Marketers Fret Over Deliverability

 

Deliverability is the top concern for 68 percent of IT and email marketers according to an online survey conducted by Socketware.

E-mail campaigns have increased in the past year, with 84.6 percent of respondents upping volume in that period. HTML is overwhelmingly rated as receiving a higher click-through rate (84.6 percent) than is text-based email (3.8 percent).

Deliverability concerns center on a few key barriers. Biggest are email filters (92.3 percent); ISP Blocking (73.1 percent); blacklisting (69.2 percent); commercial email laws (65.4 percent); whitelisting (57.7 percent); authentication (38.5 percent); accreditation and reputation services (30.8 percent); and feedback loop processing (26.9 percent). Only 3.8 percent of respondents say they’re unconcerned with deliverability.

E-Mail Deliverability Concerns (%)
E-mail filters	92.3
ISP blocking	73.1
Blacklisting	69.2
Commercial email laws	65.4
Whitelisting	57.7
Authentication	38.5
Accredation and reputation services	30.8
Feedback loop processing	26.9
Not concered with deliverability	3.8
Note: Respondents checked multiple answers.
Source: Socketware, 2005

“Best practices are the cornerstone of all email delivery efforts,” said Michael Pridemore, CEO, Socketware. “But beyond best practices for creating a campaign, legitimate marketers are learning to test against different types of filters and partner with companies that maintain relationships with ISPs.”

Respondents to this survey have numerous email campaigns per month. Almost 40 percent of those surveyed send over 100 mailings per month. About 20 percent send fewer than 10 mailings in a given month.

Socketware polled its clients on their use of email marketing, views of the industry and email marketing concerns. Questions focused on deliverability, spam filters, whitelisting, blacklisting and commercial email legislation.