people not to open it, which damages the sequence and the welcome email that come before it.
Open rate~40%
Click rate2–3%
EffortRecurring
Main valueStaying present
Best for
Coaches with something genuine to say regularly, whose buyers decide over months rather than days.
Where it falls down
The lowest engagement of the three and the highest ongoing effort. A newsletter nobody misses when it stops was not working.
4
Re-engagement to past clients
Not benchmarked
There is no published open or click benchmark for re-engaging past coaching clients, which is why this entry carries no figure. Inventing one would be worse than leaving it blank.
What can be said is structural. These are people who have already paid you, already got value, and already know how you work. Every objection a cold lead has is absent.
The reason it goes unused is almost always awkwardness rather than strategy — it feels like admitting you need the business. A specific message referring to what they were working on avoids that entirely, and it is the cheapest revenue available to any practice.
BenchmarkNone published
AudiencePeople who already paid
CostOne email
UsageVery low
Best for
Every coach with past clients, which is the cheapest audience anyone will ever market to.
Where it falls down
No published benchmark exists, so this row is a reasoned argument rather than a measured one, and it is listed that way deliberately.
Why Coachful sits above this list
1
Coachful
from $29/mo
We publish this site. Coachful sits above this list because of the specific blindness every standard email tool has: it knows what someone clicked and nothing about what they did.
That gap matters most exactly where email is most valuable. A sequence cannot say anything about the session someone attended last week, the programme they are two-thirds through, or the fact that they stopped logging anything a fortnight ago — because the email platform has no idea any of it happened. Nor can it find the past clients worth re-engaging, since it holds subscribers rather than engagements.
Coachful keeps client records, session history and programme progress in the same system as the practice from $29 a month, so a follow-up can reference what actually happened. For broadcast newsletters to a large list, a dedicated email platform is still the better tool and this is not trying to replace it.
Entry price$29/mo
Knows aboutSessions and progress
Past clientsOn one record
Trial7 days
Best for
Coaches whose email tool and coaching practice are two separate worlds that know nothing about each other.
What it does not do
It is not a replacement for a dedicated email marketing platform if broadcast newsletters to a large list are your main channel.
The benchmarks
83.6%Welcome email open rate
45.4%Automated sequence open rate
5.02%Automated sequence click rate
~40%Regular newsletter open rate
By email type
Type
Open rate
Click rate
Effort
Sent
Welcome email
83.6%
High
Write once
Once per subscriber
Automated sequence
45.4%
5.02%
Build once
Automatically
Regular newsletter
~40%
2–3%
Recurring
On a schedule
Re-engagement
Not benchmarked
Not benchmarked
Low
Occasionally
GetResponse 2024 benchmarks, cross-industry rather than coaching-specific. A focused coaching list should exceed these; treat them as a floor.
What the welcome email should actually do
Say who you help, specifically. This is the moment a new subscriber is deciding whether you are for them. A precise sentence about the person you work with does more here than anywhere else on your site.
Set the expectation. What will arrive, how often, and why it will be worth opening. People who know what is coming open the next one; people who do not are deciding fresh every time.
Give one genuinely useful thing. Not a lead magnet they have to download and file. Something they can read in the email and use this week.
Name the next step for the people ready now. A small proportion of new subscribers are ready to work with you immediately. Do not make them go looking — say plainly what to do, once.
Everything on that list takes fifteen minutes to write. It is the highest-leverage fifteen minutes available in coaching email.
Photo by Burst on PexelsEmail is the only channel where nobody else decides who sees your work, and the only one in coaching with published benchmarks.
An email setup that works, in order
Rewrite the welcome email today
Fifteen minutes on the highest-attention message you will ever send. Who you help, what is coming, one useful thing, one clear next step.
Build a five-email sequence next
45.4% open and 5.02% click, running automatically for every new subscriber while you are doing something else. Built once, works indefinitely.
Only then start a newsletter
And only if you genuinely have something regular to say. A newsletter published because it is Tuesday trains people not to open anything from you.
Email your past clients specifically
The cheapest revenue available and the least used. Reference what they were actually working on rather than sending a general check-in.
Make follow-ups reference what happened
A standard email tool only knows what someone clicked. A message that refers to a session they attended or a programme they are halfway through does something no click-based sequence can.
Common questions
What email actually works for coaches?
The welcome email above everything else, opening at 83.6% — roughly double a newsletter. Automated nurture sequences follow at 45.4% open and 5.02% click. Regular newsletters open at around 40% with a 2 to 3% click rate.
Why does the welcome email perform so well?
Because it arrives at the moment of highest intent. Someone has just deliberately asked to hear from you, so they open it. That attention is unrepeatable, which is why spending it on a thank-you note is such an expensive habit.
How often should a coach email their list?
Often enough to be remembered and only when you have something to say. Weekly works if you genuinely do; monthly is fine. Publishing on a schedule with nothing behind it trains people not to open anything from you.
Are these benchmarks coaching-specific?
No. They are GetResponse 2024 cross-industry figures, which is why they should be read as a floor rather than a target. A focused coaching list to people who asked to hear from you should beat them.
Should I email past clients?
Yes, and almost nobody does. They have already paid you, already got value and already know how you work, so every objection a cold lead has is absent. Make it specific to what they were working on rather than a general check-in.
Do I need a separate email platform?
For broadcast newsletters to a large list, yes — dedicated platforms are better at it. For follow-ups that need to reference sessions attended or programme progress, a standard email tool cannot help, because it only sees opens and clicks.
The verdict
Rewrite your welcome email this week. It opens at 83.6%, you get exactly one per subscriber, and the standard version spends that attention on an administrative thank-you. Fifteen minutes is the whole cost.
Then build a sequence, because 45.4% open running automatically is the best unattended marketing available to a coach. The newsletter comes third and only if you genuinely have something to say, and the past-client email comes whenever you are willing to feel briefly awkward about the cheapest revenue in your business.
How to disagree with this
The criterion above is the whole argument. Order by something else and the list changes, which is why there are 10 of them rather than one ranking claiming to be authoritative.
Published by Coachful, which makes coaching software and appears in these lists marked as ours. No affiliate links and no paid placement.
