A recent report indicated that the July 2010 to June 2011 period saw an 82.22% decrease in spam, down from about 225 billion to 40 billion junk emails sent in circulation each day – according to Symantec Intelligence. Efforts by security experts with help from internet service providers delivered significant drops in spam levels that occurred when investigators coordinated their efforts and brought down numerous major spam networks, such as “Rustock,” which is said to have been responsible for 40% of all junk email.
While this is excellent news for both consumers (as it means that the scourge of their daily dose of spam will now be reduced) and email marketers (as it means that their campaigns will receive increased visibility due to less cluttered inboxes) the question is whether is also now harder than ever to reach your audience. Information security is a prominent concern to all computer users and just about everyone would like nothing better than for their spam checkers to have the eye of the tiger.
For legitimate B2B and B2C email marketing services to deliver worthwhile return on investment, they need to have a solid shot at the inbox. And as direct marketing companies are compelled into adopting best practices and ensuring that they are white-listed by internet service providers because of the tightening noose around junk mail, we can also assume that more solicited emails are in fact passing through spam filters than recorded a year before, since more marketers are cleaning up their act.
It is common for practitioners of illegitimate marketing schemes to simply use a confetti-like distribution approach, buy their emailing lists at a corner café and use sub-standard email newsletter templates that aren’t neatly coded; so therefore the rift between spam and non-spam itself is becoming more recognizable to filters on both a face-value and micro level.
But just like expired goods somehow always make it onto the shelves with the rest of the produce, we are unlikely to ever see the complete eradication of spam from the inbox trusted zone.
Keep in mind that the most important filter of all is always the human being at the end of the line, so what counts even more than tweaking your campaigns to be in line with industry standard best practices is providing subscribers with genuinely relevant, genuinely valuable content.
Big Splash Mail offers safe, secure email marketing that adheres to best practices. For more information, visit www.bigsplashmail.com.
