Deliverability is a Challenge for 8 of 10 Marketers
By Kirill Popov and Loren McDonald
Our recent survey on marketers' experiences with deliverability turned up one big contradiction and a
surprising black hole of knowledge about what really is more likely to get your email blocked or filtered.
1. The contradiction: Eight out of 10 email marketers say getting email messages delivered is a challenge
for their organizations. However, only 1 in 10 ranked improving it as a top priority.
2. The black hole: Marketers apparently don't realize how spam complaints can influence message
blocking and filtering. Nearly 90% of respondents track hard bounces and unsubscribes in each delivery,
but only 58% monitor spam complaints. Also, 53% say their email content and coding or permission
practices have the greatest influence, but only 13% cited spam complaints.
Some highlights from the survey, which assessed emailers' attitudes toward deliverability issues and their
experiences (detailed results follow):
Filtering by ISPs and corporations is the biggest delivery-related challenge marketers say
they face, with nearly 50% of all respondents citing either ISP or corporate filters. Another 25%
said they lack the expertise or resources they need to address their deliverability issues.
Marketers are beginning to understand that "deliverability" means more than just getting
an email through a filter – that the email must function properly for people to take the
desired actions. Respondents split evenly on how they defined "deliverability" – 43% cited
"delivered to recipients' inbox" and another 43% said "delivered to inbox correctly AND rendered
correctly." Just 11% said just getting the email into either the spam folder or the inbox was
enough.
Half of all respondents said they modified their email templates in order to boost their
delivery rates. Another 25% said they adopted at least one authentication method: SPF,
SenderID, DomainKeys Identified Mail.
Key survey results follow: