{
  "name": "ReplyLead cold email benchmark aggregates",
  "snapshot_utc": "2026-08-12T20:14:17Z",
  "analysis_published": "2026-09-10",
  "source_url": "https://replylead.com/cold-email-benchmarks.html",
  "population": "115 sending campaigns across five client and two internal programmes; 81 campaigns meet the 500-contact floor. Cumulative counters at the snapshot, not a monthly or full-year sample.",
  "definitions": {
    "reply": "Unique responding contact within a campaign; automatic replies included. Does not establish positive intent, a meeting or a sale.",
    "contacted_leads_sum": "Sum of campaign-level contacted counts; people are not deduplicated across campaigns.",
    "pooled_reply_rate_per_contact_percent": "100 × sum(unique replies) / sum(contacted leads) within the stated cohort. Campaigns with more contacts carry more weight.",
    "median_campaign_reply_rate_per_contact_percent": "Unweighted median of campaign reply/contact percentages; provided for the two whole-population summaries.",
    "size_bands": "Contact-count bands at the snapshot date, not planned send volume or randomized groups."
  },
  "limitations": [
    "One operator, heterogeneous offers and audiences, repeated programmes; not a representative market sample.",
    "Campaign size is associated with targeting, duration and other differences. These figures do not establish a volume effect or predict another campaign.",
    "Automatic replies are included; comparisons with datasets excluding them require qualification.",
    "No positive-reply, booking, held-meeting, opportunity or revenue outcome is measured here."
  ],
  "summary": [
    {
      "cohort": "All sending campaigns",
      "campaigns": 115,
      "emails_sent": 429763,
      "contacted_leads_sum": 242669,
      "unique_replies_sum": 6249,
      "pooled_reply_rate_per_contact_percent": 2.575113,
      "automatic_replies_included": true,
      "snapshot_utc": "2026-08-12T20:14:17Z",
      "source_url": "https://replylead.com/cold-email-benchmarks.html",
      "median_campaign_reply_rate_per_contact_percent": 2.251639
    },
    {
      "cohort": "Campaigns with at least 500 contacted leads",
      "campaigns": 81,
      "emails_sent": 418615,
      "contacted_leads_sum": 236927,
      "unique_replies_sum": 6038,
      "pooled_reply_rate_per_contact_percent": 2.548464,
      "automatic_replies_included": true,
      "snapshot_utc": "2026-08-12T20:14:17Z",
      "source_url": "https://replylead.com/cold-email-benchmarks.html",
      "median_campaign_reply_rate_per_contact_percent": 2.123625
    }
  ],
  "campaign_size_bands": [
    {
      "cohort": "500–1,999 contacted leads",
      "campaigns": 33,
      "emails_sent": 70313,
      "contacted_leads_sum": 40191,
      "unique_replies_sum": 798,
      "pooled_reply_rate_per_contact_percent": 1.985519,
      "automatic_replies_included": true,
      "snapshot_utc": "2026-08-12T20:14:17Z",
      "source_url": "https://replylead.com/cold-email-benchmarks.html"
    },
    {
      "cohort": "2,000–4,999 contacted leads",
      "campaigns": 37,
      "emails_sent": 222173,
      "contacted_leads_sum": 123302,
      "unique_replies_sum": 3317,
      "pooled_reply_rate_per_contact_percent": 2.690143,
      "automatic_replies_included": true,
      "snapshot_utc": "2026-08-12T20:14:17Z",
      "source_url": "https://replylead.com/cold-email-benchmarks.html"
    },
    {
      "cohort": "5,000+ contacted leads",
      "campaigns": 11,
      "emails_sent": 126129,
      "contacted_leads_sum": 73434,
      "unique_replies_sum": 1923,
      "pooled_reply_rate_per_contact_percent": 2.618678,
      "automatic_replies_included": true,
      "snapshot_utc": "2026-08-12T20:14:17Z",
      "source_url": "https://replylead.com/cold-email-benchmarks.html"
    }
  ],
  "citation": "ReplyLead (2026), Cold Email Benchmarks 2026; cumulative counters extracted 12 August 2026; campaign-size analysis published 10 September 2026. https://replylead.com/cold-email-benchmarks.html"
}