| Latest CRM News |
| Research Reports |
| Products & Services |
| Business Deals |
| Corporate Orders |
| Corporate Performance |
| HR Watch |
| Submit your Story |
 by Document Type |
| Academic Papers |
| Articles |
| Case Studies |
| Presentations |
| White Papers |
| Research Reports |
| by Industry |
| Finance |
| Retail |
| Telco |
| Government |
| Healthcare |
| Utilities |
| Submit your Document |
| Editorial |
| Highlights |
| Experts Corner |
| Experts Panel |
| Ask the Experts |
| Books |
| Free Membership |
| Corporate Membership |
| CRM Software & Systems |
| Professional Services & Consultants |
| Analyst Groups & Research Services |
| Resources & Associations |
| Exhibitions & Conferences |
| List your Company |
| Home | | News | | Events | | Careers | | Library | | Topics | | Members | | Vendor Directory |
ISPs and Web-Based Email Providers Block 21 Percent of Pemission-Based Email, Believing it to be Spam
Return Path’s study monitored a sample size of 140,000 marketing and transactional campaigns sent by clients via Return Path’s Delivery Assurance Mailbox Monitor service between January and June 2005. While an average of 21 percent of emails were blocked or filtered and did not reach consumers’ inboxes across all mailers, the levels of blocking and filtering varied by mailer from a low of 1 percent to a high of 54 percent.
The study looked at campaigns for a broad sample of clients for whom Return Path monitors deliverability, as well as long-term clients in particular. The average non-delivery rate for companies who have used Return Path for 6 months or more improves from 21 percent to just 6 percent, with a range of 1 to 17 percent.
Return Path attributed the increase in deliverability for longer term clients to systematic improvement of mailing practices and reputation. The drop in the average index number from 22 percent to 21 percent is most likely not meaningful as a trend.
“It’s good that based on our deliverability study the problem of permission-based emails getting blocked or filtered did not go up, and in fact declined slightly. However, non-delivery to the inbox is still a big problem,” said George Bilbrey, general manager of Return Path’s Delivery Assurance division. “As our study indicated, close to 40 percent of some companies’ marketing emails are not reaching consumers’ inboxes.”
Delivery Rates by ISP
Blocking rates varied widely by ISP, ranging from a low of 8 percent to a high of 39 percent. Companies saw the best delivery success at Mac.com, which only blocked or filtered 8 percent, and Earthlink and USA.net, which each blocked 10 percent. Excite and Gmail blocked or filtered the most permission-based email (39 percent), followed by MSN (33 percent) and Hotmail (32 percent).
“ISPs and Web-based email providers are utilizing a wide range of filtering technologies to combat spam,” Bilbrey said. “Companies have to adjust their email program, or work with an outside service, to ensure their email campaigns have the highest deliverability rate possible.”
The study was conducted using Return Path’s Mailbox Monitor, a delivery monitoring service that accurately gauges whether email is delivered to inboxes, bulk folders, or not at all from the top ISPs. The monitored ISPs handle more than 85 percent of the mailing lists for most corporate mailers.
