Email Marketing Service: AI Market Discovery Index

Benchmark Summary

Brevo led the Email Marketing Service category with a valid recommendation coverage of 72.9% in September 2026, up from 69.7% in July 2026. ActiveCampaign held second place at 65.7% in September 2026, down from 67.0% in July 2026, a spread of 7.2 points between the top two brands.

The largest coverage increase belonged to HubSpot Live Chat, which entered the tracked series with a valid recommendation coverage of 48.4% in September 2026, up from 0.0% in July 2026. The largest coverage decline belonged to HubSpot Service Hub, which recorded no qualified observations in September 2026, down from 50.3% in July 2026. Kit (ConvertKit) also rose significantly, from 37.1% in July 2026 to 48.0% in September 2026.

The tracked brand set shifted in September 2026: HubSpot Live Chat joined the series with 48.4% coverage, while HubSpot Service Hub, previously tracked at 50.3% in July 2026 and 51.4% in August 2026, recorded no presence in the September 2026 sample. The benchmark produced 502 qualified observations in September 2026, down from 525 in July 2026.

Current Benchmark at a Glance

Qualified surface breadth counts the canonical AI/search surface families with at least one qualified observation: ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, and AI Mode. All six families were represented in both July and September 2026.

For the strategic interpretation of this benchmark, read CiteWorks Studio's analysis of How AI Search Is Recommending Email Marketing Service

Research Scope and Qualification

The public benchmark is narrower than the raw collection universe by design.

Brand-level percentages use the qualified observations as the public denominator, not the raw collection. The August 2026 sample produced 545 qualified observations from 800 source prompt-surface observations. Link to AI Market Discovery Methodology.

Current Brand Standings

This table is the primary current-month benchmark view, sorted by valid recommendation coverage.

How to Read the Standings

• Presence rate: the share of qualified observations in which the brand is mentioned at all, in any context.
• Valid recommendation coverage: the share of qualified observations in which the brand appears in a valid recommendation shortlist.
• Top-three rate: the share of qualified observations in which the brand appears in the first three recommendation positions.
• Rank-one rate: the share of qualified observations in which the brand is the first recommendation.
• Net sentiment: the balance of positive over negative mentions, from 0 to 1.

For formulas and denominator rules, see AI Market Discovery Metric Definitions.

Recommendation Coverage Movement

The September 2026 sample saw the tracked brand set change: HubSpot Live Chat entered with 48.4% coverage and HubSpot Service Hub recorded no qualified observations. Kit (ConvertKit) rose 14.6 points from August 2026 to September 2026, from 33.4% to 48.0%.

Largest Increase: HubSpot Live Chat

HubSpot Live Chat entered the Email Marketing Service tracked series in September 2026 with a valid recommendation coverage of 48.4%, up from 0.0% in July 2026. The brand recorded a presence rate of 62.0%, a top-three rate of 20.5%, a rank-one rate of 8.6%, and a net sentiment of 0.9 in September 2026.

Largest Decline: HubSpot Service Hub

HubSpot Service Hub recorded no qualified observations in September 2026, down from 50.3% valid recommendation coverage in July 2026. The brand previously held 51.4% coverage in August 2026. HubSpot Service Hub does not appear as a tracked company in the September 2026 sample.

Significant Riser: Kit (ConvertKit)

Kit (ConvertKit) rose to 48.0% valid recommendation coverage in September 2026, up from 33.4% in August 2026 and 37.1% in July 2026. The brand's presence rate increased from 41.3% in July 2026 to 55.0% in September 2026, and its top-three rate rose from 8.0% to 15.9% in the same period. Kit (ConvertKit) recorded a rank-one rate of 1.4% in September 2026, up from 0.0% in July 2026.

Significant Riser: Campaign Monitor (Marigold)

Campaign Monitor (Marigold) rose to 4.6% valid recommendation coverage in September 2026, up from 1.7% in July 2026. The brand recorded only 23 valid recommendations in September 2026. Its presence rate increased from 5.0% in July 2026 to 8.0% in September 2026, and its net sentiment rose from 0.3 to 0.7 in the same period.

Category Leader: Brevo

Brevo led the category for the third consecutive tracked month with valid recommendation coverage of 72.9% in September 2026, up from 69.7% in July 2026. The brand's presence rate also increased, from 83.2% in July 2026 to 89.8% in September 2026. Its top-three rate rose from 27.4% to 30.3% in the same period, while its rank-one rate held steady at 7.2%.

AWeber: Current Position and Competitive Gap

AWeber recorded a valid recommendation coverage of 1.8% in September 2026, down slightly from 1.9% in July 2026 — a movement of 0.1 points over the tracked period. The brand's presence rate stood at 4.4%, with a top-three rate of 0.4%, a rank-one rate of 0.2%, and a net sentiment of 0.6, placing AWeber last among the ten tracked brands on valid recommendation coverage.

Brevo records 72.9% on valid recommendation coverage, while AWeber stands at 1.8%. The more important issue is what that gap means for AWeber's recommendation position: AWeber's presence rate of 4.4% is failing to convert into valid recommendations at a rate seen elsewhere in the category. On rank-one placement, Mailchimp's 17.7% compares with AWeber's 0.2%, a clear gap on the metric that determines whether a brand is the first name an AI surface offers a buyer. This gap has not closed between July 2026 (1.9%) and September 2026 (1.8%); it has been stable at a level far below every other tracked brand for at least two measurement cycles.

Highest-priority diagnostic: What is preventing AWeber's existing 4.4% presence rate from converting into valid recommendations at a rate closer to category peers, and has this conversion gap changed since July 2026?

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. The leading cluster shows how top-three and rank-one placement rates differ from overall coverage.

Mailchimp led the category in first-position recommendations at 17.7% in September 2026, despite ranking fourth in overall coverage at 59.2%. ActiveCampaign and Klaviyo held similar top-three rates, yet Mailchimp's rank-one rate was several points higher than either, showing that similar coverage can still hide different first-position rates. ActiveCampaign held the category lead in top-three rate at 38.2% while ranking second in overall coverage at 65.7%.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

All qualified observations in both months fell into the Brand Recommendation class, which captures discovery-and-consideration queries where a buyer is seeking a brand recommendation.

The current public series measures the Brand Recommendation class of discovery and does not yet contain qualified observations in the Pricing & Value or Multi-Brand Comparison classes.

Historical Measurement Record

New measurements are added to the same report over time.

Evidence and Source Layer

The benchmark is built from prompt-level observations that retain the query, AI/search surface, answer, brand outcome, recommendation placement, sentiment, and, where exposed, citations or attributable evidence sources. Source presence is evidence about the information environment. It is not automatically proof that the source caused the recommendation.

Scope Boundaries

This public benchmark does not measure:

• Market share or attributable sales.
• Every possible AI response, only the surfaces and prompts sampled.
• Organic-search ranking.
• Social mention volume.
• Private or sponsored channels.
• Causality from a metric movement alone.

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Market Discovery Index tracks how often brands are recommended by major AI and search surfaces, how prominently they are placed, and whether the surrounding sentiment is positive, neutral, or negative. It is an industry-level benchmark built from prompt-level observations across six canonical AI/search surface families.

• AI Market Discovery Methodology
• AI Market Discovery Metric Definitions
• AI Market Discovery Research Standards
• Modeled AI Authority Value

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