The Correlation of Marketer Sophistication and Deliverability: Tactics to Improve Inbox Placement

Consumers remain frustrated and ambivalent about email marketing messages that are not relevant or come too frequently. The Relevancy Group Q4 2016 consumer survey found that 75 percent of consumers ignore or opt-out because of frequency overload, and 55 percent state that lack of relevance drives the same behaviors. Nearly a quarter of consumers told us that it is easier to delete the message than opt-out, indicating that a low opt-out rate does not present the full picture of the customer experience.

Why are more marketers with substandard sophistication and relevancy practices citing deliverability challenges? Customer engagement. ISPs are listening to consumers and are aware of their attitudes regarding frequency and relevance. The largest ISPs (e.g. Gmail, Outlook) are looking at inbox engagement to meter inbox placement. This is another reason why panel-based inbox measurement can be more effective than seed-based measurement, as the panel methodology is based on actual human interaction