Reports continue to suggest that email is still the most cost effective instrument and communication channel around.

From a B2C perspective,'View From The Inbox 2008', an excellent study of US consumers' usage and attitude towards email highlights the following:

• Email users are spending more time with permission email. 69% of permission email users spend 20 minutes or more reading their email on a weekly basis.
• Half of survey respondents made an online purchase in the past year as a result of permission email.
• Fifty percent of respondents also claim that a company that does a good job with email influenced their decision to do business with it, either on or offline.
• Consumers are checking email more frequently. 44% check their primary email account more than three times per day - a 38% increase from just three years prior.

Who is emailing who?

The above outlines a very interesting point. While permission, or opted-in email marketing continues to deliver results, how do you know you are reaching your intended recipients through the correct email address? Can you be sure you are sending to the inbox they check regularly? Can you spot the difference between an A-typical forwarder, groupbox or honey pot?

I am him, he is you and we are me together

A recent (April 2008) study of 5,000 European consumers found people are creating a series of complex identities as they spend more time online. Some of these are real world aliases for social networking (Linked in/Facebook/Mypace) and some are pseudonyms for the virtual world (Second Life, Virtua World). But let's address the ones we can; the real world identities.

According to the report: 39.3% of respondents have five or even more different identities that are used to access various online services on a single broadband connection, each one utilising unique passwords. What's more 79.9 % of those surveyed say their broadband connection is used regularly by two or more users. This suggests that each broadband connection supports multiple identities and services.

Another finding from this survey showed:
'Consumers now regard email as a more important tool for staying in touch than a landline telephone, a decline in trend which is likely to deepen in the future.'

Although these two studies are quite different in geography and purpose they do raise important issues for those engaged in email marketing and distribution.

Carefully thought out email initiatives risk being wasted (and campaign results skewed) if they are directed to a 'honey pot' email address or subscribed to using a device like a Maillinator - an online tool for bypassing registration forms. (These are commonly used to remain anonymous but obtain the incentive when subscribing to an apparent sales lead generation exercise like a competition entry/receive a free piece of content/free trial.)

Know your reader

So, is your methodology for customer engagement (opt-in, sign-up, or order process data capture) robust and accurate enough to ensure you will be communicating with a recipient's primary email address?

With the increasing effectiveness of anti-spam legislation and filters, the growing importance of best practice email marketing and the increased sophistication of the audience, recipients know (or can find out) everything about the sender. Are you confident you know everything about your recipient?

You can download the white paper entitled 'View From The Inbox' from merkleinc.com

If you would like to read more on the mentioned European study, visit web20.telecomtv.com.