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SPAM

Does your newsletter contain an assurance that it's not spam because it complies with a certain U.S. Senate bill? That's one sure sign of spam.

That particular "test" is also one of the top-scoring tests in SpamAssassin, an anti-spam filtering program that examines an email message's headers and content for phrases and coding commonly used by bulk emailers and assigns points for each offending feature. Most often a value of 7 or higher will mark the email as spam.

When SpamAssassin tags a message as likely spam, it adds a report to the email and routes it to a "junk-mail" folder on the user's computer.

SpamAssassin runs on web/email server platforms. Judging from its list of rules for tagging spam, just about any email you send will register a score. All you can do, it seems, is to avoid any obvious triggers and hope users troll their junk-mail folders.

Here are some common email features and their points:

  • HTML email with nonwhite backgrounds: 1.346
  • Auto-executing JavaScript code: 3.338 (remember the Yahoo! email editing problem?)
  • Talking about checks/money orders: 4.465
  • Addresses the reader as "Dear [email address]:" 3.092
  • Suggests you might have received the email as a mistake: 3.7
  • Uses a tracking ID number, usually in the subject line: 4.332
  • Gives instructions for getting off the list: 4.2
  • Includes a form that launches an email: 3.239
  • Invalid time in header, such as a nonexistent time zone: 4.395 (although any tinkering with the date or time will add points)
  • A "remove" URL contains an email address: 2.648
  • The "reply to" form is empty: 2.595
  • The "to" form lists "undisclosed recipients:" 3.461 to 4.034

On the positive side, this list of tests also shows how SpamAssassin detects emails that probably are newsletters and subtracts those scores from the overall total. Most of it depends on how you set up your headers.

Some examples:

  • Sending from known mailing-list software: -5
  • Subject includes "news," "newsletter," "list," or indicates daily, weekly or monthly: -4
  • Subject lists a frequency or names a month: -3.5
  • Date in subject: -4

You can see the current list of rules here.


EMAIL FREQUENCY

14% of organizations never send more than one email a month to subscribers, while 33% have a maximum of at least six a month (up from just 15% in 2011). - DMA "National Client Email Report" (2013)

Most marketers (35%) contact an address on their list 2-3 times in one month. The next most popular frequency is 4-6 times according to 20% of respondents. - DMA "National Client Email Report" (2013)

Only 7% of marketers send 6-8 emails to an address on their list in one month. - DMA "National Client Email Report" (2013)

The majority of respondents (51%) had a contact strategy in place for the maximum amount of times each address is contacted, up 11% since 2011. - DMA "National Client Email Report" (2013)

75% reported they would resent a brand after being bombarded by emails. - Emailvision "Survey Reveals Bombarding Consumers with Marketing Results in Brand Resentment" (2013)

40% of those who do get brand emails get no more than three such emails a day on average and about 63% get no more than six. - DMA "Email tracking report" (2012)

69% of U.S. email users unsubscribe from a business or non-profit email because the organization sends too many emails. - Chadwick Martin Bailey "10 Facts about How and Why Consumers Like and Subscribe" (2012)

A BtoB survey found marketers approach the frequency of their email blasts in different ways. Almost half (48%) worry about alienating contacts with too much volume and send out non- e-newsletter emails once a month or even less often. By contrast, 19% email their contacts once a week, and 16% hit the send button once every two weeks. - BtoB "Email Marketing: A Legacy Channel Continues to Deliver" (2012)

39% of marketers have an official frequency cap in place. - BtoB "Email Marketing: A Legacy Channel Continues to Deliver" (2012)


EMAIL BEST TIMES TO SEND

For weekdays, Monday had the highest revenue per mail, but Friday had the higher click rate. - Experian "Q4 2012 Quarterly Benchmark Study" (2013)

Deploying emails between 8:00 PM and 11:59 PM and midnight to 4:00 AM proved to have the highest response rates in all areas, yet also had the lowest percent of email volume. - Experian "Q4 2012 Quarterly Benchmark Study" (2013)

Emails deployed on Saturdays and Sundays had the highest open, unique clicks, transaction rates and revenue per email, yet had the lowest volume deployed compared to other days of the week. - Experian "Q4 2012 Quarterly Benchmark Study" (2013)

