Is email becoming less effective for online businesses?

It certainly seems that way.

Recent surveys have shown that 25% of those polled admitted that they are using email less because of the problem.

If you've ever wondering what impact it is having on businesses, here is one case study.

Dramatic Drop

With over $1,000,000 in annual sales, the www.t-shirtking.com business relied on their email advertising for quite a bit of sales.

They had an opt-in email list of over 300,000 people.

This list was sent out a weekly newsletter with the occasional ad special in it. It proved to be very profitable for them. They attributed between 25% and 30% of their sales to their email newsletters.

The company is now seeing indications that their emails are never reaching their list.

They track their "open rate" from their emails. If someone doesn't open it after 6 emails in a row, they are automatically un-subscribed.

Their list of 300,000 names has dropped by 30 percent and the response rate is down 50%.

The emails are landing up in spam folders or never making it...

And the sales from their newsletters? Down to only 5% of total sales. That's a significant drop.

Not Just Sales Are Suffering

Don't think that just marketing emails aren't getting through.

This problem is having an effect day to day transactional emails as well. Companies are reporting that customers aren't receiving email confirmations of their orders.

What used to be automatic (and time saving) automation is becoming less effective and unreliable.

78% of online executives have reported that ISP spam filters have been a problem for them and are affecting their marketing programs.

Everything from click through rates to open rates are all dropping.

Any Solutions?

As I had mentioned previously, some people are finding success keeping their newsletters online and simply sending a basic email stating "our latest newsletter is available online here..."

The thinking being that the less text in the emails, the less likely it is to trip spam filters.

There are companies that are stepping forward to offer solutions. They stand to make some good profits because their services aren't cheap.

Companies such as Listtrak and Constantcontact have a close relationships to some of the major ISP's. They basically provide the email marketing through their servers which the ISP's allow through their email filters. Any client of their's who tries to spam is quickly removed from their service. These solutions can range from $100 a month up to, and above $1,000 a month.

Low Cost Solution

One thing you should definitely consider doing is prescreening any commercial emails that you are sending out.

www.spamassassin.org lets you check your emails before they are sent. They will then give you a spam score and tips on how to improve the email so that looks less like spam.

You should consider doing this for all of your standard emails such as signup and order confirmations in addition to any newsletters. Don't just check your standard confirmation emails once and then forget them. The search engine filters are constantly evolving so it is smart to check it a few times a year.

Another tip is if you have a large list. You should consider sending out your emails in smaller batches. Some ISP's look very suspiciously on tens of thousands of emails coming to their user accounts all within seconds of each other. By spreading out the broadcast a bit, you are less likely to get mistakenly filtered.

It certainly seems like the "good old days" of quick, easy and free email marketing are quickly coming to an end. The trick is to stay educated on things so that you can understand what your options are. There is still far too much profit to be had to completely give up on email marketing. You just have to do it a little smarter these days.