Just 79 per cent of legitimate commercial emails worldwide reach their intended target, according to new research from data solutions provider Return Path, investigating email deliverability. The 2016 Deliverability Benchmark Report shows that the remainder – a full 21 per cent – are diverted to spam folders or blocked entirely.
These global numbers remain unchanged from the company’s 2015 benchmark report.
Return Path president George Bilbrey said: “Reaching the inbox is critical in today’s competitive marketplace. If your emails aren’t seen, you’re missing out on an opportunity to build relationships and generate ROI.
“But hitting the inbox is harder than ever. Email filtering is constantly evolving, as mailbox providers apply increasingly sophisticated algorithms to combat spam and deliver the content their users truly value.”
The report also reveals that global deliverability experienced a slight, but steady decline quarter over quarter, with 24 per cent of messages missing the inbox in the last quarter studied.
Email marketers in the US experienced below-average inbox placement, with just 73 per cent of messages reaching subscribers – six percentage points below the global average. US inbox placement was relatively strong in Q2 and Q3 2015 (78 per cent and 80 per cent respectively), but dropped below 70 per cent in the first half of 2016.
Email deliverability – other key findings include:
- Canada, which has historically lagged behind the US in inbox placement, saw 89 per cent of its commercial emails delivered to the inbox – ten percentage points higher than its 2015 inbox placement rate of 79 per cent.
- Australia and UK boasted the highest inbox placement of any countries in this study, averaging 90 percent and 88 per cent, respectively.
- Germany saw an uncharacteristically high spam rate of 20 per cent in Q2 2015. However, German marketers were able to recover throughout the rest of the year, ending the period with an average of 84 per cent inbox placement.
The annual benchmark report from Return Path examines how email is delivered and how to measure inbox placement, along with global and regional benchmark broken out by quarter. Report findings are drawn from a representative sample of more than 2.5 billion commercial emails sent between April 2015 and June 2016. The complete 2016 Deliverability Benchmark Report, including inbox placement statistics broken down by country, can be downloaded here.
Methodology
Return Path conducted this study using a representative sample of more than 2.5 billion promotional email messages sent to consumers around the world between April 2015 and June 2016. Global and regional statistics are based on performance across more than 140 mailbox providers in North America, South America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific regions.