News Focus: Survey - DM emailers risk spam trap if not on 'safe sender' lists

by Melanie May, Direct Response 30-Mar-06

While email volumes continue to rise, 75 per cent of the most prolific senders risk having their emails treated as spam and losing repeat sales by not asking contacts to add them to their "safe sender" lists, new research says.

Mailing volumes rose by 79 per cent between October 2004 and September
2005, according to the DMA's National Email Marketing Benchmarking
Report, suggesting a growing confidence in email marketing.

However, research from email marketing agency Adestra has revealed that

many of the heaviest email users in the UK, including Tesco, HMV and Buy
Cosmetics Direct, are still not asking contacts to add them to their
address books. Doing so stops email systems from treating those emails
as spam, resulting in higher delivery rates and, potentially, more
sales.

Adestra's research found that only 50 per cent included a message within
their emails asking contacts to do this, and only 25 per cent included
the request within the sign-up process on their web site.

"Being falsely labelled as spam can damage brands through negative
associations and reduce revenues through lost opportunities," said Paul
Crabtree, Adestra marketing director. "For companies promoting products
in the pharmaceutical industry, for example, who are constantly troubled
by key words in spam filters, being added to the safe sender list is
essential to ensure their legitimate emails are delivered."

The DMA Email Benchmarking Report also highlights this as a problem for
marketers. Conducted quarterly, its latest report amalgamates the
findings from its Q1 to Q3 2005 surveys, which questioned UK ESPs (email
service providers).

For the first time, the report asked ESPs to estimate the cost of
legitimate emails being mistakenly blocked. Nearly 20 per cent said that
the cost of blocked emails for their clients reached more than £250,000 per ESP last year.

Last year, however, also saw a concentrated effort by ESPs to develop
their delivery management systems and the majority say they now achieve
a delivery rate of about 90 per cent.

"The issue for all email marketers, regardless of whether or not they
use an ESP, is that ISPs (internet service providers) decide on what
gets through. By aiming to put a value on what is not getting through,
we at the DMA are trying to make a case for the potential lost revenue,"
commented Richard Gibson, chair of the DMA Email Marketing Council
Benchmarking Hub.

Also released last month, new research from Thomson Intermedia and KPMG
revealed that direct mail spend had fallen for the second year running,
which the study partly attributed to the rise in email marketing.