Both marketers (76%) and consumers (69%) favor email as their first online "check" of the day. - ExactTarget "Marketers from Mars" (2013)

Emails sent in the morning resulted in the highest open rates at 39.2% while mid-afternoon reported the highest click rates at 21.0%. - Informz "2012 Association Email Marketing Benchmark Report" (2012)

14% of all opens and clicks on a mobile device occurred from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. The second-biggest peak, at 12% share, occurred between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. - TailoredMail "2012 Email Marketing Trends" (2012)

A study revealed top engagement times for email campaigns include 8 a.m. – 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. – 4 p.m. Deploying at these times can increase their average open rates and CTR by 6%. - GetResponse "Best Time To Send Email" (2012)

23.63% of all email opens occur within the first hour after delivery. Within the second hour, the results drop by half. Within the third hour, the results drop by another 30%. Five hours after delivery, the results drop more than 90%. - GetResponse"Best Time To Send Email" (2012)

Almost 40% of all messages are sent between 6 a.m. and noon. This can result in inbox clutter, and significantly decrease results for these emails. - GetResponse "Best Time To Send Email" (2012)

Email traffic is at its highest on Thursdays (16% of emails are sent on this day). The days with the lowest amounts of traffic include Saturday and Sunday. However, the corresponding engagement metrics for messages sent on particular days (open ratio and CTR) show that subscribers are most active from Monday to Friday, leaving weekends free for other activities. - GetResponse "Optimizing Your Campaigns: Best Days to Send Emails" (2012)

44% of respondents agree that sending emails on Tuesday results in better open rates. - Pardot "The Changing Role of Email Marketing" (2012)

53% have had the most success sending emails between 8 a.m. and 12 p.m. - Pardot "The Changing Role of Email Marketing" (2012)

53% say that Friday is the worst day for email open rates. - Pardot "The Changing Role of Email Marketing" (2012)

20% of marketers forget about time zones when planning campaigns. - Pardot "The Changing Role of Email Marketing" (2012)

50% of B2B and B2C said that determining the best time to send emails is an email tactic that works particularly well. -Silverpop "Exploring the Differences and Similarities of B2C and B2B Marketing Tactics" (2010) 

People are receptive to marketing emails during the first hour of their work day. Pure360 reports 16.5% of emails in the study were opened between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m.. - Pure360 (2009)

42.6% of financial emails were opened after lunch, indicating that workers are more receptive to so-called bigger-picture or life-changing messages in the afternoon. - Pure360 (2009)

The most popular email day of the year for retailers, based on percent of retailers tracked via RetailEmail.Blogspot

    • Dec. 26, 2006, Tuesday, the day after Christmas - 53.1%
    • Dec. 11, 2006, Monday, 14 days before Christmas - 49.0%
    • Dec. 15, 2006, Friday, 10 days before Christmas - 45.9%
    • Dec. 18, 2006, Monday, 7 days before Christmas - 44.9%
    • April 17, 2007, Tuesday, Tax Day - 43.7%
    • Nov. 27, 2006, Monday, the Monday after Thanksgiving Day (Cyber Monday) and 28 days before Christmas - 43.7%
    • Dec. 4, 2006, Monday, 21 days before Christmas - 42.1%
    • Dec. 8, 2006, Friday, 17 days before Christmas - 42.1%
    • April 24, 2007, Tuesday, 19 days before Mother's Day - 40.2%
    • June 5, 2007, Tuesday, 12 days before Father's Day - 40.0%

 

Tuesday was retailers' favorite day to email, followed by Thursday, Monday, Friday, Wednesday, Sunday and Saturday. While 33% of retailers email on Tuesdays, only 8% sent emails on Saturdays. - Email Experience Council/RetailEmail.Blogspot, "Choosing The Best Day Of The Week To Email" (July 5, 2007)

The highest open rates (read rates) during Q2 2007 were Wednesday (27%), Monday (26%) and Thursday (26%). -eROI, "Email Marketing Statistics By Day and Time" (July 2007)

The highest click through rates during Q2 2007 were Wednesday and Thursday (5%).- eROI, "Email Marketing Statistics By Day and Time" (July 2007)

