Content not the main culprit for email non-deliverability

Email deliverability remains the biggest challenge for email marketers and a recent study found that email content isn’t necessarily the culprit for non-delivery.

by Helen Leggatt

lyris%20logo.gif Lyris Technologies recently released findings from their EmailAdvisor ISP Delivery Report Card Q1 2007 (.pdf), which appears to debunk myths that recipient’s content filters are the primary cause for non-deliverability of email messages.

Just over 83 percent of all ISP mail is delivered and only three-quarters of messages make it into the inbox, found the report. Some of the top ISPs have the worst delivery rates with Lycos being the worst with only 41.7 percent of email received.

In terms of inbox deliverability, CompuServe came out on top in the U.S. with 88 percent. The top ten U.S. ISP’s managed 80 percent or more deliverability.

Other key reasons for low deliverability rates are heavy use of images and reputation. Images increase spam scores, and are caught by image filters. ISPs use user complaints to gauge whether to block incoming mail as spam so ensuring a good reputation for content and relevancy is essential, along with the adoption of authentication protocols, such as SenderID.

"Changing a few keywords in the hopes of boosting inbox success rates is no substitute for adhering to email marketing best practices. It's an oversimplification to place blame primarily on content filters when a campaign has poor returns, when in fact most delivery challenges are due to subscriber feedback," said Stefan Pollard, director of consulting services at EmailLabs, a sibling company of Lyris.