"What reply rate should we expect?" is the right question to ask before any outbound campaign. The honest answer depends on how the rate is counted. Here is what the largest 2026 datasets report.
The numbers
| Source | Metric | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Instantly (2026) | All replies ÷ all emails sent | 3.43% average; top 25% at 5.5%+; top 10% at 10.7%+ |
| Woodpecker, via RevenueFlow (2026) | Median campaign reply rate | 1.5% |
| Sales.co (2026) | Replies ÷ unique contacts | 2.09%, with 14.1% of replies positive (~0.64% interested) |
| Belkins (2026) | Human replies ÷ emails sent, 7.5M emails | 0.45% |
Why they differ
Denominators change everything. Dividing by unique contacts produces higher rates than dividing by every email in a sequence. Excluding auto-replies (45% of replies in Sales.co's data) lowers the number further. Agency-run campaigns targeting narrow segments behave differently from millions of self-serve sends.
What this means for planning
- Plan conservatively on about 0.5–1% positive replies per contact.
- From 10,000 contacts, that is roughly 50–100 interested conversations, before your sales team converts them.
- Founders and owners reply more often than C-level executives at large firms; Belkins found 0.57% vs. 0.42% (Belkins, 2026). Smaller companies (11–50 employees) replied more than enterprises.
The levers that move your rate
- Tighter targeting and segmentation.
- Short, problem-focused copy.
- Clean lists (bounces under 3%).
- Healthy domains and warmed inboxes.
- Weekly A/B testing.
To turn these into revenue projections for your business, read our guide to outbound ROI for contractors and property services.
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