Marketing Emails: The Good, The Bad, and The Undeliverable

The word “mail” as defined by Merriam-Webster’s dictionary is a “material (such as letters and packages) sent or carried in a postal system.”

The word is of Germanic origin and derives from the “malaha” bag. First known mention of the word was as early as before the 12^th century. 

For most of human history, “mail” as both a word and concept describing a physical document that is transported from one location to another.

However, a new development in the early 70s called “electronic mail message” lead to another form of digitized mail, known as “e-mail” colloquially. 

From this moment on, physical mail and e-mail were both seen as “mail” despite the different modes of transport. 

Marketing Emails: A History

In 1971, the first “electronic mail message” was sent by Ray Tomlinson during his employment as a computer engineer at Bolt, Beranek, and Newman (BBN).

Tomlinson remarks that the actual message of the first email was unremarkable. So unremarkable, that he himself does not remember the contents of it. 

As quoted in his June 2009 interview with Marc Weber and Gardner Hendrie in Cambridge, 

“With any program you, you know, you write some code, you test it, it doesn’t work. And if it works, you go home and celebrate because that’s very unusual. And there were a lot of false starts so when anybody asks me what was the first email message, I have to tell them that there’s really no way to know [ … ] which one actually was the one that made it through in its entirety, I have no idea. A lot of them made it through in various parts.” 

At the time, Tomlinson was only looking for a way to communicate and send messages to people. Telephone calls worked only to a certain extent but were not always reliable if someone was away from their desk, or had their call transferred to a secretary instead. 

It was in 1993 when he realized the huge potential of what he has created. From then on, “electronic mail message” went on into what it is known today as “e-mail”.

As Tomlinson explains, “Email itself as a term did not get coined probably for three or four years after this point.” 

The first commercially accessible email was MS Mail (predecessor of Outlook) in 1988. From its rise in popularity in the 90s and expansion in the 2000s, email is now one of the most widespread forms of communication across the globe. 

As of September 2023, the top three most used email clients are Apple (57.66%), Gmail (29.59%), and Outlook (4.18%).

Email Marketing: The Good

Emails are nothing short of revolutionary for the scope of communication it grants us at the tips of our fingers. And for marketers, it opens a new avenue to reach customers. 

One of the best advantages of email marketing is its widespread availability to users across the country.  Anyone can easily create an email account for free, and a vast majority of people with internet access use some form of electronic mail for professional or personal reasons.

Some marketers like Radicati speculate that there will be 4.5 billion email users worldwide by 2025 – over half the population on earth!

Along with its prevalent availability, 99% of email users also check their account daily. And with the help of email platforms, marketers can study when emails are sent, opened, and even which links were clicked on – helping them understand and improve upon each email drop. 

Finally, email marketing has low startup costs. Besides an email program and domain, all your company would need are the email addresses they wish to contact.

These addresses can be freely given by the customer when they sign up for a newsletter or when they make a purchase on the company website. 

Related: The Omnichannel Approach to Direct Mail Retargeting

Email Marketing: The Bad

While there is a large appeal for emails, marketing emails are not always seen in the same light. Even though there are many email users, each user is likely to have more than one email account.

According to a March 2023 report from Statista, 86% of email users have more than one email address. 

Why would that be? 

Organization can be a major factor. Some work and personal emails may get mixed into the fray if they are all within one email account. Another reason could be a supplementary email for email sign-ups or shopping purposes so the user can avoid marketing emails in their main inbox. 

The problem arises when users separate their shopping email from their main email. This would mean that any marketing email sent to that address would likely never be opened.

Depending on how many shopping accounts a user may have, that email address may be flooded with new promotional content every day. 

While the availability of emails and low start-up costs may be a benefit to email marketing, the issue arises when every company has the power to spam their users with constant emails. The constant barrage of emails increases competition for the user’s attention. 

With more and more emails sent every day, many users are choosing to not open their emails at all. One Klaviyo report notes that the average American has 1,602 unread emails sitting in their inbox! 

Marketing email lists require constant vigilance so that any unresponsive user is removed from further campaigns – or face poor open rates. But the practice of leaving unread emails sitting in one’s inbox is all too common for many users, to the detriment of these marketers. 

The threat of spam or phishing emails can also negatively affect an email campaign. Many users avoid clicking email links due to the risk of malware, which is a common worry among individuals and businesses alike.

And this fear is not unwarranted, as a press release from Deloitte noted that 91% of all cyber-attacks begin with a phishing email. 

Related: Dissecting the Relevancy of Online & Direct Mail Marketing

Email Marketing: The Undeliverable

Email marketing is extremely affordable, so much so that over 333.2 billion emails were sent and received in 2022. But what fraction of these emails went unnoticed, or worse – undelivered? 

According to The Scalelab, 20.4% of all emails on average end up in spam or do not deliver. If we use the previous figure of 333.2 billion daily sent emails from Statista, that means there’s a potential for 6.7 billion emails that end up in the junk folder every day!

Government regulation also heavily restricts email marketing and the types of emails that can be sent out. Due to the constant threat of phishing and spam, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) established the CAN-SPAM compliance act on December 16^th, 2003.  

This law, cited as “Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act” pertains to all commercial messages sent through email. The main guidelines require emails to not be deceptive, as well as formatting requirements and a way for users to unsubscribe. 

Each email in violation is seen as a separate case, with penalties of up to $50,120, so it’s in a company’s best interest – and obligation –  to remain in compliance of CAN-SPAM.

Related: The Competitive Side to Online Advertising

A Different Approach to Email Marketing With Direct Mail

While direct mail and email are distinctly separate entities, that is not to say one cannot benefit from the addition of the other. 

For one, direct mail is a very memorable form of advertising for the average recipient. Its physical nature helps reenforce this by appealing to at least two of the five senses.

If direct mail is sent to a household, with a follow-up email the same week, the recipient has now received two touch points from the same campaign. 

The reverse is also true. Thanks to programs such as USPS’s Informed Delivery, households receive an email with a scanned copy of their mail scheduled to deliver that day.

This program offers marketing companies the benefits of direct mail along with the speed and convenience of email. It also offers a ride-along image for additional promotions available to Informed Delivery customers. 

The beauty of Informed Delivery is that it functions essentially like a digital mailbox, that is, prospects will look through their inbox and discover your mailer. As long as there is something in the digital or physical mailbox that a person needs to look at, such as a bill or tax statement, your mailer can capitalize on that space as well. 

Not to mention, direct mail does not have the same third-party filters and high competition that email marketing has. Informed Delivery especially would likely not see the undeliverable stats that are prevalent in common marketing emails.

There are no concerns about the delivery rate or domain reputation, as every postcard will send to its intended recipient. 

So long as your audience has a mailbox, your message will deliver – every time. And with the combined forces of email and direct mail, your campaigns can produce a much more impactful impression and memorability.