11am and 4pm scored the highest marks for business hour open rates (30%) and click through rates (5%).- eROI, "Email Marketing Statistics By Day and Time" (July 2007)

The highest peaks for read rates were 9 p.m. and 11 p.m.--with rates of 40% and 45%, as compared with workday rates between 24% and 30%. - eROI, "Email Marketing Statistics By Day and Time" (July 2007)

Click-through rates were between 4% and 5% during the workday, peaking at 7% at both 9 p.m. and 4 a.m. - eROI, "Email Marketing Statistics By Day and Time" (July 2007)


EMAIL DEPENDABILITY

Bounce rates declined 27.9%, from 3.1% in 4Q11, to 2.3% in 4Q12. - Experian "Q4 2012 Quarterly Benchmark Study" (2013)

The average bounce rate for industries with 25-499 members is 2%, for 500-999 members, 1.6% and for 1000 or more members, 1.2%. - MailerMailer "Email Marketing Metrics Report" (2012)

73.2% of emails sent to Windows Live Hotmail addresses arrive in the recipient's inbox. - IBM "Email Deliverability: Use 2011 Benchmarks to Ensure 2012 Results" (2012)

85.7% of emails sent to Gmail addresses arrive in the recipient's inbox; 85.3% of emails sent to Yahoo addresses arrive in the recipient's inbox; 81.8% of emails sent to AOL addresses arrive in the recipient's inbox. - IBM "Email Deliverability: Use 2011 Benchmarks to Ensure 2012 Results" (2012)

80% of email delivery problems are directly attributable to a poor sender reputation. - DMA "Email Deliverability Review" (2012)

Hotmail estimates that Graymail, or "bacn," emails represent 50% of all inbox traffic, and are the source of 75% of all spam complaints.- DMA "Email Deliverability Review" (2012)

Global inbox placement is at 75.9%. Meaning 1 out of 4 emails do not get placed into the inbox. - DMA "Take outs from the Email Deliverability Masterclass" (2012)

The majority of blocked emails, 77%, are due to poor sender reputation. - DMA "Take outs from the Email Deliverability Masterclass" (2012)

In North America, inbox placement rates declined 3% in 3Q12 from the same quarter in 2011, to 82%. - Return Path "The Email Intelligence Report Q3 2012" (2012)

The average inbox placement rate was 84%; however, the financial services (99%), consumer services (96%), and retail industries (96%) far outperformed that average. - Return Path "The Email Intelligence Report Q3 2012" (2012)

Roughly 18% of all commercial email in North America never reached the inbox in 3Q12: 5% landed in spam traps and 13% was blocked or went missing. - Return Path "The Email Intelligence Report Q3 2012" (2012)

When companies send daily deals, retail newsletters, and other marketing-related emails, 78% responded that these emails mainly go to their primary personal email account, displayed alongside their personal emails. - Blue Kangaroo"Blue Kangaroo Survey on Marketing Emails" (2012)


EMAIL COSTS

Budget allocation to email marketing increased slightly in 2012, with 15% more marketers spending at least 30% of their budget on email than in 2011. Over half expect their budget to increase across 2013. - DMA "National Client Email Report" (2013)

In 2012, 51% of email marketers spent at least 10% of their budget on email. 20% of marketers spent 40% or more of their budget on email. - DMA "National Client Email Report" (2013)

While only one in twenty marketers expects their budget to decline, 39% do expect it to remain unchanged in 2013. -DMA "National Client Email Report" (2013)

33% of consumers believe companies should invest more of their marketing time and resources to improve customer loyalty. - ExactTarget "Marketers from Mars" (2013)

55.5% surveyed plan to increase spending on email marketing in the next year. - StrongMail "2013 Marketing Trends Survey" (2012) 

63.3% plan to increase spending on "winback/reengagement" email marketing for the next year, where 59.8% plan to spend more on "welcome" email marketing. - StrongMail "2013 Marketing Trends Survey" (2012) 

39.6% surveyed are increasing spending on Facebook marketing programs. 26.5% are increasing budget for social media management technology. 23.6% plan to increase budget for viral/referral marketing campaigns. - StrongMail"2013 Marketing Trends Survey" (2012) 

