I’ve always been under the assumption that most of my email reaches my Inbox. Apparently, this is not so. Your ISP and email services companies have a lot of say in what reaches you, or not. eMarketer.com has a great article about this problem:
E-mail marketers are used to seeing reported delivery rates around 95%. However, data from Return Path, an e-mail services company, indicates they may be missing the hard truth.
Hard bounces, which are admittedly rare, are not the only reason for nondelivery of e-mail. ISP and corporate filtering systems quietly weed out messages without informing the sender. Some messages end up in bulk or spam folders, while others are, according to Return Path, “completely missing.”
In all, Return Path found 79.3% of permission e-mail messages made it to inboxes in North America in the first half of 2009.
In the US alone, the inbox placement rate was slightly higher, at 82%.
It was even more difficult for e-mail marketers to reach business subscribers. Only 72.4% of business-to-business (B2B) e-mails were delivered to inboxes.
Successful delivery rates varied widely by ISP. In the US, Gmail subscribers were hardest to reach, with a 23% failure rate. Hotmail and MSN were close behind, at 20% each.
Why are failure rates so high—and why haven’t e-mail marketers noticed? One reason could be e-mail’s high ROI, which masks the problem.
“Many marketers are still resistant to implementing the best practices that make email deliverability more likely and more consistent,” wrote the report’s authors. “We still see programs with high frequency, low value and lack of segmentation.”
They have a few graphs showing the failure rate of various free email service companies. Gmail, owned by Google, comes in as the worst in email delivery! A 23% failure rate!
I wish there was something we on the receiving end could do. Maybe put some pressure on the companies to be more accurate, to be less restrictive? I don’t know. I do know that at times, I have not received mail that I was expecting. I wonder
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I “think” I get/goes out most of my important email especially since I’m sure if my bills weren’t being paid they would be among the first to notify me even by snail mail. What I worry about more than not getting email is what will happen if there is a massive power outage for a long period and emai/internetl just isn’t even available……….I don’t even use snail mail for anything except getting a few magazines still.
You know, I am so glad I saw this post. When I first was unemployed I was regularly getting the emails to say the money was available, then it just stopped. I even went and re-updated my email address and still nothing. Then this week I started getting the emails again. I guess it’s safe to say that the information you have provided is most likely the reason. Now, it makes you wonder how much more mail you are not getting?
At my office we have a major problem with email — a lot of stuff we send out is never received and a lot of items that are sent our way are lost, too. That is a major problem and I do believe it is the direct result of heavy spam filters used in response to complaints of spam.
I’d rather not have the spam, but I’d like to have a reliable email system, too.
You’d think there would be a reasonable compromise somewhere…
The email reception problem is a BIG issue, because email isn’t just for personal use anymore. Companies and employers are using it a LOT. I have missed at least a handful of employment opportunities (those that I am aware of, anyway) because of over-zealous email filters. I’d also heard (through a reliable source, years ago), that AOL was notorious for blocking websites AND emails it did not deem “passable.” For example, AOL was blocking various emails from Conservative political and religious groups. This was about 7-8 years ago, and I don’t know if it is still occurring. Probably not.
Anyway, relying on only email for correspondence seems premature, I agree. Despite what we hate about the US Postal Service, looks like they will be in business for a while, yet. I do still request bills and other important correspondence via snail mail, when I can.
Thanks for your comments!