In February 2007 Epsilon and worldwide research company GfK conducted a survey among randomly selected American consumers to gauge their behaviours and attitudes about email usage and email marketing

a few words about the methodology: this survey was conducted using OmniTel, a weekly national telephone omnibus service of GfK Custom Research North America. A total of 1,004 interviews were completed, and the resulting sample was weighted to ensure accurate and reliable demographic and geographic representation of the total population, aged 18 and up. The findings presented below are based on a sample of 430 respondents who reported having at least one email account that they used from home.

Summary of Findings

For marketers, consumers’ high levels of satisfaction with the email user experience reinforces email’s enduring value as a marketing channel; but respondents’ willingness to respond to email marketing describes a remarkably powerful tool whose influence extends far beyond the direct response environment. In fact these consumers reported that email, while effective at generating immediate, online purchases, is actually more likely to drive sales in offline channels.

number of email accounts used at Home

Direct Marketing Drives Multi-channel Sales

The vast majority of respondents (84%) were receptive to email marketing, reporting that they have, at least occasionally, clicked through when they received relevant messages. Most (73%) said that they make online purchases as a result, while roughly the same number (75%) said that they make purchases at a later date. But even more (86%) said that they at least occasionally make purchases in stores as a result of receiving relevant email marketing messages, potentially complicating marketers’ views of the email channel.

Relevance Rising

Not all respondents said that the email offers they received were relevant, though: While significantly more agreed than disagreed (54% vs. 46%) that they received relevant offers, marketers clearly have an opportunity to make progress on this front. And a majority of respondents (55%) reported exactly that sort of progress, in fact, agreeing that the email offers they received were more relevant than they were a year ago. Many respondents (31%) are willing to take the initiative to help marketers continue to improve in this area, agreeing that they would provide personal information in order to receive more relevant marketing communications and offers.

Most See Less Spam

Along with seeing increasing relevance, most respondents (53%) also reported receiving less spam than they did last year. The use of anti-spam software may be at least partly responsible for this observation: More than three-quarters (78%) of respondents say they use anti-spam software, and nearly as many (73%) know how to change their defaults to more aggressively filter spam. Moreover most respondents (55%) report doing exactly that.

Some respondents (30%) actively police their inboxes, reporting spam to their mailbox providers when they find it. The good news for marketers and mailbox providers is that two-thirds of these users (66%) attribute a decline in the spam they receive to their policing efforts. The bad news is that confusion remains about the intent of the “Report Spam” button, with 65% of respondents believing that they are unsubscribing from email programs when they use this feature.

Hunting for Lost Messages

Perhaps as a trade-off to more aggressive spam filtering, most respondents (68%) report at least occasionally checking their spam or junk folders for misdirected messages, with a quarter (27%) saying that they always do this. It pays off for many: More than a third (36%) report finding email from trusted senders in their spam or junk folders. A quarter (24%) report that they haven’t received a message sent by a trusted sender.

Many take active steps to ensure that they receive the messages they want, with most (58%) at least occasionally notifying marketers when they change email addresses, and even more (78%) at least occasionally adding trusted senders to their address books. Perhaps even more would take this step if marketers reminded them: Only 43% agree that commercial messages prompt them to add senders to their address books.

Meanwhile about half of respondents (51%) said that they at least occasionally click “forward to a friend” links in marketing email, and as with address book reminders, perhaps more would contribute toward viral marketing efforts if they were asked to—only 62% of respondents report having ever noticed these links.

Email and Spam 2007: Consumer Attitudes and Behaviours

On the whole, however, few appear to be taking this step. Only 9% said that they’ve switched mailbox providers in the past six months, and even fewer (5%) said that they were considering switching within the next six months. The top reasons for switching among this relatively small sample (52 respondents), included cost/price (23%) and upgrading to broadband service (19%). No other reason was given by more than four respondents.

Sophisticated Outlooks on Threats and Security

Spam was cited by a single respondent as the reason for switching mailbox providers, and none cited fraud or phishing, which appear to intimidate few respondents. Nearly three-quarters (72%) were confident that they could spot a phishing attempt, and only 40% reported receiving one. Meanwhile only 38% reported a spyware infection within the past year.

When Yahoo, MSN/Hotmail, and AOL users were asked about their ISPs’ efforts to verify the legitimacy of senders, results were mixed. Half of MSN/Hotmail users (52%) reported noticing Microsoft’s SenderID warnings about mail whose origins couldn’t be verified, while a third of Yahoo users (33%) noticed the company’s DomainKeys confirmations that senders could be verified. Only 17% of AOL users reported noticing a CertifiedEmail icon indicating a sender’s participation in Goodmail’s certification program.

Although the users who noticed these messages represent a small sample, their attitudes suggest that verification and certification programs made them more confident in the security of their email.

Conclusion

Consumers have embraced and respond to email marketing, and they are generally satisfied with the email experience and gaining confidence in its reliability and security. Many report that spam is down (partly as a result of their own efforts to filter it), and that more often than not, marketers’ communications are relevant to them. They’re even willing to help guide relevance by providing personal information—maybe more willing than some marketers expect. Still, results suggest that many consumers are calling for email marketers to improve their targeting and the relevance of their messages.

For those that do, the rewards may be extraordinary, with robust sales in the traditional online direct response channel potentially overshadowed by resulting revenue in other channels, plus a far longer tail than marketers might expect. Although these findings may further complicate efforts to assess the full effect of email campaigns, they illustrate that email marketing is already exerting a powerful influence online and off.

	pdf version of the epsilon report on email usage in the US (2007)
	pdf version of the epsilon report on email delivery in the US (2006)