But inbox placement dipped sharply over holidays, according to a report by Return Path.
More than one in 10 marketing emails in Australia failed to reach the target’s inbox in the 12 months before May, according to a report by Return Path.
However, Australia had an 89 per cent success rate for marketing emails over the year-long period, which was still one of the highest results in the world, Return Path said.
No surveyed country reached 90 per cent, and Brazil fared the worst with a 60 per cent success rate.
Of the 11 per cent of emails that failed to reach inboxes, 4 per cent got caught in spam filters and the rest went missing, the report said.
The Australian success rate was a big improvement over the previous financial year, when Return Path reported that only 80 per cent of emails reached the inbox.
Within Australia, the distribution industry scored the best success rate at 96 per cent, while telecommunications came in last with only 45 per cent of emails reaching their intended targets, the report found.
Return Path cautioned that performance varied widely from one brand to another and throughout the year. Performance was also erratic across ISPs, with email programs often performing well in some systems but poorly in others, it said.
Australia’s success rate dropped sharply during the holiday season, dipping to 84 per cent in November and never recovering. The drop was influenced by more Australians marking emails as spam and the presence of spam traps, decoy accounts used to catch spammers, Return Path said.
“What seems to have changed is mailbox providers’ decision-making ability, which has become increasingly complex, with users having a greater ability to determine whether messages are delivered to their inboxes,” said Return Path Global CEO, Matt Blumberg.
“Applying best practices across programmes and trusting that most mailbox providers will then treat your email in a similar way, is a highly unreliable tactic.”
Return Path used a representative sample of about 492 million commercial email messages sent with permission to consumers around the world.
Adam Bender covers digital marketing and emerging technology for CMO and is the author of dystopian sci-fi novels We, The Watched and Divided We Fall. Follow him on Twitter: @WatchAdam
Follow CMO on Twitter: @CMOAustralia, take part in the CMO Australia conversation on LinkedIn: CMO Australia, join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CMOAustralia, or check us out on Google+: google.com/+CmoAu
Read more: Adobe swaps out CPM pricing in favour of cross-channel marketing metrics
Leaning into brand building is a key way IAG's NRMA and CGU businesses are getting through the COVID-19 pandemic, chief marketing officer, Brent Smart, says.
Disparate data sources, fragmented technology and a lack of funding has left many brands struggling in the battle for online customer attention amid a global pandemic. Now more than ever, brands need to focus on unlocking the value of their marketing technology.
For a while now, I have been following a fabulous design strategy and research colleague, Tatiana Toutikian, a speculative designer. This is someone specialising in calling out near future phenomena, what the various aspects of our future will be, and how the design we create will support it.
Online identity is a hot topic as more consumers are waking up to how their data is being used. So what does the marketing industry need to do to avoid a complete loss of public trust, in instances such as the COVID-19 tracing app?
Well done, team at Larsen. Fantastic story of how to continually invest in customer experience.
Adam Frank
A designer jewellery brand's take on customer relations
Great piece Katja. It will be fascinating to see how the shift in people's perception of value will affect design, products and services ...
Paul Scott
How to design for a speculative future - Customer Design - CMO Australia
Google collects as much data as it can about you. It would be foolish to believe Google cares about your privacy. I did cut off Google fr...
Phil Davis
ACCC launches fresh legal challenge against Google's consumer data practices for advertising
“This new logo has been noticed and it replaces a logo no one really knew existed so I’d say it’s abided by the ‘rule’ of brand equity - ...
Lawrence
Brand Australia misses the mark
IMHO a logo that needs to be explained really doesn't achieve it's purpose.I admit coming to the debate a little late, but has anyone els...
JV_at_lAttitude_in_Cairns
Brand Australia misses the mark