37.4% of companies plan to decrease spending for direct mail. 33.6% are decreasing budgets for tradeshows and events. 23% are cutting budgets for advertising. Only 3.4% surveyed are decreasing budgets for email marketing. -StrongMail "2013 Marketing Trends Survey" (2012) 

A majority of B2B companies (65%) allocate less than 25% of their budgets to email marketing, while only 9% are devoting more than 50% of their budgets to email efforts. - Pardot "Survey Reveals Changing Role of Email Marketing" (2012) 

The average budget spent on company blogs and social media increased from 9% in 2009 to 21% in 2012. - Hubspot"The 2012 State of Inbound Marketing" (2012) 

Small businesses are only giving 14% of their budget to outbound marketing, while large businesses are allocating 33% of their budget to outbound channels. - Hubspot "The 2012 State of Inbound Marketing" (2012) 

24% of those surveyed spend less than 1% of their budget on mobile marketing. 33% don't know how much of their budget is allocated to mobile marketing. - StrongMail "Mobile Marketing Survey 2012" (2012) 

55% of those surveyed have increased their mobile marketing budget in the past year. 70% believe that budget will increase in the next 12 months. - StrongMail "Mobile Marketing Survey 2012" (2012)


EMAIL DESIGN QUALITY

A BlueHornet study found that 75.4% of US email users said a poorly designed email negatively affected their perception of a brand. - eMarketer "Email Marketing Benchmarks: Key Data, Trends and Metrics" (2013)

71% of those surveyed believe communicating the same message across multiple channels such as email, Facebook, and Twitter is the most effective integration tactic, proving a consistent brand. - Lyris "The Lyris Digital Optimizer Report" (2012)

When asked how they felt about managing the marketing emails coming into their personal inbox each week, 40% of respondents said they enjoyed getting lots of marketing emails from their favorite brands and deal services. - Blue Kangaroo "Blue Kangaroo Survey on Marketing Emails" (2012)

34% of consumers choose to receive 6 emails a day from brands they trust. - DMA "Email tracking report 2012" (2012)

49% of consumers subscribe to 1-10 brands; 24% subscribe to 11-20 brands. - DMA "Email tracking report 2012" (2012)

Marketers view content marketing overall as having its most significant impact on lead generation, cited by 51% of respondents, followed by brand awareness (38%), thought leadership (34%) and sales (29%). - BtoB "Content Marketing: Ready for Prime Time" (2012)

According to those surveyed, the top three objectives for mobile marketing include increasing sales, improving customer service/convenience, and increasing brand awareness. - StrongMail "Mobile Marketing Survey 2012" (2012)

59% of respondents are more likely to trust brands that integrate social media. - Mass Relevance "The Social Hunger: Why Your Audience Feasts on Social Integration" (2012)

58% of consumers are more likely to interact with social brands. - Mass Relevance "The Social Hunger: Why Your Audience Feasts on Social Integration" (2012)

63% of consumers agree that social experiences make them more interested in a brand’s product. - Mass Relevance"The Social Hunger: Why Your Audience Feasts on Social Integration" (2012)

Fifty-two percent of marketers have used animated gifs in their email campaigns. - Experian "Email Market Study: Email acquisition and engagement tactics" (2012)

Animated gifs and cinemagraphs produce higher transaction-to-click rates. - Experian "Email Market Study: Email acquisition and engagement tactics" (2012)

Don’t rely solely on images to get your message across—60% of email clients block images by default. - ExactTarget "4 Email Design Tips to Drive Clicks" (2012)

A laptop or desktop computer is the primary email device for 84% of U.S. adults, while 14% primarily use a mobile device and 2% use a tablet. - Chadwick Martin Bailey "10 Facts about How and Why Consumers Like and Subscribe" (2012)

Mobile emails without 15 pixels of padding for call-to-action buttons have a 28% lower conversion rate, because people are being taken to the wrong place on your website thanks to a 'tap error'—they accidentally hit the wrong button and went to the wrong page. - Chief Marketer "Email Trends: The Importance of Tap Errors, Alt Tags and Mobile Design" (2012)

