Study: Links Missing In 28% Of E-Mails

A sizable proportion of marketing e-mails land in people's in-boxes without images or working links, according to a new study slated for release today by the organization Email Experience Council.

"Our research shows that less than 50% of marketers are creating emails that render appropriately," states the report.

For the study, the group looked at 1,000 e-mails--both business-to-consumer and business-to-business--sent during the last quarter. Twenty-eight percent of the e-mails arrived without links, according to the report, while 21% of the e-mails appeared completely blank when images had been turned off at the e-mail service provider level.

E-mail newsletters rendered better than marketing messages, because the newsletters were "understandable and actionable" even without images, according to the report. "Across all samples reviewed, emails that were 'newslike' in nature contained a balance of images and text that did not seem to rely on each other in order to make a statement," the Email Experience Council stated.

The group attributed the problematic rendering of marketing e-mails to anti-spam and security efforts, noting that free e-mail services, like Yahoo and Hotmail, sometimes restrict functionality. One key to getting around those restrictions is getting Internet service providers to recognize particular e-mail marketers as legitimate. To accomplish that, companies need to build the type of reputation that will allow them to get on whitelists; once a marketer has been whitelisted, some e-mail services providers will then deliver messages with the links and images intact.

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