ATLANTA, Nov. 13, 2002 (PRIMEZONE) -- Silverpop, a fast-growing provider of e-mail marketing and customer communication solutions, announced today the results of a groundbreaking study that exposes one of the most overlooked causes of reduced response rates for permission e-mail marketers: "broken" or unreadable HTML e-mail messages.
While most marketers generally understand that broken e-mails can lower response rates, undermine customer relationships and weaken brand value, few realize the true prevalence of broken e-mails. The new Silverpop study titled, The Broken Link -- What Do Recipients Really See?, shows that 42% of the HTML e-mails reviewed were difficult to read due to errors, such as missing graphics and raw code displayed. 13% of these e-mails had extremely disruptive errors or were completely indecipherable.
"Many e-mail marketers we work with are not aware of the challenges and opportunities around broken HTML e-mails," says Bill Nussey, CEO of Silverpop. "Some assume that HTML works consistently across all e-mail programs. Others know of the problem but assume that nothing can be done about it, and still others assume their service provider will find a solution. Silverpop decided to conduct this study to formalize our anecdotal findings and to highlight the magnitude of this problem."
The new Silverpop study represents the largest companies by revenue from nine major industries. Over 400 companies were initially included in the study, and nearly 1400 e-mails were analyzed in 9 of the most popular e-mail programs. Of the nearly 700 HTML e-mails reviewed, almost half contained major errors such as missing graphics or raw HTML code. The chart, which can be viewed at the following link http://images.primezone.com/1524/HTML_E_mail_PDF_Chart.pdf, provides the details of how the HTML e-mails rendered on average in the nine major e-mail environments reviewed.
In the Silverpop study, the most dramatic examples of broken e-mails occurred on the B2B side in Lotus Notes 5.0, and on the B2C side in AOL versions 4.0 and 5.0. AOL 4.0 and 5.0 have a combined subscription of 7.5 million users according to eStats 2001 research, and Lotus Notes has over 70 million users according to IDC Research. In these two environments, 90% of the HTML e-mails reviewed contained disruptive errors. That translates into 70 million people who are not able to read messages sent to them by vendors and business partners.
"Nearly every e-mail marketer with which we work are focused on ways to improve response and conversion rates by avoiding spam filters, more granular targeting, and fine-tuning offers and supporting creative," said Aberdeen research director Kent Allen. "These issues must be addressed, but a key take-away from this study is that properly formatted HTML messages can improve response rates from 10% to as high as 40%."
Silverpop approaches the problem of broken e-mails through a unique proprietary technology called SmartView, which modifies standard HTML so that it can be displayed in almost every e-mail program. SmartView also solves the problem of AOL and text environments by building a single message that will display properly regardless of the capabilities of the e-mail engine. To test and ensure the quality of SmartView, Silverpop has created an e-mail reception lab that contains e-mail clients, browsers and operating system configurations that represent over 98% of all e-mail configurations in use today.
Silverpop is putting its reception lab to work with a new initiative called the "Silverpop Challenge," where companies can find out how their e-mail messages look from the recipient's viewpoint. Companies utilize Silverpop's rigorous testing environment by sending HTML or rich media e-mails to the lab. After the e-mail is analyzed, the company receives a personalized report on how the e-mail performed in the multiple environments, including screen shots. For more information on the "Silverpop Challenge" visit www.silverpop.com/challenge.
In the process of studying reception, Silverpop's research revealed a number of additional interesting statistics on the use of e-mail marketing best practices, such as personalization and confirmations. These results, along with many other detailed statistics, will appear in the full report on November 19, 2002. The report also will be distributed to attendees of the @d:tech conference in New York City during that same week.
About Silverpop
Silverpop provides complete permission-based e-mail marketing software and service solutions. Silverpop's mission is to help clients improve their response rates, build customer relationships, grow revenue, and increase the relevance and impact of every message sent. Silverpop combines innovative core technology with a unique approach to client services that meets the diverse needs of agencies and enterprise companies that are incorporating e-mail as a key part of their communication strategy. Silverpop has added more than 60 customers in 2002 alone, including a number of Fortune 100 corporations. The company is headquartered in Atlanta with funding led by Draper Fisher Jurvetson, NeoCarta Ventures and Labrador Ventures. For more information visit www.silverpop.com.