Nearly one-third of all mobile clickthroughs are accountable as tap errors. - Chief Marketer "Email Trends: The Importance of Tap Errors, Alt Tags and Mobile Design" (2012)

Adding alt tags and text is a simple step that many marketers skip—and it can lower your response rate by 14%. Up to 67% of B2C recipients and 42% of B2B recipients will see disabled images in your email messages where alt tags could have been used. - Chief Marketer "Email Trends: The Importance of Tap Errors, Alt Tags and Mobile Design" (2012)


EMAIL ACQUISITION & LEAD GENERATION

Organic website traffic was cited by 54% of respondents as the best tactic for acquisition; 50% believe transactions are the best tactic. Social media remains in third place, reported by 23% of respondents. - DMA "National Client Email Report" (2013)

Only 25% of Fortune 500 B2B companies use forms to protect content and capture email addresses. - ClickZ "25% of Fortune 500 B2B Companies Have Adopted Marketing Automation" (2013)

97% of Fortune 500 B2B companies use forms for email newsletter sign up, or demo requests. - ClickZ "25% of Fortune 500 B2B Companies Have Adopted Marketing Automation" (2013)

The top three most important email marketing initiatives for companies in 2013 include increasing subscriber engagement, improving segmentation and targeting, and growing their opt-in email list. - StrongMail "2013 Marketing Trends Survey" (2012)

The percent of channel users who acquired a customer through LinkedIn is up from 57% in 2011 to 62% in 2012. -Hubspot "The 2012 State of Inbound Marketing" (2012)

The percent of channel users who acquired a customer through Facebook is up from 48% in 2011 to 52% in 2012. -Hubspot "The 2012 State of Inbound Marketing" (2012)

Most CMOs agree that ROI, optimization and audience insights are of premier importance for lead generation in the next 12 months. - MarketingSherpa "2012 Lead Generation Benchmark Report" (2012)

About 36% of those surveyed invest less than $20 per lead. The second-most popular response was only $21-$50 per lead. - MarketingSherpa "2012 Lead Generation Benchmark Report" (2012)


EMAIL NEWSLETTERS

68% of marketers agree e-newsletters are the top email messages which helps to achieve their business goals, up from 45% in 2011. - DMA "National Client Email Report" (2013)

E-newsletters are the third most popular B2B content marketing tactic used (78%). The most popular is social media at 87%. - MarketingProfs "2013 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends" (2012)

E-newsletters make up the greatest number of emails in consumer inboxes at 29 percent. - Return Path "Email Intelligence Report Q3 2012" (2012)

70 percent of “this is spam” complaints from recipients are actually legitimate newsletters, offers or notifications that people are no longer interested in receiving. - Return Path "Email Intelligence Report Q3 2012" (2012)

Email newsletters quarter over quarter have an average of 12% list growth when curators publish less than 50% of articles, compared to 5% growth when curators publish more than 50% of articles. - Curata "Curation Habits Report 2012" (2012)

On average, medium-sized content snippets (141-1,200 characters) generated 9% more click-thru activity than small snippets (less than or equal to 140 characters) for the average newsletter and 106% more clickthru activity than large snippets (larger than 1,200 characters). - Curata "Curation Habits Report 2012" (2012)


EMAIL USAGE

Email volume rose by 5.4 percent in Q4 2012 compared to Q4 2011. - Experian "Q4 2012 Quarterly Benchmark Study" (2013)

The top three marketing channels organizations are integrating with their email programs include website (75%), social media (56%), and events such as tradeshows, webinars, etc. (40%). - MarketingSherpa "2013 Email Marketing Benchmark Report" (2013)

Adults will account for 87% of all US email users in 2013. - eMarketer "US Internet Users 2013: Solid, Saturated Market for Web, Search and Email" (2013)

eMarketer expects there to be 216.6 million US email users this year, representing 89% of total internet users. Two out of three people in the US will be email users in 2013. - eMarketer "US Internet Users 2013: Solid, Saturated Market for Web, Search and Email" (2013)

Nearly all adult internet users, or 78.4% of the US adult population, will send an email via any device at least once per month this year. - eMarketer "US Internet Users 2013: Solid, Saturated Market for Web, Search and Email" (2013)