Inbox Placement Declines (Again)

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 17:05:00 GMT

If you’re using email marketing to promote your digital presence, know that all senders have serious issues to contend with - none more significant than inbox placement.

According to Return Path’s recently released Email Intelligence Report, marketers account for 70 percent of “this is spam” complaints and 60 percent of all “spam trap hits”, considerably higher than botnets which account for just three percent of complaints and 11 percent of spam trap hits. The problem is that the majority of “this is spam” complaints are actually legitimate newsletters, offers or notifications according to Return Path. The result? Inbox placements when compared to the same period last year are approximately five percent lower, continuing a long and precipitous decline over the past ten years.

“The high rate of marketers sending messages to spam traps underscores just how important it is for companies to keep target lists updated and put email marketing best practices into place,” said George Bilbrey, Return Path co-founder and president. “Oftentimes marketers may feel the return on investment is strong enough that a ‘large blast’ with some bounce backs isn’t a big deal, but what may seem like a nominal problem could in fact be a much larger issue if recipients begin associating their brand with spam and ultimately make decisions based on that perception.”

Several other interesting highlights from the report include:
- Latin America has the lowest inbox placement (69 percent) and experience an 11 percent decline.
- Email related to financial services has the greatest chance of being blocked or going missing.
- Retail and gaming-related emails have the best chance of inbox placement.

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Inbox Placement Declines (Again)